The composer Suby Raman has been reflecting on the state of the Met and how it might present itself itself to a graph-oriented society.
He has mined the Met’s archives and come up with this set of tables:
Among other discoveries: the Met has never staged an opera by a woman composer.
The much-loved Dorothy Schnupsky tells Throwcase about her patented teaching method, known as The Job:
‘As musicians, our Job is to play the music as musically as possible. So if you look at things like the notes, and perhaps the dynamics and phrase markings, and basically every other instruction that has been dutifully laid out on paper using a sophisticated and clear system of notation developed over centuries, then your playing will improve. I charge an hourly rate to say this.’
We understand that it helps to play the Dorothy way with tongue firmly planted in left cheek.
It appears the musicians have accepted proposals for a smaller orchestra – 77 now, possibly rising in future. WAC version here. WAC had set a 4pm deadline before cancelling the next tranche of the concert season.
We await word from the musicians’ side but, if confirmed, the concession should effectively end the lockout.
UPDATE: Here is the precise wording of the musicians’ proposal:
1) ASO Musicians have proposed to have a guaranteed minimum complement of 77 Musicians for Year 1.
2) During Years 1 – 2 of this agreement, “Best efforts to increase the complement of Musicians to 81 Musicians by the end of Year 2” was proposed.
3) For Year 3: “A minimum of 84 Musicians by the end of the contract year” was proposed.
4) For Year 4: “A minimum of 88 Musicians by the end of the contract year with best efforts to restore complement to 90 Musicians” was proposed.
The concertgoer who was asked to leave her seat at a New World Symphony concert by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has given her version of events to Larry Johnson, who first reported the incident in South Florida Classical Review.
Her perspective, needless to say, differs markedly from the maestro’s. She’s unhappy that he has not contacted her since to apologise.
Speaking under condition of anonymity, she recalled: ‘He actually said, ‘You’re disturbing me. Can you move to the side?’ But we weren’t doing anything…. My child was not fidgeting… No iPad. No phone out.
There’s more here. Much more. This incident has not been handled well.
And all of them can be heard on my album of the week, out now on sinfinimusic.com. Click here to read.
The three Berios are played by what I think is, on current form, the loudest, most precise radio orchestra on earth. Care to guess which?
photo (c) Guy Vivien/Lebrecht Music&Arts
You couldn’t make it up. It’s on the record:
h/t: Steve Wehmhoff
| The Complete John Cage Edition – Vol. 28: The Works for Piano 5Soliloquy (1944) (3:09)
Three Easy Pieces (1933) Four Walls (1944) Haydée Schvartz, piano FOUR WALLS is a powerful and pivotal work in Cage’s oeuvre. This large-scale piece was written as a “dance-drama” with text and dance by his long-time collaborator Merce Cunningham. It was performed only once in 1944 in a production with actors (which included a young Julie Harris) and other dancers, and was not heard again until it was revived some 30 years later.
It was written using only the white keys of the piano. Four Walls shows Cage’s seminal ideas on silence, repetition and gradual change, as well as influences of Eastern philosophy and music-its use of repetition foreshadows later minimalist music. At Cunningham’s request, Cage also devised a shorter “solo” piece extrapolated from Four Walls, which Cunningham performed several times in his early recitals. Entitled SOLILOQUY, it is also presented here. The Three Easy Pieces are early, tonal Cage. The three movements-Round, Duo, and an “infinite” Canon-are written in an almost continuous 2-part contrapuntal style. Liner notes are by Cage’s long-time friend and publisher, Don Gillespie. THE PERFORMERS She is joined here by Jack Bruce (voice); composer, singer, bassist and multi-instrumentalist of the legendary rock group Cream. His eclectic approach to music in his solo recordings and bands mixes rock, blues (performing with John Mayall) and jazz (with Tony Williams Lifetime, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham and Larry Coryell), with forays into the avant-garde (with ECM artists Michael Mantler and Carla Bley). |
Members of the orchestra played this weekend at Kamp Vught – now a national monument – to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Marius Flothuis, artistic director from 1955 until 1974.
Flothuis (1914-2001) an assistant at the orchestra from 1937, was incarcerated in Kamp Vught in 1942 over his resistance to the German occupation. A prolific composer, he was an important mentor to Bernard Haitink in his early years as music director.
The singer of the year called in sick yesterday.
Some murmured he was miffed at having another tenor – Rolando Villazon – present the awards.
Leigh Kamann has died, aged 92. He went on air in 1940 and Saturday nights, from 1980 to 2007, he spun jazz on MPR.
David Jacobs, who died last year aged 87, played music on the BBC from 1950 to a few months before his death.
Anthony Hopkins, who died in May, broacast about music on the BBC for almost 50 years.
Anyone of equivalent longevity and influence?
The Daily Telegraph has posted this headline above an attack by the American violinist Mark O’Connor on the Japanese educator, Sinichi Suzuki.
O’Connor claims Suzuki may have faked some evidence about his education.
That would make him a liar, on a fairly humdrum scale. It does not materially affect his teaching method.
Anyway, there have been far greater frauds in music history. For instance:
1 The encores that Fritz Kreisler ascribed to Baroque composers when they were, in fact, his own.
2 Joyce Hatto’s husband’s success in passing off great pianist recordings as hers. And then getting a film made about his scam.
3 Isaac Nathan’s ‘discovery of the music of Solomon’s Temple, fooling Lord Byron to write words to his tunes.
4 The ‘Japanese Beethoven’ whose scores were written by others.
5 Mozart’s marzipan balls
6 Leonard Cohen’s accountant.
Beside these scams, Suzuki’s is a tiny white lie.
The Paul Sacher Foundation, created by a Swiss conductor who married into Big Pharma, has bought up the lifetime manuscripts of the Paris-based Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho for an undisclosed amount. The collection will include personal correspondence and recordings.
Sacher, who died died in 1999, was close to composers of the Stravinsky era. His curators are now extending their remit to composers born after 1950.
