Interchanging Idioms

" Classical Music Gets Sexy " is the title to an article in The West Australian. It begins by speaking about one of the best selling string quartets on the market, Bond . And a quick look at their site (or their legs, pictured here) shows just how sexy classical music can be (at least how sexy some of the performers are). The article then goes on to talk about Flautist Jane Rutter (with a picture to add emphasis to the sex-appeal). Neither of these artists are new to the scene, and the use of sex in their marketing isn't new either - but it's getting press (rather than their music), which is why I blog about it now. Not everyone agrees with the articles comparison of Jane's sex-appeal with that of Bond. This article not only is evidence of the disagreement, but it also is evidence of the base language used by writers when speaking of these musicians, not in terms of their quality music - but rather using phrases like, "so...

I don't know if anyone is listening to my posts, or if just great minds think alike... But there is a shift in the opera world, one I've been talking about occasionally on the blog. Rufus Wainwright won't be composing for the Metropolitan Opera in New York because it takes too long (and they want it in English rather than French). Daniel J. Watkin of the New York Times reports the Met insisted the opera be in English and wouldn't be available for performance until at least 2014. Wainwright responds, “They work on that sort of scale; I wanted to get it out as soon as possible, because I’m an impatient pop star.” The opera is now slated to premiere at Manchester International Festival in England next July. I find this new interested on three levels. 1. Opera needs to be more responsive It can do this by getting new works out to the forefront faster than the typical 4-6 year schedule. Obviously Manchester International Festival get...

I try and not normally promote any specific sites or businesses. I certainly don't get paid for any advertising and don't think blogs are necessarily the right place for product placement. However.... Naxos is a great source for listening to classical music in a try before you buy senerio. In my recent researching of violin concertos, I have had the opportunity to listen to the following concertos over the past week: Tchaikovsky (Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35) Mendelssohn (Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64) Elgar (Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61) Barber (Violin Concerto, Op. 14) Dvorak (Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53) Prokofiev (Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 & Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63) Miaskovsky (Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 44 ) Vainberg (Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 67 ) Shostakovich (Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99 & Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, Op. 129) Sibelius (Violin Co...

According to Marcel Berlins of The Guardian the National Theatre is trying to gain a younger audience by offering £5 tickets to those under 19 years old. He goes on to report the Royal Opera House is doing much the same. It is only toward the end of the article where he describes an advertisment for Don Giovanni with cut-rate tickes that resulted in a soldout house within hours. The headline in the paper was "Sex, death, booze, bribery, revenge, ghosts. . . Who said opera is boring?" Ah, now we're getting somewhere. Somehow, promoters think the price of tickets to opera is prohibitive and thus the reason the youth don't attend. T in the Park tickets are well into the hundreds of pounds, so why isn't that cost prohibitive? This festival is always a sellout, as is the Glastonbury. The young aren't attending opera because it doesn't attack them. Regardless of what the headlines read, for most of the younger generation opera...

Last night, Valery Gergiev conducted the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra in the UK Premier concert performance of " The Enchanted Wanderer ." The opera was composed by Rodion Shchedrin in 2002 for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with three performers in multiple roles. While the performance was performed in Russian, the libretto was printed in the program, with extensive notes as to the story and concept of the work. The music is lovely, moving and while very Russian in tone and color, very modern with extensive use of percussion. At the opening there are bells, indicative of Russia and they start so softly it is almost impossible to tell when the piece begins. This same tonal color ends the piece as the bells fade into the distance leaving the listener with a haunting memory of bells echoing in the silence. Add bells, gongs, chimes, a glockenspiel, a celeste, a harp, a balalaika, gusli, a harpsichord and chorus to a double wind orchestra ...

That is how the Edinburgh International Festival billed their selection of works this year: " Artists without borders. Festival 08 reflects on an evolving Europe " They didn't know how significant this title would be back in March and yet, Valery Gergiev, who grew up in Vladikavkaz North Ossetia, conducted a performance of Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko Act 3 last night - the story of a Ukranian town in 1918 under German occupation where the brutality of war is on display. Valery Gergiev is conducting a differnt concert tonight at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre with the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra. Valery Gerfiev is the same conductor I spoke about in my post on the Music of Politics . Tonights concert is Rodion Shchedrin's opera The Enchanted Wanderer . You can find a synopsis here . For more insight into Gergiev's view of the events in South Ossetia click here .

Every now and then I come across an article on the Internet that is fascinating, informative and fun. This one by Andy Merey is just that - interesting tidbits about John Williams, the film composer. The article then encouraged me to return to IMDB.com for reference... There is a long history of composers learning from other composers and John Williams seems to continue this trend as he worked with a number of greats in his early days. I think what surprised me most was his pop composition work. But then again, he's a great film composer, so I guess it really shouldn't surprise me. For more on John's (or Johnny's) early days, Wikipedia has a nice write-up. Of course, there is always the Official Site which lists a great deal of music that isn't film music. Where does he find the time? John Williams