Library of Congress Adds Glass Opera, Van Cliburn to Recording Registry

“Einstein on the Beach” is headed to the Library of Congress. On Thursday, the library announced its 25 newest additions to the National Recording Registry. Among them is the landmark multimedia opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson.

The library selects said it selects albums for “their cultural, artistic and historic importance to the nation's aural legacy."

Also among the new additions is a recording from April 1958 of Van Cliburn, then 23 years old, performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for the finals of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. And a 1959 "A Program of Song" by the soprano Leontyne Price was also added.  More

Steinway to Sell West 57th St. Showroom to Condo Developer

Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. is selling its stake in the Steinway Hall building in New York to JDS Development Group for about $46 million.

The musical instrument maker said Tuesday that 247,000-square-foot, 16-story office building is home to its flagship retail showroom. Steinway Hall opened in 1925 and is located on West 57th St. in Manhattan.

The deal gives Steinway, which is best known for its pianos, the right to occupy the building rent free for 14 months after closing and to extend the occupancy an additional four months subject to an agreed upon rent.

Steinway expects cash proceeds of about $43 million from the sale at closing after paying transfer taxes. It expects to recognize a taxable gain of $22 million once the deal closes. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter.  More

The Gospel According to the Other Mary received its New York premiere

NEW YORK -- John Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary received its New York premiere Wednesday night in Avery Fisher Hall with Gustavo Dudamel conducting soloists, dancers, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was quite a spectacle.

Like Adams's El Niño, the piece has an inspired and inventive musical score wedded to a libretto assembled by Peter Sellars that mixes biblical scenes with what naysayers might call bleeding-heart-liberal expressions of solidarity with the downtrodden and the oppressed, whether by virtue of economic injustice or discrimination--perennial Sellars themes. Political views aside, one can wince at a passion story that juxtaposes Jesus's arraignment before Pilate with negotiations between César Chavez, representing farm workers, and the Teamsters. Dramatic coherence and structural shape are simply not present. 

Met Announces Sills Award Winner

Tenor Bryan Hymel has joined a rather distinguished group of singers in receiving the eighth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers. Overseen by the Metropolitan Opera, named for the famed vocalist/arts administrator, funded by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, the $50,000 award is for singers between ages 25 and 40 who are considered "extraordinarily gifted" and have already sung a major role at the Met.

Hymel made his house debut earlier this season, a last-minute replacement for Marcello Giordani singing Aeneas in Berlioz's Les Troyens. Ultimately, he took over the full run (including the HD broadcast), when Giordani decided to "retire" the role from his repertoire. It was a stroke of luck for Hymel, and his debut was a triumph.

'Anna Nicole' @ NY City Opera in September

Anna Nicole is coming to New York City Opera! Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera about the former Playboy playmate and tabloid fixture was a smash hit at the Royal Opera House in London two seasons ago. It will open the 2013-2014 City Opera season in September in a co-production with Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Details were announced a press conference on Tuesday morning at New York City Center.  More

San Francisco Symphony Cancels Carnegie Hall Dates as Strike Continues

The San Francisco Symphony's east coast tour, which was to include a two-night stand at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday and Thursday, has been canceled as a result of its five-day-old strike.

The orchestra announced shortly before 8 pm ET Sunday that the two sides had been unable to reach an accord, and remain far apart on issues of pay and benefits.  More

Violin That Was Played as Titanic Sank Found, Auction House Says

The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the oceanliner sank has been unearthed, a British auction house said Friday.

Survivors of the Titanic have said they remember the band, led by Wallace Hartley, playing on deck even as passengers boarded lifeboats after the ship hit an iceberg.

Hartley's violin was believed lost in the 1912 disaster, but auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son say an instrument unearthed in 2006 and has undergone rigorous testing and proven to be Hartley's.
"It's been a long haul," said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, explaining the find had initially seemed "too good to be true."

The auction house spent the past seven years and thousands of pounds determining the water-stained violin's origins, consulting numerous experts including government forensic scientists and Oxford University.  More