August 17, 2012  |
| | | Thought of the Day | | Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. --Thomas Merton
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| Quote of the Week | | Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality. --George Lucas
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| | Invisible Maestro: Philippe Jordan |  BAYREUTH -- Bounding into the Bayreuth press office with a sly grin ("Am I late?"), Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan, impossibly too young and handsome to be so smart and talented, seems oblivious to the fact that in exactly 22 hours, he will make his house debut conducting, of all things, the Wagnerian holiest of holies: Parsifal. Grabbing some cold beverages on a muggy Bavarian afternoon, we manage to find a conference room that actually seems to be air conditioned and settle down for our hour-long interview.
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Silent Orchestra for Hire |  Small wonder the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are feeling underappreciated these days. Last week it emerged that management was asking the players to take a near 25 percent pay cut in order to fill the $20 million hole that is the orchestra's accumulated deficit. Now, word arrives that the ASO on Aug. 13 played -- to its surprise -- with a pre-recorded orchestral track at its own Verizon Wireless Amphitheater; the mix that was pumped out over the PA system was very little of the ASO, if any, and lots of the no-name orchestra.
The concert was billed as "Il Divo and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra." But in fact it was Il Divo and a recorded track, featuring the ASO players as window dressing.
"The musicians were informed at the beginning of a three-hour rehearsal in the afternoon that another orchestra's audio tracks would be heard by the audience."
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| | | Music & the Brain: Enter the Scientists |  Four years ago, Dr. Cheryl Willman commissioned composer/violinist Marc Neikrug to write a piece for the opening of the University of New Mexico's new Cancer Center in Santa Fe. She is the director of the Center; he is the artistic director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The piece, premiered in 2010, with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, describes itself in the title: Healing Ceremony.
Neikrug, a 25-year Santa Fe resident whose wife is a native American, has long been a believer in music's capacity to heal -- soul and body. Willman, too, is a believer. Fast forward to Aug. 4, 2012, the first of a three-day, first-time symposium titled "Music, the Brain, Medicine and Wellness: A Scientific Dialog."
"We are counting on you scientists to legitimize and quantify what we musicians have always known," Neikrug told a packed house at the opening session, "and that is that music's effect on people is far more than, 'It sounds nice.'" The event brought together for the first time some of the nation's top neuroscientists with musicians and medical personnel.
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Sondheim Takes Central Park |  NEW YORK -- At the end of Act 1 of Into the Woods, viewed at Central Park's Delacorte Theater on Aug. 7, the young narrator states, "to be continued." It's a good thing; for those seeing the show for the first time might be under the impression that it's over -- especially when the full company sings, "Into the woods, then out of the woods. And happy ever after!" as the final lyric in the Act.
Alas, this mostly delightful Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine fractured fairy tale, based on an amalgam of Grimm and Disney, isn't over. If Act 1 tells the story of how Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Ridinghood, et al. get their wishes granted and become "happy ever after!," Act 2 is essentially the harsh unraveling of their happiness: Cinderella loses her Prince; the Baker loses his Wife; Rapunzel is squished by the Giant, her newborns turning to dust; the sweet young Narrator is fed to the giant; Little Red Ridinghood's Granny is killed. It's all very tragic.
Sondheim's shows often say what they have to say in one act, but, since showbiz requires a two-and-a-half-hour package, he and his collaborators have to tack on a second. And that is precisely how Act 2 of Into the Woods (and Sunday in the Park with George, for that matter) comes across -- tacked on. It's a shame, because Act 1 is beautifully balanced and clever to a fault.
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The Twain Meet at Tanglewood |  LENOX, Mass. -- For five days each summer, Tanglewood's personality splits. While the Boston Symphony Orchestra performs classical standards in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, the Festival of Contemporary Music roils around the other end of the property, in Seiji Ozawa Hall. This year, that split seemed a lot smaller. Decades ago, the Festival of Contemporary Music introduced works of emerging composers studying at the Tanglewood Music Center -- whose fellows still play the mini-festival's performances -- produced during their summer stay. But a full third of the works in last week's seven concerts (Aug. 9-13) were written in the 20th century, and there was only a single world premiere: Martin Epstein's super-delicate Hidden Flowers, commissioned in memory of pianist Paul Jacobs.
The BSO, meanwhile, performed the premiere of Music for Boston, commissioned of André Previn. In addition, two recent pieces by Previn and one by John Harbison were performed in a chamber Prelude with orchestra members. Not to mention the previous week's orchestra premiere of Michael Gandolfi's short, exuberant Night Train to Perugia. So the customary repertory divide between the two venues narrowed, giving rise to several questions about the festival: Contemporary with what? With whom? Why is this a festival? MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Eugenia Zukerman's Tanglewood Vlog |  | | Bramwell Tovey, Conductor |
One of the most versatile and charismatic musicians in the world, Bramwell Tovey is a Grammy Award-winning conductor and a renowned composer and jazz pianist. Music director of the Vancouver Symphony, principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and founding host and conductor of the New York Philharmonic's Summertime Classics, Tovey is also in demand as a guest conductor around the globe. Growing up in East London, he played piano, tuba, and violin by the time he was a teenager. Famed for his amusing, erudite, and delightfully irreverent remarks from the stage, he's, as one critic put it, "...the witty bloke everybody wants to sit next to at the pub." |
| The 30% Withholding Tax Isn't Just For Performers! |  To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com
Dear Law & Disorder Team - We run an international competition that takes place in a different country every two years and each time we have to learn new lessons around taxation. What is the Withholding Tax situation around jury services or the teaching of master classes for non-US resident jury members? Are they also subject to the 30% Nonresident Alien (NRA) Withholding Tax or not?
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| Yannick, the (Almost) Philadelphian | 
From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark At Mostly Mozart on August 3, Yannick Nézet-Séguin's largely direct, unfussy, and vigorous music-making was quite satisfying both on its own and as an augury of his future leadership of the embattled Philadelphia Orchestra. I've heard that curious Philly audiences have flocked to his appearances since he became music director-designate, and it was clear that this MM audience was energized by his leadership of Beethoven's Second Symphony and Haydn's "Nelson" Mass(a.k.a. "Mass in Time of War"). I had only heard him conduct previously twice, at the Met, in a Carmen whose frenzied Prelude alienated me instantly and a thankfully more judiciously paced Faust. But I wanted to hear him in concert, where I feel more at home. Apart from the Mostly Mozart Orchestra's whiny, vibrato-less string playing and slight relaxation for the Scherzo's trio, I found the Beethoven exemplary, with the timpanist's use of hard sticks impelling the music dynamically forward. The Haydn Mass, too, benefitted from fleet tempos and fine playing and singing. Yannick (pronounced "Yan-NEEK"), as I'm told he likes to be called, conveniently avoiding American mangling of his hyphenated French-Canadian surname, seems to thrive in vocal works, and for his first New York appearance with the Philadelphians, at Carnegie on October 23, he will lead Verdi's Requiem. Read the full story
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| Latest Roster Changes | |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2012 edition of the Musical America Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com with the names of artists and attractions that have been either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate "added" or "removed."
NEW THIS WEEK Albrink, Emily, soprano, added, Bel Canto Global Arts Crawley, Richard, tenor, removed, Bel Canto Global Arts Heaton, Sara, soprano, added, Bel Canto Global Arts Kryshak, James, tenor, added, Fletcher Artist Management Lerner, Katherine, mezzo-soprano, added, Bel Canto Global Arts Levine, Samuel, tenor, added, Bel Canto Global Arts
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