Gotham Chamber Opera Folds

Company ceases operations, effective today.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

It ended not with a bang, or a whimper, but with a press release.

The Gotham Chamber Opera, which was among the front rank of New York opera companies not based at Lincoln Center, has closed its doors and ceased operations.

OPB: Off-Podium Betting

With Alan Gilbert's exit, who will lead the New York Philharmonic?
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A giant question mark exists at the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee © New York Philharmonic.
Photo alteration by the author.

The decision of New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert to resign his post last week (effective 2017) has rocked the classical music world. The orchestra is facing a huge debt, the prospect of moving out of Avery Fisher Hall in 2019 and 2020 as the building is updated and renovated, and upcoming contract negotiations. Key positions including principal trumpet and concertmaster need to be replaced. Let's not even get into the issue of audiences aging out and their reluctance toward the inclusion of any music newer than Brahms.

The Mighty Have Fallen

J & R Music World Shuts its Doors. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Requesciat in pace: J & R Music World

Last year on Superconductor I ran a story about the dwindling list of brick-and-mortar stores left in New York to buy classical music on CD. Yesterday, we lost another one.

J & R Music (and Computer) World, which started as a basement record story and evolved into a  block-long multi-story music and electronics emporium selling everything from blenders to MacBook Pros has shuttered its doors as of Wednesday. They join a long list of closed music retailers: Virgin MegaStore, Tower Records, HMV and Sam Goody to name just a few.

Memories of Herbert Breslin

Luciano Pavarotti's longtime manager dies at 87. 
by Paul Pelkonen

Herbert Breslin (right) and friend. Photo by Alan Malschick from The King and I
© 2004 Broadway Books, Herbert Breslin and Anne Midgette.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of opera super-agent Herbert Breslin. Mr. Breslin managed Luciano Pavarotti for 36 years, elevating the Italian tenor into a household name. He died yesterday in Nice, France, of a heart attack. The news was reported by my colleague Anne Midgette in The Washington Post. 

Mr. Breslin was 87. 

I want to take a moment to say a few words for Mr. Breslin, who helped a young writer beginning a career in the world of opera. Through his firm, the Herbert Breslin Agency, I was able to do my first interviews with singers and gain invaluable experience as I started in this business.

It began when the Metropolitan Opera chose to cancel a 1997 run of Verdi's La Forza del Destino. Luciano Pavarotti was supposed to learn the role of Don Alvaro di Vargas, which would add the last major dramatic Verdi tenor role to a resume that included attempts at Don Carlo and Otello, operas that were far too heavy for his voice.

Now Headlining at Lincoln Center: Van Biesen!

New York Philharmonic appoints Executive Director.
by Paul Pelkonen

Contrary to rumor, this is NOT the new logo of the NY Philharmonic.

The New York Philharmonic announced today that Matthew VanBiesen will be the orchestra's new Executive Director, replacing outgoing Zarin Mehta. Mr. Mehta held the post for 12 years.

Matthew Van Biesen is the new
Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic.

"This is one of the greatest orchestras in the world," Mr. Van Biesen said in a prepared statement. "Its history is legendary, the musicians unsurpassed, and its evolution under the artistic leadership of music director Alan Gilbert, truly visionary."

Mr. Van Biesen will start as Executive Director Designate. He will work with Mr. Mehta in a transitional period for the remainder of this season, assuming the job full-time for the 2012-2013 season. The Executive Director is one of three key positions that run the Philharmonic, along with the Music Director and Artistic Administrator.

The Philharmonic faces a number of challenges in coming seasons. Here's a list:

• an operating deficit of $1 million (according to the Huffington Post.)
• unfunded pension liabilities amounting to $24 million (also in the HuffPo article.)
• a contract renegotiation with the orchestra's musicians. Their  current contract has expired. 
• a full renovation of the aged Avery Fisher Hall, which will hopefully correct the acoustic problems that have plagued the facility since it opened (as Philharmonic Hall) in 1962. The hall has already been stripped out and rebuilt once (in 1973) and further acoustic alterations were made during Kurt Masur's tenure.

"Alan and I have had in-depth conversations about the future," Mr. Van Biesen added. "I feel a deep affinity with his ideas and am eager to collaborate closely with him and the entire organization."

Mr. Gilbert commented: “I have greatly valued the candid discussions I’ve had with Matthew this fall, and am truly impressed with his contemporary, forward-looking ideas about the role this orchestra can play in the cultural life of New York, of  America, and globally. He has the highest respect for the traditions of classical music, and a particularly powerful insight into the lives of musicians, cultivated in part during his years as a French horn player."

Mr. Van Biesen, who hails from St. Louis, MO, played horn in the Lousiana Symphony Orchestra. He comes to New York from Melbourne, Australia, where he has served as executive director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2010. He has also served as general manager of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and sits on the board of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

One Label to Rule Them All

EMI sold to Vivendi: will join Universal Music Group

Endangered Music Industry? The EMI logo. © EMI Music Group.

In a $1.9 billion dollar deal, the troubled EMI Music Group will be sold to Vivendi Universal, making the world's largest record company even bigger. The Red Label will join Deutsche Grammophon and Decca under the Universal umbrella. 

The deal was announced Friday in the New York Times.

There is no word on whether EMI, one of the oldest and most venerable record companies of the 20th century will continue to release music under its own imprint. Current EMI artists include Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, Berlin Philharmonic music director Sir Simon Rattle and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. Pop artists include Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd and Coldplay.

Universal used to have three major labels, but went to two in an effort to cut costs. The victim then was the Netherlands-based Philips Classics imprint which ceased operations in 1999. Its Dutch recording studios were shuttered. Other consolidations in recent years have included the distribution of Warner Brothers Classics by the Naxos group and the merger of RCA Red Seal with Sony Classical. 

EMI was one of the pioneers in the music industry in the 1950s under the guidance of Walter Legge. They were the first label to sign artists like Herbert von Karajan, Maria Callas, and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, who later married Mr. Legge. Their vast symphonic and operatic catalogue includes some of the most important recordings ever made, including the Karajan Der Rosenkavalier, Maria Callas' two recordings of Tosca and Placído Domingo's 1971 Don Carlo conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.

A post about the acquisition on Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc blog had a lengthy statement from Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grange:


“This is an historic acquisition for UMG and an important step in preserving the legacy of EMI Music. For me, as an Englishman, EMI was the pre-eminent music company that I grew up with. Its artists and their music provided the soundtrack to my teenage years. Therefore, UMG is committed to both preserving EMI’s cultural heritage and artistic diversity and also investing in its artists and people to grow the company’s assets for the future. As a result, we will be better positioned to fully capitalise on the many new and exciting opportunities in the current marketplace, and also able to better serve our artists, songwriters and business partners, while offering fans even more choice”.

Once ubiquitous, Philips Classics recordings are now as rare as record stores, gone the way of other labels like Argo, L'oiseu-Lyre and Teldec. Parts of the Philips catalogue have been reissued as Decca Classics. Will their once-proud rivals EMI suffer the same fate? Only time and the economy will tell.