Well, the video for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra’s performance at Carnegie Hall has finally been posted! On a Friday evening, in great need of entertainment (and perhaps enlightenment), there I went, with much anticipation of good music and good spirits.

Let me preface my comments by saying that this is a noble venture to broaden the appeal of classical music to the great masses. Certainly the orchestra will reach many around the world; maybe its contents will be appealing to new listeners. But it is not for refined palates.

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra will not be replacing professional orchestras, live concerts or professional recordings any time soon. Its problems are fourfold. First, the programming is questionable. The concert started a lacklustre piece that was supposedly written by Brahms, then some very odd 20th century percussion piece played on plastic bins, and then around the world. Second, the players, while reasonably adept for amateurs, are not professionals. At best their sound was sluggish and inoffensive. They lack the crisp timing and the general quality of instruments required in a serious orchestra. Their rendition of Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkryies’ conjured images of fat lolling women around a TV, rather than the fierce thundering warrior-maidens of Germanic legend. However, this is not the fault of the musicians; a few more days of rehearsal would have been helpful. Third, the sound quality fell below concert-level expectations. For an ensemble of 96, they should have produced a deafening sound. Instead I found myself straining to hear the grating of the strings, then wincing when I heard the false notes.

Fourth, and most disappointing, the production quality was amateur as well, with jerky animations and miscued video clips. In one instance, YouTube viewers were left staring at the darkened image of the conductor’s head, and missed out completely on another, soundless video which the conductor was watching. Given the hype and the backing institutions, I would have thought that more emphasis and thought would have been put into the production. Sadly, the production flaws detract from this marvellous convergence of so many musicians from different places. Ultimately all that was produced was a very well promoted YouTube video with a symphony orchestra.

Update: Here is the New York Times review on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

I stumbled across this link to the inaugural YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which will be playing at Carnegie Hall on April 15th. Young artists from around the world auditioned by submitting a video through YouTube. A committee selected the finalists, who were announced in March. Tomorrow they start rehearsals.

In an associated article featured in Time, YouTube (and its owners at Google) initiated this project, and they’ve managed to accumulate several well-respected symphony orchestras as sponsors. Hopefully it will shine a spotlight on classical artists and classical music in general, and bring together a new generation of previously disparate artists and music lovers in the digital world.

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve heard of iTunes and its competitors in the legal digital music industry, such as Amazon, eMusic, Deutsche Grammophon, etc. iTunes has switched from DRM (digital rights management), 128 kilobits per second MP3s to DRM-free 256 kbps AACs. Unfortunately the bump in quality and freedom from restrictions have come with a price: many pop tracks are now $1.29, rather than $0.99.

Being the hard-headed journalistic types, unswayed by rumour and hearsay, the intrepid editorial team at ClassicalWatch.com has investigated iTunes, and we are pleased to report that most classical tracks remain fixed at $0.99. Yes, even tracks with soulful artists in designer gowns and young men in tuxedoes. There are upsides to unpopularity.

Many Apple competitors also appear to have changed their pricing schemes. Due to laziness time constraints, the collection at other sites have not been assessed. If any readers would like to write in with their experiences with other sites, please let us know!

Released 2009 by EMI music

The trumpet has largely played a supporting role in most classical music, blaring the occasional brassy fanfare. More often it is associated with jazz and brass bands. So when this recording by Alison Balsom appeared, my curiosity was piqued. How could a brass instrument with only three ‘buttons’ produce such round tender notes spanning a three-octave range?

And yet it does. Miss Balsom’s playing is dexterous and nuanced, and easily steals the show. Trills and octave jumps are surefooted, rhythms precisely delineated and dynamics entirely within context. The occasional intake of breath is audible, but does not detract from the record. The orchestra (the Deutsche Kammerphilharmoniker) is well balanced, enough to support but never so loud as to overwhelm, and is spare enough to reflect the early classical/baroque origins of these works. The technical aspects of the recording have resulted in a rich full sound, in which even the harpsichord can be heard in its rightful place.

The compositions are very typical of their time of composition, brightly glossed and easy to digest. Overall a highly satisfactory purchase.

Here’s a nice site that discusses how the trumpet makes all those notes with only three valves.

Classical sales statistics are begining to roll in for 2005 and the numbers are very encouraging. Reuters is reporting a number of artists with digital sales making up 10 - 20 percent of overall sales (73 percent in the case of Janine Jansen), and even though traditional sales are down 15 percent in the US, digital sales are up almost 94 percent. This represents an unexpected and exciting growth for the classical genre in the digital marketplace. Let’s hope this trend will continue in the coming years.

[From: Reuters]