Tag: 09.03.08

“A Muncie Symphony violinist was devastated when someone stole his rare 1948 Italian made violin from his car after a concert in 1984… A couple weeks ago the violinist, almost on a whim, was searching on eBay when he found the violin.”

How hard is it being a composer in an age when the majority of music consumers don’t even have classical music on their radar screens, and are increasingly used to paying next to nothing for the music they do listen to? Plenty hard, and the solution lies in developing a true mass audience for serious new music.

“Yesterday was called the official launch day of the new Radio 2,” under which pop music has largely replaced classical, “a genre of music supposed by our new, culture-free, diversity-hugging CBC executives to be of interest only to shut-ins. To judge by the inaugural show, the content is firmly grounded in the Three Bs: bland, bland and bland.”

Okay, so classical snobs are almost guaranteed to hate the new CBC Radio 2 lineup, where classical music is confined to a midday slot. But what about the broader audience that the CBC is supposedly hoping to attract, the folks who could care less about Beethoven but appreciate quality popular music? “It’s not unpleasant, but it’s not a knockout punch… either.”

“Whether up on the podium, at the Steinway or among the orchestral ranks, the winds of change are blowing through the wardrobes. Conductors are just the latest to branch out from the snowy bow tie. When Daniele Gatti, the Royal Philharmonic’s principal conductor since 1996, turned out in a black, round-collared Mao suit to conduct their Prom last week, it was a sign of the times. Why now? Well, classical musicians are as aware as anyone of society’s obsession with image.”