Krystian Zimerman, the great Polish concert pianist, is usually one of these artists you barely hear about between rare concert tours. He doesn’t share his every thought with the press and doesn’t seem to care much that he appears to be an excentric for travelling to every city with his own Steinway grand piano. He doesn’t give encores, he never talks to the audience. Music is enough.

So he caused quite a commotion when, before he performed the last work on his Disney Hall recital program on Sunday night, he paused for a moment and then announced that he would no longer perform in the United States in protest against Washington’s military policies. “Get your hands off my country,” he said bluntly.

Andrew Gumbel from The Guardian tells all here.

New York-based composer Steve Reich has won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his piece Double Sextet on April 20. Reich composed the work for two identical sextets of instruments, each made up of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano. The work can either be performed by 12 players or by 6, playing against a taped performance of themselves. This is how the work was premiered last year. You can hear an excerpt here…

An article that explains Reich’s minimalism can be found here.

So you believe you have perfect pitch – or, to be asolutely percise, absolute pitch? Then, take this survey and find out. The goal of the study is to determine whether absolute pitch differs systematically for different timbres. The test is divided into 4 blocks of 24 trials. Each block consists of 24 pitches (A3 to Gb5) presented in random order. Each block has a different timbre or instrumental sound.

The experimenters are Patricia Vanzella (Professor of Music, University of Brasilia) and Glenn Schellenberg (Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto).

Interested? It’s here…

Kent Nagano and Unsuk Chin talk about their working relationship and the two works featured on the Analekta CD, with violonist Viviane Hagner. To hear the Violin Concerto and Rocaná, it’s here.

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” A very old musician’s joke indeed but, this time, Michael Tilson Thomas added a new twist: “Upload, upload, upload.” This is how the conductor introduced the YouTube Symphony last Wednesday night to a packed house in Carnegie Hall. There was nothing standard about this orchestra, indeed. Talk about postmodernism!

All the musicians were selected through online auditions and 3 000 hopefuls sent in their video applications. The jury then picked 200 and the viewers did the rest, choosing who they considered to be good enough to grace the prestigious hall with their presence. The last 96 to stand – including two Canadians, Gaël Chabot, vibraphonist and Stéphane Tétreault, a 15-year cellist – represented more than 30 countries. All were not professional musicians. In the ranks, a surgeon, a mechanic, a professional poker player and an administrative assistant. In your face for those who believe classical music is just for an elite!

Cell phones and video cameras were more than permitted, they were strongly recommanded for audience members, many of which never attended a classical concert in their life before that night. All throughout the concert, they sent clips to friends, posted excerpts online, twittered about it and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Some were reported weeping, stand-up ovations were given after most works and Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony No. 1 Eroica’s premiere was no exception. Described by Tan Dun as being like “an ancient arranged marriage – arranged by Google and YouTube”, the evening certainly will remained etched in all the participants’ memories. Is this the end of blind auditions?

The videos of the event are available on the YouTube Symphony channel, here…