REBOOTING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Since my last post was in JULY, it seemed about time that I reboot Score and Podium. I've not dropped the baton and fallen from the face of the earth; it's just that daily writing somehow ended up on the back burner. When I last wrote, the Berlin Phil was in the midst of a conductorial coronation, the Minnesota Orchestra was coming out of its management-imposed fog, the NY Phil was searching for a conductor (they still are) and much more.

Here are (from Anne Midgette at the Washington Post) some of the bigger stories of the year.

• Taylor Swift gave $50K to the Seattle Symphony in recognition of that orchestra's recording of John Luther Adams's Become Ocean.

• The deliberations of the Berlin Phil, held at a suburban church (frequent recording site) ended up with a no-decision. It wasn't until over a month later that the darkest of horses, Kiril Petrenko, was announced as the next MD of that august orchestra.

Kiril Petrenko

• Christoph Eschenbach is departing the National Symphony. About time. It's staggering to note that he is the highest-paid stick waver in the land. As earlier stated, Alan Gilbert is leaving New York; the silence of that "search" is eerily quiet. On a more recent note, Leonard Slatkin is retiring from the Detroit Symphony. He guided that ensemble through a near-crippling strike as well as the overall malaise that has hit that once-gilded city.

• Midgette speaks of "anti social media": "The pianist Valentina Lisitsa got her 15 minutes of fame when her earthy and graphic tweets about Ukranian and Russian politics led the Toronto Symphony to cancel her appearance. Another 10 minutes or so went to Jonas Tarm, the young composer who wrote a piece including an excerpt from a popular Nazi song who refused to discuss it with the New York Youth Symphony and then, when it canceled the work as a result, took to social media to cry censorship. What at first seemed an illustration of artists’ effective use of Twitter against lumbering big organizations, for better or worse, ultimately demonstrated that Twitter is a volatile and often misinformed tool, but a useful one to be able to play with in the 21st century."

• The opening of Cuba. Our president's move to improve relations with our southern neighbor has resulted in a quickening of cultural exchange, albeit primarily one-sided. Oslo Vanska and his amazing Minnesotans beat all others out of the gate with a concert tour in May. Subsequent performances have included jazz artists in Cuba and Cuban performers in the U.S. Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony led the Cuban National Orchestra in an October concert with pianist, Lang Lang.

From some of my own musings:

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony (now the wcfsymphony) continues to amaze with creative programming. If you want to hear Bach in the way that is closer to what he intended, their next performance (February) features the master's works at the Brown Derby, downtown Waterloo. Catch them if you can.

The Paris Philharmonie has opened to somewhat mixed reviews. One thing is certain: the exterior is damn ugly, reminding me of the crashed spaceships in the recently-release Star Wars film.

Lincoln Center will (again) be gutting the hall formerly known as Avery Fisher and leaving the Philharmonic on the street for two years. Where will they play? No one knows, but Alan Gilbert won't have to worry about it.

There's talk of building a new concert hall in London. Albert Hall is too damn big for anything but the Proms and others, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Festival Hall among them, are either aesthetically or acoustically deficient (or both). Much of this is predicated on Simon Rattle's return to the UK to lead the London Symphony. We'll see what happens.

Her Royal Highness has to be ashamed...

A concert hall or a car dealership?

As always, these are just a few of the highlights. In my next post, we'll try to catch up with an extremely exciting season with the Quad City Wind Ensemble.