Category: music

“I finally realized it felt more creative to be doing what I was doing in early music because there was so much that we hadn’t figured out; there was so much that was not in the scores. And just because you can’t make up all the notes doesn’t mean you can’t make up most of them. I played continuo, where you’ve got a bass line and you make it up. And I liked that.” – Van

Classical music is a rare remaining area where citizens of countries that are at loggerheads (or worse) with one another can interact in a productive manner. “The most important aspect we’re missing in the public debate today is the ability to listen. Listening is fundamental in music-making,” Gianandrea Noseda, an Italian, told me. – Standpoint

Woman with Eyes Closed, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia for its O20 festival this September, has a plot inspired by the 2012 theft, from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, of seven paintings now thought to have been burnt in Romania by the mother of one of the thieves. Jerre Dye’s libretto and Higdon’s 80-minute score, written for five singers and 11 instruments, will have three alternate endings; the choice of which one to perform will be made the day of each performance. – Yahoo! (AP)

Three weeks ago, due to the coronavirus epidemic, the orchestra cancelled three concert dates in China that were part of a planned eight-concert tour of East Asia March 3-12. Now the orchestra has withdrawn from the remaining five dates, all in Japan. – The Washington Post

Over the course of his career, Gershwin was praised and criticized in equal measure for his willingness to borrow and fuse musical elements from various cultural and ethnic realms. He regularly tapped into the aesthetic values and popular tastes of his surroundings, in an attempt to compose works that would connect with as broad a public as possible. This approach to composition produced mixed results.  – Times Literary Supplement

Recommendations of the task force, created last spring to examine ways to staunch the BSO’s losses, include obtaining an extra $5.5 million through 2026 from the state government, which last year promised and later withdrew emergency funding of $1.6 million. The BSO also will attempt to increase gifts from private donors by $10 to $15 million over the next three years. The extra cash would be used to create new programs designed to increase the orchestra’s presence statewide and to provide for a 52-week performing season, which has been a demand of — and flashpoint for — the musicians union. – Baltimore Sun

“On Tuesday, [he] apologized to women who had accused him of sexual harassment. … But on Thursday, as some of Europe’s leading opera houses considered canceling future engagements, Mr. Domingo said he wanted to ‘correct the false impression’ his statement had created.” – The New York Times

The maestra will be 64 when she steps down at the end of August 2021 after a 14-year tenure. While she has reportedly been quietly frustrated by the orchestra’s recent struggles, she will remain involved with OrchKids, the music education program for poor Baltimore students that she founded, and will conduct three programs in each of the next five seasons. – The Baltimore Sun

The continent had been resistant to the accusations of sexual harassment that ended Domingo’s U.S. career, but following the AGMA report, Spain’s Culture Ministry cancelled his invitation to perform in Luisa Fernanda at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela in May, following which Domingo withdrew from La Traviata at the city’s Teatro Real the same month. (Meanwhile, news of the AGMA report has inspired another accuser to come forward publicly.) – Yahoo! (AP)

Because of cultural tradition, each audience brings specific expectations to a performance. Classical listeners, who are steeped in the European performance practices, have been conditioned to want to know as much as possible about the music before a note is sounded. Jazz audiences – who have embraced a more casual, all-American approach to listening – generally sit back and savor the sounds, recognizing standard tunes, enjoying obscure works and realizing that free-flying improvisations may have no title at all. – Chicago Tribune