Special Year-End Musical Awards

Today Daniel J. Wakin of the New York Times offered his own list of awards modeled upon the plethora of other prizes presented at year's end.  While mentioning the many musical organizations in serious financial hardship (I did not know that the Utica Symphony had gone under), he did also make note of some of the year's highlights, including:

• Deborah Voigt's appearance in the lead role of Annie, Get Your Gun, possibly the opera world's coolest act since Beverly Sills' episode with the Muppets, and

• "the happiest final chord" presented to my beloved Detroit Symphony, as it concluded a gut-wrenching six-month strike with a concert in which the audience embraced their orchestra with "an outpouring of warmth and enthusiasm from the audience, showing, if only for an evening, what music can mean to a city."

The entire awards list can be found here.

We have to admit....

....that James Levine's career as a conductor has come to a close.  The New York Times announced here that he has cancelled all performances through the end of the 2012-13 season (which has yet to be announced).  It is clearly obvious that Maestro Levine's health problems are far worse than have been reported.

As I have said in previous posts, this is a sad way for one of the greats of our time to exit the stage.  Mr. Levine first conducted a Met performance of Tosca in 1971 and was named its principal conductor in 1973.  Since that time, he has led over 2500 performances and turned the Met Orchestra into one of the finest ensembles in the world, offering a series of concerts from both the Met stage as well as Carnegie Hall.

The management at the Met has already named Fabio Luisi its principal conductor until Levine would be able to return.  Given his recurrent health issues (which seem primarily focused on severe back pain) and the fact that he turns 70 in 2013, it is difficult to imagine Levine's return to the podium.  One can only hope that the organization will offer an appropriate tribute to the conductor who has made the company among the best in the world.

* * * * * * * * * *

In other musical news around the globe:

• After finally admitting that nothing can be done to improve the acoustics in its pit, the Sydney Opera Orchestra will actually play in another room(!) with the sound transmitted electronically into the house during next year's Australian premiere of Korngold's Die Tote Stadt.
• Iris Wagner, great-granddaughter of the composer is suing the Bayreuth Wagner Foundation and the city of Leipzig for her share of Richard's Bechstein.
• Anthony Tommasini writes here of a resurgence among orchestras for new music!  He notes, among the events at the New York Philharmonic that music director Alan Gilbert has elected to end the season at the Park Avenue Armory, one of few spaces large enough to accommodate a performance of Stockhausen's Gruppen.  This entire article is a great read, discussing the uses of alternative performance spaces as well as new voices in "classical" music and opera.

This is optimism?

OK, so I'm trying to stay high about Detroit, its sports teams (hey, the Tigers won their division and the Lions are a vast improvement from the 0-16 season of 2008) and in particular, its symphony--one of the first orchestras I ever heard in the flesh.  But one has to wonder when one reads:

2010-11 deficit:  $1.8 million, even though the season didn't begin (and no one was paid) until April.  Of course that was much better than the $5.3 million deficit the previous year.

2011-12 deficit (projected):  $3 million.

2011-12 ticket income (projected): $5.7 million, down from $7.2 million before the strike.

And lest we forget, the orchestra still owes $54 million on the "Max," the orchestra's new music center (a significant addition to historic Orchestra Hall).  In actuality, the entire bill was paid in full before DSO management decided to invest the contributions instead of using the gifts as intended.  The economy tanked (particularly in the Motor City) and the rest is, well....read it all here.

Does a great (truly) singer make for an acceptable conductor?

A review of the Met's Madama Butterfly just in from the New York Times.  Arguably the greatest tenor of our time, Placido Domingo, is now extending his career by stepping off the stage and into the orchestra pit.  This is not the first less than glowing review I have read of a musician whom I admire greatly.  Of course, even though he is nearly 71 and still (mostly) in possession of that incredible sound, Domingo is obviously too old to be convincing in the many roles (136 as of July 2011!) that he has played.

Interestingly enough, Domingo made one of his major debuts (New York City Opera) in Madama Butterfly in 1965.  He has opened the season of the Metropolitan Opera a record 21 times.  To say that he has sung everywhere would not be hyperbole. 

I have always considered him to be a class act.  I'd much rather see him bow out as a conductor than possibly become a caricature of one.

Musical chairs or falling dominos: Levine...Chailly...who's next?

Conductor James Levine, still the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera (even though it is not known when--or if--he will ever conduct there again) stepped down from his role with the Boston Symphony last season.  As has been the case in New York, his performances in Boston were frequently cancelled due to a variety of health issues.

The New York Times reported today that Ricardo Chailly, leader of the famed Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, has cancelled his own upcoming concerts with the BSO.  Seen by many as a possible heir apparent for the vacant position, this is certainly damaging to his future opportunities with the orchestra.  Read more here.

While an ensemble the stature of the Boston Symphony will surely have no difficulty finding "suitable" replacements for the programs, this does set the orchestra back from its quest of obtaining a permanent music director.  This writer hopes that the organization does not take the "New York/Chicago route" of hiring an "elder statesman" (such as Lorin Maazel or Bernard Heitink) to serve as a kind of caretaker until a music director is named.  To me, there remain a number of highly qualified candidates that might be lured away to what may be arguably America's greatest orchestra:  David Robertson (St. Louis Symphony) anyone?

A worldwide orchestra...

Here is the text to the new #1 song in the Netherlands, a "protest track" sung by many of that nation's leading popular singers and performed by the "Metropole Orchestra."  This is the musicians' response to anticipated cuts in government funding to Dutch cultural institutions.  May it resound around the world.


Miss the target words they seem to be powerless
Your hands empty silence in the absence of a story
Your eyes are just .. might get
They still speak a language unknown to me
.... No one to reach
You would like to scream, but where can you still hearing
The world makes you tired you dare not look at
So shut up and the roof because you do not voice calls

[Chorus:]
But if I sing to you you will shine
because that is the language that has everything
That your thoughts and dreams give wings
As a fire in the chill
If you feel cold and alone
And that puts an end to the silence around you
You are not alone

[Hook:]
Every heart an instrument
And the fate of the conductor
So you will agree with the rest
In a world orchestra

[Chorus:]
But if I sing to you you will shine
because that is the language that has everything
That your thoughts and dreams give wings
As a fire in the chill
If you feel cold and alone
And that puts an end to the silence around you
You are not alone
But if I sing to you you will shine
because that is the language that has everything
That your thoughts and dreams give wings

Your words they seem to lack purpose become powerless ...

The video can be found here.

The highest paid conductor

The Dude

Currently it's Gustavo Dudamel.  The Dude rakes in somewhere between $1.4 million and $1.6 million/year.  Not bad for a part-time job (remembering that the average MD leads some ten sets of performances these days).  At the highest rate, he's only making $200,000 more than the LA Phil's General Manager, Deborah Borda, who allegedly works 60 hour weeks.  Is either of them worth the money being paid to them?  Judging from the financials, it's quite hard to argue.  For more information, check out this from the LA Times.