Classical Music

Rv8 - Aoki Takamasa #mp3 #nowplaying

Roberto DiDomenico, dean of the NEC from 1969-1992, has died. He was 86.

For the full Reuters report, click here. (Reuters) - Italy‘s opera house La Scala will scale back on productions in the 2013-2014 season because of the economic crisis and lower state support, its general manager said on Thursday. Stephane Lissner told reporters the Milan theatre will reduce the number of operas to 10 instead of the [...]

S/o to my daddy for driving me last minute to fix my oboe. He da beeest

The Jerusalem conductor Frederic Chaslin keeps finding errors in Stravinsky’s published score. So which edition should he use?     Dear Norman I’m writing you because, like many conductors, I will be celebrating on May 29th the 100th anniversary of the “Rite of Spring”. I have been long complaining and fighting with publishers about the many mistakes [...]

Nathan Currier cannot comment on his current lawsuit against the Brooklyn Phil, but he’d like to share the following information:   I had a Symphony premiered with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra this past season, called Hildegard’s Symphony, which also has an environmental theme (albeit somewhat less explicit), as in the oratorio. Here’s a link to the video: Coming from the [...]

"If I can make a 6 year-old girl smile, I've done my job." ~Principal gamba player Andrew Arceci L'Académie has been able to share the healing joy of music with roughly 100 people each week at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The impact is immediate and positive and it’s because of YOUR support. Every chamber music program is carefully curated by our musicians to present the most joyful and healing musical experience. Each performance is received with tears, smiles, words of gratitude and MANY iPhone recordings of the performances. "Lunch can wait, the patients can wait. I don't know much about music, but THIS is EVERYTHING." ~visiting physician from Brigham and Women's Hospital Donate Now

It's not easy to choose a Friday Historical for Wagner Woche, and this extract dates from 1976, which in the grand scheme of things is not terribly historical. Nevertheless, there's a distinct sensation of "they don't make 'em like this any more" about Gwyneth Jones's Brunnhilde and Donald McIntyre's Wotan. This is the final scene of Die Walküre in Patrice Chéreau's tremendously human and humane staging from Bayreuth, conducted by the peerless Pierre Boulez. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} In case you missed my love letter to Big Richard on his birthday the other day, here's the link.

The Lewes Chamber Music Festival returns next month (7 - 9 June 2013), which will be the festival's second year. The theme of this year's festival is Fantasy and Fairytale, with music by Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert alongside lesser known works by Dohnanyi and Catoire, as well as Janacek's On an Overgrown Path and the world premiere of a new piece by Kate Whitley. Performers include the Clean String Quartet, baritone Jonathan McGovern, cellists, Amy Norrington and Guy Johnston, pianist Tom Poster, clarinettist Matt Hunt as well as violinist Beatrice Philips, who is also the artistic director. Actor Sam West will be providing readings. The concerts are held in church venues across Lewes and in Firle village, providing a more intimate experience than a formal concert hall. The festival opens on Friday 7 June with Haydn's Piano Trio in A flat Major HobXV, Beethoven's Clarinet Trio opus 11 in B flat and Dohnanyi's Piano Quintet opus 1. Later that night there is a rare performance of Georgy Catoire's String Quintet opus 16, which dates from 1901 and is by the Russian born, German trained Catoire (1861 - 1926). Saturday morning sees the premiere of Kate Whitley's Three pieces for violin and piano paired with music by Bridge, Janacek and Schubert. In the afternoon there are duos by Mozart and by Bartok, also Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, plus Pimms and strawberries! That evening Janacek's On an overgrown path is performed in an arrangement for clarinet, string quartet and organ, with Samuel West providing readings. The festival moves to Vienna for its first two concerts on Sunday 9 June, with music by both Viennese schools, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, as well as Korngold; including some of Schoenberg's early lieder and Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio. The festival finale features Weber's Clarinet Quintet, music for violin and piano by Catoire and by Szymanowski, plus Mendelssohn's Piano Trio and Faure's Piano Quartet. A feature of the festival is the way it uses a pool of young players to mix and match performers during and between concerts, giving you a chance to hear varied combinations of instruments and to catch performers in a variety of different roles over the weekend. They are playing some interesting and challenging music, in attractive surroundings. Let's hope the weather is kind too! Further information from the Lewes Chamber Music Festival website and you can see a trailer for the festival on YouTube.

Back on 2/24/2012 we examined emerging standards for web font sizes and it was a surprise to some folks that using 16px (or approx. 1em) for standard body font was recommended. Nonetheless, it is still surprising to encounter so many performing arts org websites that rely on 12px standards. All of the following screencaps were taken on 5/23/2013 and are from the first four orchestra websites that came to mind. Each one had a standard body font of 11px or 12px and even though I knew a number of orchestra websites were using tiny font sizes, it was still surprising to see 100 percent of the initial sampling fall into that category. But when it comes to readability and overall favorable user experiences, those are dangerously small sizes (details for why are in the 2012 article). Recent studies indicate that 16px is most common with 14px not far behind, but even 18px is used twice as much over 12px. There’s No Better Time Than The Present In an ideal arrangement, you already have direct control over typography settings such as the font size for body text and headlines and can, therefore, begin experimenting with sizing up and out of the 12px pit. If you don’t, you need to begin working on your web provider to get this change going. If they make the task sound like moving mountains then it’s high time to consider finding a new provider. Simply put, you aren’t going to catch up by going slower and web standards change at an increasing pace so you need to be in a position to have enough flexibility and control to make changes as needed. For more on this topic, head over to Jan Constantin’s excellent case study article, Typographic Design Patterns And Current Practices (2013 Edition), at SmashingMagazine.com where you’ll find a wealth of additional info on trends for headlines, typefaces, line heights, and a bevy of additional typographic treats.