Classical Music

• Most Topular Stories

• Angela Speaks! About Alagna, Netrebko, Booing, Fleming, etc.

  Opera Chic

  opera chic

  15 May 2012 | 3:59 pm

  So many opera singers give predictable, boring interviews and then there's Angela with her fangs out, aiming at the jugular....

• More Casting Changes at Bayreuth

  Opera Today

  gary@operatoday.com

  9 May 2012 | 3:12 pm

  http://www.operatoday.com/content/2012/05/torsten_kerl_to.php

• Links: WNO’s “Werther,” the Philadelphia Orchestra, and other highlights.

  The Classical Beat

  Anne Midgette

  14 May 2012 | 9:59 am

  On Saturday, I reviewed the Washington National Opera’s final production of the season, Massenet’s “Werther,” with a very good Werther, Francesco Meli. Edited to add: Another view from Charles T. Downey on Ionarts. Read full article >>

• Masterpiece Mystery's Sherlock: "A Scandal in Belgravia"

  Sounds & Fury

  A.C. Douglas

  7 May 2012 | 4:08 pm

  As the time for airing neared, we earnestly attempted to dial-down our expectations for the first episode of the second series (of three new episodes)...

• Trio Settecento plays Corelli and Muffat

  Classical Performance podcast

  WGBH Educational Foundation

  1 Jul 2011 | 12:00 am

  The multi-faceted virtuoso violinist Rachel Barton Pine heads up the Trio Settecento, performing early music with John Mark Rozendaal, baroque cello, and David Schrader, harpsichord. They play music by the trend-setting composer Arcangelo Corelli, and by the frenchman, Georg Muffat. *** Corelli: Sonata in C major, Op. 5 No. 3 Georg Muffat: Sonata in D major Trio Settecento: Rachel Barton Pine, baroque violin; John Mark Rozendaal, baroque 'cello; David Schrader, harpsichord +++ Recorded at WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on May 16th, 2011. ©2011 WGBH Educational Foundation.

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  About.com Classical Music

• Lohengrin Synopsis

  13 May 2012 | 5:36 pm

  Here's an opera everyone is familiar with - at least a bit of its music, that is.  The famous bridal chorus to which almost every bride walks down the aisle was actually written by Wagner for this opera.  I just hope no one's marriage turns out as sad as the couple in the story.  Learn the synopsis of Lohengrin to find out what happens.

• Rusalka Synopsis

  13 May 2012 | 3:50 pm

  Having posted the lyrics to Dvorak's "Song to the Moon" just last week, I thought I'd share the synopsis to its operatic home, Rusalka. The opera's libretto was based on the fairy tales of fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová.  However, most of you may be familiar with the story if you've seen Disney's The Little Mermaid. However, Dvorak's Rusalka, is a much sadder tale - not everyone lives happily ever after.  Learn the story of Rusalka in this opera synopsis.

• Dvorak's "Song to the Moon" Lyrics and Translation

  6 May 2012 | 5:25 pm

  Here's another sublime aria performed by Renee Fleming (it's one of my favorites).  Unlike most operas that are in French, German, or Italian, Dvorak's Rusalka is in Czech, which is why I have such a hard time understanding the lyrics.  I didn't take any Czech classes in college, and I'm sure most of you reading this blog, didn't either.  Hopefully, this translation will be just as useful to you as it was for me.  Learn the lyrics and translation to Dvorak's "Song to the Moon."

• Top 10 Mozart Recordings

  6 May 2012 | 3:30 pm

  I receive emails frequently asking me what albums I listen to the most and would recommend - in particular, Mozart.  So, this post is for all of you out there looking for the perfect Mozart recordings.  Obviously, these are my recommendations (and favorites), and everyone is entitled to their own opinions.  I'm just happy to share mine!  Find out what I consider to be the top 10 Mozart recordings.   If you have your own favorites, leave a comment below and share your Mozart enthusiasm with everyone.  Happy listening, everybody!

• Bizet's Flower Song Lyrics from the opera, Carmen

  29 Apr 2012 | 8:33 pm

  Here's a lovely aria from the famous opera, Carmen, by Georges Bizet - "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" sung by Don José in act 2.  Learn the lyrics to the flower song and watch a great performance by Placido Domingo linked within.

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  Classical

• Kathleen Ferrier: A Voice Not Forgotten

  15 May 2012 | 12:09 pm

  Silenced by breast cancer at the height of her sparkling career, the great English singer Kathleen Ferrier's legacy lives on in a new 14-CD set and documentary.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Garth Knox: One Viola And 1,000 Years Of Musical History

  14 May 2012 | 3:36 pm

  On his new album, Saltarello, the adventurousviolist creates surprising musical juxtapositions.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Pedro Soler And Gaspar Claus: Tiny Desk Concert

  14 May 2012 | 11:51 am

  The improvisational music of father and son Pedro Soler and Gaspar Claus functions as a beautiful conversation. Soler plays a delicate flamenco guitar, while Claus turns the cello into an exquisitely expressive voice. The two bring that spirit to their intimate performance in the NPR Music offices.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• First Listen: Hilary Hahn And Hauschka, 'Silfra'

  13 May 2012 | 9:31 pm

  Hear what happens when a star violinist meets a piano full of marbles, duct tape and other surprises. Hahn knows her way around unlikely collaborators, while Hauschka is a master of creating beauty out of the unusual.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

• Roman Totenberg: A Musical Life Remembered

  12 May 2012 | 3:00 am

  NPR's Nina Totenberg recalls her late father's mastery of music, as well as his love of life.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

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  NYT > Music

• Critic’s Notebook: Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran in ‘Bleed,’ at Whitney

  By BEN RATLIFF

  16 May 2012 | 2:43 pm

  Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran collaborated in “Bleed,” a limited residency at the Whitney Biennial last week.

• Music Review: Look & Listen Festival at Pratt Manhattan Gallery

  By ALLAN KOZINN

  16 May 2012 | 2:43 pm

  The finale of the Look & Listen Festival included performances by Derek Bermel, Michael Brown and Brooklyn Rider.

• Latin Pop Group Maná Draws Adoring Crowds

  By JENNIFER MEDINA

  16 May 2012 | 2:34 pm

  Maná, a rock group that sings only in Spanish, has been attracting fans, both recent immigrants and others, in the United States for decades.

• String Cheese Incident Takes On Ticketmaster

  By BEN SISARIO

  16 May 2012 | 2:30 pm

  The band String Cheese Incident is making a symbolic end run to protest what it considers high ticket-sales fees.

• New Delay in Opening Museum for African Art

  By PATRICIA COHEN

  16 May 2012 | 2:28 pm

  The Museum for African Art has been forced to delay the opening of its new location in East Harlem because it has not raised enough money.

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  Slipped Disc

• Exclusive: Bach’s hometown ensemble is saved

  Norman Lebrecht

  16 May 2012 | 2:38 pm

  We’re hearing from the concertmaster in Eisenach that two million Euros have miraculously been found to save the theatre from instant closure. As musicians arrived at 4pm for a crisis meeting with the town council, says Seth Taylor, ‘we entered the building and saw this surreal document.’ Worldwide protests and social media were, he assures [...]

• Mary Beard: Caligula? He’s my little bootikins…

  Norman Lebrecht

  16 May 2012 | 2:30 pm

  Professor Mary Beard concludes her tutorial on English National Opera’s imminent production of Detlev Glanert’s gory opera.

• How Renee Fleming became a world star, by her former record boss

  Norman Lebrecht

  16 May 2012 | 9:04 am

  Evans Mirageas gave Ms Fleming her first record contract 20 years ago and has been her close friend and adviser for much of that time. Here, in a new post, he reflects on the sources of her unparallelled success. For instance: What is the constant? Sheer hard work, total dedication, an iron will to succeed [...]

• Mormons now have two hits in US classical top ten

  Norman Lebrecht

  16 May 2012 | 8:49 am

  The heart sinks as the weekly Nielsen Soundscan sales chart lands on my screen. Soundscan is the most accurate point-of-sale accounting of classical sales in the US and what it shows is profoundly depressing. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir have albums at numbers 1 and 8 of the classical top ten. Number 2 is something called [...]

• The War of Jenkins’ Rear

  Norman Lebrecht

  16 May 2012 | 8:32 am

  Readers have been besieging us to find out what happened to Katherine Jenkins after she stumbled and fell in the semi-final of Dancing With the Stars. Some hours later she tweeted: ”Thank you for all your concerned tweets… I’m with the doctor, he says it was a reflectorical spasm in my lower back.” Learned commentators on [...]

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  Chamber Music Today

• Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: ‘Bach Eternal’ & Eternal Success

  DSM

  12 May 2012 | 12:19 pm

  I t’s always a good sign when a music performance sends shivers down your spine… as last night’s Australian Brandenburg Orchestra program did. In fact, for the artistic director of any ensemble or presenter organization, it is, I think, vital that you program and perform works that are capable of doing this to the spines of your audience. The released endorphins, enkephalins, and other natural neuropharmacology of this primitive reflex of joy and emotion are part of what gets butts in seats and keeps money flowing in, year after year. Challenge us with new works, yes, but make sure…

• Andreas Haefliger: Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19, in Sydney

  DSM

  10 May 2012 | 12:59 pm

  W ithout doubt, there is something you are doing profoundly right in your interpretation as a soloist when a yellow Labrador retriever in Row 1 listens attentively, head raised and up on her/his elbows, throughout your Beethoven concerto performance. (I do not know whether the same holds true of cats, except possibly Siamese—a point about which Christopher O’Riley and other cat-owning pianists may be able to comment.) Labradors are kindly, good-natured, and take a lot of things in stride. As a breed, the Labrador is notable for being steady-tempered but does display impatience with…

• Evgeny Sorkin & Gerard Willems: Beethoven Sonatas for Piano & Violin (& Cocktails)

  DSM

  7 May 2012 | 1:52 pm

  A   re we as performers always bound to execute Beethoven’s ornamentation as he consciously intended when we believe that there is a more convincing possibility? This is a subject to which a whole conference could be devoted, as it involves aesthetic, philosophical and even moral dilemmas. My own short answer is ‘Yes!’ There are certain works where it is obvious that a convincing manner of execution took decades to discover. It is reasonable to think that we are still today discovering it.”  — Daniel Herscovitch, Professor of Piano, Univ Sydney…

• Mozart’s Requiem Down Under

  DSM

  2 May 2012 | 11:50 am

  M   ozart’s ‘Requiem’ brings a shift in mood—with the terror, the sorrow, and the sheer drama of Life … and Death.”  — Sydney Symphony, program notes, MAY-2012.T he performance of Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K.626, by members of the Sydney Symphony led by [guest] conductor David Zinman challenged our patience last night. The Süssmayr completion of the Requiem is something that many ensembles perform in 57 min or longer, full of pathos. But speeding it up more than 15%, to come in at less than 49 min, is aesthetically not a great idea.

• Giya Kancheli on the [marital] virtues of revealing, accomodating

  DSM

  28 Apr 2012 | 6:13 am

  M  usic, like life itself, is inconceivable without romanticism. Romanticism is a high dream of the past, present, and future—a force of invincible beauty which towers above, and conquers, the forces of ignorance, bigotry, violence, and evil.”  — Giya Kancheli.I ’m listening to a recording of Tblisi-native composer Giya Kancheli’s 26-minute-long 1997 Piano Quartet ‘In l’istesso Tempo’ performed by Bridge Ensemble. The consistent pulse and the narrative epicness of it intrigue me. I replay it twice and the complexities and layers that I’d…

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  Adaptistration

• New Details About The Proposed Palm Beach Juilliard Residency

  Drew McManus

  16 May 2012 | 2:00 am

  Following last week’s post about a proposed Juilliard residency vis-a-vis the Palm Beach Symphony that created quite an uproar in the comment section of the Palm Beach Daily News article announcing the program, it seems as though the initiative in its original form may be at an end. A reader forwarded a copy of the following letter purportedly written by Adam Meyer, Juilliard Associate Dean for Administration, which states that Juilliard will not be participating in the potential residency program. Dear [name removed], Thank you for your recent email regarding the Palm Beach Daily News…

• Arts Org Tech Alert: Are You Using Network Solutions?

  Drew McManus

  15 May 2012 | 2:00 am

  It’s no secret that some domain name registrars and hosting providers have designed their user policies to intentionally make it as difficult and/or expensive as possible for existing users to move to other providers. The list of tricks in seemingly endless and can be as overt as charging users to export database records and/or registration records or as subtle as a fiasco one of my clients endured when attempting to change Name Server settings, which is how domain name registrars make sure your domain name points to the correct online content. The problem in this particular instance…

• Revisiting Frank

  Drew McManus

  14 May 2012 | 2:00 am

  Although I had the opportunity to meet a number of wonderful folks (you know who you are) during my recent trip to NYC for the Nashville Symphony’s Spring For Music concert it was a sincere pleasure to bump into Frank J. Oteri. Regular readers and culture blog denizens are likely well aware of Frank and his work at NMBX (NewMusicBox) but if he’s someone that isn’t on your radar, then you should set aside some time this week and remedy that condition. Since you’re already here, you might as well begin at this point and working your way out. In 2007, Frank provided one…

• Off To NYC

  Drew McManus

  11 May 2012 | 2:00 am

  I’m in route to NYC today for the Nashville Symphony concert at the 2012 Spring For Music festival. This will be the first of the festival’s concerts I’ve attended and I’m curious to see what the experience is like. I’ll be in town through Sunday so if you’d like to find a time to meet and say hello, talk shop, or talk business drop me a note and let’s see what we can find!

• Mongo Only Pawn In Game Of Life

  Drew McManus

  10 May 2012 | 2:00 am

  It was sad to read the news out of Minnesota yesterday in the 5/9/2012 edition of the Star-Tribune where an article by Graydon Royce reports that the Minnesota Orchestra (MO) has eliminated nine full-time administrative positions and laid off seven part-time administrative employees. The cuts apparently coincide with the orchestra’s anticipated departure from Orchestra Hall during renovations but it is tough to miss the fact that they also fall amidst tense collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The MO board leadership has already made it clear that they intend to secure a…

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  NewMusicBox

• Great Expectations: The Challenge of New Music In New Spaces

  Dustin Soiseth

  16 May 2012 | 10:53 am

  When new music groups perform in rock clubs and other similar venues they are counting on these spaces to recontextualize what they do. But what about the venues that make this recontextualization possible? How do their priorities differ from those of more traditional venues? They are an essential part of this trend, but do they know it?

• Who Cares If You Call It Indie Classical?

  Isaac Schankler

  16 May 2012 | 9:39 am

  So the term “indie classical” seems to be ascending in popularity, along with the requisite hand-wringing about what it means, whether or not it’s a good thing, and whether or not it’s even worth thinking about.

• Oh, the Ironing!

  David Smooke

  15 May 2012 | 9:52 am

  Before a big event, it’s important to take a few minutes to iron my shirt. I know this tip seems trivial to the point of ridicule; however, it’s actually an important part of my routine. At a premiere, a million things can go wrong, and I take great comfort in knowing that there is this one small aspect of the performance that I can control.

• Games Played: Journey

  Dan Visconti

  15 May 2012 | 9:46 am

  It might be more accurate to consider Journey as a musical composition with interactive video element, rather than as a barely challenging game with a fantastic and lovingly created underscore.

• Engaging All the Senses

  Frank J. Oteri

  14 May 2012 | 4:40 pm

  Usually I attend art exhibitions, restaurants, or perfume shops and contemplate how much music presenters can learn from what these other communities do. But this time around, the music people totally got it right.

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  Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise

• City Opera's Telemann

  Alex Ross

  16 May 2012 | 11:26 am

  I caught the New York City Opera presentation of Telemann's Orpheus at El Museo del Barrio last night, and find myself in accord with the Zerbinetta take. I'm happy to have seen the work, and Rebecca Taichman's staging has some vibrant touches (the scene centered on Nicholas Pallesen's commanding Pluto is a delight), but the score is far from being a neglected masterpiece, and, as Zerbinetta says, many Baroque operas — including at least four or five by Cavalli — deserved a New York staging in front of this one. Certainly, City Opera deserves credit for making use of…

• New horizons in concert publicity

  Alex Ross

  16 May 2012 | 10:19 am

  Another striking announcement from the Spektral Quartet. Previously: New horizons in classical poster design.

• Justice Ginsburg's favorite records

  Alex Ross

  15 May 2012 | 2:19 pm

  The list that I hinted at the other day has now been published on the New Yorker website. Update: Frank Salomon reminds me that Justice Ginsburg's annual "music day" at the Supreme Court is happening today: Leon Fleisher and Alisa Weilerstein will play for the justices.

• Go west, pure fool

  Alex Ross

  13 May 2012 | 2:03 pm

  On April 7, 1905, the Metropolitan Opera company brought Parsifal to the Grand Opera House on Mission Street, in San Francisco. The San Francisco Call devoted almost its entire front page to the spectacle. Sally Sharp had the society report: "Mrs. Edgar Peixotto, smart white silk gown with square decolletage. In her hair she wore a silver glitter crown, matching the trimming of the gown. Mrs. C. R. Krauthoff was most becomingly gowned in a heavy cream cloth gown on which was let in open work embroidery. Her opera coat was of white cloth with Irish point. Mrs. William Maxwell wore a pink…

• Preview of coming attractions

  Alex Ross

  13 May 2012 | 6:39 am

  More will be revealed at newyorker.com on Tuesday.

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  Sequenza21/

• Princeton Symphony Plays Sarah Kirkland Snider

  Christian Carey

  15 May 2012 | 6:46 am

  Princeton Symphony Orchestra Richardson Auditorium, Princeton, NJ May 13, 2012 ChamberMusicianToday.com PRINCETON – The Princeton Symphony’s final concert of its classical season included two repertory staples – Brahms’s Fourth Symphony and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major – as well as a revised version of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s sole work to date for orchestra, Disquiet. Although Snider is a rising star in the world of contemporary music, she has thus far made her name as a formidable composer of vocal works, notably the song cycle Penelope, as well…

• 2012 Outsound Summit lineup revealed

  Polly Moller

  14 May 2012 | 9:11 pm

  The San Francisco Bay Area’s underground music scene will come together this coming July in an annual celebration of its tremendous range of styles, its love of improvisation, and its collective obsession with new and unusual timbres and techniques.  It’s the 11th Annual Outsound New Music Summit!  All events will take place at the San Francisco Community Music Center at 544 Capp Street near 20th Street in the Mission District, and tickets can be ordered online from Brown Paper Tickets or purchased at the door. The ever-popular Touch the Gear Expo kicks off the Summit on Sunday July…

• Tonight: Smooke has not One but Two Premieres

  Christian Carey

  11 May 2012 | 9:39 am

  TWO PREMIERES BY DAVID SMOOKE by Judah Adashi Here in Baltimore, we take great pride in our vibrant music scene. Indeed, it’s so vibrant that my friend and colleague, David Smooke, has two local premieres in one night! (OK, one of them is in DC, but we mustn’t let such details stand in the way of rooting for the home team.) Tonight at 8:00pm at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H Street NE), David will join Great Noise Ensemble as the featured soloist in the world premiere of his toy piano concerto, Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. The piece takes its title and inspiration…

• Shai Wosner: Debut of Michael Hersch’s Piano Concerto (A Preview)

  Chris McGovern

  10 May 2012 | 5:02 pm

  On May 15th, pianist Shai Wosner will be performing a brand new Piano Concerto by Michael Hersch. Titled along the ravines, the piece will be making its first ever concert appearance with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall, Tuesday May 15th at 7:30 PM. Shai explains how he came upon his interest for the new work. “When I was looking to commission a new work, thanks to the Borletti-Buitoni Trust of London, I was listening to all kinds of music from composers from different generations and I came across a couple of CDs with piano and chamber works by Michael Hersch. It was clear that…

• Alabama Symphony at Spring for Music

  Christian Carey

  10 May 2012 | 12:52 pm

  Tonight, the Alabama Symphony, conducted by Justin Brown, appears at Carnegie Hall as part of Spring for Music, a week long celebration of out-of-town orchestras with adventurous programming aesthetics. Many of them are making their Carnegie Hall debuts; all of them are bringing programs of interest and demonstrating that, despite the oft-reported economic vicissitudes in the world of classical music, there remains a tremendous vitality of orchestral music making throughout North America. Quattro Mani In addition to a repertory standby, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, the ASO presents two…

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  Classical Performance podcast

• Seven Times Salt plays music from the English Civil War

  WGBH Educational Foundation

  8 May 2012 | 12:00 am

  The engaging early music ensemble Seven Times Salt plays a selection of music from the English Civil War. From a time of roundheads and the Cavaliers, Parliament and Kings, it becomes apparent that some things never change. *** Anon./John Playford: "Whitehall" and "The King's Delight," from The Dancing Master Anon.: "The World Turn'd Upside Down" Anon.: "A la Mode de France" from The Dancing Master Seven Times Salt: Karen Burciaga, renaissance violin & voice; Daniel Meyers, recorder, pipe, tabor, & voice; Josh Schreiber Shalem, bass viol; Matthew Wright, lute. +++ Recorded at…

• Trio Settecento plays Corelli and Muffat

  WGBH Educational Foundation

  1 Jul 2011 | 12:00 am

  The multi-faceted virtuoso violinist Rachel Barton Pine heads up the Trio Settecento, performing early music with John Mark Rozendaal, baroque cello, and David Schrader, harpsichord. They play music by the trend-setting composer Arcangelo Corelli, and by the frenchman, Georg Muffat. *** Corelli: Sonata in C major, Op. 5 No. 3 Georg Muffat: Sonata in D major Trio Settecento: Rachel Barton Pine, baroque violin; John Mark Rozendaal, baroque 'cello; David Schrader, harpsichord +++ Recorded at WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on May 16th, 2011. ©2011 WGBH Educational Foundation.

• William Hite sings Schumann

  WGBH Educational Foundation

  6 Jun 2011 | 12:00 am

  Things were looking up for Robert Schumann in 1840. He was finally getting permission to marry his sweetheart, Clara Wieck, over the objections of her father. And he poured all his joy into songs - hundreds of them in that year! Dichterliebe (Poet's love) consists of 16 songs, which follow the path of love from longing and anticipation to heartache and illusion, when the lover discovers that his sentiments are not returned. *** Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op. 48 William Hite, tenor; Judith Gordon, piano +++ Recorded at WGBH's Studio One on February 9th, 2001. ©2011 WGBH Educational…

• Charlie Albright plays Chopin

  WGBH Educational Foundation

  21 May 2011 | 12:00 am

  Pianist Charlie Albright has been counted "...among the most gifted musicians of his generation" by the Washington Post, and he's the winner of dozens of prizes and awards for his playing, but he has another life too, as an undergrad working hard to finish his Economics exams at Harvard! He talks about the life of a student-artist, and plays sublime Chopin in this Fraser Performance. *** Chopin: Etudes, Op. 25: No. 1 in A-flat, No. 2 in F major, No. 7 in C-sharp minor, No. 9 in G-flat major, and No. 12 in C minor. Charllie Albright, piano +++ http://www.charliealbright.com/ Recorded at…

• The Gramercy Trio plays Schumann

  WGBH Educational Foundation

  8 May 2011 | 12:00 am

  Robert Schumann's great ambition was to become a concert pianist, and he was on his way to acheiving that goal when he permanently injured his hand, putting a stop to his performing career. But Clara Wieck, the love of his life, was also a great pianist, and she became the most brilliant and successful piano virtuoso of her time. So Robert was able to pour all his passion for the piano (and for Clara!) into his compositions. This is one of his best chamber pieces, the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor. *** Schumann, Robert: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63 The Gramercy Trio +++ Randall…

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  PlaybillArts.com

• Nina Stemme: Becoming Salome

  11 May 2012 | 5:00 pm

  This month, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a rare concert performance of Strauss's Salome. In a recent break from her performances in Tosca at the Vienna State Opera, Nina Stemme discussed the challenge of performing as Salome in what will be her Carnegie Hall debut.

• A Glittering New Look: NYCB Unveils New Costumes for Symphony in C

  9 May 2012 | 5:00 pm

  Symphony in C, the effervescent tutu ballet George Balanchine choreographed in 1947 for the Paris Opéra Ballet, returns to the New York City Ballet repertory at the Company's Spring Gala on May 10, after an absence of four years.

• With the Crack of a Whip, and a Warm Embrace

  9 May 2012 | 5:00 pm

  Magnus Lindberg's journey as a composer, and three years as the Philharmonic's Composer-in-Residence, has brought the former radical to a warm embrace of tradition. Scott Timberg explores the path that has led to the premiere of the Finn's Piano Concerto No. 2 this month.

• Making the Grade

  3 May 2012 | 1:00 pm

  Marina Harss highlights the women who make up the the famous "Kingdom of the Shades" scene from La Bayadère

• Argüello's Symphonic "Suffering of the Innocents" Offered at Lincoln Center May 8

  2 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pm

  "The Suffering of the Innocents", a symphonic homage and prayer composed by Kiko Argüello in memory of innocent victims, will be presented as "a musical gift to the Jewish people and residents of New York City" in a free May 8 concert.

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  JDCMB

• Addendum

  15 May 2012 | 5:58 am

  In the Young Musician of the Year post I forgot to plug my novel ALICIA'S GIFT, in which the heroine wins this contest, among other things. You have to plug your books if you have a blog, so here it is.

• Bourne again: Swan Lake in 3D

  15 May 2012 | 3:13 am

  Swan Lake is making a splash again - this time in 3D. The other week I trotted off to Islington where Matthew Bourne's dance company New Adventures was in rehearsal. It was April, but felt like December... so Matthew and I huddled beside a gas heater in the back room and had a good talk about that Swan Lake and how he and Ross MacGibbon went about turning it into the 3D movie that hits cinemas worldwide from today. Besides, I always wondered what made him think up the concept. And now we know - and it's good. My feature is in The Independent today.Happy 25th birthday to the company!

• There can only be one BBC Young Musician of the Year...

  14 May 2012 | 4:51 am

  Thought for Monday: for every musician whose lifelong public career is launched in the arena of BBC Young Musicians, there are maybe 100 more, at least, who vanish. And if there's one thing more dangerous than that, it is to be the BBC Young Musician of the Year - and find you are still BBC Young Musician of the Year when you're 40.(Above, l to r, this year's "semi-finalists": Charlotte, Alexander, Laura, Yuanfan, Hyun-gi) If the BBC YM 2012 contest has left me a tad underwhelmed, that is notthe fault of the YMs. Certain other commentators have been applauding the fact that there weren't…

• Singing for their supper picnic...

  12 May 2012 | 2:21 am

  May? It'll soon be Glyndebourne.I had a nose about the new season that left me wondering - given the nature of their poster - who the black sheep of the Glynditz family could possibly be. Well, blow me down - it's Ravel? Seems that people don't want to eat something that they can't pronounce. I asked general manager David Pickard how it's all going in these hard times, and also had a chat with Melly Still about her new production of The Cunning Little Vixen - you remember, she was the director of Glyndebourne's utterly magical Rusalka a couple of years ago. Read all about it in my piece for…

• Friday catch-up and Friday historical...

  11 May 2012 | 3:18 am

  Busy patch. Here are some highlights of days past and the weekend ahead.>> I was on BBC Radio 4's Front Row the other day, in discussion with Klaus Heymann, founder of Naxos Records, about the way the record industry has changed since the company launched 25 years ago. If you missed it, you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer until Tuesday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h75d9#p00s959x>> Pianist Anthony Hewitt, "The Olympianist", has set off on his big ride from Land's End to John O'Groats and was lucky enough to encounter a strong west tail wind to get things started. He made it…

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  Ionarts

• News from the Croisette

  Charles T. Downey

  16 May 2012 | 8:48 am

  All eyes are on southern France today, for the opening of the Festival de Cannes. Films by Hong Sangsoo, Wes Anderson (still shown here), and Jacques Audiard received opening notice in today's edition of Le Monde. (Strangely, no mention of Sacha Baron Cohen.) Among the Cannes coverage in Le Figaro, a piece by Adeline Raynal about the boom business that the festival brings to this Mediterranean

• Ionarts-at-Large: The Admirable, Adorable Stanisław Skrowaczewski

  jfl

  15 May 2012 | 11:17 am

  When it rains, it pours. Raining Shostakovich in this case, not the most regularly performed composer in Munich, and now the fifth Symphony in as many days! And incidentally the Fifth Symphony this time – part of the regular Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra season with veteran conductor Polish Stanisław Skrowaczewski on the rostrum. Stanisław Skrowaczewski is one of those fascinating cases of

• Michelle DeYoung's Seductive 'Dalila'

  Charles T. Downey

  15 May 2012 | 12:22 am

  On Saturday, it was Washington National Opera taking up an opera performed by Washington Concert Opera, Massenet's Werther. On Sunday, the reverse happened, with Washington Concert Opera taking up an opera that has not exactly been rare around these parts, Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns, last seen in a 2005 production at WNO, itself a rehash of the company's 1998 staging. The opera is a

• The Joys of Massenet's 'Werther'

  Charles T. Downey

  14 May 2012 | 9:02 am

  Francesco Meli (Werther) and Sonia Ganassi (Charlotte), in Werther, Washington National Opera, 2012 (photo by Scott Suchman) Two performances of Massenet's Werther in less than a year -- but do not expect me to complain, especially when the performances are both so good. After Washington Concert Opera last year, Washington National Opera has returned to this unabashedly Romantic opera for the

• In Brief: Call Your Mother Edition

  Charles T. Downey

  13 May 2012 | 2:33 pm

  Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. Watch the production of Handel's Orlando, with René Jacobs at the podium and a staging directed by Pierre Audi, from the Théâtre de la Monnaie. [De Munt] Listen to a recital by violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Milana Chernyavska, with music by Mozart, Schubert, Debussy,

• 

  The Rambler

• Music’s Fordism

  Tim Rutherford-Johnson

  9 May 2012 | 10:00 am

  I was reminded yesterday of how much I like Andrew Ford‘s writing on music. To my shame the only book of his that I own is Composer to Composer, which I picked up secondhand somewhere, some years ago. Among many … Continue reading →

• Contemporary Notation Project: Chris Opperman

  Tim Rutherford-Johnson

  7 May 2012 | 5:47 am

  Going by what I’ve been sent so far, I imagine most of the scores that I’ll be posting in the CNP are going to be pretty idiosyncratic in one way or another. (Seriously – stick around.) Chris Opperman writes from a more … Continue reading →

• The Guardian launches a new contemporary music blog

  Tim Rutherford-Johnson

  24 Apr 2012 | 8:46 am

  Having ommitted classical music from their series of booklets on contemporary musical genres last year (was it last year?), the Tom Service and the Guardian are going all out with a 52-week blogathon on contemporary music. Count me looking forward … Continue reading →

• The Contemporary Notation Project

  Tim Rutherford-Johnson

  16 Apr 2012 | 11:30 am

  To celebrate the Rambler’s arrival on Facebook I am launching a new feature: the Contemporary Notation Project. The idea is simple: the Facebook page needs a nice header image; lots of new scores look simply divine. Why not combine the … Continue reading →

• Inward nominated for inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award

  Tim Rutherford-Johnson

  12 Apr 2012 | 8:19 am

  Very pleased to see that Richard Craig’s recital disc Inward has been longlisted for the Scottish Music Industry Association’s inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award. I went a bit potty about this disc when it came out a year ago, … Continue reading →

• 

  Soho the Dog

• Sweet spot

  14 May 2012 | 9:26 am

  Reviewing Emanuel Ax.Boston Globe, May 14, 2012.

• It's bigger on the inside

  7 May 2012 | 12:35 pm

  Reviewing Boston Baroque's Orfeo ed Euridice.Boston Globe, May 7, 2012.

• Exercise in utility

  23 Apr 2012 | 12:32 pm

  Reviewing Sandrine Piau.Boston Globe, April 23, 2012.

• Out of the gates

  16 Apr 2012 | 12:30 pm

  Reviewing the Discovery Ensemble.Boston Globe, April 16, 2012.

• Let's get away from it all

  27 Mar 2012 | 4:00 pm

  Reviewing the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.Boston Globe, March 27, 2012.

• 

  Opera Chic

• Angela Speaks! About Alagna, Netrebko, Booing, Fleming, etc.

  opera chic

  15 May 2012 | 3:59 pm

  So many opera singers give predictable, boring interviews and then there's Angela with her fangs out, aiming at the jugular....

• Behind the Scenes at L.A. Opera's La Bohème

  opera chic

  15 May 2012 | 3:54 pm

  Susan Graham was front and center (and then backstage) for the Saturday night premiere of La Bohème at the Los...

• Everyone's a Winner at the Wiener: Garanca in La Clemenza

  opera chic

  15 May 2012 | 3:49 am

  Here's Elina Garanca as Sesto in the upcoming Jürgen Flimm production of Mozart's La Clemenza that opens at the Wiener...

• Istanbul Redux (in Photos)

  opera chic

  14 May 2012 | 3:25 pm

  Since OC will be recapping her Istanbul adventure with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra for Grazia.it later this week, we're...

• You Wish, We Play -- OC Live From Istanbul

  opera chic

  11 May 2012 | 2:26 am

  Last night, as if exploring Istanbul under atmospheric skies wasn't cool enough, OC tripped out at the Lutfi Kirdar Anadolu...

• 

  Opera Today

• Bartók and Szymanowski, Barbican Hall

  gary@operatoday.com

  12 May 2012 | 2:44 pm

  In this, the second of two LSO concerts in which Péter Eötvös replaced Pierre Boulez, one continued to feel the loss of the latter in his repertoire, yet one equally continued to value his replacement, very much his own man.

• My Big Fat American Moustache: A Wartime Così Fan Tutte

  gary@operatoday.com

  9 May 2012 | 3:22 pm

  An energetic and exceptionally entertaining production of Così fan tutte sung in English and set during World War II, when the Americans often got the girls.

• More Casting Changes at Bayreuth

  gary@operatoday.com

  9 May 2012 | 3:12 pm

  http://www.operatoday.com/content/2012/05/torsten_kerl_to.php

• Torsten Kerl to Perform Tannhäuser

  gary@operatoday.com

  9 May 2012 | 3:06 pm

  Casting changes continue at the Bayreuth Festival, now only three months away.

• Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach, Barbican, London

  gary@operatoday.com

  9 May 2012 | 2:02 pm

  Any performance of Philip Glass’ epic Einstein on the Beach (1976) is a major event. The work’s duration is around five hours and it is directed to be performed without interval (although see below — we had one).

• 

  Opera Today News Headlines

• More Casting Changes at Bayreuth

  Gary

  9 May 2012 | 3:12 pm

  By Frank Cadenhead [Opera Today, 9 May 2012] Casting changes continue at the Bayreuth Festival, now only three months away. Tenor Lars Clevemann, who sang the title role of Tannhäuser last year, has withdrawn from the role this year. “This was at his own request” explains Festival spokesman Peter Emmerich. He will be replaced by Torsten Kerl.

• LA Opera Names New CEO

  Gary

  26 Apr 2012 | 1:45 pm

  By Frank Cadenhead [Opera Today, 26 April 2012] Christopher Koelsch has been tapped Wednesday as the new president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Opera. Koelsch, 41, was the opera’s chief financial officer and will take the new post September 15.

• Teatro Real Replaces Miguel Muñiz

  Gary

  24 Apr 2012 | 3:46 pm

  By Frank Cadenhead [Opera Today, 24 April 2012] Ignacio Garcia-Belenguer, 45, has been named as the new general manager of Madrid’s opera, Teatro Real.

• More Drama in Köln

  Gary

  24 Apr 2012 | 3:28 pm

  By Frank Cadenhead [Opera Today, 24 April 2012] The director of the Cologne Opera, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, has confirmed at the press conference this afternoon that he will leave his post at the end of the coming season. His contract runs until 2016.

• No Brünnhilde by Angela Denoke

  Gary

  23 Apr 2012 | 10:00 am

  By Frank Cadenhead [Opera Today, 23 April 2012] Soprano Angela Denoke announced on Wednesday that she would not be appearing as Brünnhilde, one of the critically important roles, at the 2013 Bayreuth Festival Ring Cycle.

• 

  aworks :: "new" american classical music

• String Quartet No. 2 (1982). Fred Lerdahl /now on q2/

  rgable

  14 May 2012 | 10:00 pm

  As I listen to the music of Fred Lerdahl on WQXR, er, Q2, I see that I can embed a Q2 player on my blog: Update: Unfortunately, it doesn't show the title of the currently streaming piece. Update #2: Ok, there's a version with playlist.

• aworks music diary 2012 :: #7 to whom keeps a record

  rgable

  13 May 2012 | 5:08 pm

  It's Mother's Day so I'm finishing this list early so we can celebrate...  Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach Trial 1 Entrance, Trial 1 "Mr. Bojangles", Dance 1, Dance 2, Bed Prelude, Building  Philip Glass String Quartet No. 4 Smith Quartet - Complete String Quartets Part 1, Part 3  Philip Glass Music in Similar Motion Signal, Brad Lubman - Live at (le) Poisson Rouge Philip Glass Music in Twelve Parts Part 2, Part 4  David Murray It Hurts So Much To See Windward Passages David Crowell Eucaplyptus, Point Reyes eucalyptus Bob Dylan  From a Buick 6 Highway 61 Revisted  Charles Ives…

• aworks music diary 2012 :: #6 formatted king tubby edition

  rgable

  12 May 2012 | 11:21 pm

  King Tubby One more diary day to inflict to go. I've cleaned up the formatting of the music log. See below. Still, this has been an interesting listening exercise so kudos to Sick Mouthy for the inspiration again. Because of this, I've refined how I listen and maintain playlists on rdio. No change for legacy media i.e. MP3s, though.  Einstein on the Beach  Philip Glass aworks' current jam   Trial 1  repeat! A Tribute to James Tenney Alvin Lucier Barton Workship - Wind Shadow Part II repeat! Music in Twelve Parts Philip Glass Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 repeat! Good Vibrations Beach Boys…

• aworks music diary 2012 :: #5 /replacing music journalism?/

  rgable

  11 May 2012 | 11:14 pm

  Wikipedia Quote of the day from stdout.be (via TightWind who correctly says that if you only read one thing this week, this is the one): ...people still find new music through Pitchfork or Rolling Stone, but services like Spotify and Rdio actually replace music journalism for many...People who like to read about music, not just find good music, are a niche audience. Reading about music just happened to be one of the few ways to explore new music before the web, together with mixtapes or radio, so reading is what you did...We’re living through a much more radical shift from narrative and…

• aworks music diary 2012 :: #4 /music in repetitive motion/

  rgable

  11 May 2012 | 12:45 am

  (ianhun2009) Working through my on repeat playlists today. Philip Glass Act 4/Scene 2 - Bed. Trial 1, Entrance. Trial 1, "Mr. Bojangles". Bed Prelude. Dance 1. Dance 2. Trial 2/Prison, Ensemble: Michael Reisman, Philip Glass Ensemble - Einstein on the Beach Music in Similar Motion: Signal, Brad Lubman - Live at (le) Poisson String Quartet No. 4 "Buczak": The Smith Quartet - Philip Glass: Complete String Quartets How Now. Jeroen Van Veen. Minimal Piano Collection Lou Harrison Homage to Milhaud. Largo Ostinato: Anthony De Mare - Wizards & Wildmen 2 March For The Marriage Of Frank And Anne…

• 

  Sounds & Fury

• Masterpiece Mystery's Sherlock: "The Hounds of Baskerville"

  A.C. Douglas

  16 May 2012 | 3:43 am

  The Hounds of Baskerville", the second episode of Sherlock, Series II, is just a bit, shall we say, too clever by half and lacks the...

• Masterpiece Mystery's Sherlock: "A Scandal in Belgravia"

  A.C. Douglas

  7 May 2012 | 4:08 pm

  As the time for airing neared, we earnestly attempted to dial-down our expectations for the first episode of the second series (of three new episodes)...

• Our Last Word On The Lepage Ring

  A.C. Douglas

  5 May 2012 | 4:51 pm

  We've been so involved with other matters these past couple months that we've given rather short shrift to this blog in terms of time spent...

• Lovely

  A.C. Douglas

  4 May 2012 | 4:29 pm

  Since we began some five months ago to again watch television with some frequency thanks to Verizon's FiOS TV, we've been repeatedly surprised to find...

• Wrong Target

  A.C. Douglas

  2 May 2012 | 9:05 pm

  In a 1 May piece for The New York Times titled, "'Ring' Criticism, Rescinded", music journalist Daniel J. Wakin revealed that [New York Public Radio...

• 

  finding my singing voice

• Resources for teaching musical theater, part 2 - children

  Catherine K. Brown

  21 Apr 2012 | 9:22 pm

• Resources for teaching musical theater, part 1 - teens

  Catherine K. Brown

  21 Apr 2012 | 9:11 pm

• How to get background work in Philadelphia and NYC

  Catherine K. Brown

  16 Apr 2012 | 11:01 pm

• "You don't need a neck" and other maxims of Sharon Sweet

  Catherine K. Brown

  3 Mar 2012 | 8:39 pm

• Ira Glass on creativity and the gap between taste and work

  Catherine K. Brown

  13 Feb 2012 | 11:34 am

• 

  grecchinois

• Mozart's Perfection and Imperfection

  nick

  30 Apr 2012 | 4:11 pm

  In honor of my first performances of Don Giovanni here in Atlanta, a reposting of my recent post at the Ecstatic Living Room on some of Mozart's Operatic Arias:As I’ve started rehearsals for my very first production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni this week in Atlanta, I’ve been thinking a lot of about Mozart lately.  At every break in rehearsal, someone inevitably sighs, “oh….this music is so incredible…”, and it’s gotten me thinking about how Mozart was truly at his best when he was writing opera.  His music for the theater is perfectly balanced; it celebrates…

• Collaborative Works Festival

  nick

  29 Mar 2012 | 4:49 pm

  Today is an extremely exciting day for my colleagues at Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago and I, as tonight is the very first concert of our first ever Collaborative Works Festival - our new, annual Festival devoted to the art of song and vocal chamber music.  My colleagues at CAIC and I have actually been dreaming of this Festival since 2005, long before CAIC as an organization was even an idea.  We have had this vision of building a showcase for the art of song and promoting this incredibly rich repertoire that we are so passionate about - from that vision, CAIC was born,…

• A Passion for the Passions

  nick

  13 Mar 2012 | 4:27 am

  I've been graciously invited to be a new regular contributor at the classical music blog, The Ecstatic Living Room.  Below is a preview of my first post there, about Bach's Passions.  If you enjoy the preview, please feel free to check out the rest of the post at the Ecstatic Living Room's site.  Also, take a moment to browse through some of my other colleagues' posts there.  It'll be a fun time, I guarantee it...A PASSION FOR THE PASSIONSMardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, just passed by us, so for much of the world, now that the copious alcohol consumption, Paczki eating,…

• What's Important

  nick

  20 Feb 2012 | 10:05 am

  There has been much talk (and screaming and shouting and general drama) about the plight of the New York City Opera over the past year or so.  I’ve heard musicians and singers debating hotly about it during rehearsal breaks, FaceBook pages and groups have been set up at which people write angry and pointed statements about whether City Opera should continue, and there has been much written about it in the press, as well.  As one of the many American singers who got an early break on the New York City Opera stage, I care very deeply for the company and the people who have devoted…

• Martin Isepp

  nick

  28 Dec 2011 | 4:20 pm

  A friend was saying to me recently over the holidays that it seemed to her in our current fast-paced age, true mentors are hard to come by.  In some ways, I felt a bit of truth to her words, and if that is truly the case, I feel incredibly lucky to have had so many people who I would consider mentors throughout my years as a musician so far.  One of the greatest of these for me would most definitely be the pianist, coach and conductor, Martin Isepp.I’ve often said that my four summers at Marlboro saved my relationship with music.  After a few years of hustling to carve out a…

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  Bass Blog

• Blog of the tour, part 05

  9 May 2012 | 10:30 am

  Viva il puma!The other day, it struck me as odd that after a trip to Russia (of all places) I'm not supposed to mention what I did upon my return to the good old USA. What a universe we live in... Anyhow, it is probably high time to finish writing about the tour,now that is has been over for more than a week.The St Petersburg passport officers could learn a thing or two from their counterpart in Rome who didn't stop talking on his phone long enough to open my passport before welcoming me to the country with an impatient flick of the wrist.As the name suggests, the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome is…

• Blog of the tour, part 04

  30 Apr 2012 | 5:44 pm

  Goodbye to all that.As mentioned, the hall in Moscow turned out to be a wonderful place to play after all the tripping and slipping on the stairs. St Petersburg also had a magnificent concert hall, although I might not have been in the best spot on the stage to appreciate the acoustics. The earplugs were pushed in so far one of them didn't come out until I sneezed the next morning, if you know what I mean.As with almost every tour, the public transit infrastructure in Russia made what we have back home look pretty shabby. I imagine if more Americans traveled overseas they might approve…

• Blog of the tour, part 03

  27 Apr 2012 | 1:29 am

  Mind the Steps of Central Asia! One of the problems with touring is that eventually the hilarity stops and you have start rehearsing and playing concerts. The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory is a wonderful auditorium, provided you can make it to the stage uninjured. The place has some infrastructure shortcomings, not the least of which were the slippery, unevenly spaced stone stairs backstage - I saw two players trip and fall there. But all was forgiven once I took my seat on stage and glanced up at the striking composer portraits. From on high, an illustrious collection of composers…

• Blog of the tour, part 02

  19 Apr 2012 | 4:34 am

  Red Sauce over Moscow(Sorry for another fast-food themed post - my last on this trip, I hope)The first evening left time for little more than a quick jaunt over to Red Square before dark. I wanted to see if the Kremlin had been Disney-ified yet or not. The folks selling matryoshka dolls and other trinkets were at the Kremlin walls but had not breached the perimeter. Red square looked much as it had before, although now crowded with ice-cream cone eating lollygags and (religious?) fanatics screaming through bullhorns it had lost some of its solemnity. Lenin still lies in his tomb, the body of…

• Blog of the tour, part 01

  17 Apr 2012 | 9:36 pm

  Subway!?! No Way!For me, the tour doesn't begin until the wheels hit the runaway, then I'm back on the clock. The warm, almost balmy Moscow air came as something of a surprise, although the fields still dotted with patches of snow made it seem as if this might have been a recent change in the weather. Still, it was much warmer here in Moscow than where I had come from - how many times do you get to say that?Subway (the ubiquitous sandwich chain) wins the gold medal for the glaring first sign of 'our' triumph over socialism; It's right there in the Aeroexpress station beside Sheremetyevo…

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  The Collaborative Piano Blog

• Christina Perri's A Thousand Years, Arranged as a Piano/Cello Cover by the Piano Guys

  Chris Foley

  11 May 2012 | 9:03 pm

  Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson of The Piano Guys are back, this time in the Utah woods with Christina Perri's A Thousand Years arranged for cello and piano. Listen closely and you'll hear a cleverly disguised Bridal Chorus quote. Look closely and you might see a lizard or two:

• Tim Fain and Peiyao Wang Play Aaron Jay Kernis' Air

  Chris Foley

  11 May 2012 | 8:42 pm

  You might need to turn up the audio a bit, but you'll be glad you did in this elegant and moving 2010 Poisson Rouge performance with violinist Tim Fain and pianist Pei-Yao Wang:

• Pasek and Paul's Do You Remember

  Chris Foley

  3 May 2012 | 6:24 pm

  Here's a hidden gem that one of my students introduced to me earlier this year: Do You Remember by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, from a projected and as yet uncompleted Peter Pan sequel. The ageless Peter Pan (sung here by Gavin Creel) meets an aging Wendy: This performance is with Tampa-based pianist Robert Jarosh and a very talented, though unnamed singer David Michael Bevis (thanks Robert!): You can purchase the sheet music on the Pasek and Paul website. It's well worth the $8.99 price tag, and the piano part is very well written. (Thanks, Stevie!)

• Ask the Readers: Which Classical Music/Music Ed Blogs Are Worth Reading?

  Chris Foley

  2 May 2012 | 5:40 am

  I've always prided myself on staying up to date with the goings-on of the classical music blogosphere. However, with over two months spent moving house, I fear I may have lost touch with some of the best blog reads while setting up the ultimate music studio. Collaborative Piano Blog readers are known to be some of the most discerning of musicians, so the call goes out: which classical music and music education blogs are worth reading? Leave a comment below.

• SongFusion Presents States of Mind on May 8 in NYC

  Chris Foley

  30 Apr 2012 | 10:19 am

  If you're in the New York City area, head on over to the DiMenna Center for Classical Music on May 8 for States of Mind, a recital of new American art song presented by SongFusion featuring visual artist Kevork Mourad. About the project: "States of Mind" uses as its point of departure the Baroque Doctrine of Affections. Over the course of three mini narratives held together thematically and visually, SongFusion explores opposing pairings of affections - love/hate, joy/sorrow, wonder/desire to create a joint multidisciplinary artwork with projections of visual art. Mourad, who has a deep…

• 

  parterre box

• You got a brand new key signature

  La Cieca

  15 May 2012 | 11:39 pm

  You can call Robert Lepage many things (and the critics have!), but one thing you cannot call him is “inflexible.” Having already tweaked a number of details in his Ring production that did not create the desired effect in their first viewing, the Canadian Cagliostro is now in the process of restaging whole segments of the cycle for the Met’s 2012-13 presentation. A glimpse at the new look for the final scene of Die Walküre after the jump.

• “Ne m’accuse pas, pleure-moi!”

  Patrick Mack

  15 May 2012 | 10:38 pm

  Jules Massenet wrote Werther at the midpoint of his very successful career.  With the voluptuous perfumeries of Le Roi de Lahore, Herodiade, Manon and Esclarmonde behind him, he was ready to explore more naturalistic subjects, including Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers had remained popular in the one hundred years since it had been first published. Even after Massenet fell from fashion, which was fairly quickly after his death, Manon and Werther continued to be staged regularly, even outside of France. The story of a callow youth who rashly decides he can’t go on living without…

• The less you know

  La Cieca

  15 May 2012 | 1:59 pm

  UPDATE: Sorry, folks, it looks like La Cieca went off half-cocked, as is sometimes her wont. The Met press office has clarified that they are continuing to issue cast change emails to journalists, but they are revising the list to whom these emails are sent. Apparently out-of-town scribes don’t need these updates and have asked to be be removed from the list.  So chalk this one up as a victory for the free press and a defeat for La Cieca’s ability to answer the clue phone.  [via Iron Tongue of Midnight]

• Une femme d’un incertain âge

  La Cieca

  15 May 2012 | 12:24 am

  On this, the anniversary of her natal day, May 15, La Cieca likes to think back to that moment, a number of years ago (but who is counting) when she was “born.” It was in little Dallas, my God, of all unlikely places, and she can remember as if it were only yesterday…. Dallas, Texas May 15, 1976 IL TRITTICO [26] IL TABARRO {30} Giorgetta……………Renata Scotto Luigi……………….Harry Theyard Michele……………..Cornell MacNeil Frugola……………..Lili Chookasian…

• Not another teen opera

  Andrew Powell

  14 May 2012 | 12:08 pm

  Vincent Boussard’s 2011 take on Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi — a sporadically animated fashion show in (maybe) Victorian British horse country, displacing the courtyards of medieval Verona, with saddles a metaphor for strife, top hats for conformity — returned on Saturday (May 12) to Munich’s Nationaltheater.   Dimitri Pittas, as Tebaldo, remained from the premiere cast (heard March 27, 2011) and made a warmer impression than 14 months ago, with focused sound, requisite agility, and good Italian, though the tone quality veered slim. The rest of the cast had changed, and so…

• 

  Latest Classical Reviews

• John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers - This Is the Day: Music on Royal Occasions

  15 May 2012 | 6:00 pm

  Sacred choral easy listening of the highest standard.

• Alfredo Casella - Concerto for Orchestra / A Notte Alta / Symphonic Fragments from ‘La donna serpente’ (piano: Martin Roscoe; Gianandrea Noseda; BBC Philharmonic; leader: Yuri Torchinsky)

  10 May 2012 | 6:00 pm

  Thoroughly recommended recordings of some Italian magic.

• Erik Chisholm - Piano Concertos 1 & 2 (Danny Driver; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; conductor: Rory MacDonald)

  29 Apr 2012 | 6:00 pm

  Striking and brilliantly performed music that mixes its influences beautifully.

• Claude Debussy - String Quartet, Piano Trio, Deux Danses, Reverie

  17 Apr 2012 | 6:00 pm

  A confident, vital, lyrical reading of the Quartet, plus delightful extras.

• Florilegium - Vivaldi: Sacred Works for Soprano and Concertos

  3 Apr 2012 | 6:00 pm

  An effectively programmed and well-recorded Vivaldi collection.

• 

  The Wagnerian

• When Parsifal was the most important thing in the world

  16 May 2012 | 1:48 pm

  Over at "The Rest Is Noise" Alex Ross (his book of the same title is worth a look if you haven't done so) has posted the cover of The San Francisco Call from April 1905 which dedicated the entire front page to the MET's production of Parsifal when it arrived at SF's Grand Opera House on Mission Street. To read in detail click here: "Go West, pure fool" Its hard to imagine now, that once "art" could dominate the front pages over "celebrity gossip" (See a recent front page of the""Sun" from the UK below)

• New Wagner book: The Sorcerer of Bayreuth

  16 May 2012 | 11:09 am

  It's been a while since the last Wagner book from Barry Millington and they are always interesting and worth the wait. This one seems well illustrated and from the editor of the Wagner Journal we might indeed  find something new. I do note however, that in the overview provided below from OUP it notes: "...the anti-Semitism that is undeniably present in the operas..." There are some that would dispute that claim but it is a recurrent theme throughout Millington's work - if at least not an obsessive one.  But we can't all be perfect I suppose. Due to be published in October 2012 The…

• Watch Glyndebourne's "quintessentially English" "On such a night" free for 10 days

  15 May 2012 | 9:45 am

    Time to confess a terrible secret, I have a weakness for "classic" British cinema of a certain type. By this I mean not "Carry on" or "Hammer" films (although I have a weakness for those too of course) but British movies that are so...um...what words to use? "Awfully? "Terribly"? "Beastly"? Films  like, "Brief Encounter", "Doctor In The House". You know  "quintessentially English". Anyway, with that in mind Glyndebourne has made the following available online for the next 6 days. I will let Glyndebourne explain - shall I? Glyndebourne is celebrating the 2012 European Opera…

• Editorial: History repeats itself? Why ENO's John Berry is wrong about opera at the cinema

  15 May 2012 | 8:16 am

  John Berry. Despite appearances this is unlikely to be a cinema We like, when possible, to keep away from "editorial" statements and instead bring you simply the news as it occurs, but this weeks statement by John Berry, ENO's Artistic Director , whilst having nothing to do with Wagner directly, has forced something of a response. We hope we can be forgiven. In an interview with the stage (you can read it in its entirety here) Berry stated that he has no interest in broadcasting ENO performances at a cinema. Why? He gave a number of reasons: "It is of no interest to me. It is not a priority.

• Teatro Massimo: first Ring Cycle, in one season, in its history - 2013, dates and cast

  14 May 2012 | 2:49 am

  As received: Teatro Massimo is inaugurating its 2013 season with a new, exciting project: in the celebratory bicentennial year of the birth of richard Wagner, the theatre will stage Der ring des Nibelungen. For the first time in its history, the Teatro Massimo is staging a new production of Wagner’s masterpiece entirely within the same season. This project, begun over two years ago, marks the fulfilment of the theatre management’s ambitious strategy of widening its artistic goals while increasing productive capacities. The Ring will be staged by Graham Vick – one of the most important…

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  Kenneth Woods- A View From the Podium

• Magicians of the Orchestra (Rabbit and hat not included)

  Kenneth Woods

  14 May 2012 | 4:02 pm

  Recent features in New York Magazine, the New York Times (additional video here), the Sydney Herald (in conversation with my former teacher, David Zinman) and a return of BBC2’s “Maestro” would all seem to be evidence of some kind of moment of curiosity about the true nature of the conductor’s art. No doubt, some of these projects have proved more enlightening than others. This Sunday, I’ll be offering my own window into the world of conducting at the always-staggeringly-interesting-and-innovative Two Rivers Festival in Birkenhead (the last concert there, by pianist Clare…

• Guest Blog- Peter Davison, A tribute to Kathleen Ferrier

  Kenneth Woods

  10 May 2012 | 2:20 pm

  A guest post from VFTP contributor Peter Davison, in recognition of the recent Kathleen Ferrier annversary. A tribute to Kathleen Ferrier Peter Davison (based on an address made at Kathleen Ferrier: an Ordinary Diva, an event presented on 3 March 2012 at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.) The much-loved contralto, Kathleen Ferrier, was born a century ago on 22 April 1912 near Blackburn in the heart of Lancashire. She gave many of her most memorable performances in Manchester with the Halle orchestra under Barbirolli and she felt at home in the city, where perhaps she could resolve the tension…

• CD Review- International Record Review, Calum MacDonald on Gal/Schumann Symphonies vol. 2

  Kenneth Woods

  10 May 2012 | 2:06 pm

  A new review from musicologist extraordinaire, Calum MacDonald in the May 2012 issue of International Record Review. On newsstands now, or subscribe via the IRR website here. Now, please go buy a copy so we can make volume 3. Click here to order from MDT Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk Click here to order from Amazon.com   From International Record Review May 2012 (pp 32-3) I had nothing but praise for the previous disc from Kenneth Woods with the Orchestra of the Swan of Hans Gál’s Third Symphony coupled with Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ (reviewed in July/August 2011). I find…

• Classical CD Reviews on Bobby and Hans vol. 2

  Kenneth Woods

  8 May 2012 | 7:32 am

  Gavin Dixon at Classical CD Reviews has written a perceptive new review of the latest Gal/Schumann CD from the Orchestra of the Swan, which you can read here. Mr Dixon has been one of the more consistent critics, reviewing nearly everything in the Gal project. You can read his review of volume 1 on of the Gal/Schumann project here, and his review of the Gal Violin Concerti and Triptych for Orchestra, here. Now, please go buy a copy so we can make volume 3. Click here to order from MDT Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk Click here to order from Amazon.com   A short sample follows: What…

• Bobby and Hans vol 2 on BBC Radio 3′s CD Review

  Kenneth Woods

  28 Apr 2012 | 5:00 pm

  The final segment of this week’s episode of “CD Review” on BBC Radio was dedicated to a discussion of the latest disc in the Orchestra of the Swan Schumann/Gal series. You can listen via the BBC iPlayer for a week here. Andrew McGregor is the host and Chris de Souza the guest. The segment starts at approx 2 hrs 40 mins. Now, please go buy a copy so we can make volume 3. Click here to order from MDT Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk Click here to order from Amazon.com

• 

  Iron Tongue of Midnight

• Correction Appended

  15 May 2012 | 2:29 pm

  You'll want to see the update added to the cast change advisory posting; I was wrong!

• Disappearing Cast Change Advisories

  15 May 2012 | 1:39 pm

  Update: I was wrong! The Met is still sending the advisories, but evidently some out-of-town journalists didn't feel a need to be updated on every change. (What is wrong with them??) The cast change advisories have been going to a smaller, more local, distribution list. I've asked them to add me back on.*****I noticed during the recent Ring cycles that I hadn't gotten any email from the Metropolitan Opera about cast change advisories. If you followed along, you know that there were plenty of them: Stefan Margita and Jonas Kaufmann made it to only one each of their three…

• Ensemble SPAM

  15 May 2012 | 1:29 pm

  No, really! That's their name:Shira KammenPeter MaundAllison Zelles LloydMarsha GenenskyThey'll be playing at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Menlo Park on Saturday, May 26, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets available at Brown Paper Tickets.

• Symphonic Benefit for the Women's Cancer Resource Center

  12 May 2012 | 12:40 pm

  The Community Women's Orchestra will perform a program to benefit the Women's Cancer Resource Center next Sunday. Two fine organizations, and what is this Conductor-for-a-Day business? I should apply (or bid on it, if it's that kind of thing).Remember, this is probably the only chance you will get this year to hear a work by Peggy Glanville-Hicks, the excellent Australian composer, in the Bay Area:Community Women’s OrchestraDr. Kathleen McGuire, conductor | Jessica Bejarano, assistant conductorSPRING CONCERT: BREAST CANCER BENEFITSunday, May 20, 2012 – 5 PMLake Merritt United Methodist…

• Grisey in Vermont

  11 May 2012 | 10:45 am

  I've been getting press releases from Yellow Barn, a "center for chamber music performance and study" in Putney, Vermont. The latest describes a program consisting only of Gérard Grisey's Le noir de l'etoile, for six percussionists placed around the audience. I'd go if I could; if you're in the northeast, maybe you can: Friday, May 25The Greenwood School soccer field | 8:16 (at sunset)Putney, VTPre-concert discussion at 7pm in the gymnasiumPost-concert reception with the artistsFree AdmissionMore InformationVisit our blog for a list of related listening and reading materialsGérard Grisey…

• 

  Musical Assumptions

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Fugues

  7 May 2012 | 2:43 pm

  Sean Mallone has a new blog called Contrapuntalism that I am certainly bookmarking and planning to visit often. This post has a very clever grid-type chart that helps clarify the various contrapuntal features of some often-used forms, particularly forms used in the baroque period. There's lots of stuff about pencils and music paper too.

• Why is it so and not otherwise?

  6 May 2012 | 10:04 am

  Coleridge is famous for saying, “Nothing can permanently please, which does not contain in itself the reason why it is so, and not otherwise.” That has been the cornerstone of my creative life since I found it in Malamud's The Tenants when I was a teenager. Writing music is often a case of serial (or non serial, in my case) problem solving, and there is usually one solution that appears to be better than all the others. When I look at music by Bach, particularly the Toccatas, I notice that he tends to exhaust all possibilities of "so and not otherwise" by spinning out each possibility…

• Film Music: El Hotel Electrico

  3 May 2012 | 10:21 pm

  I have always wanted to write film music, but I have never gotten the opportunity, so I decided to try my hand at writing music for this 1908 film by Segundo de Chomón. The score and parts are in the IMSLP.

• Appalachian Spring Full Ballet with the Original Cast

  1 May 2012 | 11:58 am

  What a treat it is finally get a chance to see Graham perform this ballet! Here's the rest: Appalachian Spring Part 2 Appalachian Spring Part 3 Appalachian Spring Part 4 and here's an excerpt from the ballet with Hawkins and Cunningham that is mentioned in the comments!

• 53 years, 53 measures

  30 Apr 2012 | 12:59 pm

  Another year, another viola d'amore and piano piece . . . Birthday Piece No. 4 for Viola d'amore and Piano My ultimate plan is to make this series of pieces come to a hour of music, one year at a time. This one has 53 measures.

• 

  mostly opera

• patricia petibon as lulu in overstuffed production

  28 Apr 2012 | 6:04 am

  Lulu. DVD. Barcelona Liceu 2010. Director: Olivier Py. Conductor: Michael Boder. Cast: Patricia Petibon (Lulu), Ashley Holland (Dr Schön), Paul Groves (Alwa), Countess Geschwits (Julia Juon), Franz Grundheber (Schigolch), Will Hartmann (Der Maler). I remember all sorts of pre-opening hype when this Lulu production originally was seen in Geneva in 2010, attached with a warning for those under 16.

• fanciulla del west

  25 Apr 2012 | 6:12 am

  Fanciulla del West. DVD. Nederlanse Opera 2009. Production: Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Cast: Eva-Maria Westbroek (Minnie), Lucio Gallo (Jack Rance), Zoran Todorovich (Dick Johnson) Director Nikolaus Lehnhoff: “The American Way of Life, lightly satirised, lies at the heart of our production: it is an adventure that takes place somewhere between Wall Street and Hollywood”.

• Nikolaus Lehnhoff

  22 Apr 2012 | 3:31 pm

  NIKOLAUS LEHNHOFFGerman opera director. Born 1939 in Hannover. Studied theater and art in Munich and was Dr. Phil. in 1962. For the next 10 years he was (the last) assistant to Wieland Wagner in Bayreuth and after Wagners death assistant at the Metropolitan Opera. Directorial approach: Simplistic, aesthetic often with contrasting colors and dominating geometric lines. Abstract and classic in

• Turandot re-DVD

  18 Apr 2012 | 11:48 am

  Turandot. DVD. Metropolitan Opera 2009. Production: Franco Zeffirelli. Conductor: Andris Nelsons. Cast: Maria Guleghina (Turandot), Marina Poplavskaya (Liu), Marcello Giordani (Calaf), Samuel Ramey (Timur). As Metropolitan HD transmissions often resulting in DVD releases, and as several HD transmitted operas already have been released on DVD, some of the new DVDs from the Metropolitan Opera

• Rienzi

  13 Apr 2012 | 9:13 am

  Rienzi. DVD. 2009. Deutsche Oper Berlin. Production: Stölzl. Conductor: Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Cast: Torsten Kerl (Rienzi), Camilla Nylund (Irene), Kate Aldrich (Adriano) A stunning production of a less than stunning work, one might say. Even Richard Wagner himself saw Rienzi as a youthful experiment, not worthy of performing in Bayreuth. And he was right of course. While many elements in both

• 

  thirteen ways

• Inuksuit in Melbourne, outdoors vs. indoors

  phot

  9 May 2012 | 6:33 pm

  About 10 days ago, while the group was in Melbourne for the 2012 Metropolis Festival in Melbourne, Australia, I had the chance to experience John Luther Adams’ monumental Inuksuit, a 80-90 minute work for 9-99 percussionists (in this performance, I believe, 33), performed outdoors on the campus of Melbourne University. eighth blackbird was first involved with this work as part of the programming at the Park Avenue Armory last year, an event that Alex Ross described as a sonic and scenic glory almost beyond description. If you don’t know the work, it’s simply something that…

• At the bottom of the world

  Yvonne

  20 Apr 2012 | 5:00 pm

  It’s 6:30pm in Hobart, Tasmania, but it still feels like pre-dawn to my jet-lag-addled body. We perform the Higdon tomorrow night, and my main concern is that I won’t be awake. The orchestra sounds great and we’ve had such a generous amount of rehearsal that I feel positively spoiled. So all I have to do is…stay…awake. Hobart is nothing if not picturesque. It’s been unseasonably warm since we arrived on Wednesday, although the shorter days are a bit jarring having come from the lengthening days in the northern hemisphere. We’re a stone’s throw…

• reading rainbow

  Yvonne

  10 Apr 2012 | 8:53 am

  Reading Rainbow Ever since I could read, books have been my constant friend. You know, the kind of friend who makes a great travel partner and who’s good company both at a dinner party and a sob party. While I do love my TV shows, I think of TV more as my drinking buddy – but that’s a whole ‘nother thing. I’m usually in the middle of reading several things, a situation I find annoying but somehow unavoidable. As a little kid, I would burrow into my bed and read a book from start to finish, stopping only for bathroom breaks. If I had my druthers, I would read like this all the time.

• i heart you, curtis

  Yvonne

  14 Feb 2012 | 5:35 pm

  It’s official. We’re going to Curtis for a three-year residency and I’m so happy I could almost cry. So this Valentine’s day, I’m publicly declaring my love for Curtis (with apologies to my boyfriend). I am incredibly proud of my Curtis degree. There, I said it. Even though most people stare blankly back at me when I say I studied there, the ones who have heard of it know what it means to have gone there. Amongst musicians, there’s a degree of mystery surrounding the school because so few people have gone there in relation to Juilliard or other conservatories. My fellow blackbirds…

• putting the art in parts

  Yvonne

  13 Feb 2012 | 8:28 pm

  I used to hate writing in my parts. As a kid, I was loathe to write fingerings in new scores, stubbornly using the printed ones even if it hurt. This is partly due to my inherent laziness – if I took the trouble to pick up a pencil and write something down, I might lose all practicing momentum and turn on the TV – but mostly due to my neatness neurosis – I winced when my teachers wrote stuff in their too-big handwriting or weird euro-style numbers. (I was also obsessive about not breaking the spine of new books, and don’t even get me started on dog-earing pages.) Needless to say, I…

• 

  An Unamplified Voice

• Weekend agenda

  JSU

  27 Apr 2012 | 4:21 pm

  Metropolitan Opera: Makropulos Case (F), Valkyie (SM), Traviata (SE) Finally, a revival to be excited about: Mattila's spring run of Janacek's classic begins tonight. Juilliard Opera: Don Giovanni (F/SuM) Sold out, but promising if you have tickets. Manhattan School of Music: Ghosts of Versailles (F/SuM) A smaller-than-Met-sized version of Corigliano's opera.

• Men in Black

  JSU

  25 Apr 2012 | 5:11 am

  Manon - Metropolitan Opera, 4/3/2012 Netrebko, Beczala, Szot, Pittsinger / Luisi Laurent Pelly hit upon a kernel of truth in his production of Manon, new to the Met last month via London: her story is, in fact, one of attention and desire -- which in Prevost's original novel she cannot escape even in the distant New World. So this production highlights (as the early-season Don Giovanni did for that legend) the sea of Parisian men in which its heroine swims, and it's not quite wrong to do so. But this stark choice, like the update from Prevost's time to Massenet's, quite squashes the appeal of…

• The week in NY opera (April 9-15)

  JSU

  9 Apr 2012 | 6:15 pm

  The blog's feed has not, as one correspondent inquired, been acting up -- only a continued and unfortunate irregularity in my ability to post. I'm writing up Manon now. Metropolitan Opera Macbeth (M), Traviata (T/SM), Manon (W/SE), Valkyrie (F) Macbeth I found only middling, and I'm not sure there's enough to fill a review. The appallingly stupid Willy Decker Traviata production should be avoided no matter the cast. Meanwhile Pelly's new-ish Manon production, somewhat interestingly, repackages some of Decker's tropes in a less offensive though still not entirely appropriate way. (More on this…

• Weekend note

  JSU

  26 Mar 2012 | 9:56 pm

  A correspondent sent me this review of Saturday's matinee Macbeth:I won Met lotto for the matinee performance this afternoon and it's pretty good. Maybe the best cast ever for this particular opera production. Hampson is better in this part than Alvarez and Lucic. Has more lyrical and musical delivery than his predecessors and he played Macbeth as a politician that's out of his depth, which I think is right, (as opposed to the way most actors like to do that part which is as "Dr. Evil".) Nadja Michael is an ideal Lady Macbeth -- loud, high, not afraid to do those ugly chest notes. She's a…

• The week in NY opera (March 26-April 1)

  JSU

  26 Mar 2012 | 9:54 pm

  Metropolitan Opera: Manon (M/SE), Elisir (T/SM), Macbeth (Th) Another slow week after tonight's Manon premiere. Morgan Library: Oropesa and Mulligan duo recital (Sunday 5pm) Young soprano Lisette Oropesa and young baritone Brian Mulligan perform in this last event in the venue's George London Foundation recital series. Two rather different voices I like for rather different characteristics.

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  On An Overgrown Path

• Music PR agencies please note

  13 May 2012 | 11:20 am

  'About Fray Martín de Villanueva as a composer, it is important to emphasise one thing: he was not a master but a good craftsman who knew the trade and composed correct works. These works are not in any case comparable with the one by his coevals Guerrero, Morales, Victoria, etc.'In an age when every neglected work is a masterpiece and when every musician is a genius, that disarming description of the 16th century Spanish composer Fray Martín de Villanueva should serve as a case study for aspiring PR agencies. It is taken from the sleeve notes for the CD seen above of Villanueva's music in…

• Technology meets tradition

  10 May 2012 | 3:50 am

  Paths converge in this photo which was taken yesterday afternoon. In the background is Mont Ventoux, celebrated by Petrarch and Liszt. In the middle distance is the Abbaye Notre Dame de l'Annonciation, whose nuns recorded the CD of Gregorian chant which sparked 'A musicians is also a person'. And in the foreground is composer and technology maven Jeff Harrington who featured in 'Is classical music obsessed by existential angst?' and a linked podcast. My thanks go to Father Edmond of L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine at Le Barroux who so generously welcomed us yesterday. By chance Igor Kirkwood was…

• Can social media compose 'music of the mind'?

  8 May 2012 | 8:55 am

  'Harold Garfinkel [UCLA phenomenologist] taught that socialization was a process of convincing each individual that generally agreed upon descriptions actually define limits of the real world. What he was saying was that people generally agree on something being real and true, therefore, it becomes real and true; the view of a few random schizophrenics, catatonics and autistic children notwithstanding.'Just before taking off on my travels I picked up a cheap copy of A Magical Journey With Carlos Castaneda by Margaret Runyan Castaneda. I must confess Carlos Castaneda is not my favourite…

• Figures in a creche can't sing twelve-tone music

  30 Apr 2012 | 4:23 am

  When asked why his oratorio El Pessebre (The Manger) ignored contemporary musical developments the great Catalan musician Pablo Casals replied with a smile "The figures in a crèche are folk figures; why, they can't sing twelve-tone music!" In 1939 the Catalan writer Joan Alavadera had fled from Franco's forces in Spain with the draft of a poem celebrating his region's tradition of Christmas crèches. In exile Joan Alvadera shared Pablo Casals' house in Prades, and in 1943 his completed Poema del Pessebre won the annual contest in nearby Perpignan for poems written in Catalan. Many years…

• Britten's passion for the East

  29 Apr 2012 | 7:00 am

  In a recent post I described the 2012 Aldeburgh Festival presentation of Jordi Savall's Mare Nostrum as a "bold piece of programming". But on reflection perhaps the performance of this transcultural work in the Snape Maltings is not so much bold as appropriate in view of Benjamin Britten's pioneering role in what later became known as world music.Britten's initial interest in Far Eastern music was sparked by his friendship with the Canadian composer and ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee, who he met when living in New York between 1939 and 1942. There is more on this friendship in my post Colin…

• 

  Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog

• Awesome Bass for Sale from Rice Student – good deal!

  Jason

  14 May 2012 | 10:44 am

  This bass is for sale from a former student of mine.  It’s a really good bass that this student used to get into Colburn and Rice.  I love this instrument. A handmade bass imported by Guarneri House of Michigan, displaying extraordinary wood and workmanship. Chromatic B extension, individual wood tuners. Recent Spirocore and Bel Canto strings contribute to its open as well as powerful tone. Very good adjustable bridge in excellent condition. Ebony bumpers. An excellent value for its workmanship, material, tone and playability at $13000. Dimensions: String length: 41.75” Top length:…

• Mittenwald Double Bass Master Classes this summer

  Jason

  8 May 2012 | 7:10 am

  Double bass professor Jeff Bradetich teaches a master class every summer in Mittenwald. Jeff Bradetich is prof. at the University of North Texas and a world famous classical music performer. http://www.bradetichfoundation.org/ —Highlights include— -Solo lessons -Intense technical training -Basses that you can borrow for free -Guest teachers -A nice friendly learning environment -Highly experienced faculty -Concerts, workshops and tour of world famous double bass maker family Pöllmanns workshop. Mittenwald is a historic town situated in the Bavarian Alps 938 meters up the…

• Gunnelpumpers live on Chicago’s WBEZ on 4/30

  Jason

  28 Apr 2012 | 10:15 am

  From Gunnelpumpers member Doug Johnson: Greetings, String things are afoot! This Monday, Gunnelpumpers will be the featured in-studio musical guest on Chicago Public Media’s Eight Forty-Eight program! Please tune in this Monday, April 30, to WBEZ 91.5 FM from 9-10 am CST, where we will play several songs, play some transitions between segments of the program, and do some Q&A with the hosts. If you’re not in the Chicago area, you can still tune in through the “World Wide Web” at http://wbez.org. (Perchance that’s why they call it the www…) The program…

• Apple iPad + Akai APC40 controlling custom Max for Live Ableton performance software – YouTube

  Jason

  11 Apr 2012 | 7:40 am

  Apple iPad + Akai APC40 controlling custom Max for Live Ableton performance software – YouTube.

• Another tune – more vocal processing effects

  Jason

  10 Apr 2012 | 3:36 pm

  Here’s another one of my relatively recent tunes (from a couple of months ago). In it, I’m chopping up a vocal sample and applying some autotune, then slicing it into MIDI and pitch bending a melody out of it. The actual vocal loop appears relatively intact about 2/3 of the way through the track. All done in Ableton like usual.

• 

  The Omniscient Mussel

• Ladies & Gentlemen

  Miss Mussel

  15 May 2012 | 3:27 pm

  Proper Discord is back. © Miss Mussel for The Omniscient Mussel, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• The smart set as a sprinkle

  Miss Mussel

  13 May 2012 | 2:53 pm

  Sometimes old newspapers have the most lovely turns of phrase. Also, if “a silver glitter crown, matching the trimming of the gown” is considered smart, I’d hate to see what is expected for formal. © Miss Mussel for The Omniscient Mussel, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• XKCD: Every Major’s Terrible

  Miss Mussel

  10 May 2012 | 4:25 pm

  Another winner from the incomparable XKCD. © Miss Mussel for The Omniscient Mussel, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• People of London

  Miss Mussel

  8 May 2012 | 4:22 pm

  and anyone else who will be in town from 23rd May to 8 July: This is coming to the Science Museum and Miss Mussel is willing to bet that it will rock your socks. More ici. © Miss Mussel for The Omniscient Mussel, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• Embed Spotify

  Miss Mussel

  11 Apr 2012 | 5:40 am

  So. Big news from Spotify today. You can now embed songs, albums and playlists on your blog/website just like you can with Youtube videos. Comme ça At the moment, the process is a bit clunky unless you’re using Tumblr, but soon enough there will be plugins for WordPress and Blogger. Full integration from Spotify itself can’t be far away either. To give this a try, you need to open Spotify, right click on the song/album/playlist you would like to embed and select copy Spotify URI. Then, go here and follow the instructions. Enjoy! Note to Canadian readers: This service is only…

• 

  Naxos Blog

• 5 ways to make iTunes work for classical music

  Andy Doe

  26 Apr 2012 | 9:56 am

  Last week, I posted about metadata. One of the comments mentioned the grouping field, which reminded me that it’s time I shared some tips on getting the most out of iTunes. It’s not the perfect jukebox application for a classical collection, but it’s pretty good, and with a bit of fiddling, you can make it better. Here’s what I suggest: 1) Use the grouping field On the face of it, iTunes doesn’t include support for works. Dig a little deeper, and you discover that works are supported in the player, just not on portable devices. The somewhat enigmatic…

• Let’s talk about metadata

  Andy Doe

  4 Apr 2012 | 3:36 pm

  When we talk about digital music, we use “metadata” to mean the artist, title, and other information that comes with (or is attached to) a recording. I’ve spent a big chunk of this week on several projects involving classical metadata. Since “the right way to tag classical music” has been an ongoing theme for my entire career, I thought I’d share a few lessons I’ve learned.   1) There is no perfect system We live in an age where I’ll regularly rely on atomic clocks flying thorugh space at 8,700mph to remind me where I parked my car (this is…

• Make your headphones last forever

  Andy Doe

  9 Mar 2012 | 11:21 am

  Today, I want to talk about headphones and cables. It’s nerdy, but useful. Just about every audio system has some wires coming out of it. Whether you bought cheap cables or expensive ones, these are often the most neglected part of any set up. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to try to keep the power cables away from the audio cables1. Mostly, though, once you’ve set up your stereo system, you’re not going to look at all these wires. They’ll hang out around the back, getting dusty, and doing their jobs. Meanwhile, the poor wires on your headphones will be…

• All About Bitrates

  Andy Doe

  27 Feb 2012 | 7:45 am

  My last post was about the frequencies missing from MP3s.1 Today, I want to talk about bit rates. To make sensible decisions about bit rates, it helps to understand a bit about how MP3 encoding works. When your computer makes a CD into an MP3, it has three main ways of making the music take up less space: 1) It throws out sounds you probably can’t hear – either because they’re “masked” by louder sounds, or because they’re only audible to a very small proportion of humans. Done right, this is an elegant exercise in efficiency. Done wrong (or too much) you…

• Dude. Where’s my frequencies?

  Andy Doe

  14 Feb 2012 | 5:32 am

  I’ve been putting together a blog post on the way to get the best sound out of MP3s, but there are so many elements to deal with, I thought I’d tackle it in pieces. For this post, I’m just going to talk about the missing frequencies in an MP3. One of the ways we can fit more music into an MP3 is by discarding the least important information. High frequency sounds have a lot going on very quickly, and they can take up a lot of space, so there’s a lot to be gained from getting rid of them.1 Still. We don’t want data to be missing. If the range of human hearing is…

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  Spotify Classical Playlists

• 66 Performances of Mahler's Urlicht (Primal Light)

  ulyssestone

  14 May 2012 | 9:56 am

  Urlicht, originally a song in Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, was later incorporated (with expanded orchestration) into his Symphony No.2, known as the Resurrection Symphony, as the work's fourth movement. To quote Michael Steinberg:"'Urlicht,' one of Mahler’s loveliest songs, is full of Mahlerian paradox in that its hymnlike simplicity and naturalness are achieved by a metrical flexibility so vigilant of prosody and so complex that the opening section of thirty‑five bars has twenty‑one changes of meter. The chamber‑musical scoring is characteristically detailed and…

• Mahler X

  ulyssestone

  12 May 2012 | 9:58 am

  This playlists is a collection of 37 interpretations of Bohemian-Austrian composer Gustav Mahler's final work, the unfinished Tenth Symphony, plus one piano transcription and a recomposition by electronic musician Matthew Herbert.To keep the playlist neat, I only included the adagio from each album, though many of them are recordings of the various "completed" performing editions. Click the albums titles to hear full performances.You can also use the playlist as a shortcut to Mahler cycles on Spotify, as the first ten adagios are taken from ten complete Mahler symphonies box-sets: Chailly,…

• Bach on Classical Guitar

  ulyssestone

  7 May 2012 | 7:10 am

  Just 30 hours of mind-blowing - or mind-soothing, depending on your level of focus on the music - J.S. Bach played by some of the best classical guitarists: Andres Segovia, Göran Söllscher, Julian Bream, John Williams, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, Xuefei Yang, Paul Galbraith, Narciso Yepes, Prague Guitar Quartet and more.(Picture take from cover of this book)Works in this playlist include guitar transcriptions of the lute suites; sonatas and partitas for solo violin; cello suites; Goldberg Variations; orchestral suites and Brandenburg Concertos etc, played on 6, 8, 11 or…

• Vincenzo Bellini: Complete Operas & Other Works

  ulyssestone

  1 May 2012 | 8:49 am

  "Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835) was a Italian opera composer. A native of Catania in Sicily, his greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831), Beatrice di Tenda (1833), and I puritani (1835). Known for his long-flowing melodic lines, for which he was named "the Swan of Catania", Bellini was the quintessential composer of bel canto opera. He died in Puteaux, France at the age of 33, nine months after the premiere of his last opera, I puritani." - WikipediaThis playlist contains Bellini's ten operas sorted in chronological order, including such…

• Gaetano Donizetti: Complete Operas & Other Works

  ulyssestone

  27 Apr 2012 | 2:09 am

  Gaetano Donizetti was among the most important composers of bel canto opera in both Italian and French in the first half of the nineteenth Century. Many of Donizetti's more than 60 operas are still part of the modern repertoire and continue to challenge singers for their musical and technical demands. Donizetti stands stylistically between Rossini and Verdi; his scenes are usually more expanded in structure than those of Rossini, but he never blurred the lines between set pieces and recitative as Verdi did in his middle-period and late works. Often compared to his contemporary, Bellini,…

• 

  KillingClassicalMusic

• This picture is a big part of why things have been quiet for...

  30 Apr 2012 | 9:25 pm

  This picture is a big part of why things have been quiet for quite a while here at killingclassicalmusic.com. But now that I’m more less settled in to my new home (see photo) and new position, things are going to get going again. :-)

• LA Phil LIVE Take 2: Your Reactions

  17 Mar 2011 | 10:00 am

  This past Sunday, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented its second LA Phil LIVE broadcast into...

• "Drop the Needle" Winners for 3.9-10.11

  11 Mar 2011 | 9:54 am

  Despite the weird delay this Wednesday, the results are in!  As always, thanks much to all of you...

• LA Phil LIVE: Experience it and share your thoughts.

  10 Mar 2011 | 1:42 pm

  Back in January, the Los Angeles Philharmonic debuted its new LA Phil LIVE cinecast event.  The...

• Welcome to KillingClassicalMusic.com’s “Drop the Needle”...

  10 Mar 2011 | 11:01 am

  Welcome to KillingClassicalMusic.com’s “Drop the Needle” Contest! - Updated to 60” Something strange happened last night, and apparently the last clip for this week’s Drop the Needle contest disappeared.  So here it is again.  I’ll leave this up all day and share the correct answer tomorrow.  Guess this gives some of you a second chance.  :-) Please do NOT respond in the comments section as that will ruin the fun for others, Rather, go here to fill out the entry form. Good luck!

• 

  Classical CD Reviews

• Strauss: Der Bürger als Edelmann, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Douglas Boyd

  Gavin Dixon

  16 May 2012 | 6:21 am

  Richard Strauss: Suite Der Bürger als Edelmann (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme), Four Last Songs, Wiegenlied Op.41/1, Zueigung Op.10/1 and Morgen! Op.27/2 Lisa Larsson soprano, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Douglas Boyd conductor MDG 901 1738-6 (SACD)    Buy from: Strauss' middle period was dedicated almost elusively to opera, so his incidental music for Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

• Tchaikovsky Symphony No.1 Pletnev

  Gavin Dixon

  15 May 2012 | 4:39 am

  Peter Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Symphony no.1 in G Minor [45:40] March Slave [9:15] Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev conductor recorded at DZZ Studio 5, Moscow April 2011 DDD/DSD stereo/surround Pentatone PTC 5186 381 [55:21] Buy from: Mikhail Pletnev may have taken the subtitle of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony – Winter Daydreams – a little too seriously,

• Rihm Choral Works: RIAS Kammerchor

  Gavin Dixon

  11 May 2012 | 5:27 am

  Sieben Passions-Texte (2001-6) Astralis (Über die Linie III) (2001) Fragmenta passionis (1968) RIAS Kammerchor Hans-Christoph Rademann director Harmonia Mundi HMC 902129 Buy from: There are so many facets to Wolfgang Rihm's compositional output that it is very hard to keep up. The works on this disc are only a sample of his choral output, but they reveal a side to the

• Gál Symphony No.4, Schumann Symphony No.2: Kenneth Woods, Orchestra of the Swan

  Gavin Dixon

  7 May 2012 | 11:37 am

  Gál: Symphony No.4 Schumann: Symphony No.2 Orchestra of the Swan Kenneth Woods conductor Avie AV2231 [73:09] Buy from: What an exquisitely crafted piece Hans Gál's Fourth Symphony is. The work succeeds against all the odds, facing down a range of problems from outright anachronism to a major crisis of generic identity. The subtitle "Sinfonia concertante" suggests the

• Schnittke: Psalms of Repentance, Marcus Creed, SWR Vocalensemble Stuttgart

  Gavin Dixon

  26 Apr 2012 | 4:24 am

  Schnittke: Psalms of Repentance (Bussverse), Voices of Nature SWR Vocalensemble Stuttgart, Marcus Creed director Hänssler Classic SACD 93.281   Buy/download from: East meets West in the music of Alfred Schnittke. The composer's Slavic and German roots led him to explore musical traditions from both sides of the iron curtain, and often to bring them together in mutually

• 

  Piano Musings

• Coming Soon… Quiescence Music Singles!

  Edward Weiss

  11 May 2012 | 11:24 am

  They’re not cheese, that’s for sure. QM singles are individual lessons I’ll be selling as stand alones. The good news is, if you’re already a course member, you get them FREE!Each single lesson includes a video with yours truly demonstrating and explaining techniques and other goodies and also has comprehensive lesson notes and a chord-chart when necessary. Why am I doing this? More options for those who don’t want to jump in to my course right away. The first one in the series is titled ‘August Fields’ and shows you how easy it can be to create music when you start with the…

• Recommended Listening: Stanton Lanier - Awaken the Dawn

  Edward Weiss

  3 May 2012 | 1:43 pm

  A New Age piano concert? Can you believe it? Yep. The pianist is Stanton Lanier at a Whisperings House concert given in Seattle I think.Anyway, the reason I posted this is so I can 'break it down' for you. Let's take a look at how this pianist uses repetition and contrast to compose with. As far as I can tell there are just 2 sections here. Not a lot of material to be sure. But just listen to what he does with that!The main theme is played and lasts a bit. Actually sounds like an 8-bar phrase. Then, at the 51 seconds mark, something new. Nothing drastically new here - but you can tell that…

• New Lesson Coming Soon 'Autumn Serenade!'

  Edward Weiss

  13 Apr 2012 | 11:13 am

  This one's going to be very cool! 'Autumn Serenade' uses the bottom up approach or harmonic sketch. The entire piece was quickly created and charted out in a matter of minutes using chords.The melody was then added. Do you hear the arpeggio or crossover technique when you first listen to this? That's the basis for the entire piece. Once this 'pattern' was established, the rest was easy.And I'll be showing you how easy it is to create something like this on your own! Look for it soon. And the sheet music for this will be coming soon as well!Not a member yet? Visit…

• Piano Forums - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

  Edward Weiss

  18 Mar 2012 | 11:08 am

  We all need community. Especially those of us who play piano. After all, it’s mostly a solitary activity. With that in mind, there aren’t a lot of forums where the focus is on the ‘king of instruments.’But fear not. There are two ‘biggies’ out there you should know about.The first one is called PianoWorld and it is the biggest, most active piano forum out there. It’s run and owned by webmaster Frank Baxter. Frank, himself an amateur pianist has been running these forums for over 10 years.The good thing about these forums is they’re very active. In fact, there are more…

• Musical Doodling - What it is and How it can Help Your Piano Playing!

  Edward Weiss

  13 Mar 2012 | 11:38 am

  Children do it with finger-paints. They also do it with writing. What is the ‘it’ they do? They doodle! They have fun playing around with color, words, music … pretty much any artistic thing you can throw in front of them.Now, why is doodling so important to you and piano playing? Because it is the child in you that longs to explore without having to produce anything. Children create because they enjoy the process of creating pure and simple. They aren’t concerned with producing a masterpiece or something worthy of show.What they are concerned with is feeling and introspection -…

• 

  Classical CD Reviews

• Strauss: Der Bürger als Edelmann, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Douglas Boyd

  16 May 2012 | 6:21 am

  Richard Strauss: Suite Der Bürger als Edelmann (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme), Four Last Songs, Wiegenlied Op.41/1, Zueigung Op.10/1 and Morgen! Op.27/2 Lisa Larsson soprano, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Douglas Boyd conductor MDG 901 1738-6 (SACD)    Buy from: Strauss' middle period was dedicated almost elusively to opera, so his incidental music for Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

• Tchaikovsky Symphony No.1 Pletnev

  15 May 2012 | 4:39 am

  Peter Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Symphony no.1 in G Minor [45:40] March Slave [9:15] Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev conductor recorded at DZZ Studio 5, Moscow April 2011 DDD/DSD stereo/surround Pentatone PTC 5186 381 [55:21] Buy from: Mikhail Pletnev may have taken the subtitle of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony – Winter Daydreams – a little too seriously,

• Rihm Choral Works: RIAS Kammerchor

  11 May 2012 | 5:27 am

  Sieben Passions-Texte (2001-6) Astralis (Über die Linie III) (2001) Fragmenta passionis (1968) RIAS Kammerchor Hans-Christoph Rademann director Harmonia Mundi HMC 902129 Buy from: There are so many facets to Wolfgang Rihm's compositional output that it is very hard to keep up. The works on this disc are only a sample of his choral output, but they reveal a side to the

• Gál Symphony No.4, Schumann Symphony No.2: Kenneth Woods, Orchestra of the Swan

  7 May 2012 | 11:37 am

  Gál: Symphony No.4 Schumann: Symphony No.2 Orchestra of the Swan Kenneth Woods conductor Avie AV2231 [73:09] Buy from: What an exquisitely crafted piece Hans Gál's Fourth Symphony is. The work succeeds against all the odds, facing down a range of problems from outright anachronism to a major crisis of generic identity. The subtitle "Sinfonia concertante" suggests the

• Schnittke: Psalms of Repentance, Marcus Creed, SWR Vocalensemble Stuttgart

  26 Apr 2012 | 4:24 am

  Schnittke: Psalms of Repentance (Bussverse), Voices of Nature SWR Vocalensemble Stuttgart, Marcus Creed director Hänssler Classic SACD 93.281   Buy/download from: East meets West in the music of Alfred Schnittke. The composer's Slavic and German roots led him to explore musical traditions from both sides of the iron curtain, and often to bring them together in mutually

• 

  The Classical Beat

• Links: WNO’s “Werther,” the Philadelphia Orchestra, and other highlights.

  Anne Midgette

  14 May 2012 | 9:59 am

  On Saturday, I reviewed the Washington National Opera’s final production of the season, Massenet’s “Werther,” with a very good Werther, Francesco Meli. Edited to add: Another view from Charles T. Downey on Ionarts. Read full article >>

• Music and Art: a CEO’s Debussy, a dissident’s “Zodiac”

  Anne Midgette

  13 May 2012 | 11:11 pm

  In this weekend’s Washington Post, I took an advance look at an unusual Debussy concert by the Virginia Chamber Orchestra, led by Emil de Cou, that included the premiere of an arrangement by the CEO of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as another piece arranged by de Cou himself. Read full article >>

• You be the critic: UMD “Faun” on video

  Anne Midgette

  13 May 2012 | 11:00 pm

  I was strongly impressed by what Liz Lerman and the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra managed to do last week with Debussy’s ”Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” and I said so in my review. I’m not recommending that everyone rush out and try to do this kind of thing, or saying that it’s a model to which all should aspire: just that it’s a powerful reminder of some of the possibilities of classical music that often remain unexplored, and a remarkable teaching tool that I doubt any of the student players who participated will ever forget. Read full article >>

• Links: the week in review

  Anne Midgette

  13 May 2012 | 10:50 pm

  A catchup post with links to the past week’s worth of reviews. Charles T. Downey enjoyed Stefan Jackiw at the Kennedy Center. Samantha Buker checked out Denyce Graves as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Annapolis Symphony (complete with a work from composer-in-residence Gabriela Lena Frank). Robert Battey was generally impressed by the pianist Benjamin Hochman. And Joan Reinthaler appreciated the distinctive voice of the Dutch composer Michel van der Aa. Read full article >>

• Links: Bashmet disappoints, Steinbacher shines, and other recent reviews

  Anne Midgette

  1 May 2012 | 11:36 am

  Catching up on reviews from the past few days. Robert Battey was sorely disappointed by the much-anticipated appearance of the Moscow Soloists under Yuri Bashmet and Misha Maisky. He also weighed in on the Perlman Quint Bailey Trio at the Jewish Community Center, which needed more rehearsal. (Link to come.) Read full article >>

• 

  CynthiaWunsch - WikyBlog.com

• Monday, April 30, 2012

  CynthiaWunsch

  30 Apr 2012 | 6:29 am

• Saturday, March 24, 2012

  CynthiaWunsch

  24 Mar 2012 | 8:03 am

• Wednesday, February 15, 2012

  CynthiaWunsch

  15 Feb 2012 | 3:24 am

• Saturday, January 28, 2012

  CynthiaWunsch

  28 Jan 2012 | 3:20 am

• Wednesday, December 28, 2011

  CynthiaWunsch

  28 Dec 2011 | 9:37 am

• 

  Rosebrook Classical

• Jade Simmons Launches Team Game Change

  Rosebrook Classical

  1 May 2012 | 4:07 pm

  Jade Simmons Launches #TeamGameChange - Jade Wants You To Run The Crew! Calling all Rebels, Revolutionaries, Buzz Builders, Clout Carriers, Game Changers, Tastemakers and Social Media Mavens!

• Introducing Cappella Romana!

  Rosebrook Classical

  25 Apr 2012 | 5:15 pm

  We are extremely excited to announce the addition of the incredible vocal ensemble Cappella Romana into the Rosebrook Classical family! appella Romana will be coming onboard in one of our Advisory Packages tailored to help guide their social media presence and strategy...

• New Rosebrook Media Service for WordPress Users – “Securely Moving Forward” Package!

  Rosebrook Classical

  16 Apr 2012 | 5:08 pm

  New Rosebrook Classical Service - "Securely Moving Forward" for Wordpress Users! Keep your site safe, secure, backed up, up-to-date, and more for one low monthly retainer!

• Spotify Play Button brings legal streaming to the web at large!

  Rosebrook Classical

  13 Apr 2012 | 4:34 pm

  When Spotify launched in the U.S., and especially when it launched in Facebook, we talked about how big it could be for artists, arts organizations, and more. Now you could give your audience a taste of what your program would be bringing via social media, But what about your website?

• Composer Mark Abel Now on Facebook!

  Rosebrook Classical

  13 Apr 2012 | 4:13 pm

  Southern California Mark Abel recently released his song-cycle "The Dream Gallery" on the Delos label, and it's starting to catch fire! But the best news is that now he has a Facebook Page! Head on over to Facebook.com/markabelmusic, give him a "Like," and start exploring!

• 

  I Care if You Listen

• SFCMP Zone 5: in which discussing a plan leads to some confusion

  Kelsey Walsh

  16 May 2012 | 7:00 am

  Artistic director Steven Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) concluded their fortieth season with a program featuring a broad mix of new music. Everything from pure electronics to solo viola was represented. One is struck by both the diversity of programming and the highly polished performance presented by SFCMP. Unfortunately I missed the pre-concert discussion, but in catching the tail end of it I noticed that all the composers represented on the program were present, and they were discussing their music and new music in general with Schick. Aaron Gervais’s…

• Brooklyn Village at Roulette, by the Brooklyn Philharmonic (Est. 1857)

  Thomas Deneuville

  14 May 2012 | 7:00 am

  Last March, and for two nights only, Brooklyn Village was performed in Downtown Brooklyn. Advertised as a “multimedia spectacular,” the show took the audience on a time travel to honor the cultural heritage of Downtown Brooklyn, and showcased the trifecta of what some people call Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance: the newly “rebooted” Brooklyn Phil, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC) and Roulette. Alan Pierson and the Brooklyn Philharmonic - Photo by Joshua Simpson From the very beginning, the retro, era-bending tone was set since the program itself came in the form…

• Kronos Quartet with Rula Jebreal, Marjane Satrapi, and Tony Kushner @ the Metropolitan Museum

  Evan Burke

  11 May 2012 | 7:00 am

  One would think that music and spoken word are two of the most complimentary art forms. They seem like they should be a perfect match; next to music, spoken word is the medium most reliant on pitch and rhythm, not to mention abstract concepts like cadence, consonance and dissonance. But the combination is a risky endeavor. One often hears music/spoken word collaborations that serve to diminish both components, with each distracting from the other, interfering with each other as opposed to providing contrast or counterpoint. But if there is a musical entity that could successfully marry the…

• 5 questions to Lynn Bechtold (violinist, member of Zentripetal Duo)

  Thomas Deneuville

  10 May 2012 | 7:00 am

  With three more concerts to go, the 26th season of North River Music at Greenwich House Music is not over yet! We asked 5 questions to Lynn Bechtold, violinist and member of Zentripetal Duo performing tonight  on Barrow Street… Sometimes, musicians fall in love with the geometry of a piece and decide to start an ensemble (I believe something similar happened between Janus Trio and Debussy’s sonata). Did such a thing happen with Zentripetal Duo? No, just tired playing traditional violin/piano, cello/ piano rep and there are some great duos for vln/cel by Ravel, Kodaly,…

• Composers Inc: Season Finale at Old First Presbyterian Church

  Kelsey Walsh

  9 May 2012 | 7:00 am

  The concluding concert in Composers Inc.’s season took place on April 24 at San Francisco’s Old First Presbyterian Church. Unusually for such an off day, the audience was quite sizable, and included all six composers whose music was being performed that night. The concert began with Eric Chasalow’s set of songs using texts by Anne Sexton, called The Furies. Each movement explored the fury of a new idea, and new kind of fury. The depth of emotion was palpable, and the tape (yes, tape: spliced, cut with a razor blade, sounds generated by test oscillators!) part balanced well with…

• 

  Rachel Ann Poling | Social Media Marketing for Music and the Arts | RA Social Media

• It’s Who You Know– Why ShouId I Use Social Media?

  Rachel Ann Poling

  14 May 2012 | 7:50 am

  It’s Who You Know– Why ShouId I Use Social Media?I’ve been thinking, and no, it didn’t hurt. I attended a webinar by Jon Morrow, the associate editor of Copyblogger. I like to attend various webinars to see what successful people are saying and selling, and to glean advice and ideas from what they say or do during the presentation. He said some interesting things [...]Rachel Ann Poling | Social Media Marketing for Music and the Arts | RA Social Media

• 6 Blogging Tips Every Newbie Should Know

  Rachel Ann Poling

  8 May 2012 | 12:50 pm

  6 Blogging Tips Every Newbie Should KnowThis guest post from Anne Mercado was borrowed (with permission) from Dino Dogan's blog, DIYblogger.net. Anne has summarized many of the key points beginning bloggers should learn into one carefully crafted post. It's gooooood! Do you have all 6 tips down on your blog?Rachel Ann Poling | Social Media Marketing for Music and the Arts | RA Social Media

• 4 Painless Ways To Find The Right Content To Share

  Rachel Ann Poling

  7 May 2012 | 11:03 am

  4 Painless Ways To Find The Right Content To ShareI know you! You want to be wise with your social media. You don’t want to post about yourself and your stuff all the time. You do want to provide good advice, support, education, etc. for your social media audience; maybe a laugh or two as well. You do want to be a valuable source! [...]Rachel Ann Poling | Social Media Marketing for Music and the Arts | RA Social Media

• How To Build An Audience on Twitter, Starting With Nothing

  Rachel Ann Poling

  22 Apr 2012 | 10:15 pm

  How To Build An Audience on Twitter, Starting With NothingYou know it, you’ve been told, you’ve made up your mind. You should be building a twitter following. You want to find an audience that likes to hear what you have to say, or in the case of musicians, the music you have to share with them. Problem is, at this time, you might have [...]Rachel Ann Poling | Social Media Marketing for Music and the Arts | RA Social Media

• Narcissism and Lady Gaga: Content Marketing for the Music Biz

  Rachel Ann Poling

  16 Apr 2012 | 3:31 am

  Narcissism and Lady Gaga: Content Marketing for the Music BizHave you ever wondered about music celebrities on social media? Lady Gaga. Justin Beiber. Dozens of other celebrities, you pick. I know I used to think it was rather narcissistic of celebrities to be the way they are on social media, posting pictures of themselves, posting videos of themselves, tweeting all the time, etc. I [...]Rachel Ann Poling | Social Media Marketing for Music and the Arts | RA Social Media