Musical America Blogs

by Keith Clarke

Well done Arts Council England for putting a positive spin on these chilly times. In the face of tough cuts, the council decided to ditch the current funding arrangements and invite all arts organizations—currently funded or not—to put in a bid for some of the cash. There was a fantastic response, said chief exec Alan Davey, clearly moved by the success of the venture. Perhaps there would have been more room for amazement if no one had bothered.

Behind this “great response” was the chilly fact that some 600 of the form fillers will be given the cold shoulder. Into the valley ride the 600—but which 600? That is in the laps of the Arts Council gods.

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Meanwhile the council had more fun and games when it put out an announcement that it had set up a media partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s great media conglomerate News International. This was clearly good news, since the deal was “offering arts organisations the opportunity to gain profile across their titles.”

The announcement went on: “The partnership will include editorial content to help readers gain more of an understanding about a variety of artforms, as well as exclusive offers and promotions. We are now looking for arts organisations who would like to take advantage of this opportunity.”

No sooner had arts groups begun to put up the bunting and blow up balloons than the Arts Council withdrew the statement, went a bright shade of puce and apologized for a misunderstanding.

Clearly someone at the council had come up with the plan, and is no doubt now sitting in the Naughty Corner, pondering the wisdom of it all. The Arts Council is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is also responsible for dealing with competition issues in the media. And guess what? Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is currently trying to make his mind up whether to let Murdoch’s merry team take total control of broadcasting outfit considering BSkyB.

Curiously, this does not seem to have been reported in any of News Corp’s illustrious titles—The Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World (the last currently the center of attention over a phone hacking scandal).

Oh how they must have laughed at the Arts Council when the penny dropped.

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So MCT Community Theater felt obliged to apologize for listing Sarah Palin among characters who “would not be missed” in its production of Mikado. English National Opera has been running that gauntlet for a quarter of a century, with Jonathan Miller’s classic production returning again this month for a silver anniversary run.

Alfie Boe, who steps into the role of love-struck Nanki-Poo, must still have been in diapers when the production first opened, but Mikado veterans Richard Angas as the Mikado and Richard Suart as Ko-Ko will be on hand again to show him the ropes.

 Will there be a “Sarah Palin” moment? We’ll have to wait and see. But ENO has played a pretty daring game over the years. I remember Richard Suart telling me how he would compile his “little list” on the train up from his Kent home, and no one knew who was included until he stepped on stage to sing it.

It must have given the lawyers a few worrying moments over the years, but as far as I know no one has grown litigious as a result. Must be something to do with fair play and a well-developed sense of humor. Just like Sarah Palin, of course.

by Cathy Barbash

As China increasingly looks simultaneously outside and inside to triangulate its place in the cultural world, we find marvelously surreal mashed-up holiday entertainments scheduled. Let’s welcome in the Year of the Rabbit with an illustrated tour (with unexpected ending).

In the old days, the celebration of western holidays in Beijing was mostly confined to the expatriate community. Now, while many of us ring in the New Year with Viennese waltzes, Beijingers celebrate our New Year too, but with Chinese characteristics:

Top Chinese leaders watch Peking Opera in New Year gala (English.news.cn 2010-12-31 00:36:56)

Chinese top leaders Hu Jintao, Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang pose for a group photo with performers after watching Peking Opera in a gala to celebrate the New Year at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 30, 2010. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

Jump ahead to this week: The Year of the Rabbit hops in February 3. In addition to the Temple Fairs celebrating traditional Chinese culture, offering performances of Beijing Opera, acrobatics, cross-talk and traditional instruments, expats and Chinese hipsters flock to clubs for all genres of contemporary music, be it black metal or fusion Mongolian folk rock. A surviving fixture from last century however is the inevitable CCTV Spring Festival Gala Evening—think the marathon Guy Lombardo telecasts of our youth. Here are Chinese leaders congratulating and posing with the talent.

Li Changchun (front R), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, shakes hands with actors at the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala Evening at China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, China, Jan. 31, 2011. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

Li Changchun (3rd Row, C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, poses for a group photo with actors at the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala Evening at China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, China, Jan. 31, 2011. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

But wait, some local Beijing presenter has decided that if they can ring in the New Year with Beijing Opera, why not offer Strauss for Spring Festival? Listing from the Beijinger weekly:

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And there’s more western classical music later in the holiday week:

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And meanwhile in one of Beijing’s prime rock venues let’s not forget:

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My personal favorite illustration to multicultural holiday celebrations took place back in mid-December, however. (Full disclosure, I was one of the perpetrators.) The early music ensemble ¡Sacabuche! included residency activities and a few holiday concerts in their Beijing tour. Knowing the Chinese fondness for gambling, and wanting to program more than just Christmas carols, it was decided that their audiences might enjoy learning about some Hanukkah traditions, especially, playing dreidel. So they schlepped over a menorah, candles, Hanukkah gelt and 100 dreidels (of course, made in China). It was hilariously successful. (Photo by Ani Katz)

They say you should try any new life experience with the exception of incest and English country dancing, and that’s about the best excuse I can come up with for taking up the offer of a blogspot on this esteemed site. Does the world need another blog? Of course not. Feel free to log off and have a beer instead. But if you have any interest in an occasional glimpse at how the classical music world functions in London and the UK, I shall be doing my best to capture it in some shape or form.

The editor asks for something by way of introduction, so here goes. Having left school illegally early aged 15 to do a printing apprenticeship (which left me with an abiding love of typography and the smell of ink) I made the leap into the music business by way of the classical promotion department of Decca Records, then housed on the Albert Embankment with a fine view of Big Ben. (Well, the execs had the fine view; the rest of us watched the trains rolling towards Waterloo at the back.)

Decca was supposed to be a desk job, but with recordings being made just across Old Father Thames at Kingsway Hall and St John’s Smith Square it was not long before I started wangling my way into sessions, interviewing artists, turning pages, doing the kind of job that a 20-something couldn’t quite believe he was actually getting paid for. To have Pavarotti, Sutherland and Caballé belting out Puccini at very close quarters to an otherwise empty hall was the stuff that dreams were made of.

Back at the office, life was enlivened by unbelievably profiligate phone calls from Decca’s New York office, calls that would last for hours—tannoy messages would log the progress as New York made its way from one department to another. It seemed unbelievably exotic in a country that reckoned a three-minute call was just about affordable.

If that told me something about the way things worked in the American music business, there was another eye opener when Decca re-pressed the Solti Ring for the US market. The Ring took up a lot of vinyl, of course, but what captivated me was that for each of the operas, side one was coupled not with side two but with the final side. After a while the penny dropped: you guys played Götterdämmerung on an auto-changer!

That wacky discovery determined me to get across the Atlantic, and although Decca never sent me further than desolate seaside towns to give record recitals, my travel plans fell into place with subsequent jobs. A chance to edit the late lamented Music & Musicians magazine was followed by a spell at the BBC, before I ventured into Rhinegold Towers, where Classical Music magazine is published.

When I first climbed the stairs in the Theatreland building in Shaftesbury Avenue, I had little idea that I would still be tackling them 25 years later. A lot changed along the way. More magazines came along—Opera Now, International Piano, Choir & Organ among them—and while I have been editing Classical Music for 20 of its 35 years, for the last few I have worn an additional hat as managing editor of the whole bang shoot.

Then there was Musical America. I jumped aboard the website on set-up and have been scribbling for it ever since, finding myself volunteered to write for the directory too along the way. Over the years I got to meet up on both sides of the pond with the editors of website and directory, and I have to say, you are in very good hands, readers. Quite apart from their editorial skills, Susan Elliott wins my all-time prize for a sense of humor sharp enough to cut diamonds, and Sedge Clark is one of the most urbane and knowledgeable gentlemen I’ve ever had the pleasure to spend time with.

Visiting Ohai a few years ago I enjoyed meeting two music enthusiasts with 4×4 names—Alan Rich  and Alex Ross—both of them talking enthusiastically about blogging. If it was good enough for them, who am I to turn down the chance now that MusicalAmerica has come knocking?

The editor would like an idea of  what I’ll be writing about. So would I. At a time of deep recession, when Arts Council England has torn up the whole system and got everyone to reapply for funding, it seems a fair bet that arts cuts will be a recurring theme. With the 2012 London Olympics just around the corner there will no doubt be observations to be made about the associated culture programme (though given the state of the London Underground they would be wise to cancel the whole thing even at this late stage). And no doubt the realities of UK musical life will be popping up—it sent out quite a strong message when players from the troubled Scottish Opera orchestra started applying for cleaning jobs.

Beyond that, what pops up here is anyone’s guess. If it turns out to be a load of codswallop, let the editor know. I could always try English country dancing instead.