Author: bfc-admin

On Thursday (1/19) at Operanews.com, Ira Siff writes that soprano Roberta Peters died on January 18 in Rye, New York. She was 87. “Peters’s overnight ascent to Met stardom at twenty combined with her uncommonly attractive face and form to suggest a sort of fairy-tale figure. But Peters’s early years were spent absorbed in arduous study…. This seriousness of purpose and artistic integrity … carried Peters through a five-decade career in which she racked up 512 Met performances of twenty-three roles during thirty-four seasons. Roberta Peterman was born in the Bronx on May 4, 1930, the only child of Sol, a shoe salesman, and Ruth, a milliner…. In November 1949, [tenor Jan] Peerce brought impresario Sol Hurok … to hear Peters in excerpts from Lucia and I Puritani…. Hurok signed her. In January 1950, Met conductor Max Rudolf asked to hear excerpts from Rigoletto … and the following week Peters sang the Queen of the Night’s second aria for incumbent general manager Rudolf Bing….  Bing signed her on July 20, 1950.… Her gorgeous voice and stunning looks guaranteed her a place on such programs as The Ed Sullivan Show, on which she appeared sixty-five times, a record for any opera singer.”

Posted January 20, 2017

“The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia has renewed a contract with music director Dirk Brossé that keeps him in the post through the 2021-22 season,” writes Peter Dobrin in Wednesday’s (1/18) Philadelphia Inquirer. The orchestra “will continue to develop programs that mix standard repertoire with less familiar composers, living composers, and world premieres, [Executive Director Bill] Rhoads said. In addition, the group next season will develop a ‘point of cohesion’ spread across the entire season. ‘For instance,’ he said, ‘maybe it will focus on a specific instrument or on a certain area of the world, or on other disciplines, maybe a focus on dance or the written word, or visual arts or a certain style of music that we wish to magnify.… Brossé—based in Ghent, Belgium—became music director of the chamber orchestra in 2010. He is also a composer, and this May will conduct the premiere of his own Pictures at an Exhibition inspired by pieces at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Brossé toured the collection and … settled on works of Edward Hopper, Edward Hicks, Thomas Moran, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Man Ray, and Mark Rothko … all American, many with Philadelphia connections.” 

Posted January 20, 2017

“Recently, our national service organization, the League of American Orchestras, published a huge report detailing longitudinal (14 years’ worth) financial and patron data,” writes Delaware Symphony Orchestra Executive Alan Jordan in Wednesday’s (1/18) News Journal (Wilmington, DE). “What did the report say? … Across League member orchestras, 40 percent of total income in 2014 was classified as earned income, 43 percent as contributed income, and 17 percent as investment income…. 46 percent of contributed income came from individuals, with corporations providing 10 percent, foundations 13 percent and public sources (government) 7 percent.” Using comparative pie charts as illustration, Jordan notes, “The DSO tends to trend with—sometimes behind, sometimes ahead of—the national averages…. The revenue source missing most from the DSO’s current pie chart is investment income…. The greater Wilmington area [has] a preponderance of large businesses and private foundations that have traditionally supported the arts … but [have] increasing and increasingly diverse demands…. We will need to increase our contributions from private citizens in larger proportion…. The key to the Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s future success lies in reaching and improving more lives, be it through performances or educational and community outreach efforts.”

Posted January 20, 2017

“It was 100 years ago this Friday—on Jan. 20, 1917—that the New York Philharmonic cut its first record,” writes Michael Cooper in Thursday’s (1/19) New York Times. “It did not use microphones back then: The orchestra had to play into a large flared recording horn, and the mixing mainly involved getting the musicians to play louder or softer—or having them move closer to, or away from, the horn. Over the following century, the Philharmonic would go on to make more than 2,000 recordings…. They are time capsules…. Sony Classical is observing the centennial by releasing a boxed set of 65 CDs, starting with the Philharmonic’s very first recording: Josef Stransky leading Ambroise Thomas’s ‘Raymond’ Overture. And the orchestra … has signed a multiyear contract with Universal Music Group’s American classical division, beginning next season with the capture of concerts led by its music director designate, Jaap van Zweden.” Included are audio excerpts from Philharmonic recordings, among them Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer Overture (1925, conducted by Willem Mengelberg), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (1936, Arturo Toscanini), Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1940, led by the composer), Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (1967, Leonard Bernstein), and Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO (2009, Alan Gilbert).

Posted January 20, 2017

“Like inaugural ceremonies of years past, Donald Trump’s ceremony will include live music [with] confirmed names including Jackie Evancho, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and … the Piano Guys,” writes James Bennett II on Wednesday (1/18) at New York classical radio station WQXR. “Let’s look back at the classical presence during some [previous] inaugural events. United States Marine Band (1801): An amateur violinist and cellist, Thomas Jefferson … was the first president to have the Marine Band play at the inauguration. Marian Anderson (1957): On April 9, 1939 she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, for a crowd of 75,000 people.… 18 years later … Anderson was invited back to Washington to sing the national anthem at the second inauguration ceremony of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Four years later, she graced the Capitol again to perform at the Kennedy inauguration…. Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero (2009): In 2008, ‘change’ was one of Barack Obama’s campaign buzzwords. His first inauguration committee took that to heart and broke from the previous operatic trend by opting for a chamber performance [featuring the premiere of] a new piece from composer John Williams.” Also noted are inaugural performances by mezzo-sopranos Marilyn Horne (1993), and Susan Graham and Denyce Graves (both 2005).

Posted January 20, 2017

“Naples Philharmonic musicians and management have reached an unprecedented five-year contract agreement that will increase musicians’ base pay by 18 percent over that period and bring in at least two more musicians,” writes Harriet Howard Heithaus in Thursday’s (1/19) Naples Daily News (Florida). “That will bring the number of musicians to 51, according to Kathleen van Bergen, CEO and president of Artis—Naples, the institution that is home to the orchestra…. The contract increases musician base pay from $52,260 this season to $63,360 in 2021-22…. Principal timpanist John Evans and violinist Marlena Chow co-chaired negotiations for the musicians. Evans called the contract, which provides for base salary increases of 3 percent, 5 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent for the last two years, ‘pretty substantial.’ … The contract, as in the past, is a 39 weeks-per-year agreement, and the number of concerts performed is expected to remain the same. The new agreement also includes flexibility for streaming or video recording and broadcasting concerts [and] the flexibility to present more films with live orchestral accompaniment…. The Naples Philharmonic has done that with … a concert of Warner Bros. cartoons and a showing of the classic thriller ‘Psycho.’ ”

Posted January 20, 2017

Pictured: Naples Philharmonic Music Director Andrey Boreyko with concertmaster Glenn Basham (left) at Artis—Naples

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has announced four concerts at Carnegie Hall during the 2017-18 season, the first on October 26 featuring the commissioned world premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Asunder, on a program with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, with soloist André Watts. A second world premiere is scheduled for December 2: Shuying Li’s Down Came the Sunlight: Into the Twenty-third Day on a concert with Handel’s “Water Music” Suite No. 2 and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring soloist Truls Mørk. Trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth will perform concertos of Albinoni and Bach on February 3, and violinist Lisa Batiashvili will be soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 on March 24. The season will also include Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”), and a work by Paul Chihara based on Prokofiev’s transcriptions of waltzes by Schubert. In addition to public concerts at Carnegie Hall, Orpheus works with students at New York City public schools; the conductorless ensemble also sends its musicians to colleges, universities, conservatories, and businesses to share the ensemble’s leadership methods and performance practices.

Posted January 19, 2017

“From today’s perspective, Tchaikovsky’s musical ideas—whether in the guise of symphonic bombast, or as a buoyant backdrop for dancing fairies and frolicking snowflakes—can seem like quaint artifacts,” writes Stuart Isacoff in Tuesday’s (1/17) Wall Street Journal (subscription required). “Why, then, do audiences still clamor for this composer? It’s a question that may in part be answered by Russian-born conductor Semyon Bychkov’s ‘Beloved Friend—Tchaikovsky and His World,’ a festival presented by the New York Philharmonic, the Kaufman Music Center, and the 92nd Street Y, along with other participating organizations, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 11…. Tchaikovsky … prized Mozart and many European composers, elevated the art of ballet music, and still created sounds that resonated with the Russian soul…. Many of his melodies became pop hits—including ‘Our Love,’ from his ‘Romeo and Juliet’ [and] ‘Moon Love,’ sung by Frank Sinatra, from the Fifth Symphony…. [Bychkov’s] programs will offer the little-known 1879 version of the First Piano Concerto, performed by Kirill Gerstein … the seldom-performed Second Piano Concerto with the powerhouse pianist Yefim Bronfman; chamber works by Tchaikovsky and his contemporaries; the composer’s autobiographical songs; his Symphonies No. 5 and 6; Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (‘All-Night Vigil’); and more.”

Posted January 19, 2017

“Members of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra have overwhelmingly approved a new four-year agreement with Chautauqua Institution,” reports Greg Larson in Tuesday’s (1/17) Chautauqua Today (Dunkirk, N.Y.). “Chautauqua’s Director of Communications, Jordan Steves, says they are ‘thrilled’ and relieved to have a new contract in place prior to the start of the 2017 season. The previous contract expired last year. … On their Facebook page, members of the symphony thanked the public for its support through ‘the most difficult contract negotiation any of us can remember. Without the outpouring of support we received from you, this could not have been done.’ … The 2017 season begins in late June. He says they will have at least 20 performances in the Amphitheater, and other performances with the Chautauqua Dance Company and Opera, among others.” Says Steves, “The headline numbers are 12.12 percent increase in compensation over the four years of the contract. And also importantly, we’re keeping the size of the orchestra at its current size, which is 74 musicians…. We are just so happy to have a confirmation of the CSO, and it will continue as an essential part of artistic life at Chautauqua for a full 2017 and the three seasons after that.”

Posted January 19, 2017