Category: News Briefs

Sunday (6/28) on the Minnesota Orchestra blog Inside the Classics, orchestra violist Sam Bergman responds to Jones’s Guardian article. “I think there’s an angle that Jones is missing here, and it’s that, for most of the history of art, the only real recourse available to an artist whose work had just been trashed by a self-appointed expert was to either hunt him down and punch him in the nose, or write a whiny, self-indulgent Letter To The Editor, which would be read only by other whiny, self-indulgent types looking for their own letters. … If you ask me, the real lesson here is that it’s about time that critics grew some thicker skin and stopped endlessly trying to justify their existence to people who disagree with their perspective. The headline on the Guardian column reads, ‘Art criticism is not a democracy.’ It’s an odd thing to write, since art criticism is, in point of fact, every bit a democracy these days, as the 129 comments appended to Jones’s work attest. And the ‘professionals’ had better figure out a way to stay on top of the pile before someone comes along and knocks them off for good.”

Posted June 29, 2009

In Sunday’s (6/28) Guardian (London), Jonathan Jones writes about how some may view his recent review of a show at the Tate Britain as too brutal. “But this is the right way to review new art,” he claims. “The reason so much average or absolutely awful art gets promoted is that no one seems to understand what criticism is; if nothing is properly criticised, mediocrity triumphs. A critic is basically an arrogant bastard who says ‘this is good, this is bad’ without necessarily being able to explain why. At least, not instantly. The truth is, we feel this stuff in our bones. And we’re innately convinced we’re right. … Of course, by being so blunt, I run the risk of vilification. I will be seen as a vapid snob, elitist, etc. But I am no more guilty of these traits than anyone else who sets themselves up as a professional critic; I’m just trying to be honest. What do you think all the other critics believe—that their opinion is worth nothing? Unless you think you’re right, you shouldn’t pass verdict on art that is someone’s dream, someone’s life.”

Posted June 29, 2009

Alex’s Ross’s article in the July 6 New Yorker opens with a quote from Charles Ives. “ ‘If only I could have done it,’ Charles Ives once said. ‘It’s all there—the mountains and the fields.’ The composer was speaking of his dream project, the ‘Universe Symphony,’ which was to have depicted nothing less than the formation, the evolution, and the future of the world, from the rocks below to the heavens above. … I thought of Ives several times on June 21st, when New York joined more than three hundred cities—including Montevideo, Djibouti, Kabul, Hanoi, and Sydney—in celebrating Make Music, a global sonic bacchanal that takes place each year on the summer solstice.” The New York version, which started two years ago, features “more than eight hundred events across five boroughs. … Various Make Music events—the pianos, the glockenspiels, the megaphones, and a gathering of bagpipes on Staten Island, which, regrettably, I missed—articulated a running theme called Mass Appeal: convocations of many instruments of the same type. We were building to the grand finale, New York’s answer to Boulez beneath the pyramid: a presentation of Henry Brant’s ‘Orbits,’ for eighty trombones, organ, and soprano, in the great spiralling rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum.”

Posted June 29, 2009

In Sunday’s (6/28) Sacramento Bee, Edward Ortiz writes, “For a musician, there is a terror greater than stage fright: a music injury. As with athletes, musicians’ bodies are pushed to the limit through hours of practice and intense bursts during performances. And often, the result is the onset of a repetitive stress injury or similar ailment.” But many musicians ignore injuries because competition for jobs is so fierce. “As a result, the incidence of music injuries has yet to be adequately established. A recent joint study by the Texas Center of Music and Medicine at the University of North Texas and the Performing Arts Medical Association concluded that nearly 65 percent of the music-student population in the United States has dealt with some kind of repetitive stress or motion injury. … One of the more prevalent music injuries is rarely talked about: hearing loss. Players and educators of school bands and orchestras are most at risk of hearing loss. In a recent study on the effect of sound levels on 53 music educators, it was established that 68 percent of them showed signs of noise-induced hearing loss in one or both ears.” Musicians from the Sacramento Philharmonic are interviewed in the story.

Posted June 29, 2009

In Monday’s (6/29) Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein writes, “Among the big names paying homage to the late Michael Jackson is—Riccardo Muti? Yes, indeed. The Italian maestro, who is music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, told Milan’s Corriere della Sera that he is a Jackson fan. Of sorts. ‘He is, without a doubt, one of the most legendary, controversial, and beloved singers of all time,’ said Muti. ‘His controversial story, his weaknesses, [his] restlessness and exhausted final days remind me of the lives of the great castrati like Caffarelli of Farinelli, who [also] became objects of adoration and idolatry. And they often became victims of this adoration.’ (Muti might have added that these famed Italian classical singers of the 18th Century also went in for surgery, albeit of a more radical kind than Jackson did.) Did the maestro ever dance to one of Jackson’s songs? ‘No,’ replied Muti, tersely. ‘I don’t dance.’ ”

Photo of Riccardo Muti by Todd Rosenberg

Posted June 29, 2009

In Thursday’s (6/25) New York Times, Margalit Fox reports, “Betty Allen, an American mezzo-soprano who transcended a Dickensian girlhood to become an internationally known opera singer and later a prominent voice teacher and arts administrator, died on Monday in Valhalla, N.Y. She was 82. … Ms. Allen was part of the first great wave of African-American singers to appear on the world’s premier stages in the postwar years. Active from the 1950s to the 1970s, she performed with the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the opera companies of Houston, Boston, San Francisco, Santa Fe, N.M., and Buenos Aires, among others. Ms. Allen, who also toured as a recitalist, was known for her close association with the American composers Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem and David Diamond. At her death, she was on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, where she had taught since 1969. … The executive director of the Harlem School of the Arts from 1979 to 1992, Ms. Allen was on the boards of Carnegie Hall, the New York City Opera, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Theater Development Fund and the Manhattan School of Music.”

Posted June 26, 2009

In Thursday’s (6/25) New York Times, John Noble Wilford writes, “Archaeologists Wednesday reported the discovery last fall of a bone flute and two fragments of ivory flutes that they said represented the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture. They said the bone flute with five finger holes, found at Hohle Fels Cave in the hills west of Ulm, was ‘by far the most complete of the musical instruments so far recovered from the caves’ in a region where pieces of other flutes have been turning up in recent years. … But until now the artifacts appeared to be too rare and were not dated precisely enough to support wider interpretations of the early rise of music. The earliest solid evidence of musical instruments previously came from France and Austria, but dated much more recently than 30,000 years ago. … Although radiocarbon dates earlier than 30,000 years ago can be imprecise, samples from the bones and associated material were tested independently by two laboratories, in England and Germany, using different methods. Scientists said the data agreed on ages of at least 35,000 years.”

Posted June 26, 2009

In Thursday’s (6/25) Seattle Times, Tom Keogh writes, “One of the more nerve-wracking aspects of a composer’s life is waiting for the first public performance of a new piece. ‘It’s a funny feeling being on one coast, while preparations for the performance are on the other coast,’ says Aaron Jay Kernis, a week before his ‘Symphony of Meditations’ debuts Thursday with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall. (‘Meditations,’ on a bill including Holst’s ‘The Planets,’ repeats Friday.) … ‘Meditations’ is Kernis’ first symphony in 18 years. The Pulitzer Prize-winner was 23 when his 1983 ‘Dreams of the Morning Sky’ premiered with the New York Philharmonic and resulted in national acclaim. Several years ago, Seattle Symphony artistic director Gerard Schwarz commissioned Kernis to write what would become ‘Meditations.’ Kernis decided on a prominent role for vocalists in the work, and drew upon sacred Hebrew texts written by 11th-century Spanish poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol. … ‘Symphony of Meditations’ will be performed by the orchestra, Seattle Symphony Chorale, and three soloists, including soprano Hyunah Yu, tenor Paul Karaitis and baritone Robert Gardner. Schwarz will conduct.”

Posted June 26, 2009

A report posted Thursday (6/25) on BroadwayWorld.com states, “Lorin Maazel was honored last night by The City of New York and by the New York Philharmonic at the first of his final series of concerts with the Orchestra as Music Director. The French-born American conductor, who first led the Philharmonic at the age of 12, received a Proclamation from the Office of the Mayor designating June 24, 2009, as ‘Maestro Lorin Maazel Day’ in recognition of the conclusion of his seven-year tenure as Philharmonic Music Director. … At the concert, Mr. Maazel was also publicly named an Honorary Member of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York by [Philharmonic Board Chairman Paul B.] Guenther—an honor created in 1843 and one of the highest that the Orchestra bestows, which has been awarded to Franz Liszt, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, and even U.S President Harry Truman, among others.”

Photo courtesy of the New York Philharmonic Archives

Posted June 26, 2009

In an Associated Press article published Thursday (6/25) in several major newspapers, Stacey Plaisance writes, “About a dozen Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra musicians are going from the stage to the silver screen. While the 50-plus member LPO is on summer hiatus, some of its musicians landed a gig of a different kind—collaborating with Hollywood composer George S. Clinton as he creates an original score to accompany the film ‘Extract,’ a comedy set for release in September. As Clinton led the small orchestra this week in a New Orleans recording studio, the movie starring Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis played without sound on a large flat-screen TV so editors could watch the scenes unfold as the orchestra played. ‘This is so much fun,’ said Dave Anderson, the LPO’s principal bassist, who was among the musicians asked to work on the project. ‘For us, it’s a change of pace. It’s definitely something different.’ … The musicians worked Monday and Tuesday at the Music Shed, a recording studio in New Orleans where artists Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and others have recorded.”

Photo: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra celli and basses in performance
Credit: Judi Bottoni

Posted June 26, 2009