No images? Click here December 18, 2023 We're taking a short break to recharge over the Christmas holidays but will return bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for 2024. We have much to look forward to, including sharing weekly classical music news, features, and hot takes. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays from all your pals at Ludwig Van. 🏴☠️ +++ In this week’s email:
CLASSICAL CHARTZ Christmas weighs into the Top Ten this week, with The Tenors and Christmas with the Tenors taking over the number 1 spot from Hauser’s Christmas. VOCES8 and A Choral Christmas moved up four spots to enter the Top Ten at 9. Also coming up in the list to break into the Top Ten for the first time are Arvo Part’s Tractus and André Rieu’s Jewels of Romance. Canadian stalwarts Bruce Liu, Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s work on the Maestro soundtrack drops by just one to accommodate the seasonal fare. For the complete top 20, tune into Classical Chartz with the New Classical FM’s Mark Wigmore every Saturday from 3-5 p.m. THE BIG IDEA Online Content Creators Continue Trend of Choosing Classical MusicA new report from Epidemic Sound indicates that online content creators are still opening up to using classical music for their digital projects on a record-setting basis. The Swedish company’s year-end report, 2023 Sound of the Internet, indicates that the use of classical music tracks grew by 80% year over year from 2022 to 2023. Traditionally, Western classical music lovers typically associate their beloved genre with the concert hall, another atmospheric venue, and live performance. But, the reality is that much of the music we hear on a daily basis is attached to online content. Creating music for online content creation is a vast market that is growing despite the lag between international copyright laws and the realities of digital life. What Is Epidemic Sound?Epidemic Sound is one of several services that offer music for the vast online content creation market. Users can pay to use tracks owned by Epidemic Sound (i.e. with no royalty conflict), and not surprisingly, the company specializes in sync licensing, or licensing music created for videos and films. However, some users also come for the playlists, which are extensive and exclusive. The ship has already sailed when it comes to the use of such services — for the vast majority of online content creators, they offer access to affordable original music. The business model for Epidemic Sound includes upfront payment for the original artists. Epidemic buys the tracks upfront, and streaming revenues are split on a 50/50 basis. It’s not your father’s royalty-paying system of music composition, in other words, but it does pay the original creator while still making it easy for the online world to produce content. While it’s just one of multiple music services, its numbers make the report results significant. That includes:
The ReportIt’s the second year that the company has shared its usage data in the form of a report. The figures come from an analysis of metadata of user-generated content on YouTube and Tiktok to generate overall figures that they compared with their proprietary data. Classical music remained in the top three fastest growing genres, and was seventh overall worldwide when it came to most frequently used types of music. Epidemic’s own figures showed a 40% increase in classical music downloads between 2022 and 2023. Along with the growth of classical music, still the fastest rising genre, inspirational music saw a whopping 300% year-over-year increase on YouTube. Epidemic saw an 180% year-over-year increase in inspirational music downloads. “Last year, we witnessed a remarkable surge in the popularity of classical music among our users, and it’s no surprise that this trend continues to grow. What’s particularly intriguing is the parallel rise of inspirational music,” said Epidemic Sound CEO and Co-Founder Oscar Höglund. “Our observations indicate that these genres are no longer merely background scores. Instead, they have evolved into a means of crafting immersive environments that resonate with the human spirit. For content creators, this surge opens up an exciting opportunity to explore and experiment with these genres.” The report indicates a search for happiness and positivity, hope and dreaminess as desired qualities that content creators are looking for — not surprising in a troubled world. You can read the whole report [HERE]. — AW TOUR DE HEADLINES (L-R) Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim (Courtesy photos) Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim Awarded France's Légion d'Honneur — Pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim and pianist Martha Argerich were awarded France's Légion d'Honneur, with Barenboim receiving the Grand Cross and Argerich named a Commander. Both originally from Buenos Aires, they have shared a lifelong friendship and have contributed significantly to the music world. | The Violin Channel PIANO MOVES Víkingur Ólafsson. (Courtesy Photo) Icelandic Pianist’s Goldberg Variations Surpasses 20 Million StreamsDeutsche Grammophon announced Víkingur Ólafsson’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has been streamed over 20 million times. What’s Up: This week, the recording label Deutsche Grammophon announced in a press release that Víkingur Ólafsson’s 2023 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has been streamed over 20 million times. The album was released in October, achieving the Icelandic pianist pop star status as far as classical music streaming numbers are concerned. Refresher: Víkingur Ólafsson, 39, grew up in Reykjavík before moving to New York City to study at the Juilliard School. He has performed with countless orchestras around the world including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic. In 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG). His albums with DG, including Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020), Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) and From Afar (2022), have been streamed over 600 million times. IN MEMORIAM Nadia Boulanger (Photo Archives Centre International Nadia Boulanger, Paris) Luminary Composition Teacher Nadia Boulanger’s Only Opera Has US PremiereCatapult Opera in New York City will stage Nadia Boulanger’s La ville morte. What’s Up: Catapult Opera in New York City recently announced it will present Nadia Boulanger’s only opera, La ville morte, in 2024. The presentation will be the US premiere of Boulanger’s work, and will be presented as a co-production with the Greek National Opera. Refresher: Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) is best known as composition teacher to many of the 20th century's starriest composers, including Philip Glass, Elliott Carter, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland,
Grażyna Bacewicz and Quincy Jones. Yet, she was an accomplished composer and conductor in her own right. Boulanger herself studied composition with Gabriel Fauré and composed many orchestral, vocal, chamber and piano works. She was the first woman to conduct many major symphonies, including the BBC, New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her opera, La ville morte (1910), was a collaboration with the pianist and composer Raoul Pugno. ROUND-UP Classical Music Albums Of The Year 2023Album of the Year? There’s quite a few. Let’s start with the ones that got away. I’m in love with the Goldberg Variations by Vikingur — he seems to have dropped that long Icelandic surname — and have listened to them at least half a dozen times. I didn’t review the release when new because it was swamped with critical hyperbole and I had little to add. I love this disc (DG). The Doric string quartet’s new Beethoven cycle is brilliantly programmed. The first double-album contains quartets from different periods of the composer’s life, neatly counterposed. This is a walk with Beethoven through his creative life. Can’t wait for the next instalment (Chandos). Yuja Wang’s capture of four Rachmaninov concertos and the Paganini Variations in a single concert made headlines for its athleticism. Beneath the attention-seeking lies some sensitive musicianship (DG). Boris Giltburg’s set with the Brussels Philharmonic is warmer, more contemplative (Naxos). I got my Vaughan Williams fix from the Royal Liverpool Phil’s dance album of Job and other bits, leagues apart from Strictly (Onyx). And I cannot resist Kurt Weill’s Die Propheten, despite Franz Werfel’s leaden polemics (Capriccio). Among the ones I did review, Semyon Bychkov’s Czech Philharmonic account of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony joins the front rank of penetrative interpretations, wondrously performed (Pentatone). The last lifetime recording of the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho pulled heartstrings I didn’t know I had (BIS). Anthony McGill’s melding of Brahms sonatas and American music was memorably affecting (Cedille) and I was happy to spend time with the long-neglected Cesar Franck symphony in D minor (Alpha). But when push comes to stop-wasting-my-time, there were two albums of 2023 that will stand every test of time. One was the farewell gift of the Emerson Quartet, a dazzling menu of Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith and Chausson that no other ensemble could have conceived or pulled off — and with Barbara Hannigan doing the vocal bits. You won’t believe what you hear, and you really won’t want to miss it (Alpha). That said, my album of the year is … Fabio Luisi’s Nielsen set with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the most idiomatic and immersive account of the six symphonies we have ever heard on record — and that includes Bernstein, Blomstedt and other epic forerunners. Luisi and his Danes just get it. Nothing more to be said. Get it (DG). And have a very happy festive season. — NL QUIZ Nothing says Monday like a mini-crossword. AROUND THE WEB 📅 On this day: Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker premieres in 1892 🌿 Art: Artist builds a miniature greenhouse 👶 Interesting: A close look at human birth patterns: Why are so many babies born around 8 am? 😠 How to: Get over a perceived slight and get on with your life. 🎤 Concert: Audience becomes the choir in Rome 🚨 Do you want to advertise with Ludwig Van? 🚨 We're looking to fill ad slots for 2024. We have run successful campaigns with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, record labels like Universal Music, plus opera companies and music festivals. If interested, hit REPLY on this email, or click here. COOL THING OF THE WEEK This LEGO set depicts a quaint, bustling seaside village scene inspired by the opera "Peter Grimes." The detailed set features a two-story building with a sign that reads "The Boar," complete with a brick facade and a rowboat in the foreground. Shut up and take my money. The catch? This is AI generated. Womp womp. How did you like today's email? |