By Jacob Stockinger
Classical music has always seemed such a profoundly sympathetic or empathetic form of art that it comes as no surprise to The Ear that many individuals and ensembles are coming to the aid of a disaster-sticken Japan.
Last week, I told you about violinist Hilary Hahn.
Now there are more, and I expect even more to follow suit in the coming days, weeks and months.
ITEM: Classical music and Universal Classics have teamed up to release and soothing digital only recording that will benefit Japan’s Red Cross. See the pieces and the performers:
ITEM: Two major orchestras and maestros in Berlin – under Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim – team up on the same stage on the same night to perform a benefit concert for UNICEF in Japan:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/a-unique-concert-for-japan
ITEM: Chicago Symphony Orchestra maestro Riccardo Muti is recovered, healthy and back in form and eager to get to work in Chicago:
ITEM: Some renewed wars for artists shifting labels seems to The Ear to suggest a renewed vitality to the commercial side of the classical music scene as the venerable yellow label Deutsche Grammophon and EMI lose two big ones – the Emerson String Quartet and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes – to Sony Classical.
Check out the news and the release plans for the first two recording from each:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/leif-ove-andsnes-signs-to-sony-classical
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/sony-signs-the-emerson-string-quartet
ITEM: The prolonged Detroit Symphony Orchestra strike may at least, and after much acrimony, be over:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/detroit-symphony-orchestra-has-tentative-deal/
ITEM: LA gets a second classical radio outlet: