The majority of musicians in the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra are women. Provided by the orchestras

According to a survey by the JoongAng Ilbo, Korean orchestras tend to have a very high percentage of female members, compared to famous orchestras in other countries. Of the 105 members of Seoul Philharmonic, women account for 65 members, or 62 percent. The ratio is even higher for the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, where 63 of its 74 members are women, or 85 percent.

In contrast, the Vienna Philharmonic only has seven women, who represent 5 percent of its 136 members. And in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, women account for 18 of its 128 members, or 14 percent.

The New York Philharmonic has a comparatively balanced gender ratio, with woman representing 45 of its 99 members.

In Japan, the NHK Symphony Orchestra has 17 women, or 16 percent of its 106 members.

Experts say the phenomenon in Korean orchestras where women outnumber men is related to fixed ideas about jobs and wages.

Chang Il-bum, a classical music critic and professor at Anyang University, said that Confucian ideas about gender roles have resulted in a higher number of men in administration, business and politics rather than the arts.

“The number of male students in music colleges is very low in Korea,” Chang said.

Last year, 58 out of 151 freshmen at Seoul National University’s music college were men, accounting for only 38.4 percent of the total. In addition, of the 29 freshmen who chose to major in string instruments, only seven were male. Yonsei University’s College of Music saw a similar trend, with 185 male students among its 598 students as of 2011.

One of the barriers to attracting men could be the low salaries offered by local orchestras.

“My annual salary after taxes is now 30 million won, and it was only 12 million won [$10,650] in my first year with this orchestra,” said a woman, 36, who asked to be identified only by her surname Lee. She has been working with the orchestra for more than 10 years.

“I do part-time jobs such as teach music lessons, but my income is still very low compared to that of my friends who are working at large companies,” she said.

Experts give mixed reviews to the sound of orchestras where women are in the majority.

Music columnist Jake T. Ryu expressed his concern, saying, “The volume of sound made by an orchestra depends on the strength of the string section. A female player will not be that different from a male player. But the sound made by 40 to 50 women in an orchestra could be quite different from that made by a similar number of men.”

Chang, the music critic and Anyang University professor, said that although it may not make a difference if the majority of musicians in an orchestra are women, “female musicians may create a more elaborate, detailed sound than men do.”

And Park Jong-ho, opera critic and chief executive of classic record seller and academy Pungwoldang, said, “It is no problem if women are in the majority. There is no gender in an orchestra.”

Kang Ki-heon, No Jin-ho (Korea JoongAng Daily) / February 20, 2012

Weblink : http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/
Photo credit : http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/

One of the performing artists at the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

Performed by
Daniel Propper, piano

Recorded in 2012

Researchers provide evidence that gender stereotypes shape our reaction to orchestral performances. But they report these effects aren’t consistent, and for female conductors, such as Marin Alsop, they aren’t necessarily negative.
(Grant Leighton/Southbank Centre London)

Researchers Valerie Folkes of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and Shashi Matta of The Ohio State University provide evidence that gender stereotypes shape our reaction to orchestral performances. But they report these effects aren’t consistent, and for female conductors, they aren’t necessarily negative.

“People have strong beliefs about how men and women differ, which can influence their judgments about the kinds of product that a source will create,” they write in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. In three experiments, they set out to discover whether listeners would judge a particular performance differently if they believed a man or woman was at the podium.

The first experiment featured 413 undergraduates — business majors who, for the most part, had no strong interest in classical music. They first read a short news story describing the appointment of a new music director of the Baltimore Symphony. Half read an accurate account referring to the female conductor Marin Alsop; the others read a doctored report referring to the male conductor Maron Alsop.

Half the members of each of group read unambiguously positive reports about the conductor. The others read about mixed reactions to the announcement, including dissent among members of the orchestra who were disappointed by the pick.

Participants then listened to an excerpt from Alsop’s recording of Brahms’ First Symphony. Afterward, they were asked to judge its overall quality, and the extent to which it embodied masculine qualities such as “powerful” and “stirring,” and feminine qualities such as “graceful” and “charming.”

Those who read the mixed response, in which some people questioned the conductor’s competence, appeared to be more easily swayed by gender stereotypes. Participants told (accurately) they were listening to a woman judged the performance as less powerful, more delicate, and “of poorer quality” than those who believed they were listening to a man.

However, those who read the universally positive report reacted quite differently. They gave the performance equally high marks for such masculine qualities as “stirring” and “compelling,” regardless of whether they thought the conductor was male or female.

Those who correctly believed Alsop is a woman rated the performance higher in feminine qualities such as elegance and delicacy. Overall, they gave the performance higher grades than those who believed they were listening to a man.

“Participants appear to have made inferences about her superior competence that led to beliefs about her product’s likely superior quality,” the researchers write. In other words, if someone can successfully defy gender stereotypes and earn that much acclaim, we figure she must be amazing, and judge her work accordingly.

This experiment, and a second in which students listened to an Alsop recording of a Brahms overture that featured more “feminine”-sounding passages, were repeated using a group of 112 classical music enthusiasts. The results followed the same pattern.

“They believed that a female conductor is more competent than a male conductor when both were highly praised,” the researchers write. But once again, “her” performance of Brahms was judged more highly on feminine attributes such as delicacy, and “his” received higher marks on such masculine elements as power.

So what did the professional critics think of the recording? A quick survey of major CD-review websites finds one called Alsop’s Brahms First Symphony “lyrical and passionate rather than stoic or grand,” while another used the phrase “nice, light, airy, and lyrical.” Hmmm. On the other hand, a third reviewer called her interpretation “grand and imposing … with genuine thrust and energy.” No gender stereotyping there.

Perhaps the most interesting component of the study was a manipulation given to certain participants in the first two experiments (the ones featuring the undergraduates). Some were given a nine-digit number to remember; others were instructed to listen to the music very carefully, “remembering as much as you can.”

The distracting task and the close listening had the same effect: Greatly dampening the likelihood of lapsing into stereotypical thinking. Intense focus on the string of numbers, or on the performance itself, monopolized the participants “cognitive resources,” the researchers write.

Too preoccupied to pigeonhole people, they simply responded to the music.

Tom Jacobs (Miller-McCune) / February 9, 2012

Weblink : http://www.miller-mccune.com/
Photo credit : http://www.miller-mccune.com/

What’s this project?

This is our dream: We‘re finally in the position to share with you all the unsung songs we‘ve found. Some people ask why we bother spending our time with the works of composers nobody has heard of. Our answer is always: because we love to search for and discover new music.

Anyone looking through a music encyclopedia will find that a fraction of the composers listed are actually played in concert halls all over the world. Of course the repertoire differs a bit so that you will hear more french composers in France than in Germany or Finland for example. The variety of music played at one specific concert hall of course also depends on the interest and focus of the artistic director. This could be „18th century music“ or „contemporary classics“ etc.

But Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Mahler, to name a few, are omnipresent.

To hear a symphony by Heinrich von Herzogenberg or chamber music by Rebecca Clarke, you will probably have to travel further than to your local town hall. Unknown music doesn‘t draw a crowd. Dwindling attention from the audiences puts pressure on the organizers. So they play it safe with popular symphonic repertoire. Chamber music concerts are rare, and art song concerts only ever reach break-even financially with the big names.

Happily there are record labels off-mainstream that make it possible to at least hear unpopular music on CD.

One might ask why these composers are so obscure. Isn‘t there something like a natural selection taking place to let only the highest-quality music reach immortality? Yes and no. Of course there were always composers writing boring music around. Famous composers no exception. But it certainly would be a mistake to think a composer probably is of little interest only because he‘s unknown.

Stay with us. There is much to explore.

Hélène Lindqvist

The swedish-egyptian soprano Hélène Lindqvist received her first training with the renowned vocal coach Florence Düselius in Stockholm. She then studied singing and performing arts at the University of Music in Saarbrücken, Germany, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She attended masterclasses with Eva Marton, Bernd Weikl, and Jessica Cash. Still at the University she won the first price in the international art song competition „Concerto delle donne“ in Kassel.

At the Hamburg state opera she sang the roles of Fortuna and Damigella in L‘incoronazione di Poppea by C. Monteverdi conducted by Alessandro de Marchi.

After her sensational debut in the Soprano part of Ligeti‘s Aventures & Nouvelles Aventures with the ensemble of the Saarland state opera in Germany she there performed many roles of the lyric soprano repertoire such as Ilia in Idomeneo by W.A. Mozart and Ännchen in Freischütz by C. M. v.Weber. With the company as well as with the German Radio Philharmonics Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern she also sang leading roles in a number of world premiere performances.

At the opera houses in Ulm and Regensburg she performed Tatjana in P. Tjaikowsky‘s opera Eugene Onegin as well as Gilda in G. Verdi‘s Rigoletto. In Ulm she sang a wide repertoire including Konstanze in W.A. Mozarts‘s Abduction, the Countess in Marriage of Figaro, Fiorilla in G. Rossini‘s Turk in Italy and the great sorceress in G. F. Handels‘s Alcina. The role of Gilda also took her to Augsburg and Ingolstadt.

Hélène Lindqvist was greatly acclaimed in the magazine „Die Deutsche Bühne/The German Stage for her staged version of Pierrot Lunaire by A. Schönberg.

She is featured on many recordings, including swedish art songs by G. De Frumerie, solo-pieces by D.Terzakis, a chamber reduction of the 4th symphony by G. Mahler and „Jugendlieder“ by A. Berg. The Berg recording was hailed as an impeccable interpretation and received a five-star rating in the „Neue Zeitung für Musik/New Music Magazine“.

Helene Lindqvist is also a much praised soloist in works for the concert stage such as the Requiems by G. Verdi and J. Brahms, Stabat Mater by G. Rossini, Roi David by A. Honegger and the four last songs by R. Strauß.

Philipp Vogler

Born in Itzehoe (Schleswig-Holstein/Germany), Philipp Vogler studied at both the Music Universities of Cologne and Düsseldorf. He is a pianist, accompanist, composer and conductor.

His activities as pianist are featured on numerous recordings, such as Jugendlieder (Songs of youth) by Alban Berg (col-legno, 2002) and Abschied und Ankunft, Lieder aus Heimat und Fremde (Farewell and arrival, Songs from home and abroad), edited in 2003 by edition Körber-Stiftung (in Co-operation with State Opera Hamburg).

His professional activities of the past include engagements at the Municipal Theatre in Augsburg (Germany) and the Saarbrücken State Theatre. Between 1995 and 1999, he conducted there The Magic Flute and Il barbiere di Siviglia and premiered several commissioned compositions of incidental music. In 2000 he conducted Orff’s Carmina Burana and Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets at The Royal Albert Hall in London. From 1999 to 2003, he was a member of the Hamburg State Opera, first as répétiteur, later on as Head of Music.

Since 2003 Philipp Vogler is a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, positioned as the Musical Director of the Opera Programme. There he conducted numerous widely noticed local premières and operatic rediscoveries, such as Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Wachsfigurenkabinett (Wax Works) as well as Korngold’s musical Comedy The mute Serenade.

Furthermore, he is regularly performing chamber music together with the great violinist Stephan Schardt.

Related videos:

Nadia Boulanger Cantique
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]http://theartsongproject.com/nadia-boulanger-cantique

Federico Mompou Pastoral
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]http://theartsongproject.com/federico-mompou-pastoral#more-740

Rebecca Clarke Shy One
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]http://theartsongproject.com/rebecca-clarke-shy-one

Official website: http://theartsongproject.com/

One of the performing artists at the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

credit : http://www.curtis.edu/

Haochen Zhang playing Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.2, Mvt.I
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Cliburn 2009 Haochen Zhang Final Recital
Ravel
Gaspard de la Nuit : Third Movement
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] ]]> http://www.interlude.hk/front/in-touch/in-touch-with-zhang-hao-chen/feed/ 0 http://www.interlude.hk/front/my-music/schubert-willkommen-und-abschied/ http://www.interlude.hk/front/my-music/schubert-willkommen-und-abschied/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 16:01:26 +0000 Eliza http://www.interlude.hk/front/?p=24516

Wandrers Nachtlied D224

Werner Gűra, tenor
Christoph Berner, fortepiano

From Schubert : Willkommen und Abschied (2012)
Released by Harmonia Mundi


Schubert: Wandrers Nachtlied D224


Placed under the aegis of Goethe’s poem Willkommen und Abschied (Greeting and parting), the lieders that make up this programme are emblematic of Romantic feeling as it is displayed throughout Schubert’s output: the subject, a traveller in search of meaning and a feeling of oneness with nature, asks himself all his life what place he occupies in the world. To this deeply existential question, the consciousness of the roaming Wanderer can see only one answer, steeped in the atmosphere of Sturm und Drang: ‘I am a stranger everywhere.’

Official website

Fernando Sor

Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9 (1823)

Towards the end of a highly successful performing and publishing career, the great Spanish guitarist Fernando Sor (1778-1839) — also known as Joseph Fernando Macari Sors, Josep Ferran Sorts I Muntades, Ferran Sor, Ferdinand Sor and Ferdinando Sor — vented his dissatisfaction with the general lack of musicianship in the French capital in a series of caustic, yet humorous titles and dedications. His Op. 35 published in Paris in 1828 sports the title “24 Extraordinarily Easy Exercises”. In his preface, Sor writes, “several people have found that my 24 Lessons for Beginners — his Op. 31 — required a somewhat too rapid progress, and that they were aimed at enabling the student to acquire a great talent; and that such an aim was not suitable for those who aim only to acquire a moderate ability, and who, unable to give great assiduity to studying, are content to accompany themselves and to play some agreeable pieces”. The set of six Bagatelles, Op. 43 is entitled “My Annoyances”, and the compositions are dedicated to “Whoever wants them”. Most famous, perhaps are the titles for Sor’s Op. 45 and Op. 48; “Let’s see if this is it”, and “Is this it?” The respective dedications read; “short and easy pieces in stages, which aim to lead to what has generally been agreed are difficulties. Composed and dedicated to the person with the least patience”. In his Op. 51, first published in Paris in 1832 he majestically proclaimed “At last!” Sor’s final words on the subject are found in the preface to his Op. 59, in which he attacks those “who have degraded the guitar by ignorance and routine, and have mutilated fine works by fashioning guitar arrangements that follow bad principles”. The latest research suggests, that Sor’s scorn was directed at the followers of Matteo Carcassi and Ferdinando Carulli, who had produced numerous unusual yet highly popular guitar arrangements. However, it seems that the ferocity of his musical attacks also masked some kind of frustration in his personal life. Once we take a closer look, we quickly discover that the source of Sor’s irritation was his recent separation from his wife, the celebrated ballerina and choreographer Félicité Hullin.


Much of Sor’s private life — and particularly his relationship with Félicité — remains shrouded in mystery. We do know, however, that he was born in Barcelona in 1778 and demonstrated unbelievable musical aptitude at an early age, quickly mastering the guitar and inventing his own system of musical notation. He formally studied at the Abbey of Montserrat, but his family decided that their son should follow a military career. As such, Sor took a post as a lieutenant in the Spanish army, and concurrently began to compose vocal works, guitar sonatas and an Italian opera that received 15 performances at the Barcelona Opera. Once he settled into an administrative post in the Andalusia region, however, Spain was invaded by Napoleonic troops in 1808. Sor did see some military action and initially composed a number of patriotic Spanish songs, yet eventually decided to join Napoleon’s cause. Once the tide began to turn against Napoleon, however, French troops withdrew from Spain, and fearing reprisal from the local population, Sor hastily left for Paris in 1812. Able to focus exclusively on establishing a musical career, Sor quickly gained renown as a virtuosic guitarist, yet was resoundingly rejected as an opera composer. Although we have only scant knowledge of Sor’s musical and other activity between 1813 and 1815, it is almost certain that he made the acquaintance of Félicité Hullin, who made her dancing debut at the Paris Opera in 1812. Official records compiled in the 1850’s suggest that Félicité was born in 1805; however, she almost certainly disguised her real birth date in order to appear younger. We do know that Sor got married between 1813 and 1815, and that his wife gave birth to a daughter. There can be no doubt whatsoever that Félicité was his betrothed, but in the interest of their respective careers, they initially kept their marriage from the public. Since Fernando’s career in Paris stagnated, he left for London in 1815. Félicité — apparently not entirely happy with this arrangement — grudgingly followed her husband in 1816, and still nobody knew that they were an item. In London, Fernando began to make friends among the English aristocracy, and created a market for guitar music; of course, he was ever so happy to fill the demand. His most famous works during his stay in London were a set of “Variations on a Theme by Mozart”, published as Opus 9 in 1821, and the highly popular ballet “Cendrillon”, undoubtedly written for his wife. The success of this ballet for both Fernando and Félicité — by now the English tabloids had wised up to the fact that the couple was married—had unforeseen consequences. Félicité was invited to dance in Moscow in 1823, and this time, her husband grudgingly followed his wife. For the next three years, husband and wife collaborated on a variety of successful musical project, including “Cinderella”, and to commemorate the coronation of Nicholas I, the ballet “Hercules and Omphale”. Félicité blossomed in her role as ballerina and singer, not only bringing a European tradition of dancing to Russia, but increasingly choreographing her own productions. As such, she became a seminal influence in the development of Russian ballet. Fernando in turn, was not entirely thrilled to be upstaged by his wife, and after a short and violent disagreement, she told him to get lost. And so, Fernando returned to Paris in 1827. Félicité continued her active dancing career in Moscow until 1835, and afterwards devoted all her energies to education. In 1837 Fernando was diagnosed with cancer of the throat, and the untimely death of his daughter Catherine plunged him into severe depression. His final composition “Memories of Russia”, for guitar duet was published in 1838. It sentimentally intertwines two Russian melodies, including one with the telling title ”What have I done to upset you”. “The “Beethoven of the guitar”, as he was called by the French music scholar F.J. Fétis died in Paris on 10 July, 1839. Félicité eventually took Russian citizenship, and married a certain Prof. Hertel in 1839. She died in Moscow, presumably around 1850.

Please click here to read about the related in tune article “Goya’s Genius and Spanish Art and Music in the 19th Century”.

Fernando Sor Study Op. 31 no. 20
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John Williams plays Sor Studies 1 to 5
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Fernando Sor – Fantasie for 2 guitars, Op. 54 (Julian Bream & John Williams)
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Sor ‘Souvenir de Russie’
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Performed by
Daniel Propper, piano

Recorded in 2012