A Call For Elitism Classical music's audience needs to get younger, and fast, writes John Bennett, and getting the educated youth into the concert hall will require a controversial tactic. "Classical music has never been, nor should it be, a mass culture staple, but that doesn't mean its audience has to be doddering. High art has always been created to be enjoyed by those who are educated to appreciate it... So if the classical music establishment wants to lure young listeners, the real task is to reassert the absolute value of the Western art music tradition. In other words, classical music leaders must challenge today's entrenched post-counterculture relativism that sees a Schubert symphony as the equivalent of the latest White Stripes album." Boston Globe 05/27/04 

Terfel Wins Classical Brit Prize "Welsh bass baritone Bryn Terfel won the prizes for best album and male artist at this year's Classical Brit awards. Italian opera star Cecilia Bartoli was named best female artist at the event, held at London's Royal Albert Hall. British conductor Sir Simon Rattle won orchestral album of the year for his recording of Beethoven's Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic." BBC 05/26/04 

A Bad Night For Levine And The Met James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra finish up their Carnegie season on a down note. Why? "It's futile to speculate on whether any of this reflects the effects of recent public discussion of long-standing concerns about unexplained tremors in Mr. Levine's left arm and leg and whether tension was created in the orchestra by its members' willingness to voice their doubts in The New York Times in an article on May 1. The only effect one can state with certainty is the huge outpouring of love and support from the audience every time Mr. Levine conducts. The only reason to raise the issue is that one wants to find a reason for the poor quality beyond simple fatigue at the end of a long season." The New York Times 05/25/04 

Performing Music Remotely Over Internet2 Classical music organizations are finding ways to use Internet2, the next generation of internet, "with enough broadband capacity to transmit huge quantities of data, including CD-quality sound and DVD-quality images, at as much as 250 megabytes per second (more than 4,000 times the rate of a standard dial-up modem; more than 800 times that of a cable modem). The New World Symphony is using it a lot, setting up coaching sessions, lessons and other interactions with top-flight professionals around the country." The New York T imes 05/22/04 

Jansons Exits Pittsburgh America is a tough place to be a music director, and even some of the world's greatest conductors eventually decide that the constant strain is just more work than it's worth. Case in point: Mariss Jansons, who this weekend conducted his final performances at the helm of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. "Many things didn't work out the way he would have liked or else Jansons wouldn't be leaving so soon -- after only seven years. But he is a class act, a committed servant of the music and above all a good person." Jansons leaves the PSO an ensemble transformed, but with an uncertain artistic future. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/22/04 

Is Acoustic Science Killing the Concert Hall Acoustical engineering is an especially tricky business. Just ask anyone who has been in charge of designing the sound of a major concert hall over the last half-century. "Over the last 50 years, more computing power has been applied to acoustic data than ever before, but most big halls have turned out to be dry and pale frames for music." In fact, as acoustic science has advanced, concert halls have arguably regressed, sounding more like glorified loudspeakers or hi-fi sets than chambers of orchestral sound. Perhaps the problem is the desire to build a hall that can be all things to all people, or the corruption of our ears and minds by recorded sound. But whatever the problem, one thing seems clear: they just don't build 'em like they used to. The New York Times 05/22/04 

Why Crossover Rules How is it that classical "crossover" has come to dominate the classical music business? Indeed, most of the artists and recordings that dominate the classical list these days are crossover... BBC 05/26/04 

Small Town, Big Drama Another conductor controversy has broken out in a small North American city. This time the showdown is in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the board of the La Crosse Symphony has voted narrowly to dismiss conductor Amy Mills, after musicians in the orchestra complained bitterly about her musicianship. But some board members are furious at the way the vote was conducted, saying that two uncounted proxy votes in favor of Mills were not counted because they would have swung the vote in favor of retaining her past 2005. La Crosse Tribune 05/26/04 

Mimi And Rodolfo In Trafalgar Square The English National Opera will produce La Boheme this summer in the middle of Trafalgar Square. The production is expected to draw an audience of 8,000. Tens of thousands more are likely to spill over on to surrounding pavements, the steps of the National Gallery and any space near enough to catch the amplified sound. La Bohème is the first opera to be put on in the square, an event that will trump the impresario Raymond Gubbay's recent success in staging the same work in the Albert Hall." The Guardian (UK) 05/27/04