With over 1.3 billion people China is the world’s most populous country. It is a country with a very rich musical culture dating back to the dawn of the Chinese civilization as early as 1122BC - 256BC. The Russo-European classical tradition had a major impact on Chinese music until the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) banned intellectual pursuits including the education and performance of western classical music (though some continued to indulge their enjoyment of the music as performers and listeners at great peril). Today western classical music is en vogue in China, and becoming increasingly popular with the masses as venues clamour to book top western orchestras. This coupled with China’s world class performers such as Lang Lang, Jian Wang, and Yundi Li - make China a major power in the world of classical music.

The Berliner Philharmoniker recently embarked on a concert tour and experienced the phenomenon first hand. There is an excellent, well written article reporting on this tour by Claus Spahn at Die Ziet (in German), The English translation of the article - The long march to Beethoven is also available.

PAUL HORSLEY over at the Kansas City Star has put together some decent advise for starting a classical CD collection as well as a listening guide as a starting point. His advise is quite helpful especially his point of selecting the right recording being crucial to enjoyment. I suppose a listening guide for the purposes of building a CD collection can be quite subjective so I won’t comment on Paul’s list but have I have to take exception with his statement - “Beethoven: Piano Sonatas (“Appassionata,â€? “Moonlight,â€? “Pathetiqueâ€?) Favorites of beginning pianists…” - Ok maybe the first movement of the Moonlight sonata but these sonatas are difficult works making up the concert repertoire of accomplished pianists, and part of the required playing for the top levels of many music curricula such as the royal conservatory of music.

[from: Got the classical bug?- Kansas City Star]

There’s a fellow over in Kalamazoo Michigan who has put out a CD consisting of a number of variations of the “Mary Had a Little Lamb”" melody (The Probably Untrue Story - $13 at Sonus Novus). Apparently when played for children, the kids go “giddy” for this CD while gaining an appreciation for Classical Music.

“If kids really like and find that education is entertaining, they will be absorbed by it and they won’t want to put it down.”

The CD is the brainchild of Micah Levy, former director of the Orange County (CA) Chamber Orchestra. He also has a master’s degree in orchestral conducting, and plays the French Horn professionally. He started the project in an attempt to improve his composing skills.

The disc is built around the story of Mary and her little lamb Petunia who is not allowed to accompany Mary to school… Mary gets lost on the way home as Levy explores the familiar melody while dramatizing her long journey home. Anything to get young people into classical.

[From: The Kalamazoo Gazette]

“The art of music here entombed a rich possession, but even fairer hopes.”

On this day in 1828, Franz Schubert (Jan. 31, 1797 - Nov. 19, 1828) succame to what may have been a long battle with syphilis¹ and perhaps the remedy of the day - mercury treatment². Schubert was in his 31st year when he passed, making him the youngest of the great composers of his time.

Although he lived only a mere 31 years Schubert was very prolific. He was a dedicated composer, who clearly preferred spending much of his time writing music, sometimes completing two or more works per day.

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For those of you who are Mac users and subscribe to .Mac may have noticed that Apple dropped 100 GarageBand loops from its Jam Pack 4, Symphony Orchestra in your iDisk. This is a long way from actually composing music, and certainly not for the purist, but if you would like to quickly create music for a home movie or are getting started creating music on your computer then this would be a good start. Kids who use this to create orchestral music for school projects get extra marks.

Yamaha has just released a new line of silent instruments including the first silent viola. The instruments are designed for people who need to practice in privacy without annoying parents, dorm mates, neighbours, etc. Just plug-in a pair of headphones and using the built-in sound processor the instrument can mimic acoustical spaces like a concert hall or practice room.

BTW if you are a brass musician check out Yamaha’s line of silent brass instruments.

[From: Yamaha]

If you happen to be in Ottawa, Canada you should consider taking advantage of a rare opportunity to catch a performance of The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk M. Górecki. It will be performed in Ottawa November 10, 2005 at 8 p.m by the University of Ottawa Orchestra. Here are the details:

University of Ottawa Orchestra with Maria Knapik, soprano
David Currie, conductor
In Collaboration with the Embassy of Poland
St. Joseph’s Church
151 Laurier Ave. East, Ottawa

Sotheby’s managed a record £568,000 for a Carlo Bergonzi violin formerly owned by Nicolo Paganini. The last time a Bergonzi violin came to auction was back in 1984, when another of 50 known to exist pulled in a mere £120,000. It seems the violin was purchased by Moscow based Violin Art Foundation who intend to lend it to the winner of the upcoming Third Paganini Moscow International Violin Competition for a year of playing… Follow the link for entry details.

Rafal Blechacz topped 257 virtuosos to become the first polish native to win the competition in over 30 years. Blechacz impressed judges with his immense talent, especially his interpretation of the Concerto in E minor of which it was said that he “plays Chopin like Chopin”.

[From: 2005 Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition]