It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happening in the Classical Music world, I’m Randy Kinkel.

It’s a technological first for a genre mistakenly known as mainly the purview of dead white men and women--For the first time ever, a download only release has topped the billboard Classical Charts—it’s Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, released by DG concerts. It’s not only the first download-only recording to top the charts, it’s the first to appear at all!.


A recent article in The Times reported that 25 to 30% of Classical Musicians regularly take drugs or alcohol to combat performance anxiety. That’s according to Helmut Moeller, head Of Berlin’s Kurt Singer Institute for musical Health. Substance abuse among Jazz, pop and rock musicians has been almost taken foir granted in the past decades, but their classical colleagues consumption of drugs had received scant attention. The problem recently came to light when a horn player in the Berlin Philharmonic confessed to needing a pre-performance beer or two in a film documentary. This caused other horn players to admit to their drinking problems. Tenor Roland Wagenfuhrer said he was seriously worried about the use of drugs by opera singers. But is this much ado about very little? Violinist Nigel Kennedy declared the Cocaine and Marijuana are as popular among his colleagues as in any other social circles. Apparently the most-used drugs in orchestral circles are realtively tame Beta Blockers, medication usually prescribed for heart problems, that is effective in calming the pre-performance jitters.

At a time when many orchestras across the country aare struggling for survival and musicians suffer pay cuts, Music Director salaries are still on the rise, or at least at generous levels compared to the paychecks of most of us. Orchestra Consultant Drew McManus has been publishing an annual orchestra compensation report for the last four years. According to his latest report, out this week, Music director pay is trending upward. For Example, Daniel Barenboim received pay and benefits totalling 1.91 Million Dollars during the 2005-2006 season with the Chicago Symphony; Ahead of him was New York Philharmonic conductor Lorin Maazel, at 2.19 million dollars; Philadelphia’s Christoph Eshenbach took home 1.59 million, San Francisco’s Michael Tilson Thomas and Los Angeles’ Esa Pekka Salonen were basically tied with salaries of 1.57 million and some odd dollars.

For more information on these and other items and events, go to the website kbaq.org, be listening each week at this time for another update, and join me every weekday at noon for The Mozart Buffet, an Hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I’m Randy Kinkel for KBAQ’s This Week in Classical Music, on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

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June 8, 2008 by Randy Kinkel courtesy of KBAQ.

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Title: June 8, 2008
Author: Randy Kinkel
Publisher: KBAQ 89.5 FM
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