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Is classical music “too classical” nowadays?

Clive Brown, professor of musicology at the University of Leeds, wrote a provocative article about the lack of improvisation in modern performances of classical music:

“Classical performance has lost much of the improvisatory element that was an essential part of its original character. This has resulted in a stiffly formal distortion of what the greatest composers and performers of the past expected.

The old musicians understood that there were many aspects of an effective and engaging performance that could not be embodied in the score. Tempo was often expected to be more flexible.

The John Hopkins University School of Medicine published the results of a study about the motor skill development and learning process. A team guided by Pablo A. Celnik made a test on 86 volunteers, asked to learn a computer-based motor skill. Those who quickly adjusted to a modified practice session the second time around performed better than when repeating their original task, the researchers found.

György Kurtág, 90 year-old, is one of the most important living composers. His love for Bach is reflected in his poetic Bach transcriptions for piano four hands. In the following video, Mr. Kurtág and his wife Márta play three of these transcriptions on an upright piano. Both of them are 90 year-old and it is impressive how they breath together and share this music with poetry and tenderness.

Click HERE to see the video

A revolutionary microphone

Professional recordings of a live concert or of a studio session have always been complex operations. They usually require multiple microphones and a careful mixing to give a natural and complete feedback of the performance.

Now things could drastically change, thanks to AudioImmersion. It is a new prototype for a ball-shaped device that simultaneously records live sounds from various sources on separate tracks with a single piece of equipment. AudioImmersion, realized by the Polish company Zylia, is able to save the recordings on a cloud as single tracks and to playback any single track (e.g.: a single instrument of an ensemble) without any editing or mixing work.

Babayan: "The true competition begins at the end of the competition"

The renown pianist and teacher Sergej Babayan, while serving as Jury Member at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, gave an insightful interview about the competitions and the career opportunities for young musicians.

"I think true "competition" begins at the end of the competition. It is in their everyday living that musicians are tested as to whether or not they are a true artist and able to create music which can touch the audience's hearts.”

Read the full interview HERE

Italian export: the success of Italian conductors in US

Last Jan. 5, 2016 The Economist published an interesting article of the success of “Italian export” of top conductors in US.

In fact, Gian Andrea Noseda was recently chosen as Musical Director at the National Opera in Washington, and joins four other Italian conductors who are currently at the head of major orchestras and opera houses in US: Riccardo Muti (Chicago Symphony), Nicola Luisotti at the San Francisco Opera and Corrado Rovaris at the Philadelphia Opera. In addition, Fabio Luisi holds the position of Principal Conductor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

Many other Italian Maestros are frequent guest conductors of top American orchestras, like Daniele Rustioni, Roberto Abbado and Marco Armiliato: according to Armiliato “Italy is experiencing what he calls the Federer Effect: one famous practitioner inspiring lots of younger people to pursue the same path” .