This Week in Classical Music

by: Randy Kinkel

March 22, 2009

Ricardo Muti

This Week in Classical Music-March 22, 2009

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Muti to Rome?
•Met B-day bash earns 6.3 mil
•Bosendorfer work of art

This Week in Classical Music 3/22/09

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

Conductor Ricardo Muti has been invited to become music director of the Rome Opera and apparently is asking for time to mull it over…. The offer comes from Rome’s Mayor, Gianni Alemanno, who said, “Our plan is to greatly revive the company and for this reason I asked maestro Muti to take charge of the music directorship." The Company is one of Italy’s oldest and is battling financial problem so severe that it may go into receivership. Muti’s contract with the Chicago Symphony is set to begin in 2010.

It was a very happy birthday celebration at the Met last week; the Met celebrated it’s 125th anniversary with a gala that featured dozens of Opera stars decked out in full regalia, in an evening that including arias, costumes and 26 separate highlights remembering the company’s rich history. The sold out evening also raised 6.3 million dollars for the Met.

For a mere 1.2 million dollars, you can have a one of a kind piano that is literally a work of art. The piano in question is a Bosendorfer limited edition 7 foot four inch Concert Grand, but what makes it extra special is the work done by North Carolina Glass Artist Jon Kuhn, who added 216 jewels of lead crystal, set in diamond patterns affixed to the piano’s Lid, sides, legs, fallboard, and bench. Kuhn reports that the piece is “20 times more beautiful” than he envisioned, and pianist friends have told him the instrument “Plays like Butter”. You can see it at his Gallery in Winston Salem.

For more 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 for The Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I’m Randy Kinkel, for This Week in Classical music on 89-five KBAQ phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.

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