July 5, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | Responsibility is the price of freedom. --Elbert Hubbard |
| Quote of the Week | | Art is the daughter of freedom. --Friedrich Schiller |
| | Fate of EMI Classics, Virgin Classics Comes Into Focus | In order for the Universal Music Group purchase of EMI to pass regulators, UMG had to divest itself of its Parlophone Music Group (PMG) holdings, which included the Virgin Classics and EMI Classics brands, among others. As of Monday, the sale of PMG to Warner for approximately $740 million closed officially. But the Virgin and EMI brand names are still owned by UMG (and still used for pop product, that is, the "Virgin-EMI" label), so the fate of the classical catalogs bearing their names had pundits predicting Warner would let them founder. Not true: Warner has plans to create a new classical label, at least in the U.S., using the content of the Virgin Classics and EMI Classics holdings. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Are Gheorghiu's Claims of Abuse by Alagna Even True? |  Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu's recent claim that she was the victim of domestic abuse at the hand of her (now ex-) husband, French tenor Roberto Alagna, is being met with skepticism in many circles. In the Telegraph, opera critic Rupert Christiansen says her accusations "look like nothing more than another bid for public attention." Remember, he writes, that opera's love couple was known for its public displays of divadom, pitching fits about conductors, storming out of rehearsals, "blabbing to journalists and generally courting tabloid publicity of the seamiest kind." MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | Marin Alsop Suffers Wrist Injury |  Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop sprained her wrist earlier this week and so has cancelled all conducting engagements for July. One source reports she slipped in her hotel room in Brazil, where she was about to conduct the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. Alsop is now back in the States and appears to be out of danger. Which is a good thing since, in August, Alsop is scheduled to conduct at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, of which she is also music director, and at London's Proms. In September, she is scheduled to make Proms 118-year history as the first woman ever to conduct The Last Night. In September, she is scheduled to make Proms 118-year history as the first woman ever to conduct The Last Night. We wish her a speedy recovery. Marin Alsop was Musical America's 2009 Conductor of the Year. |
| Update: Conservatory Nos. Climb; Job Openings Plummet |  A recent report on the PBS Newshour focused on the Great Divide between the number of students receiving training in the performing arts and the scarcity of jobs for them. Among the more salient points: tuition at the Juilliard School, where the acceptance rate in some departments is less than one percent, is $55,000 a year. Even after earning a degree (or several), says reporter Paul Solman, "there's no guarantee much less likelihood" that classical music or dance graduates will find a job. The reporter likens the situation to a Ponzi scheme: Practice and train for 24-7 from an early age; stress yourself to the max to get into the conservatory of your choice; pay prohibitive fees for the privilege of attending. And the return on this lifelong investment? Unemployment. Diane Wittry, music director of the Allentown (PA) Symphony, shoots down the Ponzi parallel. "We go into music not because of the money," she says, "but because it's part of our soul. It's something we have to do." As one Juilliard student says, "If you're doing something you love, you figure out a way to keep it alive." |
MET Orchestra Names Principal Clarinet |  Kansas City Symphony's associate principal clarinet Boris Allakhverdyan has moved up in the world to become one of the two principal clarinets of the Metropolitan Opera. He joins Anthony McGill. The two will alternate, as do most of this orchestra's principals, since the ensemble plays seven performances a week, as opposed to a symphony orchestra's three or four. Allakhverdyan, 28, succeeds Jessica Phillips Rieske, acting principal since Stephen Williamson left in 2011 to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Williamson has already moved on, however: As of the 2013-14 season, he joins the New York Philharmonic. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| New Artist of the Month: Kit Armstrong |  Pianist Alfred Brendel has described Kit Armstrong as "the most extraordinary talent" he has ever encountered. After a few minutes in the presence of the pianist and composer, only 21, it becomes clear that this is not hyperbole. I first heard Armstrong in a performance of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2011. It was difficult to reconcile his authoritative musicianship with the adolescent frame seated on the piano bench. His technique was immaculate but his pianism never lacked depth. In person, Armstrong, a British-American of Taiwanese descent, emanates the pensive air of a philosopher yet the playful gaze of a child. "I have to admit that I know musicians of the past a lot more than those of the present," he tells me, seated at a grand piano in his manager's Berlin apartment. "I am always looking for ways to make a composer look good, to make it convincing." He recites one of his favorite Brendel quotes, "don't lay the blame on Schubert's doorstep!" MA.com subscribers read the full story |
100 Years Ago...in Musical America: 5 July 1913 | | 
MOST POPULAR LIVING COMPOSER No Other Who Writes Serious Music Has Established so Widespread a Cult as Puccini--Most Gifted Operatic Craftsman in Italy Since Verdi--His Keen Sense of Theatrical Fitness--A Facile Melodist Though Not a Great One--Exaltation of Spirit and Elemental Passion Absent from His Works--The Puccini Librettos See the Orginal Page and Read the Full Story |
| Stravinsky Stuff |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark The 2012-13 season began at New York City Ballet with a three-program mini-festival of Stravinsky-Balanchine works. It ended last week with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in a "theatrical reimagining" at Avery Fisher Hall of Stravinsky's Le Baiser de la fée (The Fairy's Kiss) and Petrushka. May 29 was the 100th anniversary of the scandalous first performance of Le Sacre du printemps. I took on listening to 49 recordings in a pair of historical collections from Decca and Sony Classical. That took longer than the week I had anticipated, domestic matters and other deadlines being what they are, but the results of my listening sessions -- with my new comments in blue -- are finally posted en toto below. Alan Gilbert's Stravinsky-A Dancer's Nightmare In each of his four seasons so far, New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert has ended with a Major Project. First, Ligeti's opera Le Grand Macabre, then Janáček's opera The Cunning Little Vixen, and last season a program of works for multiple orchestras at the Park Avenue Armory: Stockhausen's Gruppen, Boulez's Rituel, an excerpt from Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Ives's The Unanswered Question. All daring, to say the least, and all smashing successes with the public and critics. Read the full story |
| Latest Roster Changes |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2013 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 Wenzel, Enrico, bass, added, Artistainternational
Winckhler, Matthias, baritone, added, Artistainternational |
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