Columbus Symphony musicians rehearse (symphonymusicians.com)

Last week (Monday 22 September) the musicians of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra accepted a contract which calls for substantial cuts in their salary and benefits. Principal clarinetist David Thomas, for example, will see his paycheck sag below what he was earning when he first joined the orchestra in 1989.

The $1.3 million reduction is an echo of 2005, when the musicians gave up exactly the same amount in salaries and benefits.

The symphony board had first suggested trimming the roster from 53 to 31, effectively turning the symphony into a chamber orchestra. Later they amended that proposal to maintain the orchestra's strength but with a 40% cut in base salaries, partly through a reduction in the number of concerts per season.

In the end, the giveback was 27%. The final agreement curtails the musicians' season, from 46 to 38 weeks. It cuts the base salary from $1,200 per week to $1,100 per week, with further reductions in pension contributions and health care plan expenditure. Some concerts will move from the Ohio Theatre to Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, where the rent is cheaper and the acoustics less suitable.

Officially, the Columbus Symphony is back in business. But at what cost? The relationship between management and orchestra members could hardly be described as amicable. At least a half-dozen musicians have already moved on. Given the tense atmosphere and the financial stress, how many more experienced players will defect to other orchestras? With salaries declining, what caliber of musicians will audition to replace them?

Perhaps the greatest and most immediate uncertainty for both musicians and listeners is -- who will lead? During the contract dispute, the orchestra's well-regarded music director, Junichi Hirokami, came down solidly on the side of the musicians. At least one of the board's budget proposals included sacking Hirokami. The musicians turned thumbs down on that pact, but Hirokami's future with the Columbus Symphony is still in doubt.

Meanwhile, the Symphony must begin the process of raising funds to cover its $9.5 million budget ($3 million less than last year's). Not only will they be hampered by a tight economy, they'll have to overcome lingering concerns among potential supporters over the organization's internal acrimony, artistic leadership status, and long-term viability.

Lang Lang (Photo: La Scena Musicale)

Young star pianist Lang Lang is unquestionably a distinctive artist. In another way, though, he represents the evolving musical culture of his homeland. China is now the home of the world's most active piano manufacturer -- and as many as 80 million piano students (see A Nation of Pianos and Pianists).

Fundamental tenets of Confucian philosophy emphasize the importance of education and success, acceptance and recognition of authority, and service to one's neighborhood and country. These principles remain influential in many Asian nations, including China. Families often make enormous personal and financial sacrifices to ensure that their children achieve these goals.

Riccardo Muti (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

Riccardo Muti, former music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and future leader of the Chicago Symphony, is famous for his fiery temper and his rather old-fashioned autocratic approach to music making. Compromise is not often part of his repertoire; just ask the musicians at La Scala, where his directorship disintegrated in discord 3 years ago (2005).

A few days ago (7 November) Muti walked away from an engagement over a dispute with none other than the Queen of England.

Muti was to have conducted a concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra today (Thursday 13 November 2008) in honor of the Prince of Wales's 60th birthday, a performance explicitly requested by Queen Elizabeth II. Charles is an ardent supporter of the Philharmonia, and the Queen was apparently an admirer of the conductor. She'd attended performances Muti conducted in La Scala and had nominated him for a knighthood. Furthermore, Muti has a history with the Philharmonia; he was their principal conductor from 1973 to 1982.

However, both Queen and Prince expressed concern about the length and "appropriateness" of Muti's program. After some discussion, he bailed. The Philharmonia has been tight-lipped about Muti's original plans; but according to Muti, "For ceremonial reasons that I don't know, the program was shortened and it was decided that the orchestra would only play God Save the Queen and another piece by a British musician."

British conductor Christopher Warren-Green stepped in to replace Muti.

This coming Saturday Charles will throw his own celebration at his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire. The musical entertainment will be provided by Rod Stewart. Even the 63 year old rock singer couldn't avoid royal editing, though. Stewart was reportedly asked to omit Do Ya Think I'm Sexy from his set as "too raucous."

A 1703 Stradivarius (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Nearly every accomplished violinist lusts after a Stradivarius instrument, but few will ever own one. The number of surviving violins from Antonio Stradivari's workshop has been estimated at fewer than 700. Instruments are seldom offered for sale, and the few that are command stratospheric prices. In 2006, a Strad sold at auction for over US$3.5 million.

Not surprisingly, many modern instrument makers and researchers have tried to duplicate the sound of a Strad, or at least to determine its secret. No one has yet conclusively done either.

The latest to claim he's built a modern Stradivarius is Francis Schwarze of the Zurich-based Federal Materials, Science and Technology Institute. His secret: mushrooms.

Schwarze asserts that treating the maple wood used for the violin with Xylaria Longipes mushrooms, which grow on the bark of trees, reduces the wood's density and at least comes closer to mimicing the unique Stradivarius sound.

However, many other researchers have suggested that the wood used in Stradivari's violins was actually denser than usual. Between 1645 and 1750, extraordinarily cool temperatures in Europe caused trees to grow more slowly.

Still other scholars attribute the instruments' distinctive sound to Stradivari's subtle changes in the shape of the instrument.

Perhaps Schwarze has indeed discovered a way to make a better-sounding (or at least different-sounding) violin. But has he really duplicated the sound of a Stradivarius? The jury's still out.

Gil Shaham (Photo: J Henry Fair / DG)

American-born violinist Gil Shaham had just finished playing Sarasate at Lincoln Center Thursday night (20 November 2008), performing live on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center.   He was about to exit the stage when a voice rang out from the audience: "Stop!"

It was the young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, with whom Shaham played the Dvorak concerto in a much discussed New York Philharmonic concert last year.  "My friend, nice to see you," Dudamel continued.  "I have the honor to tell you that you have won the Avery Fisher Prize for 2008."

The Avery Fisher Prize, one of music's most prestigious, is awarded from secret nominations.  The recipients are always surprised with the announcements.

Shaham's musical life story reads almost like a classical music fairy tale.  Born of scientist parents, he began studying violin at the age of seven.  He played with the Israel Philharmonic when he was eleven.  The same year, he was admitted to the Juilliard School in New York.  He studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang.

Gil Shaham got his big break in 1989 when Itzhak Perlman took ill and couldn't play a solo gig with the London Symphony Orchestra.  Shaham flew to London on a day's notice and played two concertos -- the Bruch and the Sibelius.  The critics took note and so did concert-goers.  Shaham was only eighteen.

The following year, 1990, Shaham received the Avery Fisher Career Grant.  (His younger sister, pianist Orli Shaham, received the Fisher Career Grant in 1997.)

Both the grant and the prize are named for audio researcher and philanthropist Avery Fisher.  Fisher, an amateur violinist and lifelong music lover, served on the boards of the New York Philharmonic and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  Forty to fifty years ago, a range of consumer audio equipment bore his name ("The Fisher").  Fisher sold his audio business to Emerson Electric in 1969 and, five years later, founded the Avery Fisher Prize.  He died in 1994.

"My father loved surprises," says Fisher's daughter Nancy.

Alfred Brendel (Photo: Philips Benjamin Ealovega)

Today (Monday 5 January) is pianist Alfred Brendel's 78th birthday. He will not celebrate by playing in public. It's official: Brendel has retired -- and in the view of many, at the height of his career. Last month, Brendel gave his final bow 90 miles and 60 years from where his career had begun.

Brendel was born in 1931 in what is now the Czech Republic. His family wasn't particularly musical. His father was an architect who gave up his profession to move to a resort area of Yugoslavia and run a hotel. The young Alfred amused guests by singing along to opera records on the hotel's phonograph.

From there the family moved to Zagreb to manage a cinema. There, at the age of 6, Alfred began taking piano -- more because it was the thing for kids to do than because his parents thought he had any particular talent.

Five years on, it was already clear that Alfred Brendel was no ordinary kid when it came to music.

The Brendels moved again, this time to Graz, Austria. Brendel continued his study at the Graz Academy of Music. He graduated in 1947. The following year he gave his first public recital in Graz, playing Bach, Brahms and Liszt. Brendel was only 17 years old.

He won a difficult and prestigious competition two years later, but that didn't fill seats at Brendel's performances. This was still the era of the showy virtuoso. Audiences flocked to see pianists who put on grand shows, and stamped the works they played with their own highly individual interpretations. That wasn't for Brendel. Instead, he saw himself as a conduit for the composer's musical intent.

It took decades, but finally the value of his approach as a "thinking pianist" gained him recognition and admiration. Over those years Brendel never gave up playing in public as Glenn Gould did -- far from it -- but he did find great rewards in making recordings.

Brendel was the first to record all of Beethoven's piano music (for Vox, in the early 1960s; many of these recordings, including the sonatas, are still available to this day). He revisited these works as his interpretations (and recording technology) matured. In the mid-1990s Brendel became the only pianist to record the complete piano works of Beethoven three times. Brendel is also highly regarded for his interpretations of Haydn and Mozart, and for his efforts in reawakening interest in the sonatas of Franz Schubert.

Brendel moved to London in 1972. Since then he's been more selective in his teaching, but four of his best pupils heard him play his last concert.

It was on the 18th of December (2008), not in London, but in Vienna's glittering Musikverein. Another noted Mozart interpreter, Sir Charles Mackerras, was there to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic as Brendel played a Mozart concerto.

Did he go out with the 27th, Mozart's last? Not on your life. Perhaps the 77 year old Brendel had a twinkle in his eye as he played the concerto Mozart composed as a 21 year old, the 9th, the one nicknamed "Jeunehomme" -- "The Young Man."

And when he had finished, Brendel smiled and gestured toward Kit Armstrong, Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner, and Paul Lewis -- his most noted students, all there in the Musikverein, there for his farewell. Perhaps he was saying to them, "Now it's your turn."

Further reading:

Brendel bows out with a shrug and a smile in Vienna in The Guardian

Alfred Brendel's Biography in Musicians' Guide