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2024-03-29
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The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2024-02-27 22:55:11
Jared Hackworth What barriers bar the uninitiated from classical concerts? Could the BSO maintain its Big Five prestige and remain accessible to new audiences? To investigate, I attended all three of the BSO’s January concerts: a sold-out presentation of León, Ravel, and Stravinsky; a concert production of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mitsensk District; and a “Casual Friday” concert of Stravinsky. I found dwindling audiences entirely enraptured by the music of one of the world’s best orchestras. Covid had placed performing arts in freefall. Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, said this week that “For most people, the pandemic is over. For arts institutions, we’re still in it,” reporting the need to “withdraw $40 million in additional emergency funds” due to a capacity rate of around “73%.” The New York Philharmonic’s audience is 62% over 55. During the pandemic, these attendance rates plummeted—in 2019, the Pittsburgh Symphony […]
2024-02-21 09:32:00
Pink Floyd by candle-light played by a classical string orchestra: welcome to the world of the Yorkshire-based Paradox Orchestra
The Paradox Orchestra at Leeds MinsterThe Paradox Orchestra is a dynamic young Yorkshire-based ensemble of classically-trained musicians, many of whom trained at the Leeds Conservatoire, whose performances vibrantly reimagine rock, pop, and dance classics, with the aim of re-energising classical music, supporting classically trained musicians, and bring music to new audiences.The orchestra has just launched a tour of Pink Floyd hits, with a candle-lit 25-strong string orchestra in hits from the seminal album, The Dark Side of the Moon with performances to come in Selby Abbey (11/5/2024), Sheffield Cathedral (16/5/2024) and Huddersfield Town Hall (17/5/2024). These follow Sell-out performances last year at Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough, Leeds Minster and Manchester Cathedral.The orchestra combines a high level of musicianship with showmanship in its performances, and they donate 5% of ticket sales to local charities. The orchestra also provides Inspire Days for local charities, including the Archers project in Sheffield, which supports the homeless and in May The homeless […]
2024-01-21 12:51:46
Wigmore Hall, LondonIn a supremely poetic and impressive performance Levit perfectly conveyed the searching spirit of Brahms’s late-life piano worksIt is a mark of Igor Levit’s standing that he can Sell out the Wigmore Hall weeks in advance with an all-Brahms programme. In the event, some fractious pre-concert jostling for returns seemed almost justified: this was an outstanding evening’s pianism.When Brahms embarked on a remarkable year of composition in 1892, he was 59 – not especially old – and yet an almost unrelieved melancholy pervades the four sets of late piano pieces, which suggests either an irreparably broken heart or an awareness of his own mortality. (And, in fact, he only had five years to live.) It makes a traversal of these often inward-looking works a special challenge.
2024-01-13 08:44:00
A shelter where people can be sure of quality and find so much to discover: founder Michael Adda on his record label, La Dolce Volta
Michaël Adda (Photo: DR from L'Est Républicain)Michael Adda founded the French record label La Dolce Volta in 2011 at a time when many labels were collapsing or changing, and since then the label has become known for its boutique approach.Michael began working in the record industry in 1998 and was working for the French label Calliope in 2011 when it collapsed. This was a time when the industry was changing and creating his own label was a challenge. But working in the industry had taught him not just how to make a CD, but how to select musicians, get financial support and the importance of promotion. When Calliope collapsed it was a big mess and he was advised not to stay in to industry. He decided otherwise but wanted to try something without taking too many risks.So he tried to imagine why people were not buying CDs and tried to […]
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