a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston
Robert Levin, editor; Bettina A. Norton, executive editor; Lee Eiseman, publisher
News & Features
March 10, 2010
Japan to Accept Britten Score, 70 Years after its Commission
by BMINT STAFF
The Consul General of Japan in Boston, Masaru Tsuji, will be at the NEC Philharmonia concert at Jordan Hall this evening to receive a copy of the Benjamin Britten score, Sinfonia da Requiem. Originally commissioned by the Japanese government in 1940 for a celebration of the 2600th anniversary of that country, the composition was, according to Ben Zander, rejected because of its Christian movement titles and was never performed there.
Benjamin Zander, guest conductor of the NEC Philharmonia, notes, “We are deeply moved by Britten’s composition and by the grace of Japan’s esteemed diplomatic representative in receiving the score 70 years after the event.” [Click title for Ben Zander's Letter]
March 7, 2010
Explanation of Clarity versus Reverberation in Concert Acoustics
by David Griesinger
In his review here in the Intelligencer of the recent recital by violinist Thomas Zehetmair at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Christoph Wolff mentioned that the acoustics in the Stephen D. Bechtel Auditorium, designed primarily for symposia and lectures, “…was remarkably good in every respect. ” Wolff’s comment deserves some expansion on the [...]
March 5, 2010
Emmanuel Church Celebrates Institution of New Rector with Special Offering from Emmanuel Music
by BMINT STAFF
BMInt interviewed composer and Emmanuel Music director, John Harbison, and the Rev. Pamela L. Werntz, who is to be instituted as rector this Sunday. The 10:00 AM regular service will include Bach’s Cantata No. 163 in English, and a motet by James Primosch. The 3:00 PM special service of institution will feature a repeat of [...]
February 28, 2010
The Monteverdi Orfeo Film: Spectacular, Surreal, Stylish
by Bettina A. Norton
A film presentation of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, directed by René Jacobs and staged by the Trisha Brown Company at the Auditorium of the Louvre au Dimanche 21 février was sold out, my husband and I were told, but a quickly presented card from Boston Musical Intelligencer worked magic. The staff was delighted at the offer to [...]
February 22, 2010
A Birthday Note
by Mark DeVoto
On February 22 I celebrate Chopin’s birthday, not George Washington’s. Two hundred years ago today, one of the greatest Romantic geniuses was born near Warsaw, of French and Polish parentage. His amazing talents were already apparent when he was eight years old. By the time he was 16 he was writing music of permanent value, [...]
February 16, 2010
Is Classical Music Radio A Dying Technology?
by Richard Buell
WGBH’s spokesman, John Voci may be unintentionally right according to a BMInt commenter. The future for classical music broadcasting may be on the internet rather than from 100,000 watt radio towers, which, because of their cost of operation, require lowest common denominator programming. Richard Buell, a former Boston Globe critic, has a comprehensive website on [...]
February 13, 2010
Metropolis with Original Music, at the Berlin Film Festival
by Trobador
A Report from Europe: Will success spoil Gottfried Huppertz?
This was the question running through Trobador’s mind as he, along with a certain number of other European spectators, tuned in to an unusual television program last Friday on the Franco-German channel Arte. It transmitted the “première” of a legendary film, Metropolis (1927) of director Fritz Lang, [...]
February 10, 2010
Davies Develops Young People, New Music at NEC Festival
by Mark DeVoto
The last weekend in January brought the 20th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music at the New England Conservatory, and this year’s guest composer was an old friend of Boston, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music in the United Kingdom and at 75 the most illustrious living British composer. I can only report [...]
February 3, 2010
Latest Ratings Show WGBH Audience Flat and WCRB Down 14%
by Lee Eiseman
The WGBH and WCRB changes in format, which hundreds of BMInt readers lambasted, have not produced results likely to please management. The latest Arbitron reports, the first to show the response to the changes, show WGBH with the same listenership it had in October and WCRB with 14% less. On February 3rd this writer made a presentation on behalf of BMInt to a very courteous WGBH board board of directors:
Good Evening. I am like those at the table, a director of a Boston cultural non-profit. In my case it’s the Harvard Musical Association, where I have been director-at-large for twenty years and the chairman of the program committee for all of that time. So I can speak with authority on matters of classical music programming as well as fiduciary responsibility connected with a board seat. [Click title for complete article]
January 30, 2010
Divorce, Paris Opera Style: A Conductor Leaves the Podium
by Trobador
Trobador’s Paris Diary
Rumor has it that they are a hardbitten bunch, the players in the orchestra pit of the Paris Opera. And Trobador can vouch, from his couple of seasons of gigging around in France with Paris-Conservatory-trained instrumentalists, that the men and women of that milieu are a no-nonsense crowd. They like things on the [...]