Dancing in the Dark with Bárbara Fritsche

October 9th, 2013

By Rachel Straus

Developing a proficiency in a dance form has its perks, especially if you travel. In any foreign city or town a dance studio can become your temporary home. Inside its four walls, you’re no longer a tourist. It doesn’t matter if you understand the language spoken by the teacher. Dance is overwhelmingly taught by copying what is demonstrated. A good set of eyes and a willing smile are crucial.

Take my recent experience in Madrid’s Centro de Danza Karen Taft with contemporary instructor Bárbara Fritsche. The class began at 8:45 p.m., when most U.S. studios are shuttering their doors. The school can be found in the barrio Chueca, famed for its gay bars and discos. As the street lights illumined, the black-clad Fritsche began her class without turning on a single overhead light. Only in Madrid, the city of the night, would teaching in the dark be just fine.

Fritsche explained in Spanish, inflected by her German accent, how her warm-up was set, how one should follow along as best as one can. The challenge of embodying Fritsche’s continuous motions, both exquisitely beautiful and organically fashioned, required every bit of my concentration. The goal became clear: To try not to hurt myself. I couldn’t bother with being nervous, maybe because I’d arrived on a red eye a few hours before and was exhausted. Maybe it was because Fritsche could see me about as well as I could see her, which it to say, not very.

In the gloom, Fritsche’s warmup gave clues to her dance experiences. (She is a graduate of Dresden’s famed Palucca School). Her warmup incorporates ballet’s leg articulations, the Graham technique’s contractions of the spine, the Humphrey-Limon technique’s fall and rebound, the Horton technique’s extreme side bends of the upper body, and the Release Technique’s ceaseless movement from floor to standing.  By the time we learned the culminating dance study, steadily built over the past four classes, I was drenched with sweat.

Since no one could execute her choreography with any degree of accuracy, Fritsche became mildly frustrated. Herein lies the downside of teaching open classes in big cities: Students come and go; their training is uneven, spotty or not extensive enough. Nonetheless, Fritsche didn’t dumb down her intermediate-advanced level class for the sake of her students. As was the case with Martha Graham, Fritsche appeared to find inspiration by performing her dance phrases. She made choreography, not routines. And her resume confirms this. Last year she was commissioned by Madrid’s leading contemporary dance troupe, Compania Nacional de Danza. She also performs; her body is in peak condition.

A little before 11:00 p.m., Fritsche ended the class. As is the tradition, everyone clapped. Perhaps because I wasn’t the greatest offender of Fritsche’s two-minute choreography, I was asked by my fellow classmates (four Spaniards, ages 20 to 30, and one Pennsylvanian on a Fullbright) when I would return. Soon, I said.  Soon!

Barbara Fritsche’s website page at Centro de Danza Karen Taft

Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Closed

To Russia with Love

October 8th, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid

Vladimir Putin has given the western world much reason for protest over the past year. There is the law banning homosexual “propaganda.” Two members of Pussy Riot still sit behind bars. According to some residents (and ex-residents) of the former Soviet Union, Russia is reverting to a full-blown totalitarian dictatorship. The businessman Michail Chodorkowski still sits in jail on dubious charges. Just last week, the government charged a Greenpeace ship crew with piracy following protests over an oil rig. Freedom of speech is not a given even on the internet.

Gidon Kremer, with his concert To Russia with Love at the Philharmonie yesterday—exactly seven years after the murder of journalist Anna Politkowskaja—set out to raise general awareness of the declining state for human rights. The foyer was lined with the stands of NGOs and non-profits: Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders, Osteuropa. A giant canvas hung for visitors to sign their name to the cause. But Kremer’s main motivation behind the concert, as he explains in an online video, was to counter the notion of music as entertainment. “Music should serve as a vehicle for expanding our emotions and confirming our ethics,” he says. He brought together coveted soloists with his ensemble Kremerata Baltica for a beautifully curated program that was streamed live on Arte .

It almost felt like a guilty pleasure to enjoy the artists under the circumstances. As Emmanuel Pahud and Khatia Buniatishvili performed a transcription of Lenski’s famous aria from Eugen Onegin, the flute’s luxurious tone bordered on the overly sentimental. Buniatishvili, in a floor-length, low back gown, also gave a virtuosic if flashy account of the agitated final movement from Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No.7. But, following the impassioned speech of human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, the music served a clear dramaturgical purpose. The concert opened with a poem by Herta Müller which resembled more of an informative speech: “Putin thinks he is the law…intimidation is daily fare.” Kremer led a soulful reading of the third movement from Mieczysław Weinberg’s Sinfonietta Nr.2 which gave way without a pause to an eerily hushed Allemande from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite Nr. 2 with Nicolas Altsteadt as soloist.

The cellist immediately switched to a bold, insistent tone for the last movement of Gubaidulina’s Seven Last Words, joined by bayan soloist Elsbeth Moser, who provided everything from atmospheric to ripping textures against glassy strings. The appearance of a Ukranian girls’ choir in traditional costume for Pärt’s Estonian Lullaby took on an appropriately ironic, if not tragic tone. It is worth noting that although the composer lives in Berlin, his work is rarely performed here.

Kremer’s lyrical taste in contemporary music found further expression in the premiere of Giya Kancheli’s Angels of Sorrow, dedicated to the 50th birthday of Chodorkowski. The Georgian composer blends solo violin, cello and piano into transcendent textures with choir, xylophone and string ensemble. When the approximately 20-minute piece breaks out into angry passages, they are quickly countered by celestial responses. A percussive melody to bass drum lends passages of the final section a Dies Irae quality, but the soothing choir and solo violin, even as it is reduced to wispy pizzicato, seem to reassure the listener that the heavens will have their way.

The second half of the program included moments of sardonic humor. Kremer, to impromptu accompaniment by Daniel Barenboim, took a deliberately modernist approach to the Rachmaninov/Kreisler Prayer which more often assumes the guise of feel-good film music. Martha Argerich brought playful energy to Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto alongside the ironic interjections of trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov. Music from Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov’s score to the film Target ended the evening on an upbeat note, from the free, tonal invention in Vivaldi’s January to the street scene of his Foxtrot.

Barenboim and Argerich joined for an encore of Schubert’s Grand Rondo in A-major, having warmed up to an even more gentle performance than last month at the Musikfest. Perhaps audiences in Berlin are simply spoiled, but one couldn’t help but perceive the music as an empty crowd-pleaser. As the listeners rose in enthusiastic applause, the atmosphere was one of prosperity and pride—less self-reflection than self-congratulation. A journalist sitting next to me noted how poorly Berlin’s Russian community was represented in the audience. Even intentions as sincere and courageous as those of Kremer’s intentions cannot escape the bourgeois trappings of classical music consumption. But he might have taken a step toward forcing the world to listen with different ears.

rebeccaschmid.info

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Modern Treats, and Andsnes

October 6th, 2013

Eivind Gullberg Jensen

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: October 6, 2013

MUNICH — The 1909 candy-box essays by Schönberg and Webern, Fünf Orchesterstücke and Sechs Stücke, can pass by gratuitously in uncommitted hands. Not so yesterday (Oct. 5) in a Munich Philharmonic program pairing them with Beethoven concertos.

Norwegian conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen, calm and assured, drew incisive, expressive performances. It has been a few seasons since we heard the orchestra on such form: the sly curlicues and jocular punches of Schönberg’s (Opus 16) First Piece contrasting bluntly with the foggy stasis and lunacy of his Third and Fourth; Webern’s sparing, pastoral collection (Opus 6) emerging in uncompromised dynamic extremes, much challenged by the Munich concert hall’s acoustics. A rare treat.

Leif Ove Andsnes’s luxuriant traversals of Beethoven’s Second and Fourth Piano Concertos felt like afterthoughts in context. Gullberg Jensen enforced elegance in the accompaniment to the awkward Second (in B-flat) after the Schönberg, at tempos somewhat drawn out. In the Fourth (G Major), which followed the Webern and was again taken leisurely, but with a firm pulse, Andsnes made impeccable sense of the lines and related Beethoven’s thoughts handsomely to each other. The MPhil played just as well in the concertos, reduced to half its size after the Modern scores.

Many seats were empty. It appears that the Lorin Maazel tenure is a negative for subscriber box-office, and high single-ticket prices deter spontaneous attendance at the disfigured 1985 Gasteig venue, even to hear a star pianist. The marketing staff must wish a pox on the city bureaucrats who drove former Generalmusikdirektor Christian Thielemann to Dresden.

Still image from video © Philharmonie Luxembourg

Related posts:
Honeck Honors Strauss
Trifonov’s Rach 3 Cocktail
Tutzing Returns to Brahms
Munich Phil Tries Kullervo
MPhil Vacuum: Maazel Out

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Posted in Munich Times | Comments Closed

Where Has Civilized Behavior Gone?

October 4th, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

“Hope you are having a good week,” ended an unwitting e-mail to me this morning. To begin with, my last week of deadline for the Directory is never good.

But look at the reports on Wednesday’s Musical America website: First is Carnegie Hall’s announcement that it was forced to cancel its opening-night gala because the piratical stagehands’ union, IATSE/Local 1, had gone on strike after a year without a new contract—on the Hall’s most important fund-raising date of the year, mind you. The union is miffed because its jurisdiction has not been expanded into the future operation of the Hall’s ambitious new educational program. Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director, Clive Gillinson, points out that the stagehands’ union has jurisdiction over the Hall’s concert venues, but that its attempt to worm its way (my phrase) into the non-performance educational program planned by the Hall has no precedent in New York City. The report in the Times that a union picketer was walking back and forth carrying an inflated rat in front of Carnegie Hall on the night of the gala—as clear a case I know of the pot calling the kettle black—particularly galls me.

The second website story: Why do ballet audiences go to the ballet? San Francisco Ballet dancers are understandably tired of being paid less than orchestra players (much less the stagehands, I presume), so they may go on strike, cancelling the company’s impending Lincoln Center engagements. [Friday’s website reveals that the dancers’ arguments were given due consideration, a civilized response of wage parity to the musicians, and that they happily dispensed with talk of a strike!]

The third website story relates that Aaron Jay Kernis had resigned as the Minnesota Orchestra’s composer in residence the same day as Music Director Osmo Vänskä’s resignation due to a game of chicken between the musicians and the board of directors. The board had faced a $6 million deficit and decided to eliminate it in one fell swoop, offering the players a new contract with a draconian reduction in wages. The board locked out the orchestra and the players refused to talk until the lockout was reversed. A last-minute effort to bridge the year-long impasse failed, the board cancelled maestro Vänskä’s pet project of a Sibelius symphony cycle at Carnegie Hall this season, and one of the most heralded artistic successes of the last decade was no more. The board claims to be in no hurry to re-enter negotiations, and cynics foresee dark times for orchestras in America.

New York City Opera tanked with a thud after 70 years, and the website printed a hard-nosed news story and a timeline of artistic accomplishment that detailed how the affordable “people’s opera” was brought to its knees by the inexplicable mismanagement of the past few years.

But even if America’s artistic life were in good order, every day this week brought new heights of rascality in our nation’s capitol and more evidence that the voting public was hopelessly gullible. How else to explain those who argued fervently that they wanted Affordable Health Care but didn’t want Obamacare?

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Does The Government Shut Down Also Shut Our Doors?

October 3rd, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law and Disorder:

I have several visa petitions pending as well as applications for Central Withholding Agreements. What impact will the government shutdown have? Do I need to be worried?

That depends on whether or not the lack of an operational government worries you. Granted, it hasn’t been that particularly operational for quite some time. Whenever my computer becomes non-functional, I find that shutting it down and turning it back on again sometimes helps. Perhaps this will have a similar effect. In the meantime, short of accepting the fact that it may be time to consider putting HM The Queen on our stamps and currency, here’s what we’ve got to work with:

Obtaining a visa involves three government agencies: (1) United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which reviews and (theoretically) approves visa petitions; (2) The United States Department of State which operates the U.S Embassies and Consulates where artists take their petition approvals, are interviewed, and apply for visas; and (3) United States Customs and Border Patrol which monitors all ports of entry and (more often than not) admits artists into the country. Applications for Central Withholding Agreements, on the other hand, are processed by the Internal Revenue Services (IRS).

1.      USCIS:

Because USCIS charges fees for visa petitions, it is not entirely dependent on

Congressional funding. As a result, at least for the immediate future, USCIS will remain open and will continue reviewing visa petitions with the customary unpredictability and quirky efficiency we have all learned to expect. However, visa petition fees do not cover all of USCIS’s operational costs. As a result, if the shutdown continues, you can expect to see increasing delays and slower processing times.

In the category of “every cloud has a silver lining”, a large number of petitions for non-arts related employment visa cannot be processed because they involve other federal agencies, such as the Department of Labor, which are completely closed. As a result, at least in the immediate future, you may actually see speedier processing times for O and P petitions as USCIS examiners find themselves with less petitions to review.

2.      U.S. Department of State (U.S. Consulates and Embassies):

Like visa petitions, visa applications and interviews at U.S. Consulates and Embassies, are “fee-based” and are not entirely dependent on Congressional funding. So the good news, such as it is, is that most U.S. Consulates and Embassies will continue interviewing applicants and processing visas…so long as the buildings remain open. That’s right, while consular services may continue, the longer the shutdown continues, the more likely that that staff support, security and other services will be cut off and the buildings and embassy compounds in which the consulates are located may be forced to close or restrict access.

Another concern is that, even where USCIS has approved a visa petition, citizens from certain countries (and you know who you are) require additional security clearances and background checks before the consulate can issue the visa. As other U.S. agencies are required for such clearances and checks, if these agencies close or shutdown, the visa applications dependent on these clearances cannot be processed.

As each U.S. Consulate maintains its own website, the best advice is to continually visit the website of whichever U.S. consulate you need to determine whether or not that consulate is open and functional. You can link to all consulate from the Department of State’s website: www.state.gov

3.      U.S. Customs and Border Patrol:

As their functions constitute law enforcement, CBP officials are considered “essential personnel.” As result, all borders and ports of entry will remain open and fully operational and there should be no immediate impact on the ability of visa holder to enter the U.S. However, as the shutdown progresses, staffing could may become more limited, resulting in longer lines and grumpier than usual CBP inspectors—especially given that “essential personnel” have the honor of being required to work without the requirement of being paid. Accordingly, you should plan connecting flights accordingly.

One additional note of concern is that the CBP website will not be maintained during the lapse in appropriations. As you may know, since May 1, CBP has no longer been issuing physical I-94 cards to indicate when an individual entered the U.S. and the length of their approved stay. Instead, that information is being entered electronically and, should someone need to verify that they are legally present in the U.S., they can use the CBP website to print out a copy of their “digital” I-94 card. Because approximately 6,000 CBP positions, primarily held by technicians and support staff, are impacted by the shutdown, the website will not be available. You should also expect delays in updating the system once it comes back on-line.

4.      Internal Revenue Service:

It should come as no surprise that the CWA program is considered “non-essential” and, as a result, the program was shut down along with the rest of the government. All processing of applications has stopped and will not resume until the government decides to re-open. At which time, you can expect a delays as the IRS agents attempt to catch up on the backlog. In the interim, engagement fees not covered by a CWA or other applicable withholding exemption, will be subject to 30% withholding.

Obviously, this is an ever changing situation and may have changed already by the time you read this. What has not changed, and is unlikely to change, is that when planning U.S. tours and performances of non-U.S. artists, you should always plan as far in advance as possible and allow as much time as possible. While we will continue to provide updates as they become available, you should also regularly monitor www.artistsfromabroad.org for the latest news.

__________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit www.gartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Artist Management, Arts Management, Central Withholding Agreements, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Taxes, Touring, Visas | Comments Closed

Back in the Trenches Again

September 26th, 2013

by Sedgwick Clark

The bloated pomposity of Lorin Maazel’s “interpretation” of the Star-Spangled Banner was the first reason PK swore off his concerts. I’m certain she would have been relieved initially by Alan Gilbert’s spiffy tempo last night at the New York Philharmonic’s season opener. But by the final cadence I could imagine her saying, “There’s no singing line. No freedom.” Ever the contrarian, I would point out that he slowed the tempo for the final couplet. “That was an intellectual decision—where was the feeling?” I can’t disagree. Loosen up, Maestro: It’s okay to love our national anthem.

I wanted to shout, “Sing out, Louise,” during Gilbert’s curiously muted performance of the concert’s first work, Ravel’s Dawn Song of the Jester, better known as Alborado del gracioso. There was no fun, no lilt, no rhythmic snap or abandon in fortissimos, no atmosphere or yearning in the quiet middle section. As usual with the Philharmonic strings in Avery Fisher Hall, massed pizzicatos—so important in this piece for their evocation of Spanish guitars—went for nothing. It doesn’t help that conductors these days see a pianissimo marking and have the strings play at the brink of audibility. Nor is it helpful to drape a (festive?) curtain over the back reflecting wall of the stage.

But everything changed the moment the evening’s soloist, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, walked onstage. Working with a musician with such a natural sense of rubato and expressiveness, Gilbert loosened up too. Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul, for cello and orchestra, bathes the listener in a half hour of lambent melody, and it was gorgeously played by all. Equally enticing was the tuneful Suite from Piazzolla’s La serie del Ángel, which followed.

The gala ended with a smashing performance of Ravel’s Boléro. The Philharmonic is in great shape these days, and it will be fun to compare this with the Philadelphia’s performance at Carnegie Hall’s opening next week.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):

9/28 Metropolitan Opera. Mozart: Così fan tutte. James Levine (cond.) Susanna Phillips (Fiordiligi), Isabel Leonard (Dorabella), Danielle de Niese (Despina), Matthew Polenzani (Ferrando), Rodion Pogossov (Guglielmo), Maurizio Muraro (Don Alfonso).

10/2 at 7:00. Carnegie Hall. Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Joshua Bell, violin; Esperanza Spalding , vocals and double bass. Tchaikovsky: Slavonic March. Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Ravel: Tzigane. Saint-Saëns: Bacchanale from Samson and Dalila. Performances by Esperanza Spalding. Ravel: Boléro.

10/3 Carnegie Hall. American Symphony Orchestra/Leon Botstein. Antheil: A Jazz Symphony. Griffes: Poem. Ruggles: Men and Mountains. Copland: Organ Symphony. Varèse: Amériques.

Posted in Why I Left Muncie | Comments Closed

Finding a Publicist for your Project

September 26th, 2013

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Having written an article in Musical America’s 2011 Directory entitled Getting Noticed in the 21st Century, I am often approached by young artists who are contemplating a variety of projects such as recordings or special concerts and who want to know how to get noticed for them. In my early years as an artist manager, it was common for publicists to build the majority of their business around clients who paid a year-round retainer. Times have changed and it would appear that virtually all of today’s most active publicists are open to taking on individual projects. However, they definitely have criteria for determining which to accept. It is my hope that this blog post will help to enlighten artists regarding how to maximize their chances for teaming up with an effective public relations representative and what the financial parameters of such an investment might be.

In speaking with various colleagues of mine in the public relations arena, I was not surprised to hear all of them say that the most important criteria for them in accepting a project are newsworthiness and quality. This would only seem logical, since it is the job of a publicist to attract as much attention as possible to an artist’s activities and in these times, that may be no small feat. There is considerably less coverage of new album releases than there was five to ten years ago and also less airplay. There are fewer arts critics on staff and consequently less performances being reviewed.  A concert performed by a relatively unknown artist which offers an interesting program (unusual repertoire or juxtaposition of repertoire, a newly discovered, original or commissioned work), and which might take place in an unusual venue, stands a greater chance of attracting coverage than one that consists of what would be considered “standard repertoire”, offered for no other reason than to make a debut in a particular city. A concert with a story behind it, such as an artist overcoming a hurdle in their life or returning to their home town to perform with the youth orchestra, is also more likely to attract attention.  A publicist may be far more inclined to take on a record release project if there is some touring around it that offers some of the same repertoire. Visits to individual markets on tour create more of a story and offer a broader context for coverage of the artist and their new release.  The publicists I spoke to also stressed the importance of a personal connection with the artist seeking to engage their services, meaning that they want to sense the artist’s passion for the project and feel that they can feel equally passionate about it. Rebecca Davis told me that her goal is to always work for clients who she hopes she can make people care about.

It would seem that the typical time span for an individual project might be anywhere from four to six months. Most publicists want to have at least two months before the concert or record release to lay the groundwork for coverage and two to three months afterward to follow up and prepare a proper report for the client. The average fee per month seems to range from $1500 to $3000.

If an artist is far enough along in their career to benefit from and be able to afford a publicist’s ongoing services, working together initially on a project might be an excellent way to assess the potential chemistry and effectiveness of such a collaboration. Often an artist will discover that the publicist has valuable advice to offer, ranging from using their social media contacts more effectively to finding the perfect concert attire. Amanda Sweet, President of Bucklesweet Media, told me that when she took on the New West Guitar Group, they had no manager. She gave them advice about how to promote themselves, how to seek a recording partner, and how to reach out to presenters, especially universities. Veteran publicist Jay K. Hoffman told me that he works closely with an artist on strategically enhancing the potential interest in their project. He called it “finding a format to make an event one of a kind”. If an artist approaches him about an all-Bach concert, he might suggest that they present it at 8:00 but follow it up with a short “after concert” of totally different repertoire at 10:30, providing they have the stamina for it!

I asked a number of the people I spoke to whether artists could hope to achieve coverage for their projects on their own, without the assistance of a publicist. Not one of them said no, although they cautioned that it involved a lot of persistence and very hard work. Some were kind enough to give me pointers which I will share very soon in a follow-up column on this subject.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2013

Posted in Ask Edna, Publicity and Promotion | Comments Closed

Visas for Recording Artists

September 25th, 2013

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law and Disorder:

If a foreign singer (who is not a citizen of a country that is eligible for the visa waiver program) gets a record deal in the USA, what kind of visa would they need to apply for? And if the singer is currently living in a different country with a residency permit, can they apply in that country where he or she is living, or would they need to return to their own country to apply for the visa? Thanks.

Thanks. This is an easy one.

To work in the US, which includes entering the US for the purposes of recording an album (regardless of whether or not the singer is paid), the singer would need to apply for an O-1B visa. An O-1B visa is for individual artists of “extraordinary ability.” To obtain the visa, a US-based petitioner (which could be the record label or an appointed agent) would need to prepare and file a visa petition with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). (Naturally, there are fees and costs to file the petition.)

Once the visa petition is approved, USCIS will issue an “approval notice.” The singer will need that to make an appointment at a US Consulate and schedule a visa interview. He or she will need to complete an on-line application form and pay a visa application fee. However, the singer can go to any US Consulate in the world that is convenient for him or her. He or she does not have to return to their home country or even use the consulate in the country where they are a living. Any consulate in any country with a US flag outside will work. (Just make sure it’s a consulate that issues visas—not all do.) Assuming there are no problems with the background check, and assuming the singer is not from a country the US doesn’t like (which, sadly, is a larger list than you may think), the visa should be issued in 3 or 4 days.

There is a rare exception you should be aware of which may or may not be applicable. An artist is not required to have an artist visa to enter the US for the sole purpose of using a recording studio to record an album that will not be sold or distributed in the US, and provided there will be no public performances or concerts. If this applies, an artist only needs to have a visitor visa (unless they are citizen of a visa waiver country, in which case, they will only need their passport to enter as a visitor for up to 90-days.)

Remember, everything you could possibly want to know about visa and tax issues for foreign artists wishing to perform in the US, including things you didn’t even know you needed to know, can be found on: www.artistsfromabroad.org

__________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

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Posted in Artist Management, Arts Management, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Touring, Visas | Comments Closed

Ives: Violin Sonatas on CD

September 25th, 2013

Violin sonatas of Charles Ives on CD

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: September 25, 2013

MUNICH — Hilary Hahn threw a spotlight recently on benchmark American chamber music: the four violin sonatas of Charles Ives. Fond of the Third Sonata (1914), she recorded the whole cycle for Universal Music Group in 2009, up the Hudson Valley accompanied by Internet pianist Valentina Lisitsa. The scores are probing, refined and intimate here, bold and sovereign of spirit there. They make an engaging group, and a lucid one: Ives’s propensity for throwing in the kitchen sink faces the agreeable constraint of two voices. The First Sonata (1908), at least, attests to Yankee genius.

But the highly touted CD from Hahn and Lisitsa is one of a dozen Ives cycles around and, it turns out, has not always the most to say. The discreet Munich label ECM Records, for instance, sells a 1995 traversal by violinist Hansheinz Schneeberger and pianist Daniel Cholette. To this recording, made near Heidelberg, the duo brought twenty years’ experience playing Ives, and Schneeberger, at 69, a certain éminence, having premiered violin concertos of Frank Martin and Bartók in the 1950s.

Not surprisingly, Hahn is at her most persuasive in the 1914 work. Its central Allegro lights up the Deutsche Grammophon disc, buoyed throughout by Lisitsa’s gutsy playing. The last movement, which Schneeberger and Cholette allow to turn saccharine, is saved by Hahn’s sense of purpose and cool clean manner. Similar qualities bring shape to the extended and ambitious first movement, where the ECM pair sparsely limp along.

Schneeberger and Cholette excel elsewhere. Their masterful First Sonata finds Ives’s lyrical and energetic impulses deftly balanced, and its Largo cantabile — affectionate, never precious — is traced with palpable American style. Here Hahn and Lisitsa sound cursory and the violin part wants more personality.

The Second and Fourth sonatas are shorter. The Second (1910) shares thematic material with the First; it is a more direct and perhaps lesser work than the other three despite the nostalgic labels on its movements. Schneeberger, and only he, makes an effort to present it in independent colors.

The concise, perplexing Fourth (1916) bears the title Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting. Ives began its composition with a child’s playing ability in mind but soon veered off in dark and tricky directions. Hahn and Lisitsa find the sonata’s lyricism but not much else. Schneeberger and Cholette adopt a painfully slow pace in the middle movement, famously marked Largo—Allegro con slugarocko, lending gravitas. Cholette is forceful here. The ECM musicians then bathe in irony the truncated last movement, with its reference to Shall We Gather At the River? Ambiguity reigns as the music trails off.

Alternative readings of the Ives cycle include: Rafael Druian, violin, and John Simms, piano, recorded in 1956 (Mercury); Paul Zukofsky and Gilbert Kalish, 1963 (Folkways); Zukofsky and Kalish again, 1972 (Nonesuch); Millard Taylor and Frank Glazer, 1975 (Vox); János Négyesy and Cornelius Cardew, 1976 (Thorofon); Daniel Stepner and John Kirkpatrick, 1981 (MHS); Gregory Fulkerson and Robert Shannon, 1988 (Bridge); Alexander Ross and Richard Zimdars, 1992 (Bay Cities); Curt Thompson and Rodney Waters, 1998 (Naxos); Nobu Wakabayashi and Thomas Wise, 1999 (Arte Nova); and Lisa Tipton and Adrienne Kim, 2004 (Capstone).

Photos © Edition Zeitgenössische Musik and © Universal Music Group

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Martha Argerich at the Musikfest

September 20th, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid

The Musikfest, Berlin’s 20th-century music festival, took a welcome occasion to revisit the opus of Lutosławski upon his centenary this year. Following the appearances of guest ensembles such as the Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Staatskapelle Berlin performed his Mi-Parti (1976) under Music Director Daniel Barenboim alongside works by Beethoven and Verdi at the Philharmonie on September 15. The main event, however, was the appearance of Martha Argerich as soloist. The pianist is famous for her last-minute cancellations; health problems in recent years have further diminished public performances. She seemed in high spirits, however, as she and Barenboim took the stage. It is not to any pianist that he would cede the bench, having made the Beethoven Concertos something of a signature in performances which he has conducted from the piano with both his own orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Argerich’s touch can be feather-light or bold and spontaneous, much like Barenboim, but never sloppy. She created a playful atmosphere in the opening movement of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, in C-major, which reflects the composer’s high spirits shortly after arriving in Vienna. The orchestra responded with a hefty but elegant sound. In the following Largo, Argerich’s pianissimo was uncanny in its gentle quality that nevertheless carried to back of the hall. The strings of the Staatskapelle in fact struggled to match its beauty until the end of the movement, while solo clarinet passages were sensitively phrased. The musicians’ energy exploded in the Rondo. Barenboim revealed one of his main strengths as he leaned back and let the orchestra go, only to dig in unexpectedly to create powerful climaxes. At times he was clearly following Argerich’s lead as she swept through the galloping chords with a tremendous freedom but immaculate articulation.

In the wake of thunderous applause, Barenboim had to grab her elbow and force her to bow a second time. He also coaxed her to give an encore before joining for a four-hand work by Schubert. Their rapport was evident in the easy coordination between registers and homogenous phrasing, although Barenboim seemed to enjoy the spotlight more than Argerich. Mi-Parti, one of the most important works from Lutosławski’s middle period, opened the program in a finely-wrought execution which speaks to the care Barenboim has invested in every section of the orchestra over nearly two decades. The strings created a transparent, glassy backdrop for the fragmented entrances of individual wind instruments, a tapestry which recurs in a rigorous structure emulating medieval fabric that is colored differently on either side.

The coda evokes a spiritual realm, moving from a celeste and harp rhythms that are picked up by the timpani until the harp is plucked over muted but screeching strings. Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri (Four sacred songs), alternating devotional a-cappella with fully scored operatic drama, were more uneven in performance. The first sopranos of the Rundfunkchor Berlin sounded uncharacteristically under the weather in numbers such as Ave Maria and Laudi alle Vergine Maria, while the brass section in numbers such as Stabat Mater was slightly too Wagnerian for this listener. Nevertheless, it was impossible to resist the dramatic power of the final Te Deum as a male a-capella ensemble cedes to full chorus and orchestra, a direct expression of the personal faith Verdi managed to sublimate in his art.

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