The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music news: Conductor Riccardo Muti wins a million-dollar prize. Should James Levine also leave the Metropolitan Opera? Altanta Symphony’s Robert Spano heads out to head up Aspen Festival. Is a new Chopin deathbed photo authentic?

A REMINDER: WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO AND PRES HOUSE, 731 STATE ST., ARE HOLDING T ‘BACH AROUND THE CLOCK’ FROM NOON TO MIDNIGHT TODAY, SATURDAY, MARCH 19. TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTHDAY OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. IT SHOULD BE FUN WITH LOTS OF MUSIC AND PERFORMERS TO HEAR. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.

By Jacob Stockinger

It’s really a mixed bag this week when it comes to classical music news.

Must be the change of seasons!

ITEM: Chicago Symphony Orchestra maestro Riccardo Muti has won a million-dollar prize:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-riccardomuti-idUSTRE72F9PI20110316

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-riccardo-muti-prize-20110316,0,7314863.story

ITEM: The Aspen Festival and School turn to Atlanta Symphony’s Robert Spano (below) for a new director:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/robert-spano-headed-to-aspen

ITEM: Americans are trying to import Venezuela’s famed “el sistema” music education system that produced Gustavo Dudamel (below):

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/15/134567922/the-road-to-an-american-el-sistema

ITEM: A new photo of Chopin on his deathbed has been found – or  has it?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031001937.html

ITEM: Should James Levine leave the Metropolitan Opera as well as the Boston Symphony? A blogger for New York Magazine thinks so:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/03/justin_davidson_on_the_disappe.html

ITEM: Famed oboist Heinz Holliger (below) and Robert Schumann are profiled and celebrated in London:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/heinz-holliger-profiled-in-london

ITEM: Gifted conductor Yakov Kreizberg dies at 51:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/03/16/134592101/conductor-yakov-kreizberg-dead-at-51

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/100052200/the-sad-and-too-early-death-of-yakov-kreizberg/