You certainly noticed a proliferation of companies calling themselves artistic agencies or record labels. Lots of emails from these companies flattering me and offering me management or a recording contract went through my inbox. When I opened the first email, I was excited to get an offer and I went on reading it carefully, thinking a manager was interested in my projects. In fact what I read was one of the most unfair offer on the market.
We all know the dutch fiddler and his orchestra dressed à la mode of XVIIIth century, but would his name be associated to a psychiatric disorder? Not yet officially, but it won’t be long coming. I noticed that many musicians and artistic directors were subject to the same symptoms that I have been regrouping under the “Andre Rieux syndrome”.
But what is it? To understand, we must first review Rieux’ recipe :
Each year represents an opportunity to honor a particular composer, and 2010 has been prepared actively. Indeed, pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin was born in 1810 and next year will be HIS year. We will “discover” the genius of Chopin and his complete works will be played over and over again.
I was talking a few days ago with an eminent colleague pianist, expatriate as myself, who, while on holidays in her native country after several years of absence, was asked by friends what she was doing in life. She naturally answered: “I play the piano” . Not satisfied with this answer, they asked her what she was seriously doing in life. Tragic… isn’t it? But all musicians will tell you, it’s typical!
The municipality of Trois-Rivières in Québec has found a strange way to secure the local underground parking. The authorities have indeed installed headspeakers, playing around the clock classical music in the stairwells of this big parking lot.
Some time ago, the famous ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs organized a two days event called “Dolce Heavenly Concert” in Tokyo. The “revolutionary” idea was to replace the hall seats with beds. The guests were therefore stretched out on luxury beds and had as much ice cream as they desired…
Today let’s speak about what occurs in the public during a concert. If certain halls are extraordinary quiet, others are absolutely not. The main problem of a concert hall: it is built to diffuse the sound, ALL sounds, so the noises too.
At this end of January, my interest is focused on France and its SACEM. Does the “Society of the Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music” wish to deprive its members of diffusion? Our team has decided a few weeks ago to put online for free some of my most recent recordings, in streaming and downloading [...]