Friday Miscellanea

A little late today because I was on an airplane this morning.

Singer Mary Bevan details in The Guardian just how awful the virus lockdown has been for self-employed musicians:

We are trained to sing everything from opera to oratorio, madrigals to musicals, in many different languages, all of which have to be to the highest possible standard in order to meaningfully convey the text. The mental load can be exhausting, and many musicians find it hard to maintain relationships and friendships when our job requires you to travel often and for weeks at a time. I’ve missed weddings, birthdays and holidays. I’m not complaining – most of us are workaholics and love the high-pressure nature of our work. My point is this job is a labour of love which no one undertakes lightly, and certainly none of us are in it for the financial security it offers. (Over half of musicians surveyed by the Musicians Union in 2012 earned less than £20k per annum. Only 5% of those surveyed earned over £50k.) But what do you do when your means of earning anything at all is suddenly taken away?

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Here is a little teaser for Igor Levit's new album containing a lot of music rarely heard in concert including this piece by Morton Feldman, his last for piano:

 I must admit that I have a special fondness for the ethereal music of Feldman.

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The New York Times has an article on composer Osvaldo Golijov who disappeared from sight for a decade: After a Decade of Silence, a Composer Reappears.

Around the turn of the millennium, he had been one of the most feted stars on the classical scene, his success reflected in loud ovations, Grammys, a MacArthur “genius” grant and a concerto for Yo-Yo Ma. A Lincoln Center festival was devoted to his polyglot music, works like “La Pasión Según San Marcos” and “Ainadamar.” A once-in-a-lifetime prize beckoned: The Metropolitan Opera commissioned a new opera from him.

But though he started work on a retelling of the Iphigenia myth, about a father who sacrifices his daughter, nothing clicked, and the collaboration with the Met fizzled. He missed other important deadlines. A work in which he repurposed material developed in collaboration with a colleague drew accusations of plagiarism. Over the past 10 years, he has been all but silent.

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According to the Wall Street Journal the big musical innovators for 2020 are the Korean pop boy band BTS:

Well that was really, uh, beige. Michael Jackson blended with Katy Perry's millennial "whoop" in a kind of generic stew. Why does the WSJ like them?

In July, BTS broke the Guinness World Record for staging the biggest virtually attended livestream music performance, which attracted fans from over 100 countries. They miss the real thing, though. “That feeling [of being onstage] is really the best thrill I probably get in life. Even if I leave one day, I think I’ll be back for this,” says Jin, 27, of being onstage in front of BTS’s devoted fans, officially dubbed ARMY. The name stands for “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth,” though the demographics of the band’s fan base now extend well beyond that age group.

In part thanks to the ardor of the ARMY—which one count estimates as high as 48 million, based on online commentary by unique authors—the band is often called “the Beatles of the 21st century.” The group has exploded the familiar boy band recipe, taking the concept of fandom into new territory and developing the South Korean genre known as K-pop into a global force.

I guess we are still exploring just how commercialized music can be and still be styled "music."

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L.A. company offers a drive-in opera, but you have to leave the city to see it:

Further proof that the automobile has emerged as an unlikely savior of arts and culture in Southern California: Pacific Opera Project will become the second opera company in the region to stage a drive-in production when it opens “Covid fan Tutte” on Saturday.

Based on “Così fan Tutte,” Mozart’s lighthearted take on romantic fidelity, the POP production has an English libretto by Artistic Director Josh Shaw, who retooled the story for a thoroughly modern pandemic.

“Covid fan tutte” unfolds on a Southern California golf resort where two women are spending their quarantine. After the women fall for local caddies, a rich resort member bets the caddies that the women won’t remain truly faithful. When the caddies are furloughed, they return in disguise in an attempt to seduce their girlfriends — and prove that the women won’t stray.

Which goes to show that musicians will find a creative way out of the current difficulties, no matter how daunting the prospect seems at the moment.

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Orchestras are seeking out new ways to exist: A time for reinvention – don’t let the orchestra become a museum piece

For some time, the professional orchestra has battled for survival. Not only does it make no financial sense, it is more often than not perceived as an elitist pastime, with the musicians lucky to enjoy such a ‘hobby’. Orchestras are increasingly required to justify their existence and prove that they are essential to the communities in which they live. Now in the era of COVID-19, these problems have magnified.  Many freelance musicians are out of work, barely able to make a living at present. There was a brief month of excitement when concerts could return with restricted audiences, but as of this week venues have to close their doors again. 

During lockdown, orchestras fumbled around in the darkness trying to be heard and seen online competing with the myriad offerings on YouTube, Netflix, Prime and more. When they did make it onto a social media platform, did they begin to look like an anachronym, unable and reluctant to adapt to the full potential of the multi-media age?

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Time for some listening. Here is a really out there performance of Ligeti with Barbara Hannigan and Simon Rattle conducting the London Symphony:

And for balance, the Prelude and Fugue in B major from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach performed by Diego Ares: