Missouri Classical Music News

I don't know of another choir anywhere quite like the St. Louis Chamber Chorus. A combination of unusual old and commissioned, new a cappella repertoire, diverse venues chosen to complement the programming, interesting and wide-ranging notes on the music and exacting standards make the Chamber Chorus stand out.

On Sunday afternoon, the ensemble's 51st season opener, "American Renaissance," was performed at Grace United Methodist Church. Most of the composers whose works artistic director Philip Barnes chose were late 19th-century New Englanders.

By the time we're older, say, retirement age, we don't usually think about learning to play an instrument, read music or learning how to sing. Most of us figure we fit into that old saying about old dogs and new tricks.

But the perception isn't reality, and thankfully so, says Marian Bowman of Springfield. Bowman, 59, retired from the Postal Service in 2002.

Looking for some worthwhile endeavors to occupy her time, she turned to music after seeing an ad for a group called Lowery Is Fun and Easy, or L.I.F.E. It's a national group sponsored by the Lowery Organ Company, based in Chicago, to try to get seniors involved in playing music (preferably on Lowery instruments, of course).

"I'd always had a desire to play some kind of instrument," Bowman says. "I thought, 'All right, I'll give it a try.'"

The L.I.F.E. ad claimed anyone, even newbies, would be able to learn 10 songs in 10 weeks. Bowman was doubtful going in, but says that's exactly what happened.

"I love it," she says. "I absolutely love it. I go more than 100 percent on this."

Bowman is one of about 30 members of the local L.I.F.E. group. . . .

The German Chancellor has joined the chorus of disapproval over an opera company's decision to cancel a Mozart opera production to avoid angering Muslims.

At the height Mozart's Idomeneo, the bloodstained King of Crete stumbles onstage and holds aloft the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad. "The gods are dead!" he calls out to the audience.

Mindful of the violent outrage triggered by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet in Denmark, and of a warning by Berlin security officials that they could not guarantee the opera house’s security in the event of similar protests, the bosses of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin decided to cancel performances of the show in the German capital.

Clara began the work, her most extended piano composition, in 1841 (150 years prior to its publication), as a Christmas present for her beloved Robert. At this point, she it was, who was a mere 22 years old. She originally wrote the Allegro and Scherzo (now movements I and III): the Adagio and Rondo were completed a month later in January 1842.

An entry of Robert's in their marriage diary (appertaining to her composing) reads,

'To have children and a husband who is always living in the realms of imagination do not go together with composing. (...) But Clara herself knows her main occupation is as a mother and I believe she is happy in the circumstances ...'

-- Clara Schumann: The Artist and The Woman, Nancy Reich, (Cornell, NY, 1985, revision 2001, page 215)

This relatively little known work is comfortably sandwiched between Brahms' Sonata in C Major Op 1 and Schumann's Kreisleriana Op 16, on a new release by the superlatively graceful United States pianist, Karen Kushner. . . .

Kushner's texturing and articulation in nuance and style weave a masterly performance. This solo CD is published by Palatine Records (PL 9-0503, distributed by Eroica Classical Recordings). It is a must for lovers of the great 19th century tradition of Romantic piano repertoire.

The Philadelphia Orchestra will become the first major U.S. orchestra to open its own online music store for consumers who want to download performances.

While other orchestras make their performances available online, they have done so through third-party distributors. The Philadelphia Orchestra will be the first in the U.S. to sell the downloads directly through its Web site, officials said.

``It's one more way we can address the changing media landscape and get the orchestra sound out there,'' spokeswoman Katherine Blodgett said Thursday.

Prices for MP3-format recordings range from about $5 for major works to $10 for full concerts. A CD-quality format called FLAC will cost a bit more.

They offer 256kbps MP3s or FLAC downloads -- 'without shackles,' as they put it. There are downsides -- for example, you can't download just one track from an album, you must purchase the whole album. But there are also upsides -- like being able to get copies of recent live performances that otherwise wouldn't be released.

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and music director David Robertson will be together through at least the rest of the decade.

The symphony, considered by many to be among the nation's top orchestras, announced last week that Robertson's contract has been extended two years through August 2010. The contract also includes a clause allowing both sides to extend it on an annual basis.



Terms were not disclosed. Robertson originally signed a three-year contract and began in St. Louis in 2005.

There’s a new contemporary music and visual arts series in town, ArtSounds, and its six-concert lineup for 2006-2007 begins this week at the Kansas City Art Institute. . . .

ArtSounds is a collaboration of faculty and students of the art institute and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where Paul Rudy also teaches. Its goal is to “explore cross-media expression through creative concert-making,” according to its first concert announcement.

“One of our selling points,” said Gibson, who has taught at the art institute and the conservatory, “is that conservatory students employ a certain rigor and discipline that artists can learn from, and art students exhibit a certain freedom and creativity that the conservatory student can benefit from.” . . .

“We’re not even calling them concerts,” Gibson said. “They’re events.”

The first program, for example, will include music by Rudy and George Crumb and visual montages by Reif in collaboration with KCAI faculty and students.

The goal is not simply to project images while music plays but to have the two elements inextricably linked, Gibson said.

“The art and music are equal partners. From the point of conception, there has been a theme, and it has been considered on every level.”

The Metropolitan Opera announced yesterday that it would begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Europe, rubbing shoulders with professional wrestling and rock concerts.

The broadcasts are part of a strategy by the Met’s new general manager, Peter Gelb, to widen the house’s appeal by branching out into new media. The Met also said on Wednesday that it was opening its vast archive of historic radio broadcast performances for streaming and downloading. And it is pursuing deals to have more than 100 performances a season streamed live on the Internet and digital radio. . . .

National CineMedia said it would transmit live operas to about 25 major markets and recorded versions to 25 smaller markets. CineMedia and the Met will together choose the markets, but they could include Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Kansas City, Denver, Cleveland, Phoenix, Nashville and Las Vegas, the company said.