Thanks to an astute reader for posting a comment to yesterday’s article, pointing out an item of interest at the New Hampshire Music Festival (NHMF) website. The reader noticed that the NHMF website features a picture of Festival Director, Henry Fogel, on the home page along with a related press notice but there is no musician roster listed anywhere throughout the website. This touches on an old topic, dating all the way back to one of Adaptistration’s very first articles from 11/6/2003 titled I Go To The Symphony For Their Executive Director?…
Buh!?!
Things That Make you Go “Buh?” Brooklyn Phil
The 4/14/2009 edition of The Brooklyn Paper published an article by Mike McLaughlin that reports composer Nathan Currier is suing the Brooklyn Philharmonic for making him cut sections of his piece, Gaian Variations, during the 2004 world premiere. According to the article, then Brooklyn Phil Executive Director, Catherine Cahill, approached Currier during the concert-length performance’s second of two intermissions to talk about overtime issues related to the work’s length… The article …
Things That Make you Go “Buh?” NJSO
The 3/20/2009 edition of the New York Times published an article by Dan Wakin that compares and contrasts the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons. Of particular note is the news that the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) is using orchestra musicians to reduce overall guest artist expenditures. Unfortunately, the way the programming decisions are presented sends a precarious message to ticket buyers…
Things That Make you Go “Buh?” Conductors
Does anyone else notice that conductors seem to be a bit more, shall we say, “artistically tempered” than usual? A few weeks ago, Ricardo Muti made headlines when he walked away from a gig for the Queen of England because he reportedly took issue with her programming suggestions and now the Boston Globe reports that conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky ditched a concert series with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) because he didn’t get equal billing with soloist, Lynn Harrell. Come on people; get a tighter grip on reality…
Things That Make You Go “Buh?” Overheard At The Opera
You have to shake your head at some of things you overhear during intermission. For example, this past Friday at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s opening night of LuLu (Marlis Petersen was fantastic), I was standing around during the first intermission minding my own business enjoying the view of the building’s grand foyer when two patrons walked up next to me and engaged in one of the most remarkable conversations I’ve overheard in some time…