As medici.tv’s Chief Content Officer I spend a lot of time thinking about classical music—and a lot of time on the internet. Here’s my selection of the top four news items you need to see this week if you want to stay in the know.
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Emanuel Ax interviews actor David Hyde Pierce (Classical Musical Happy Hour)
Emanuel Ax’s Classical Music Happy Hour is turning into one of my favorite classical music podcasts. I grew up binging Frasier reruns so the recent episode with actor David Hyde Pierce, who played the music-loving psychiatrist Niles Crane for over a decade on the hit sit-com, was sure to be a personal favorite. Hyde Pierce shared anecdotes about beloved classical music references on the show, of course, but the conversation drew heavily on his experience as a skilled pianist himself. The most fascinating moments came when Hyde Pierce and Ax discussed parallels between performing as musicians and as actors: how one must adapt when moving between stage and recording studio, what good artistic collaboration looks like, memorization strategies, and more.
Has the long-lost “Lauterbach” Stradivarius been found? (The Strad, Le Parisien)
The “Lauterbach” Stradivarius violin’s last known location was in Warsaw, Poland at the tail end of World War II, when it was looted from the Warsaw Museum as German forces left the city. Now, according to a detailed investigation in French newspaper Le Parisien, it looks like it may have resurfaced in Colmar, France. The Strad has a good English-language summary.
The French pianist blending classical and rap (NYT)
You may have seen Sofiane Pamart floating down the Seine during the opening ceremonies of the Paris 2024 games—he was the pianist whose instrument was literally on fire. The New York Times sat down with the young French pianist on a “quest to shake classical music’s rigid mores to new heights” to talk about his new album, growing up in Northern France, and more.
The Royal Opera’s Director of Opera speaks out (The Guardian)
From the Met’s much-publicized financial woes to the artistic leadership changes at the Boston Symphony, the industry’s administrative leaders have been much more visible in the media recently. In The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins spoke to Oliver Mears, director of opera at the Royal Opera, about the funding cuts plaguing the industry, providing an outlet for contemporary compositions, the house’s controversial decision to work with Anna Netrebko, and how he would respond today if he could relive the incident surrounding last summer’s on-stage protest.
