Category: News Briefs

In Friday’s (2/26) Telegraph (London), Ivan Hewett reviews the Minnesota Orchestra, led by Osmo Vänskä. “At the concert they performed together on Tuesday night at the Barbican, Vänskä moulded and pummelled and caressed the sound with big gestures, as if it was a physical presence. At the explosions of brass in the finale of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, he flung his arms up as if to hail the champ, just like the crowds at a Bruce Springsteen gig. All this could have been mightily distracting, were it not for the fact that the ends so eloquently justified the means. … That orchestra’s sound seems full of layers, coming from different distances; the Minnesota sound is magnificently ‘up-front’ and vivid throughout.” Hewett praises performances of John Adams’s Slonimsky’s Earbox and Barber’s Violin Concerto with Joshua Bell, then concludes by saying of the Beethoven performance, “What made the performance outstanding was the finale. Vänskä and the Minnesotans built a cumulative tension through every twist and turn, right up to the final explosion of joy at the end.”

In Thursday’s (2/26) Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein reports, “After its institutional parent, the fiscally strapped Newberry Library, recently informed the Newberry Consort that it will not continue funding the group beyond the current season, the consort’s future appeared to be bleak indeed. Fears that Chicago’s flagship early music ensemble might be forced to disband have been laid to rest, now that it has affiliated itself with the library’s Center for Renaissance Studies and taken charge of its own financial destiny. In what Newberry Library musician in residence David Douglass calls a ‘rebirth,’ the widely acclaimed group, founded in 1982, will become the center’s autonomous teaching and performance arm, creating programs the center can offer its consortium of colleges and universities. … The ensemble will step up touring outside Chicago while maintaining its residencies at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the library. It will present concerts at those locations and Chicago’s St. Clement Church, including a program built around the library’s planned Abraham Lincoln bicentennial exhibit.”

In Wednesday’s (2/25) Reno Gazette-Journal (Nevada), Forrest Hartman writes, “In late January, Nevada Opera officials announced that the 41-year-old company was on the verge of collapse and would close if it didn’t raise $100,000 in just four weeks. Now, the message is more upbeat. The group surpassed its $100,000 goal, meeting the requirements for a $50,000 challenge donation and will produce ‘La Boheme’ in April. Opera board president Randi Thompson said the group has $165,000 and received pledges for about $20,000 more. … The $165,000 has not erased all debt but allows the company to move forward with performances of ‘La Boheme’ in April, she said. … The company benefited from several large donations, including the $50,000 matching pledge, but Thompson and Nevada Opera executive assistant Janet Brown said most of the money came in relatively small donations.”

In Thursday’s (2/26) Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky), Rich Copley reports, “The most recent candidate to audition for music director of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra has withdrawn his name from consideration. Alastair Willis, a Seattle-based conductor who was raised in Russia and England, conducted the Philharmonic on Feb. 13. He was the ninth, and penultimate, candidate to succeed George Zack as music director of the Philharmonic. Earlier this week, through his agent, Willis sent the Philharmonic’s executive director, Peter Kucirko, a short e-mail bowing out of the race. … Kucirko said it is not uncommon for candidates to withdraw from music director searches. Carpenter said that considering this search has been going on for two years, he is surprised only one candidate has dropped out. ‘We’ll pick from nine,’ Carpenter said of where the search stands. ‘We’re in a strong position going into the final candidate, and after that, I believe we will be able to make a great choice.’ The final candidate is Mei-Ann Chen, who will conduct the Philharmonic at 8 p.m. March 27. She is currently assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.” Chen is serving with the ASO as part of the League of American Orchestras American Conducting Fellows program.

In Thursday’s (2/26) Orange County Register (California), Timothy Mangan writes, “The Pacific Symphony unveiled plans for its 2009-2010 concert season, the orchestra’s 31st, at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on Wednesday morning. Conductor Carl St.Clair will be celebrating his 20th season as music director, and many of the offerings are designed to mark the occasion. Several noted guest soloists have been invited back to do just that. The orchestra also announced the receipt of a $500,000 multiyear grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will be used to launch a new series, ‘Music Unwound,’ aimed at redesigning the traditional concert format with multimedia. … A two-year commissioning program will bring new works by Richard Danielpour, Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom and Zhou Long. Danielpour’s Piano Concerto and a choral work by Daugherty, based on the poetry of Carl Sandburg, will be premiered in the first year. The annual American Composers Festival, which will mark its 10th year, will look at ‘The Greatest Generation,’ focusing on music created during and in response to the Great Depression and World War II.”

In Wednesday’s (2/25) Guardian (London), Barry Millington writes, “The record producer Christopher Raeburn, who has died aged 80, was a titan of the industry’s golden age. … One of the supreme record producers of his or any generation, Raeburn brought scholarly credentials and an all-consuming passion to the job, working with such artists as Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland and Vladimir Ashkenazy. … Raeburn had joined Decca in 1954, the year he left for Vienna, and rejoined it in 1958 as a producer, becoming the manager of opera productions in 1968, and director of opera productions in 1975. He remained with the company until 1991, but continued to work for it as a freelance producer until shortly before his death. … Other musical genres were not neglected, however, and Raeburn also worked closely with Andras Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Ashkenazy (producing for him the complete piano concertos of Beethoven and Mozart), Kyung-Wha Chung and many others. What these artists valued in particular about Raeburn was not only his technical accomplishment but also the profound knowledge and humanity that underpinned it.”

In Wednesday’s (2/25) Chicago Tribune, Lisa D. Lenoir writes, “The South Shore Opera Company of Chicago emerged, its founder says, out of a need to be heard. ‘There were way too few opportunities for African-American opera singers in Chicago,’ said Marvin Lynn, executive director of the 11-member group, which will debut this weekend at the newly renovated South Shore Cultural Center. … African-American opera singers here are often passed over for artists from the East Coast or they tend to be restricted to performing in all-black casts, said Lynn, a lyric baritone who trained at DePaul University. … Last year, Lynn took his concerns and the idea of starting an opera company to the South Shore Advisory Council, which immediately bought in and partnered with Lynn to get it started. … The inaugural concert will highlight scenes from Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Verdi’s Falstaff, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus and selections by budding youth performers.”

In Wednesday’s (2/25) Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Frank Bentayou reports, “Telarc International, the award-winning [Beachwood, Ohio-based] recording company, will cut half its 52 employees and stop producing its own recordings, the outgoing president said Tuesday. Robert Woods, Telarc’s founder and president, said he will leave in March. That’s when Concord Music Group of Beverly Hills, Calif., which bought the label in 2005, changes the company’s course to one of outsourcing music production. … Woods and his wife, Elaine Martone, plan to set up a production operation managing classical music artists and producing their recordings. Their first music label client will be Telarc, he said, though the company will eventually court other labels, too. … Woods’ replacement as Telarc president will be Dave Love, who has been in charge of HeadsUp, a label Telarc bought in 2000. … Historically, Telarc planned, recorded and produced all the music that went on its CDs. In the future, the company will rely on outsourced production to do those tasks and deliver master tapes to the record company. … Telarc began in the early 1970s as a classical-music label. … It later branched out into jazz and blues as well.”