Brain Food

Music on the other side of the great celebrity divide

2012-02-16T06:45:00.017-08:00

This path leads from music education in Norfolk England to Thomas Adès in New York. Members of the Britten Sinfonia are seen here working as part of the In Harmony project which uses music to bring positive change to the lives of young people in some of the most deprived areas of England. I took the photos this morning at Larkman Primary School and the young musicians seen in them will be joining violinist Pekka Kuusisto and me for a pre-concert event in Norwich on February 25th at which they will play Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Pachelbel. After their performance Thomas Adès conducts his Concerto for Violin, felicitously sub-titled Concentric Paths, with Pekka Kuusisto as soloist, and music by Couperin, Ravel and Stravinsky. The Norwich concert is part of a Concentric Paths tour by the Britten Sinfonia, Thomas Adès and Pekka Kuusisto; the other venues are Dijon (Feb 11), Cambridge (Feb 20), Lincoln Center, New York (Feb 22), London, Queen Elizabeth Hall (Feb 27), and Dublin (Feb 28). As Alex Ross writes today, classical music is oddly lucky to be on the other side of the great celebrity divide and those working on In Harmony are just some of its many unsung saviours.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. All photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2012. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

How orchestra increased ticket sales by $23,000

2012-02-05T02:16:00.000-08:00

Young people respond more to the visual than aural, which is why using images to attract new audiences to classical music is a recurring theme On An Overgrown Path. A number of North American orchestras have been experimenting with concert visuals and the Toronto Symphony has now joined their number as described on the orchestra's website:

Visual elements added to performance
With the 2012.2013 season, the TSO adds more visual elements to the concert experience than ever before. In partnership with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the TSO has commissioned photographer James Westwater to photo-choreograph Smetana’s Mà Vlast, the composer’s heartfelt tribute to the lush landscapes of his Czech homeland (Apr 17 & 18, 2013). Images illustrating Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition will be projected above the Orchestra in performances led by TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian (Sep 27 & 29, 2012); and with West Side Story, TSO Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the TSO in Leonard Bernstein’s score, live with the remastered film (directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, featuring Robbins's choreography, Ernest Lehman’s screenplay, Arthur Laurents's book and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics) shown in hi (May 28 & 29, 2013).

Concert visuals are nothing new, in fact James Westwater has been developing the concept for over thirty years. He claims that adding visuals also adds audience numbers and quotes testimonials on his website to prove it - one from the Santa Barbara Symphony says a concert with visuals was the second best ticket draw of all time (the first was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) and that the orchestra sold $23,000 worth of tickets from walk-up patrons alone for the performance. Here is his description of how it works:

Symphonic photochoreography is an innovative art form that is connecting today’s orchestras with today’s audiences. It engages audiences worldwide with evocative, multi-image photographic essays choreographed and performed live to selected works of classical music. We cue photochoreography to the orchestra's performance of the music. No click track is used.

During a performance, hundreds of thematically-related photographs are projected onto a 440-square-foot, three-panel, panoramic screen suspended above the orchestra. As the musicians perform the music under the orchestra's conductor, the guest artist (photochoreographer) precisely cues elegant visual transitions, filling the screen with single, double and triple image combinations that often form impressive panoramas.

This creative synthesis of music and imagery provides a compelling new symphonic experience that has been performed with over 150 orchestras across North America and abroad.

It could be argued that concert visuals are rather like playing Bach on the piano - there is nothing heretical involved but it did not happen in the composer's day simply because the enabling technology was not invented. In the past the composer was willing even if the technology was not: back in 1909 Alexander Scriabin pioneered musical notation for light and colour in his 1909 symphonic poem 'Prometheus: the Poem of Fire'. This was notated for a custom designed light projector built by a Russian physicist which the conductor controlled from a colour keyboard - crude technology which has been superseded by today's computer graphics and high resolution projectors.

But adding concert visuals is not going to be universally welcomed and for those who still think it too populist I commend another aspect of the Toronto Symphony's activities. This is their New Creations Festival in March which is curated by Peter Eötvös and comes without photochoreography. The New Creations Festival's programme of contemporary music includes French Canadian composer Claude Vivier's cantata Lonely Child and his orchestral work Orion. There is a chance link with the visual theme here as Claude Vivier was influenced by the spectralist school of composers, as is Jonathan Harvey. Speakings for large orchestra and electronics by Jonathan Harvey uses a sound designer - the sonic equivalent of James Westwater's photochoreographer - to manipulate aural images during the work's performance. You can hear Jonathan Harvey describing the role of the sound designer in his interview with me.

So, as ever, many paths converge. Well done to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for seeing the light in more ways than one, and there is more on Claude Vivier the classical music envelope pusher here.

* Header visual shows Symphony magazine issue which features an article on how orchestras are utilizing multimedia, the photo is the Orlando Symphony Orchestra performing Copland's Lincoln Portrait - read the article here. Footer image shows James Westwater installation for the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

No crack in a fortress may be accounted small

2011-12-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Baroque runs riot in the chapel of the Penitent Blacks (Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs) in Avignon, as seen in my photos. Dating from the 18th century, the chapel was built by the co-fraternity of the Black Penitents of Mercy who tended to the material and spiritual welfare of prisoners. Recently renovated by Avignon city council, the chapel is now the home of a contemporary co-fraternity of the Black Penitents. This was formed in 1983 to "pray for the souls of Purgatory and to be guardians of the traditional Catholic liturgy". Posters and flyers from the Fraternité Saint Pie X are prominently displayed in the chapel, promoting among other events a retreat to study "The spirituality of Mgr Lefebvre".

The Fraternité Saint Pie X (Society of Saint Pius X) was founded in 1970 by the right-wing cleric Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council and among its aims is the retention of the traditional Catholic Mass. The Society gained notoriety for sheltering French war criminal Paul Touvier for sixteen years and when Touvier was finally arrested by police in 1989 he was resident in a seminary run by Lefebvre's followers. A priest from the Society of Saint Pius X sat beside Touvier throughout the 1994 trial at which he was found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Paul Touvier had served under infamous Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and the crimes for which he was convicted included involvement in the massacre of seven Jews at Rillieux-la-Pape in 1944 and in the murder of the human rights activist Victor Basch who in the 1890s had led the defence of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish French army captain falsely accused of treason. When Touvier died in 1996 a traditional Tridentine Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul was offered in St Nicolas du Chardonnet, the Society of St. Pius X's chapel in Paris.

After taking the photo above in Avignon a few weeks I walked the short distance to the Lycée Theodore Aubanel where the plaque seen above is displayed. Here is my translation:

Traditionalist Catholicism flourishes in the Avignon region today under the leadership of the staunchly conservative archbishop of Vaucluse, Jean-Pierre Cattenoz, who featured in the recent 'Piss Christ' controversy recently. Close to Avignon is the Benedictine monastery of Sainte-Madeleine at Le Barroux, and earlier posts have recounted how the monks at Le Barroux were aligned with Monsignor Lefebvre until 1988 and have also told of the links between Paul Touvier and Lefebvre in more detail.

The religious community at Le Barroux remains staunchly traditionalist, but still has much to offer those who can see the wood for the trees. Chance discoveries from their excellent shop have already featured here, and my recent trip uncovered another gem. André Raison (1640s-1719) is almost forgotten today: but he was one of the leading organists in the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV and Bach must have studied Raison's Premier Livre d'orgue (1688) as he incorporated one of its themes into his Passacaglia in C Minor. In this 2 CD set André Raison's Masses for Organ in the third and eighth modes played by Jean-Patrice Brosse are interleaved with plainsong sung by Ensemble Vox Cantoris. Excellent sound from the Psalmus label, which featured in a recent post with a disc of pre-Gregorian chant.

On my iPod during my French travels was a recording of arrangements of Jewish songs played by pianist Sonia Wieder-Atherton with cellist and arranger Daria Hovora. This little known release on the independent Naïve label also includes Maurice Ravel's Chanson hébraïque and five of Ernst Bloch's compositions on Jewish themes. As Arthur Miller says in The Crucible "Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small".

* Jewish music under the sheltering sky is here.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Photos are (c) On An Overgrown Path 2011. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Try some tasty free range Mozart this Christmas

2011-12-19T05:32:00.000-08:00

Classical music is becoming more and more like factory farming. An intensive and industrialised process financed by global corporations rears consumer friendly products in confined spaces with the sole intention of bringing the bland results to market as quickly as possible . But there are alternatives, such as the deliciously tasty Mozart conducted by Bruno Walter. I paid just 14 euros (18 US dollars) in FNAC for the 6CD Sony set seen above, current pricing on Amazon UK is £13.50. Which makes this almost free [range] Mozart. Thoroughly recommended even though the cost of the bargain pricing is no documentation at all other than recording venues and dates. Which means no mention that Bruno Walter was a disciple of the Austrian philosopher and educationist Rudolf Steiner. Steiner was a founding figure in the Theosophy movement who influenced a diverse group of musicians including Alexander Scriabin, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Dane Rudhyar and Jonathan Harvey. In 1907 Steiner split with mainstream Theosophy and went on to found Anthroposophy, a spiritual path that cherishes and respects the freedom of each individual. Bruno Walter followed Steiner and contributed a chapter titled My way to Anthroposophy to an authoritative book on the subject. All of which is fascinating but peripheral to recommending some really delicious free range Mozart. Read Arturo Toscanini's cable to Bruno Walter in The conductor who hated compromise.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Classical music's ethically compromised funders

2011-12-13T06:42:00.000-08:00

Despite the economic turmoil classical music remains financially dependant on the banking and financial services sector. Exclusive Overgrown Path research shows that 45% of corporate sponsorship for ten leading orchestras in Europe and North America comes from the banking and financial services sector. This is more than five times greater than from any other corporate funding source.

A second funding tier comprises companies from the automotive and media industries, with each sector accounting for around 8% of sponsorship. Below that a third tier is made up of companies from the aerospace & defence, pharmaceutical, retail, utility and law sectors. As the research analyses source rather than revenue it is likely that the fiscal contribution of the banking and financial services corporations is considerably greater than 50%.

A number of the corporate funders, both in the banking sector and elsewhere, have been linked to ethical issues, some of which are noted in the supporting material below. This raises the important but little-explored question of what price classical music is prepared to pay for funding. One example of this dilemna is Deutsche Bank, which is exclusive sponsor of the Berlin Philharmonic until 2015, see header image, and also a corporate sponsor of the London Philharmonic.

In 2010 an internal investigation revealed that Deutsche Bank spied on several of its management board and supervisory board members, and on at least one shareholder. One year later the United States government filed suit against Deutsche Bank AG and its wholly owned subsidiary, MortgageIT, Inc. The exact wording of the complaint filed by the US government is that "Deutsche Bank and MortgageIT repeatedly lied to be included in a Government program to select mortgages for insurance by the Government. Once in that program, they recklessly selected mortgages that violated program rules in blatant disregard of whether borrowers could make mortgage payments."

The London Philharmonic also lists JTI as a corporate sponsor without explaining the acronym or linking to the funder's website. JTI is in fact Japan Tobacco International, the world's third largest cigarette company. Their brands include Winston, Mild Seven, Camel, Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut as well as Hamlet cigars. Japan Tobacco International's sponsorship of the London Philharmonic is a five year 'partnership' running until 2013. So cigarette sponsorship is alive and well in classical music, and not just in London. Other organisations receiving funding from JTI include the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Ulster Orchestra.

This article sets out to inform rather than condemn and with public funding coming under increasing pressure it is unrealistic to suggest that in the short term orchestras refuse money from ethically compromised sources, although the use of tobacco funding and the lack of transparency over that sponsorship does, in my view, need to be addressed. If this research together with my earlier post Are top musicians sharing the pain? contributes in some small way to a reassesment of how classical music is financed it will have achieved its objective.

Research methodology and limitations:
1. Funding sources listed on the websites of the ten orchestras listed below were used. As absolute revenue amounts are not revealed there is no weighting by value: for instance the Deutsche Bank contribution to the Berlin Philharmonic will be considerably greater than Smuckers' contribution to the Cleveland Orchestra, yet in the calculation of contribution by source both have equal weight. Despite this it is likely that the results are meaningful in order of magnitude terms.
2. The analysis is only for corporate sponsorship and takes no account of public funding. As a guide, in a 2007 interview here Jonathan Reekie of Aldeburgh Music explained that Aldeburgh's funding split was one third comes from box office income, one third from fundraising, and one third from public funding.
3. Sponsors funding more than one orchestra are multiple counted.
4. Choice of orchestras is my own. Orchestras with minimal corporate funding (broadcast and state funded) are not included.
5. I have used best endeavours in compiling this research. Links are provided to all orchestra and corporate sponsor websites and to sources on ethical issues. Collaborative amendment is, as always, welcome.

Supporting Material detailing corprate sponsors by orchestra:
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Aviva - global insurance company based in London.
Deutsche Bank - Germany's largest bank. In 2010 an investigation commissioned by Deutsche Bank revealed that it spied on several of its management board members, supervisory board members and on at least one shareholder. In 2011 the United States government filed suit in federal court against the bank and its wholly owned subsidiary, MortgageIT, Inc for alleged misrepresentations relating to mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Faraday- Lloyd's reinsurance syndicate
Fortis - European bank bailed out and nationalised during 2008 banking crisis
JTI - international tobacco division of Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's third largest tobacco company.
Macquarie - provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services based in Australia.
Thomson Reuters - leading provider of business intelligence, being investigated by EU for anti-competitive activities.

London Symphony Orchestra
Rolls Royce - provider of integrated transport power systems and the world's twenty-third largest defence contractor.
Takeda - Japanese based global pharmaceutical company. In 1999 pleaded guilty to vitamin price fixing in US.
UBS - investment bank which was bailed out by the Swiss government in 2008, has recently been in the news because of a fraud scandal, and has been described by the Guardian as "the big bank that cannot stay out of trouble".

Berlin Philharmonic
Deutsche Bank - see London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
ING - largest banking/financial services & insurance conglomerate in the world. Was bailed-out to tune of €10bn by Dutch government in 2008.
Unilever - British-Dutch multinational fast moving consumer goods company which has attracted a number of criticisms for its activities from political, environmental and human rights activists.

Dresden Staatskapelle
Volkswagen - car manufacturer, involved in 2005 sex, bribes and corruption scandal.

New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Credit Suisse - multi-national providing private banking and corporate financial services, subject of a 2011 tax evasion enquiry in the US.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Bank of America - multinational banking and financial services corporation. Is the second largest bank holding company in the United States. In 2009 agreed to pay a $33 million fine, without admission or denial of charges, to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the non-disclosure of an agreement to pay up to $5.8 billion of bonuses at subsidiary Merrill Lynch. In 2010 agreed $150m (£96.9m) settlement with the US financial watchdog following civil charges it misled shareholders about Merrill's financial position prior to takeover.
ComEd - utility provider owned by Exelon which has received several fines for pollution and security infringements.
BMO Harris Bank - Chicago based retail and corporate bank.
United Airlines - world's largest airline, received Chapter 11 protection from 2002 to 2005.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Accura - Honda luxury car brand
Rolex - luxury wristwatch manufacturer
Amgen - international biotechnolgy company, Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer received compensation package totalling $21.1 million.
Edison International - utility company
Fidelity Investments - American multi-national financial services corporation. In 2007 U.S. brokerages regulator NASD fined four Fidelity-affiliated broker-dealers $3.75 million for alleged registration, supervision and e-mail retention violations.
JP Morgan Chase - American multinational banking corporation.
Northrop Grumman - American global aerospace and defense technology company. Subject of a number of controversies including agreeing to pay a $15 million fine for 110 violations, occurring between September 1998 and November 1998, of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations
Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts - all-volunteer garden and house fundraising organisation donating to LA Phil.
Target - retail chain, in 2010 gave $150,000 donation to Minnesota Forward, which used the funds to back Republican state gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who is against gay marriage and has voted against other gay rights initiatives.
The Walt Disney Company - world's largest media conglomerate.
Toyota - world's largest automobile manufacturer.
US Bank - diversified financial services holding company. In 2008, U.S. Bancorp received $6,599,000,000 from the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

Cleveland Orchestra
Baker Hostetler - global law firm based in Cleveland, among the top 10 U.S. law firms for merger and acquisition deals in the oil, gas and oilfield service industries.
Forest City - national real estate management
Smuckers - gift retail chain.
Jones Day - international law firm. Involved in 2008 law suit with BlockShopper over links to partner profiles on company's website.
KeyBank - regional bank based in Cleveland, in 2008 received approximately $2.5 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds.
Medical Mutual - mutual health care insurance
The Plain Dealer - largest circulation Ohio newspaper. Famously removed longstanding music critic after unfavourable review's of orchestra's concerts.
PNC - sixth largest bank by deposits in the United States

Boston Symphony Orchestra
UBS - see London Symphony Orchestra.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Environment not in use

2005-04-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

Please visit On An Overgrown Path