On An Overgrown Path

This story is simply about the facts. In October 2007 Klaus Heymann sued Penguin Books, in London's High Court of Justice over the publication of a book by Norman Lebrecht. Naxos founder Heymann said ' Maestros, Masterpieces & Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the Classical Record Industry ' wrongly accused him of “serious business malpractices” and cited at least fifteen statements in it as being inaccurate. As a result of the action Lebrecht's publisher withdrew and pulped all copies, and at the time I commented on the reluctance of the UK media to cover what should have been a high profile story. You can read authoritative coverage here - in the New York Times . Four years later nothing has changed. Lebrecht has a nice little gig going with the BBC and Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal , and you will find few UK journalists daring to comment on his serial inaccuracies . But overseas commentators are braver and, as an example, American in F...

One of them, stone by stone, followed me across the Atlantic a score of years later, and got itself set up within convenient reach of me when I most needed to see what a cloister looked like, and what kind of place a man might live in, to live according to his rational nature and not like a stray dog. St. Michel-de-Cuxa is all fixed up in a special and considerably tidy little museum in an uptown park, in New York, overlooking the Hudson River, in such a way that you don't recall what kind of city you are in. It is called The Cloisters. Synthetic as it is, it still preserves enough of its own reality to be a reproach to everything else around it, except the trees and the Palisades. That is Thomas Merton writing in his early autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain . He was born in the Catalonian town of Prades a short distance from the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa , which is seen in my accompanying photos. During the French Revolution much of the Romanesque abbey, including the ...

I used to read Gramophone and subscribed to it for quite some time. I cancelled my subscription 15 years ago and have not missed it. The main reason for the Gramophone's demise is simply that what represents the core of their interests, recorded classical music, is a barely alive dinosaur. Classical music is better represented these days by live events. What makes the news is not a new recording of Beethoven’s 9 symphonies by Chailly and the Gewandhaus but the fact that these artists are touring in many capitals around the world to perform them. TV with specialized channels like Europe’s mezzo, Radio and Web-based radio, Web concert from concert hall acting as producers have replaced recorded music as the mean by which we discover and hear music. (I hate to quote myself but have a look here and here among many others …). Similarly, every Opera house is following the steps of the Met with their live relays in movie theaters. Live Music is where things happen and technology has m...

I am taking the summer off music ... Salzburg has the worst offering since I can remember, Bayreuth is its usual self, I have no trips planned to London and do not held the BBC Proms in the same respect as you because of the very poor acoustics. I am basically relaxing and much to my surprise am not missing music. Is it me or is it the music ? Emails a regular reader, occasional Overgrown Path contibutor and veteran festival goer Antoine Leboyer . Antoine also writes for the French classical music site ConcertoNet where his review for a Gustavo Dudamel Prom was memorably headlined Faut-il fermer le Royal Albert Hall - Should they close the Royal Albert Hall? Last night a sold-out Snape Maltings rocked to Music from the Penguin Café , Arthur Jeffes' tribute to the famous Penguin Café Orchestra. This influential band was founded by his father Simon Jeffes in the 1970s and featured here earlier this year in Randomness is a very special thing . As we drove home last night after see...

As France moves into Nicolas Sarkozy's new Presidency here is an exclusive report from Paris by Antoine Leboyer on the worrying changes at a historic music venue: If we are to be offended by the appearance of West End star Michael Ball for one evening at the BBC Proms , what should we say about the virtual disappearance of classical music from Paris’ historic Le Châtelet ? Built in the second half of the 19th century, Le Châtelet used to be a venue that presented all types of music, from operas, ballet, and operettas to classical music concerts. Mahler conducted there and the theatre hosted several seasons of the Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes . Le Châtelet then focused on light music and operettas until the 1980s when the City of Paris administration ran it as a “competitor” to the Paris Opera . The theatre was run by Stéphane Lissner before he moved to the Aix Festival , the Wiener Festwochen and then La Scala , and by Jean-Pierre Brossman after his time at the Lyon Opera . Very q...

My article reporting Claudio Abbado’s negative views on French orchestras certainly generated a lot of attention, including a response from Parisian Antoine Leboyer which corrected the myth that Abbado hadn’t actually conducted a French orchestra. Too much attention is given to British and American orchestras here On An Overgrown Path and elsewhere, and I was delighted when Antoine offered to give an inside view on the musical health of the French capital. So here is a guest blog from Paris with the truth about those French orchestras that Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding love to hate: Let us put things in perspective with a few words on French orchestras. Abbado may not have had the best of experiences, and he may still not find it perfect today but things are improving. Paris has many orchestras (I do not know those outside Paris well, and cannot comment on them; I do have regards for the Lyon Orchestra which played some great concerts when David Robertson was their music direct...

Reader Antoine Leboyer writes to point out that the New York Philharmonic has made its programme archive available online and that the archive shows how past programmes were far more varied than those played today. Here are just some of the composers that Antoine highlights from past concerts by the orchestra: Siniaglia, Busoni, Bosi, Chadwick, Stanford, Loeffler, McDowell, Hadley, Goldmark, Pfitzner, Enesco, Vieuxtemps and Grétry. Antoine also remarks on how Webern's music has virtually disappeared from New York concerts in recent years. One of the many confidence tricks of the digital era is how a long tail of cultural riches was promised , but a short head immaculately coiffed by audience whoring celebrities was actually delivered. I suggest that one of the key search criteria for the New York Philharmonic's new music director should be a passion for giving audiences permission to like unfamiliar music . Graphic is grabbed from the New York Philarmonic archive lan...

One of the classical music industry's many paradoxes is that contemporary business practices such as marketing and branding are de rigeur , yet elementary economics are ignored and sometimes even deliberately defied. A recent Overgrown Path post linked the economic concept of the tragedy of the commons - when the result of all members of an interest-based community trying to reap the greatest individual benefit from a shared resource results in the degradation of that shared resource - to the detrimental impact of new technologies such as streaming. While an earlier post pointed out the basic rules of supply and demand mean that the grossly inflated supply of classical music to a market with static or even declining demand is an accident waiting for a place to happen. Another economic law, that of diminishing marginal returns , states that there is a point beyond which the level of benefit gained is less than the amount of additional resource invested. News that the New...

In June last year contributor Antoine Leboyer wrote here about the trivialisation of music at Paris' venerable Théâtre du Châtelet with these prophetic words - ' There are no real operas save, perhaps, a rarity by Roussel which looks more like a vehicle for Bollywood director Sanjay Bhansali . Maybe this reflects the new director’s vision for classical music, but, for Parisian audiences, Le Châtelet is becoming the temple of crossover and mass-market entertainment'. Andrew Clements' review of the Roussel rarity, Padmâvatî, in today's Guardian confirms that Antoine's prediction was spot on - ' A director of real flair and imagination might breathe life into the piece. But the Châtelet production has been handed over to an all-Indian team led by Mumbai film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who has simply come up with a series of inert tableaux, to which some coarse acting and risible choreography adds nothing at all. It is just Bollywood camp, and even the o...

Last Friday evening at the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra played Supernova by Guillaume Connesson, a contemporary composer who featured here recently . I lamented to Antoine Leboyer , who introduced Connesson's music to me, that the BBC relay of the concert was marred by intrusive announcements by the Radio 3 presenter. Antoine explained that trop de talk is not unique to Radio 3, as this French joke shows: How do you recognize that you have tuned in to France Musique - the French equivalent of Radio 3 ? It is the one station where they speak all the time. John Cage is the famous champion of silence . But the following quote is from Cage's contemporary William Alwyn, and comes from the newly published biography of Alwyn titled The Innumerable Dance . I love silence. I love the beauty that lies hidden in silence. For silence in music, said Mozart, is of equal importance to sound. I was born in a time when silence could still be heard ... It is not far from silence to b...

This could indicate that the center of economic activity in classical music is no longer records but live events. On top, concert halls are the new recording studios and EMI LBO [leveraged buy out] was doomed from the start. That comments was added by Antoine Leboyer to What price Mahler ? Now Antoine is one of the few bloggers still writing what he thinks rather than what big music wants him to think and I can't disagree with his point. But the eclipse of the studio by the concert hall as a recording venue has many implications. Live recordings have been around for ages. But how many of your all time favourite discs come from concert recordings? A quick scan across my well-stocked shelves identifies only two, Richter and Gavrilov's Handel Suites and Bruno Maderna's Mahler Nine . Just recently a musician friend was lamenting the compromised technical, musical and emotional quality of the new generation of orchestra label live recordings. This guy has good ears and he ...

'Culturally sensitive, yes; but journalism on bended knee, no' - BBC spokesman on negotiations to set up the aborted Saudi-BBC satellite news channel in 1994. I was reminded of those words while reading Antoine Leboyer's new post about the BBC Proms . Is it a coincidence that 'BBC Radio 3' rhymes with 'BBC bended knee'? Read more from culturally sensitive Antoine in The truth about those French orchestras . Header photo is of a hoarding outside the opera house in Nantes, France and is (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010 (Translation - 'To make a film you must be in love' ). Quote comes via Al-Jazeera by Hugh Miles. 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). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

In a comment on my post about Stokowski the technology visionary , Antoine Leboyer observes that "Karajan also understood the importance of the medium as a message... these days, Karajan's and Stokowski's style have made them out of fashion but who has taken their place?" Who indeed? Herbert von Karajan was a technology enthusiast and his close friends included Sony executive Norio Ohga who was a key figure in the development of the Compact Disc . Like Stokowski, Karajan regarded technology as a servant that could help him achieve his artistic ideals. This attitude contrasts sharply with today's leading musicians who see new technology as a master that has to be obeyed without question . Who among today's celebrity maestros is playing an active role in freeing recorded sound from its straightjacket of compression ? Antoine's observation that Karajan's style has gone out of fashion applies far beyond technology. Today it is modish to dismiss Ka...

Another much needed move towards equality in classical music comes with the appointment of African-American Thomas Wilkins (above) to the post of Youth and Family Concerts Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra . A few nights back we saw Genius Within: The Inner life of Glenn Gould , aka 'the Foss family movie'. Glenn Gould's " we could be looking at thousands of dollars " radio documentary about Petula Clark gets a mention in the movie but her groundbreaking pressing the flesh with Harry Belafonte on prime time American TV in 1968 does not, so here is the link . Photo of Thomas Wilkins with San Diego Symphony at the Salk Institute credited to PeteOnline.net Thanks for heads up to Antoine Leboyer . 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). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath ...

Been there, done that ... Now try it with candles. With thanks (again) to blogger sans frontieres Antoine Leboyer . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

That photo of Dean Dixon was taken during his tenure as music director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1964 to 1967*. Despite being a maestro abroad but a Negro in America , Dean Dixon's conducting was, thankfully, captured on numerous recordings . Just one example is his 1969 interpretation of Haydn's Symphony No 53 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks which can be heard online through this link provided by stalwart Overgrown Path reader Antoine Leboyer. Sadly Guyanese Rudolph Dunbar, who became the Berlin Philharmonic's first black conductor before his career was sabotaged by racism in the BBC , was not well served by recordings. There are a few of him playing jazz clarinet . But I have no knowledge of any recordings of Dunbar as a conductor. A report reached me of a researcher claiming that recordings of Dunbar conducting exist in an unnamed archive, but so far that has not been substantiated. Recordings of Dunbar's broadcast concerts ...

Citigroup Wins Legal Dispute Over EMI Group Deal . So, as I predicted in February, there is now a real possibility that EMI will breach its loan agreements causing control to pass to financial conglomerate Citigroup. This could start a firesale of the record company's assets. Do we need an international cultural exception? Also on Facebook and Twitter . With thanks to Antoine Leboyer for the heads up. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Guyanese-born Rudolph Dunbar wrote the definitive text book on the clarinet and had a burgeoning conducting career in the 1940s during which he conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra and in 1945 became the first black conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. But a 2007 Overgrown Path post profiling him explained how in the post-war period Dunbar's high profile career went into mysterious decline and how in 1988 he died in obscurity in London. Subsequent posts based on contributions from those who knew him suggested that intrigue inside the BBC ended his career . Now a remarkable video of Rudolph Dunbar talking in 1962 about his professional denouement has become available from RTBF/Belgium. The brief video from which the two still images are taken is in French, so a translation* is provided below. The video** can be viewed via this link . Please watch it even if you do not speak French; because it is an important and moving testament to the institutionalised discrimination that mo...