sounds like now

In order to get itself out of the red, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will tap its endowment, draining one third of their nest egg.

In just weeks, live concerts by the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, including the LA Phil’s fresh “Minimalist Jukebox” series, will be available for download on iTunes. Beginning tomorrow, you can get Lorin Maazel conducting the last three Mozart symphonies and by April 4 you should be able to pick up tracks from the “Minimalist Jukebox.” As reported in yesterday’s New York Times, both orchestras have shown signs of hipness by jumping on the digital bandwagon and joining a new initiative by the Universal Music Group built on its Deutsche Grammophon and Decca recording labels. The NY and LA Phils are the first two orchestras that will offer downloadable live shows, but negotiations are currently underway with 10 other US orchestras as well as groups in London, Paris, and three German cities. Participating orchestras will offer about four concerts per season through iTunes. Contemporary composers and new music aficionados undoubtedly stand to gain the most from this service–that is, if orchestras choose to offer programs that include premieres rather than programs of old warhorses. Gone will be the days of waiting years for a recording of a new work to become available for public consumption. And in a world where we joke that “premiere performance” is often code for “last performance,” at least there is the possibility that the new work will live on in recorded form, being accessible almost immediately for those who couldn’t make it to the premiere to discover.

Two interesting stories from today’s Weekend Edition Sunday:

- Did you know that pipe organs can be a source of pollution? Organ builders in the European Union are having to search for different metals to build their pipes with as a mean of adapting to a new EU environmental directive aimed at reducing the amount of lead in electronic devices.

- What side of the authenticity argument does Norwegian baroque guitarist Rolf Lislevand come down on? His new CD Nuove Musiche, which features percussion, theorbo, clavichord, nyckelharpa, and a jazz-tinged double bass as the back-up band for vocalist Arianna Savall should be an indication.

Have you ever wanted to get inside the mind of a critic? A new report released by Princeton University’s Lawrence McGill allows you to do just that. Called “The Classical Music Critic: A Survey of Music Critics at General-Interest and Specialized News Publications in America,” the document is the result of a collaborative effort between the Music Critics Association of North America and the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. You can download your copy here. The report is a cornucopia of facts, including demographics, gender, types of stories, publications, approaches to criticism, the contemporary situation of classical music and its coverage, the critic’s relationship with his/her constituencies, the critic’s musical tastes, and the ethical norms of the classical music beat, among other things. Real juicy stuff. While I haven’t had a chance to read it yet and thus register my thoughts, you can be sure that it’s going to create a buzz around the blogosphere and likely well beyond. Klye Gann and Alex Ross have already struck up a conversation about it over at Sequenza21. I guarantee there’s more to come.

We learn from uTopianTurtleTop what classical musicians stand to gain by emulating rock bands.

There might be more music on NPR in the near future: ” The [Corporation for Public Broadcasting]’s board has told its staff that it should consider redirecting money away from national newscasts and toward music programs produced by NPR stations.” Sound good? Maybe, but not if you consider why. The Times reports today that NPR is being scrutinized by Bush appointees who lead the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The charge: NPR is too liberally biased. Come on. But even if NPR does lean a little to the left, it’s still more fair and balanced than some other news organizations. Suggesting that there be more music programming on NPR must be the Bush administration’s way of trying to appeal to the artsy, intelligent, NPR-listening types.

Yes, yes, I know that Alex Ross already posted this quote. But what Anthony Tommasini writes in his article about the controversy surrounding the premiere of Lorin Maazel’s opera 1984 by the Royal Opera at Covent Garden is a brilliant observation: “Gifted composers would line up to write a commissioned work for Covent Garden. But Mr. Maazel has bought his way to the top withough having paid his dues as a composer. Typically, the path to a premiere at a leading house like Covent Garden entails writing dozens of songs, often for singers you know well: the best way to learn how to write for the voice. Composing short, effective dramatic works, perhaps a one-act opera. Peddling ideas to small and midlevel companies and often being rejected. Finally, getting a smaller-scale work accepted for performance–on the condition that you will make any suggested alterations and accomodate the whims of the stage director, who may be a musical ignoramus. It is an exasperating but invaluable rigmarole. By the time you get through it and are ready to write a substantive work for a major company, you should have learned the ins and outs of opera . . . And what of deserving composers? They might as well take their place among Orwell’s proles.”

Robert Lepage, the opera’s preeminent director, offered the following foreboding statement: “Maybe this is the future for the development of new operas. If you have the means, you develop your own opera.”

What can you say? Money talks. Money makes the world go ’round. Doesn’t the political party with the most in their campaign coffers usually win the election? Is Robert Lepage right? Is this the scary future, not only of opera, but of the classical music industry? I’m not so sure that it hasn’t been going on for some time now. But since Mr. Maazel’s received such harsh criticism for his opera (not to mention his vanity), the issue has finally bubbled to the surface and commanded a bit more attention. If you’ve got something to say about the topic, why not vent your frustrations in the Composers Forum over at Sequenza21.

Is money tight? Are you on a budget? Are you a classical music lover who can’t seem to afford to attend as many concerts as you’d like to simply because of the cost? Well, never fear. See Anthony Tommasini’s “Critic’s Notebook” in today’s New York Times for the scoop on where to find free concerts in NYC.

Yes. I saw it last Thursday when I ventured out to Joe’s Pub in the East Village to catch the pianist Christopher O’Riley playing Radiohead. I have to confess with slight embarrassment that I am completely unfamiliar with Radiohead’s music, but know they’re popular among many classical musicians. At any rate, I was a bit skeptical about the concert from the beginning. Rock music transcribed for piano? (Well, Matt Haimovitz made a version of Jimi Hendrix’s rendering of the “Star Spangled Banner,” so maybe it’ll work.) As I sat and waited for the show to start, I began wondering why people were here. Were they Radiohead fans? Christopher O’Riley fans? Or classical music fans interested in how a fellow artist is reaching out to new audiences? I belonged to the latter category, while the rest of the crowd seemed to be in the first.

When O’Riley began his set–the second of two for the night–I retained my initial skepticism. After the third tune he began to talk to the audience about the music, about transcribing it for the piano, about esoteric Radiohead knowledge (he asked for hands in the crowd for who was the biggest Radiohead nerd, which O’Riley himself ended up being proudly), and his love for the music. O’Riley simply loves Radiohead. So much so that he transcribes all their music for piano. And his love for the music comes out in his playing of it. The next few tunes, actually, the rest of the set, sounded a lot different to me than the first few tunes. Maybe he wasn’t warmed up. Or maybe I began to understand what he was doing. My friend Evan told me that timbre is a big part of Radiohead’s music and that he was curious about how this would translate to the piano. There’s color in O’Riley’s playing. I didn’t once miss the drums on any tune (well, since I didn’t know them, how could I miss them?). There were moments when I was completely transfixed by the music and by O’Riley’s delivery of it.

I think I was a bit cold to O’Riley’s idea at first because I had already made some assumptions before the show. O’Riley is a concert pianist so he’d probably make the arrangements piano-y, like with lots of arpeggiations, virtuosic flourishes, and so on, right? Wrong. There’s no fancy piano stuff in these arrangements–just the music. And honestly, I was relieved when I realized that this wasn’t going to be a show-off-my-piano-chops kind of event. The truth is that this kind of playing requires its own kind of virtuosity and intamacy with the music that not every artist could pull off. (Kind of like a classical musician who thinks jazz is easy trying to swing.) But Christopher O’Riley pullls it off convincingly.

While you won’t catch me playing the complete The Clash at CBGB anytime soon, I think O’Riley is on to something in terms of bringing his art to a larger audience in a pretty cool venue. Gone were the traditional concert conventions and I think people might have been a little happier because of it. In this setting, people were free to chat if they felt like it, sneeze and not be glared at, eat tiramisu out of a martini glass, and go to the bathroom in the middle of a piece. That’s cool and this kind of looseness in no way implies that the artist on stage is compromising his artistic integrity. I don’t know if a crowd like this would be hip to a Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, or Iannis Xenakis joint, but I wouldn’t put it past them. It could work. I can think of one or two ways. (Coming soon . . . Hybrid Groove Project.)

P.S. Listen to O’Riley on NPR’s Performance Today.

In her review of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Anne Midgette asks a question and then answers it. Question: In today’s world, what is the function of midsize American Orchestras like the Baltimore? Answer (or, part of the answer): “An orchestra like the Baltimore must . . . serve a museum function, presenting the famous classical pieces its audience wants to hear.” As a former Baltimore resident, I think the orchestra is beginning to serve mostly a museum function (their abundant pops programming notwithstanding).

Even though the Baltimore Symphony still received praise for its playing of a more recent work (Giya Kancheli’s Lonesome), since Temirkanov replaced David Zinman at the helm, the group’s programming has certainly moved toward the conservative side. I lived in Baltimore when the shift happened. I loved Zinman’s programs–his focus on new American works, his energy, and his ease with the audience as he frequently talked informally with the crowd about the piece that was to be played. When Temirkanov took over, everything changed. The programming turned from adventuresome new works to tried and true warhorses. In stark contrast to Zinman’s warm, outgoing personality and stage prsence, Temirkanov was cold and dry. Maybe that’s what Baltimore wanted. Maybe that’s what they needed to sell more tickets. Despite what the political polls tell you, the Baltimore-D.C. area is rather conservative–musically, at least.

The New York Times is usually quite critical of Mr. Temirkanov and Ms. Midgette continues that tradition, noting “he has not achieved a particularly meaningful connection with [the Baltimore] players.” I’m not so sure that’s entirely his fault. It might not be his fault at all and I would probably place more blame on the players for this fact than on the Maestro. I had the great fortune to perform under Mr. Temirkanov’s baton recently, only not with the Baltimore Symphony, but the St. Petersburg Philharmonic (Russia, not Florida). (I played Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, which contains one of the most beautiful saxophone melodies in the entire repertoire.) I’m apt to blame the Baltimore players and not Temirkanov because of what occurred on stage with the St. Petersburg Phil. Temirkanov absolutely owned this orchestra. There was simply no question that this was his group. I had never heard such a large ensemble play so together. And anyone that knows Temirkanov’s conducting, knows that he often eschews a little clarity to turn a phrase just the right way. The St. Petersburg players read his every twitch, sometimes even seeming to read his mind. I was blown away by the artistry and focus he exuded during the performance. Temirkanov gets a bad rap sometimes, but maybe with the Baltimore Symphony, it’s not entirely under his control.