Classical music: It was the best of years and the worst of years. Here is NPR’s year-end national wrap-up of the state of classical music in 2013.

By Jacob Stockinger

As I said in yesterday’s post, even though we are now into 2014 there is some unfinished business to wrap up for 2013 for reasons that I also explained yesterday. Here is a link:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/classical-music-here-are-the-top-six-essays-on-and-writings-about-classical-music-with-runners-up-from-2013-as-chosen-by-famed-radio-station-wqxr-fm-of-new-york-city/

Most media outlets, from old-fashioned newspapers to high-tech blogs, tend to take a year-end look back at the high points and low points of classical music as well as other forms of art and culture. But they tend to favor local performances and trends – even the venerable and first-class New York Times, the national newspaper that sets the media’s agenda, nonetheless generally focuses on The Big Apple as the center of the cultural universe.

So imagine my delight when I found a really good wrap-up of national trends, and even international events, on NPR’s great classical music blog “Deceptive Cadence.” It even opens up your eyes to what The Industry considers to be classical music by revealing the “classical” music that made it onto the Billboard charts of best-sellers.

The post was compiled and documented on by the blog’s director, Tom Huizenga, (below top) with, I suspect, help from the always informed and creative Anastasia Tsioulcas (below bottom).

What is especially praiseworthy is that it is comprehensive with much food for thought; it also seems to The Ear to be fair and balanced, neither boosterish nor alarmist; and it includes a lot of photos and a lot of links to develop any particular story that grabs you even further.

So here it is — from the mixed state of symphony orchestras (the locked out Minnesota Orchestra, which lost its conductor Osmo Vanska to labor strife, is below top) to the demise of the New York City Opera with the world premiere of the new opera “Anna Nicole” (below bottom) to the issue of bullying LGBT teenagers to various anniversaries of works and composers including the centennials of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and of the birth of Benjamin Britten.

It should easily provide you with some fine reading on what promises to be a bitterly cold and mean January weekend and work week.

Enjoy. And now it is onward to the high notes and low points of 2014!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/12/31/258649125/high-notes-and-clams-the-best-and-worst-of-classical-2013

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Anastasia Tsioulcas, Anna Nicole, Benjamin Britten, Big Apple, Billboard, bullying, Deceptive Cadence, Igor Stravinsky, Jacob Stockinger, LGBT, Minnesota Orchestra, New York City Opera, New York Times, NPR, Osmo Vanska, Rite of Spring, Tom Huizenga, WQXR-FM