Browsing: Classical Music

In the Hollywood walk of composing fame, Hanns Eisler is the forgotten man. Erich Korngold was the founding father, Waxman and Newman the busy bees, Rosza and Herrmann the atmosphere merchants. Eisler, who wrote the first book on composing for film and treated the craft as an art in its own right, is all but pushed off the sidewalk. A Hitler refugee, Eisler landed in New York in 1938, taught for three years at the New School, then moved to Los Angeles to work with Bertolt Brecht. In 1948, he was forced to leave the US during Senator McCarthy’s witch-hunt,…

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OPERA REVIEW: Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, presented by the little OPERA theatre of NY; and INTERVIEW: with the work’s creator, acclaimed American composer Carlisle Floyd. “You will be hearing more about Carlisle Floyd,” said Howard Taubman in 1956, writing in The New York Times of “a young composer who teaches at Florida State University,” whom Taubman deemed “meant for the lyric theatre.” And barely three years later, composer, critic, and educator Eric Salzman (also in the Times) already discerned in Floyd a voice that had “prepared the way for the burst of American works that followed.” The young man…

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China’s Maestro Huang Feili died at his home in Beijing this past month (Feb. 19, 2017) at the age of 99). The following article is a reprint of my tribute to Maestro Huang – “Huang Feili: The Father of Chinese Conductors”, which appeared in La Scena Musicale on June 1, 2013. ___________________________ In March 2009, I was a Guest Lecturer at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing, China. My audience was a class of young conductors. My lecture, titled “Stokowski: the Limits of Interpretation,” considered the many changes that Stokowski had made in the scores of the music he conducted…

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Wednesday, March 8, 2017: When Opera Philadelphia’s new adaptation of Lars von Trier’s searing Oscar-nominated film,Breaking the Waves made its world premiere in September 2016, the New York Times declared the opera “ambitious, accomplished, [and] dramatically direct,” and Opera Newssaid it “stands among the best 21st-century American operas yet produced.” It has since earned an International Opera Award nomination for Best World Premiere and made its New York debut with Beth Morrison Projects’ Prototype Festival to continued acclaim.Now, starting on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 1 p.m., home audiences the world over can listen to this spellbinding production in its…

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The Competition takes place May 25–June 10, 2017, at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall FORT WORTH, Texas, March 7, 2017—The Cliburn announces today the 30 competitors selected to participate in the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, taking place May 25–June 10, 2017, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Two hundred and ninety pianists submitted applications to participate in the 2017 Cliburn Competition, and 141 auditioned live in front of a five-member screening jury in London, Hannover, Budapest, Moscow, Seoul, New York, and Fort Worth in January and February 2017.  “After an exhilarating and quite thorough process,…

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24 young pianists, 6 women and 18 men from 15 countries with an average age of 26, have been selected to participate in the CMIM (Concours musical international de Montréal) next May 2 to 12. The highest number of candidates are from South Korea (7), followed by France (3) and Italy (3). The remaining countries are represented by one participant each: Canada, China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. The 24 competitors were selected out of a record-breaking 304 pianists, representing the highest number of applicants in the history of the Competition and…

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Binge, n. (bɪndʒ): A bout of overindulgence; an instance of engaging in a particular activity (esp. eating) to excess Usually the practice of binging refers to unhealthy things: imbibing, eating whole bags of chips, and—since the invention of internet streaming services—watching so much of a television show that your computer has to check that you are still living. It was in the latter binge situation that Patrick Hansen, the Artistic Director of Opera McGill, came up with the concept of an opera binge. “My boys and I were binging on [History channel show] Vikings and I went, ‘We need an opera…

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On Saturday, the reputable Boston Symphony Orchestra played at the Maison Symphonique. The last time the orchestra visited Montreal was in 1984, more than 30 years ago. Boston Symphony Orchestra: Interview with the conductor, the young 38-year-old Andris Nelsons. [La Presse]  Boston Symphony Orchestra: Concert review by [La Presse] Some tough criticism of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Maison Symphonique. [Le Devoir] CANADA : The OSM has unveiled a new video on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OSMconcerts/status/838396186407145472 Review of the all-Schubert concert by pianist András Schiff on Friday at the Maison Symphonique. [Le Devoir] The exposition Carnets naturalistes by Denise Blackburn runs until April…

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Experience Soul-Stirring Music with the NAC Orchestra’s Spectacular 2017-18 Season March 6, 2017 – OTTAWA (Canada) – Today, Music Director, Alexander Shelley and the National Arts Centre Orchestra announced the 2017-18 Season, heralding remarkable guest artists including Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Lang Lang, Branford Marsalis, Angela Hewitt, Karen Gomyo, and Joshua Bell amongst the dozens of talented performers who will grace the stage of the NAC. Season 2017-18 has over 50 concerts featuring some of the world’s greatest classical artists, pop and Broadway stars, and collaborations with visiting orchestras.  The NAC Orchestra will offer classical music’s most loved composers like…

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Here are your daily headlines in classical music and the arts ! Hard to believe, but it’s true: “Classical music concerts in Germany are officially more popular than football matches,” even though they have one of the best football teams in the world. [The Strad] [ClassicFM] CANADA OSM POP: Review of Arianne Moffatt’s concert with the OSM at the Maison Symphonique. [La Presse] [Le Devoir] Twittosphère : Yesterday at the McCord museum, guest speaker Monique Savoir said that Montreal should be more adventurous in its architectural projects. The former artistic director of the Orchestre symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and former director of the Conservatoire…

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