The Minnesota Orchestra, which has hit an artistic peak under Osmo Vänskä, is getting into the live-recording business. They're presently offering two free downloads, of Stravinsky's Petrushka and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.... Make Music NY happens on Monday. I have a preview at the New Yorker blog, focusing on the lakeside Xenakis happening.... Happy news for the contemporary-opera fancier: the Met has added John Adams's Nixon in China to its HD Live schedule. The broadcast is on Feb. 12, 2011.... The annual League of American Orchestras conference is underway in Atlanta. The League has set up a densely packed online site to accompany the event, with blogging coordinated by Doug McLennan of ArtsJournal.... Bang on a Can has posted the schedule for its 2010 marathon. A few highlights: the JACK Quartet performing Xenakis, Gamelan Galak Tika performing Ziporyn, SIGNAL doing the Bang team's Shelter, and a late-in-the-evening manifestation by the amazing Burkina Electric.... In the LA Times, Ann Powers offers a pop critic's perspective on the Ring. In the same paper, Jon Burlingame addresses Wagner's effect on film music.
