September 27, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." --Walt Disney |
| Quote of the Week | | "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow." --Helen Keller |
| | Detroit Symphony to Present Rare Lang Lang Webcast | | ADVERTISEMENT  The Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Live From Orchestra Hall free webcast series returns for a third season, featuring Lang Lang performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in his first live webcast with an American orchestra.
Watch live from anywhere in the world online at dso.org/live or via your mobile device using the free DSO to Go mobile app. Following the concert, tune in for a free encore presentation available until October 5. Get More Info |
NYC Opera Eyes Bankruptcy | |  NEW YORK -- New York City Opera could be sounding its final note this weekend. The 70-year-old company says it plans to file for bankruptcy and scrap the bulk of its 2013-14 season unless it raises $7 million by Monday. Thus far commitments have been made for $1.5 million.
Having presented 12 to 16 operas with a peak of about 130 performances in a season, City Opera has shrunk to four stagings and 16 performances in each of the past two seasons. Its endowment has dwindled from $48 million in 2008 to $5.07 million at the end of June 2012, according to tax records, and its staff has been pared to 25. A collapse would leave the 130-year-old Metropolitan Opera as the city's only major opera company. Most major cities--Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, London--have two. City Opera's finances were devastated during the term of Susan Baker, who chaired its board from Dec. 2003 until Dec. 2010. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Minn Orch Board Makes Fourth Offer to Players | |  The Minnesota Orchestra board has put together a fourth proposal for its musicians. This one comes with a $20,000 "signing bonus" for each musician, but does not change the board's last offer, which cut the player's pay to an "average" of $104,500 (ranging from $89,000 to $150,500) over the length of the three-year contract. Offer No. 4 also includes ten weeks of vacation and $33,000 in benefits.
By the orchestra's calculation, the addition of the signing bonus reduces paychecks by 17.7 percent, rather than the 32 percent the board proposed in the first offer last year. But it also means that the orchestra's $6 million deficit will not be reduced completely, as was the board's goal. Management has asked the players to cast a secret ballot before noon on Sept. 30, when the proposal expires and when Music Director Osmo Vänskä [pictured] has said he would resign. A musicians' rep has already called the offer "a step backward" because the board went public with the offer rather than keeping it confidential through independent mediation. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | | James Levine's Triumphant Return | |  NEW YORK -- It wasn't opening night, it wasn't a new production, it wasn't even a gala. But it was nonetheless a momentous event in the history of the Metropolitan Opera: On Sept. 24, conductor James Levine returned to the house he has called home for more than 40 years. Before the orchestra had even played a note, the Met's music director--rolling his motorized wheelchair onto a specially constructed podium--was greeted by a 71-second standing ovation from the crowd that filled the 3,800-seat theater. Then he raised his baton for the overture to one of his favorite operas, Mozart's bittersweet comedy, Così fan tutte. Levine, 70, had been absent from the house for two full seasons because of injury and illness, and many had doubted he would ever reappear. But on Tuesday night, he led his beloved musicians like a man rejuvenated, delivering a lithe, energetic, transparent account of Mozart's miraculous score, brisk but not rushed, polished and profound. And his energy seemed never to flag throughout the four-hour-long evening. |
Salzburg Fest Names New Intendant | | 
The Salzburg Festival has named Markus Hinterhäuser as its new intendant, succeeding Alexander Pereira, who exits in one year for his new La Scala job. Hinterhäuser has signed a five-year contract, effective in 2016; in the meantime, he will be serving as artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen starting in 2014. The two-year gap between Pereira's exit and his successor's arrival will be under the interim co-leadership of Helga Rabl-Stadler, Salzburg Festival's president, and Sven-Eric Bechtolf, its director of theater. Die Presse calls Hinterhäuser a "safe choice" for the job, translated literally, "a likable man-shadow," and questions his ability not only to come up with a distinctive artistic vision for the festival, but to promote and arrange sponsorship for it. Die Presse further characterizes his appointment predictable and "political." MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| Jeremy Denk, Kyle Abraham, Are MacArthur "Geniuses" | |  The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 24 fellows for 2013, recipients of the so-called "genius" grants, each of whom receives $625,000 over the next five years with which to do, basically, whatever they darn well please.
Choreographer Kyle Abraham [pictured], 36, is at the top of list; he was Musical America's New Artist of the Month three years ago. Also among the astrophysicist, paleobotanist, agricultural economist, and other such techie wonders, are pianist Jeremy Denk, 43; audio preservationist Carl Haber, 54; pianist, composer, bandleader, and electronic musician Vijay Iyer, 41; and Russian choreographer and American Ballet Theater artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky, 45. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| Mortier and His Former Employer Make Up | The Teat ro Real will do right by Gerard Mortier after all. The company's former artistic director, after disclosing earlier this month that he had cancer, made a very public fuss about approving his successor when his contract expired in 2016. So public that Teatro Real, concerned about its reputation for keeping family squabbles private, went ahead on Sept. 11 and announced a candidate of its own choosing, Joan Matabosch, with "immediate effect." Mortier was thus out of the picture, contract or no contract. Matabosch was introduced to the media at Teatro Real on Sept. 26 and so, in a surprise corollary announcement, was Mortier's new title as artistic consultant, a newly created position for the 69-year-old Belgian. Apparently a compromise has been achieved. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
100 Years Ago...in Musical America: 4 October 1913 | | 
An Interview "in Sonata Form" with Mr. and Mrs. David Mannes |
| Martha Argerich at the Musikfest | | From B erlin Times by Rebecca Schmid The Musikfest, Berlin's 20th-century music festival, took a welcome occasion to revisit the opus of Lutosławski upon his centenary this year. Following the appearances of guest ensembles such as the Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Staatskapelle Berlin performed his Mi-Parti (1976) under Music Director Daniel Barenboim alongside works by Beethoven and Verdi at the Philharmonie on September 15. The main event, however, was the appearance of Martha Argerich as soloist. The pianist is famous for her last-minute cancellations; health problems in recent years have further diminished public performances. She seemed in high spirits, however, as she and Barenboim took the stage. It is not to any pianist that he would cede the bench, having made the Beethoven Concertos something of a signature in performances which he has conducted from the piano with both his own orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. |
| Visas for Recording Artists | | 
From Law and Disorder by Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear Law and Disorder: If a foreign singer (who is not a citizen of a country that is eligible for the visa waiver program) gets a record deal in the USA, what kind of visa would they need to apply for? And if the singer is currently living in a different country with a residency permit, can they apply in that country where he or she is living, or would they need to return to their own country to apply for the visa? Thanks. |
| Finding a Publicist for your Project |  From Ask Edna by Edna Landau Having written an article in Musical America's 2011 Directory entitled Getting Noticed in the 21st Century, I am often approached by young artists who are contemplating a variety of projects such as recordings or special concerts and who want to know how to get noticed for them. In my early years as an artist manager, it was common for publicists to build the majority of their business around clients who paid a year-round retainer. Times have changed and it would appear that virtually all of today's most active publicists are open to taking on individual projects. However, they definitely have criteria for determining which to accept. It is my hope that this blog post will help to enlighten artists regarding how to maximize their chances for teaming up with an effective public relations representative and what the financial parameters of such an investment might be. |
| Back in the Trenches Again |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark The bloated pomposity of Lorin Maazel's "interpretation" of the Star-Spangled Banner was the first reason PK swore off his concerts. I'm certain she would have been relieved initially by Alan Gilbert's spiffy tempo last night at the New York Philharmonic's season opener. But by the final cadence I could imagine her saying, "There's no singing line. No freedom." Ever the contrarian, I would point out that he slowed the tempo for the final couplet. "That was an intellectual decision--where was the feeling?" I can't disagree. Loosen up, Maestro: It's okay to love our national anthem. I wanted to shout, "Sing out, Louise," during Gilbert's curiously muted performance of the concert's first work, Ravel's Dawn Song of the Jester, better known as Alborado del gracioso. There was no fun, no lilt, no rhythmic snap or abandon in fortissimos, no atmosphere or yearning in the quiet middle section. As usual with the Philharmonic strings in Avery Fisher Hall, massed pizzicatos--so important in this piece for their evocation of Spanish guitars--went for nothing. It doesn't help that conductors these days see a pianissimo marking and have the strings play at the brink of audibility. Nor is it helpful to drape a (festive?) curtain over the back reflecting wall of the stage. 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 Grills, Matthew, tenor, added, Guy Barzilay Artists
Marino, Megan, mezzo-soprano, added, Guy Barzilay Artists
Tzigane, Eugene, conductor, added, Opus 3 Artists Yu Lu, conductor, added, IMG Artists |
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