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Showing posts from July, 2013

More on classical music's image problem

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'Photography, however, was not permitted. Some more taboos may need to fall.' That quote comes from yesterday's review of the Bristol Proms by Norman Lebrecht and it is one of several instances where he has challenged the ban on photography at classical concerts. It is not my purpose to either challenge or defend that ban. My purpose is to point out that the ban on photography is part of the legal protection of audio and visual image copyright which ensures that ownership of intellectual property created during a concert remains with the performers. This legal protection allows the performers to commercially exploit that audio and visual intellectual property. Such protection financially benefits not only the performers, but also others to whom the audio and video copyrights are assigned, including record companies, film makers and photographic libraries. 'Lebrecht picture library is the world's largest resource for music pictures and all the creative arts. We ha

How embedded marketing is reshaping classical music

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Within hours of uploading my post about transparency in music blogging a newly released Deutsche Grammophon CD arrived in the post - not sent by Universal Music I hasten to add. As can be seen above the CD artwork is plastered with advertising for Universal's Sinfini Music website, so welcome to the brave new world of embedded marketing. Embedded marketing is a technique developed in the fast moving consumer goods industry that uses the high profile of a major brand to boost awareness of a sub-brand, and it is reshaping classical music. One of the best examples of embedded marketing is the BBC, where the high profile of the main BBC brand is leveraged to boost awareness of the BBC Proms sub-brand - a conservative estimate puts the value of the free promotional exposure for the BBC Proms across all BBC networks and websites at more than £1 million . Now many readers will be asking what is wrong with that? Classical music needs all the promotion it can get, and the Proms are

Pilgrimage in fluffy pink carpet slippers

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We arrived in Aswan two days before President Morsi was deposed and Egypt started its descent into violence . Because of the deteriorating political situation we were advised not to go ashore from the boat that had brought us from Luxor. But my wife and I were not going to let a mere revolution stop us visiting the el-Tabia Mosque which we had glimpsed from the river as we arrived in the city. As the sun set a decrepit taxi took us along the corniche to the el-Tabia or Grand Mosque in the northern outskirts of Aswan. The tallest building in the city, the mosque was built in neo-Mamluk style with Saudi money and completed in 2010. Despite arriving unannounced we were welcomed at the door and taken on a tour. Our shoes were left outside and we were shown the main prayer hall before being taken up one of the barely finished minarets. As our shoes were still outside we were provided with temporary footwear for the steep ascent, mine were fluffy pink carpet slippers. The Maghrib call to p

Music blogger heal thyself

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Two of the First Ladies of music blogging have sparked a useful debate on the future of music blogs. Elaine Fine started the ball rolling on Musical Assumptions with her generally pessimistic post The Gradual Fall of Musical Bloggery . In it Elaine candidly shares readership data for her blog, which shows an apparent decline of more than 50% over a seven month period. I say apparent, because in a comment on Elaine's post I raise the point that during this period many readers have migrated from desktop to mobile internet access, and the traffic monitoring services are very fallible when it comes to tracking mobile access. Which means the apparent drop in readership for Musical Assumptions may not be a drop at all, but simply a change in technology platforms. Lisa Hirsch takes a more bullish view in her response on Iron Tongue of Midnight , suggesting that readership fluctuations are simply due to the "ebb and flow of blogging". Although Elaine's concern about

Listening to something means you start to change it

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"We find in physics now that they don't talk about an 'objective observer' and the 'observed' any more. Physicists have come around to seeing in terms of 'the participant'. The mere fact of looking at something means you start to change it" writes Buddhist monk and teacher Venerable Kittisaro . "Very occasionally you are lucky enough to encounter a performance in which a sort of mystical transformation takes place" writes Jessica Duchen of Wagner at the BBC Proms. "Probably the best Lachenmann performance - and doubtless part of that was the communal experience of being in the RAH - I've heard" comments Mark Berry . "One of those rare experiences of being transported by music to another and better world" I report about Jonathan Harvey's Fourth String Quartet at the Aldeburgh Festival. Just as the mere fact of looking at something means you start to change it, so the mere fact of listening to something means

The children of the Rhine lament their looted gold

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Behind the naïve suggestion that the coveting of gold, and of the outward power wielded by gold, is the source of all evil, Wagner himself saw an implication of much deeper relevance: that material acquisitiveness (more truly, the neurotic insecurity of which acquisitiveness is one symptom) may drive out love, by which in this context he meant all the unifying force of sympathy and compassion as well as the mutual desire of men and women. Robert Donington writes of the coveting of gold in Wagner's Ring and its Symbols . In today's news the Church of England announces it will work with credit unions to counter loan sharks. In the Muslim world the enduring appeal of trust-based hawala financial networks confounds and disturbs Western governments. In Das Rheingold Loge sings of how the children of the Rhine lament their looted gold. In his book The New Wagnerian Abdalqadir as-Sufi condemns Western usury and advocates a gold based Shari‘ah currency. Are we ready for an Islamic

Most of my musician patients are in orchestras

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If you look carefully at this photo of contrabassoonist Burl Lane, who retired in 2008 after playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 43 years, you will see that he is wearing musicians' ear plugs . Melophobia is a little-known and little-understood neurophysiological condition. It is often wrongly defined as a fear of music, but is, in fact, an aversion to music caused by painful conditions resulting from prolonged exposure to loud sounds. Tinnitus and hyperacusis are the most common of these conditions and the risk to musicians can be greatly reduced by wearing custom designed tuned ear plugs such as those seen in the photo. Hearing damage is most often associated with rock musicians, but in one of the few informed articles about melophpobia Dr. Marsha Johnson clinical director at the Oregon Tinnitus & Hyperacusis Clinic , who has been treating melophobia sufferers for more than a decade, reveals: Oddly enough, most of my musician patients are in orchestras, phi

Will it be Prince Alban?

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Will the new royal baby be named Prince Alban in honour of his grandfather's favourite composer ? Photo credit Mixmag . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Are we ready for an Islamic interpretation of Wagner?

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And so, the Grail was nothing other than the Black Stone of the Ka'aba, the central shrine of the world's last religion, purified judaeo-christianity, Islam. Makkah is named in the Qur'an as the Mother of Cities, and thus the 'birthplace of all nations' and the Ka'aba is named the 'primal shrine of all mankind'. Embedded in one corner of the Ka'aba stands the Black Stone which every muslim raises his lips to and kisses when he arrive dusty and exhausted as a pilgrim, kisses as if quenching his thirst. This is the extraordinary tale that Wagner has, partly despite himself, and partly aware, chosen to tell the world in his farewell revolutionary message. Both the Bey of Tunis and Abd al-Hamid II , Caliph of Islam, contributed to the foundation of Bayreuth, they had not yet heard Parsifal , but their hearts drew them to this most spiritual of men among men in an age of darkness. When Parsifal ends in its vast serenity, 'One of the most beautiful

Rise and fall of the most socially famous conductor

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Today we have a new pretender to the title of 'Face of the Proms' . But fifty years ago the Proms had a very different 'face' and the story of his rise and fall still has considerable relevance. Between 1947 and 1966 Sir Malcolm Sargent conducted no less than 508 Promenade Concerts * and from 1950 to 1957 was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was Sargent who first alerted the BBC to the TV ratings potential of the Proms with his theatrical Last Nights as seen above, and his heavyweight TV exposure made Sargent - nicknamed 'Flash Harry' - the first classical music household name in the UK. In an age where success is measured in social media impact it is significant that Nicholas Kenyon - who was director of the BBC Proms from to 1996 to 2007 - describes Sargent during his Proms tenure as "the most socially famous conductor in the country". But despite his popularity Sargent fell from grace with the BBC. His autocratic manner was di

And please stop that dreadful woman shrieking

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Those dismayed by the social media reaction to the recent Proms performance of Helmut Lachenmann’s Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied can take heart from the Twitter response above to Vaughan William's Sea Symphony . Walt Whitman's verse also supplies the text for RVW's lesser known Toward the Unknown Region which receives a rare performance on August 11 in a free Prom  that also includes the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Frieze . I await the critical deconstruction of both works on the social media with bated breath . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Memorable contemporary ditties from the Ardittis

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"And what an extraordinary piece it is! Probably the best Lachenmann performance... I've heard" declares Mark Berry of the Boulezian about Helmut Lachenmann’s Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied . The Lachenmann work was played by the Arditti Quartet - seen above - with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Jonathan Nott, and Mark added his comment to my post about the Prom in which it was given its UK first performance. Recently I described the Arditti's performance of Jonathan Harvey's Fourth Quartet at this year's Aldeburgh Festival as providing "one of those rare experiences of being transported by music to another and better world" and in another post I drew attention to the Quartet's recordings on the Aeon label of memorable contemporary ditties from Jonathan Harvey, Pascal Dusapin, Roberto Gerhard and Harrison Birtwistle. The Pascal Dusapin double CD is particularly recommended as it showcases a contemporary composer who deserves to be much

Why distance lends enchantment to classical music

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A sultry summer's evening and a Mahler symphony, it can only be the priceless Proms. But, while last night's BBC Radio 3 broadcast delivered Mahler's Fifth played by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Nott in full-blooded sound, it failed to deliver the unique sonic atmosphere of the Albert Hall. Last year I cited the Radio 3 relay of Elgar's The Apostles from the Proms as a topical example of the curse of close-miking, and yesterday's Mahler symphony provided yet another example with the sonic signature of the venue traded for impact, with the spotlit harp in the Adagietto sounding like a bass guitar and with the heavy hand of the balance engineer squashing Mahler's dynamics in the Rondo-Finale . Portable audio players bring the music up close and personal, so recordings and broadcasts are now balanced up close and personal . Yet distance is a vital element of classical music, as Sir Adrian Boult - a veteran of the Proms and under whose baton

Vaughan Williams and the summer of love

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Walt Whitman's line 'Behold the sea itself' opens Ralph Vaughan William's Sea Symphony * in a huge wave of sound that breaks over the audience. Hearing RVW's stroke of genius again at Friday's opening Prom performed by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra excited many resonances. Alex Ross' tweet that "the opening gesture of Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony carries me away every time" resonated with these words written by that great editor and publisher Robert Giroux ** for the introduction to Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain : In books that become classics ("A classic is a book that remains in print" - Mark Van Doren ) the opening words often seem to be inevitable, as if they possibly could not have been otherwise - "Call me Ishmael," "Happy families are all alike," "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The opening of the Sea Symphony may be bold and inevita

Variations on a theme of Harrison Parrott

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Friday's opening 2013 BBC Prom was musically very satisfying, and I will be posting some further positive thoughts on the concert shortly. But with reference to my recent musings on the hidden power behind the Proms , it is worth pointing out that the new chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Sakari Oramo, who conducted Friday's Prom, is managed by Harrison Parrot , As is Stephen Hough who Oramo accompanied in Paganini's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini . Yes, musically very satisfying; but, as I predicted last year, new chief conductor but the same old tune . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

How to lose more friends and followers

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A post-crash fire contributed to the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 tragedy at San Francisco Airport in which two passengers died and many were hurt. Just days later Boeing's state-of-the-art 787 suffered a less serious fire at Heathrow airport . So time to restate my unpopular views on allowing bulky musical instruments into the cabins of passenger jets. As I have said before, I have every sympathy with musicians whose livelihood is threatened by restrictions on taking fragile and valuable instruments into plane cabins. It is a problem that must be solved, but the solution is not to plead that musicians are a special case and should be exempt from eminently sensible safety regulations. Seat belts are designed to restrain humans, not cellos. Which means in an emergency a cello may become a projectile that at the best blocks an emergency exit, and at the worst kills someone. When flying to Egypt a few weeks ago a ridiculously oversize bag - not musical instrument - was allowed into t

The joy of exploring musical roads less travelled

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Passion led me from wistful ballads to anguished opera, then to the poetry and songs of medieval troubadours, those somewhat sufi Christians whose ethos of romantic longing for a distant beloved were expressed in the strange irresistible twangs of 'langue d'Oc'. The more I listened to troubador music with its ethos of amorous longing, the more of those eastern resonances I hungered for. I followed the trial south from Cathar country across the Pyrenees towards the urgent sorrows and heartache of guttural flamenco, sobbing to Arabic and Kathak rhythms. For weeks I played nothing except Harmonia Mundi's 'Musique Arabo-Andalouse', familiarity increasing pleasure. Anthologies are the best way to travel and that extract comes from Philippa Scott's contribution to the rich and rewarding anthology Meetings with Remarkable Muslims . Philippa Scott shares with me many roads less travelled: David Munrow, whose survey of the music of the troubadors The Art of Courtl

Which composers are having a hard time at the Proms?

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BBC Prom director Roger Wright's assertion in yesterday's sycophantic Telegraph interview that "I do have an enthusiasm for British music, which I think is well-known" passes unchallenged by Ivan Hewett , but not by me. Yes, during Wright's tenure at the Proms many works by popular British composers have been programmed - Vaughan Williams and Britten at tonight's opening concert for instance - and there have been token appearances for more obscure British composers including Havergal Brian's media-friendly Gothic Symphony . But despite Wright saying in the interview that "British music has always been part of the Proms’ mission" there has been no serious attempt by him to mine the rich vein of substantial orchestral works by less well known twentieth-century British composers. For example, since being appointed Proms director in April 2007 he has not programmed a single symphony by Malcolm Arnold , Robert Simpson , Edmund Rubbra or William A

On your guard for the 2013 BBC Proms

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Tomorrow the 2013 BBC Proms start with the appealing combination of Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony . I have lost count of how many Proms I have attended, and some years ago wrote here that "I am a huge fan of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts... they have changed my life". This year season quite rightly celebrates the Wagner bicentennial, but my enthusiasm for the Proms in their current guise is moderated by the wish expressed by Hans Sachs in the concluding monologue of Die Meistersinger that Art be kept genuine. So, on the eve of the new Proms season, I am setting down some thoughts on how Art, as it finds expression at the BBC Proms, can be kept genuine. These thoughts are often at variance with the coverage found elsewhere - see header graphic - and for that I am unapologetic. For years I have been critical of the BBC's stewardship of classical music , a stance that has lost me many friends and followers .