The Music Salon: Friday Miscellanea

Friday, September 6, 2024

Friday Miscellanea

Another interesting post from On An Overgrown Path: Classical music has a lot to learn

In June and July 1945 Yehudi Menuhin performed at camps for “displaced persons” – Holocaust survivors – including outside where the demolished Bergen-Belsen concentration camp had stood. He was deeply shocked by what he saw; yet in 1947 he returned to Germany to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the recently de-Nazified Wilhelm Furtwängler. Menuhin was the first Jewish musician to perform in post-World War II Germany, explaining that he did so in order to support the rehabilitation of German music and to help heal the spirit of the German people.
My header photo shows Menuhin playing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in 1966 with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by the now fashionably-reviled Herbert von Karan. The Jerusalem Cinematheque - Israel Film Archive describes that collaboration as an example of how "how music can still contribute to reconciliation today".

That's Herbert von Karajan, of course. Another great artist that participated in the use of classical music to heal the wounds of war was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who started his career touring prisoner of war camps for German soldiers.

When he was drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II in 1943, tending horses on the Russian Front, Fischer-Dieskau had just completed his secondary school studies and one semester at the Berlin Conservatory. He served in Grenadier Regiment 146 of the 65th Infantry Division south of Bologna in the winter of 1944–45 and entertained his comrades at soldiers' evenings behind the lines.
He was captured in Italy in 1945 and spent two years as an American prisoner of war. During that time, he sang Lieder in POW camps to homesick German soldiers.

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The Guardian reviews an interesting Proms concert: Prom 58: Orchestre de Paris/Mäkelä review – electrifying music-making from an elite team

The programme, at once crowd-pleasing and satisfyingly meaty, was about as Parisian as they come: Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune; Stravinsky’s Petrushka, written for Paris’s Ballets Russes; and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, one of this orchestra’s calling-cards. Each was played with the kind of care and technical precision that might seem merely polished in the context of a recording but was electrifying in the hall.

That's a program I would love to have heard--mostly for Petrushka which I revere, but have never heard in concert.

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I said the other day that opera is the most fantastically expensive art form ever--and symphony concerts are a close second. Here is an article that gives some details as to why: San Diego Symphony set for new era, after $125 million-plus concert hall redesign

To improve the sound quality of music in the hall, changes have been made from beneath the stage on up, including removing the outdated HVAC system that had been in the basement and caused distracting vibrations and mechanical humming for musicians during quiet instrumental passages. The hall’s new, state-of-the-art HVAC system — which is suspended between the ceiling of Jacobs Music Center and the parking lot above it — is virtually inaudible in the hall.
The stage is new and so are all the seats for concertgoers, nine rows of which have been removed. The rear of the stage now has a new two-level choral terrace for performances that team the orchestra with vocal ensembles. For singing-free concerts, the terrace will provide up to 90 additional seats that will put audience members this close to the performers on stage.
The entire stage floor has been replaced with a white oak hardwood floor designed with musical resonance in mind. Acoustical tuning chambers have been designed and installed on the stage walls and rear walls throughout the hall. Each multilayered wall now has exterior floor-to-ceiling metal mesh, sometimes known as banker’s wire, to additionally improve the sound quality.

The difference between hearing classical music in a well-designed space and in ad hoc places like churches, gymnasiums, plain old halls and, shudder, pubs (something recommended by those trying to make classical music more "relevant") is enormous.

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Opera Philadelphia will offer all tickets for $11 all season long

The first production in which this ticketing model will occur will be in September for the American premiere of “The Listeners,” by Philadelphia-area composer Missy Mazzoli (“Breaking the Waves,” 2016). Costanzo said it will be the most expensive opera the company has ever attempted.
The opera is about a band of people who experience a mysterious and unidentifiable sound. The group then becomes vulnerable to the proclamations of a cult-like leader, which Costanzo says will resonate with the current election cycle.
It’s an ambitious production, particularly for a company still recovering from debt incurred during the pandemic, which forced Opera Philadelphia to postpone productions to future seasons and cancel its season-opening festival.
“When I took office on June 1, I did a lot of unraveling of the budget and I quickly realized that we had not only unpaid bills, but we had a cash shortfall,” Costanzo said. “We had to raise a lot of money quickly.”

Which they did:

He said he has raised $7 million in about 10 weeks, which allowed the company to settle its debts. Costanzo attributes the success of his fundraising, in part, to the new “pick-your-price” ticketing model.
“That fundraising is not only subsidizing this ticketing model, but a lot of it is inspired by this ticketing model,” he said. “Once you step into that opera house and you see demographically how different it feels because of pick-your-price, it’s going to inspire not only individuals to give, but I think the civic action will inspire corporations and foundations.”

I just hope that they aren't paying the musicians minimum wage...

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And while we are on the topic, WHO’S MAKING HOW MUCH AT THE NY PHIL

The accounts are in for the fiscal year ending August 2023, and here are the top earners:
Music director Van Zweden (via Bajada Productions) … $1,525,711
Executive director Deborah Borda … $1,317,344 plus $400,000 bonus
Incoming CEO Gary Ginstling … $117,262 plus $55,000 bonus
Concertmaster Frank Huang … $361,713 plus $548,139 in bonuses
Principal oboe Liang Wang (pictured) … $253,524 plus $326,520
Principal clarinet Anthony McGill $394,715.

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What I'm reading:

The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Joseph and Henderson, eds.)

Dictionary of the Khazars: a lexicon novel, Milorad Pavić

The Gulag Archipelago, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

Art in Theory 1900 - 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, (Harrison and Wood, eds.)

And on deck: The Cambridge Companion to Bruckner (Williamson, editor)

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Now for some listening. First up, Bruckner, Symphony No 1, Paavo Järvi, Frankfurt Radio Symphony