Go behind the scenes at one of the most important - and intense - piano competitions in the music world.

Watch The Cliburn: 50 Years of Gold, Friday, Sept. 28, at 9pm on WGBH 2

Every four years, a group of the finest young pianists takes the stage at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. In the midst of the drama, the beauty, the nerves and the excitement, they know one thing is true — what happens there can change their lives. They strive to feel the joy of victory and achieve their utmost goal: to become a performer on the world stage.

 
BOSTON — Benjamin Zander, director of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, was fired after it was learned he hired a convicted sex offender to videotape student performances. The move sent shockwaves throughout the local and national classical music communities. We talked about the impact of Zander’s ousting with Brian McCreath, host and producer at Classical New England. 

When you think of Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey, the first thing that comes to mind might be Highclere Castle, which “plays” Downton Abbey itself. Or maybe the mind-boggling “proper-ness” of practically every single character depicted.

One especially powerful aspect of Downton you may not have noticed – at least consciously – was the music you heard.

In a way, that’s as it should be. The score was written by John Lunn and accomplishes precisely what any film score must: a ratcheting up of the emotional trajectory of the story while simultaneously going unnoticed.

You might imagine Lunn as a wizard-like composer in a meticulous process, weaving together strands of silvery sound to form a gorgeous tapestry. But as he told me, that’s not exactly how the process started:
 

To hear more about Downton Abbey from actress Elizabeth McGovern, visit The World.

Here's a look back at Season 2:

Watch Downton Abbey I Wonder Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

BOSTON — A mere eight months after a production that debuted on its stage won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Opera Boston announced on Dec. 27 that it’s shutting down for good on Jan. 1 of the new year.

A terse, one-paragraph press release cited an “insurmountable budget deficit” and “lackluster fundraising in a tough economic climate.”

Lloyd Schwartz, classical music editor for the Boston Phoenix and classical music critic for NPR's “Fresh Air,” talked with Classical New England about what led to the collapse of the adventurous opera company and what it means for subscribers and opera in Boston.

Classical critic Lloyd Schwartz (K. Bonami)

“It was a surprise,” Schwartz said, sounding a little gobsmacked. “It sounded like things were going well.”

Boston Lyric Opera recently released a press release (pdf) saying it had had a banner year for fundraising. Schwartz couldn’t imagine that the BLO’s success didn’t hurt Opera Boston’s bottom line: “You probably wouldn’t support both of them.”

The remainder of the season has been canceled. Schwartz thought the subscribers would probably get their money back. “The people I feel the worst about are the musicians, who were certainly counting on a couple of good gigs — three performances of each opera plus rehearsals,” Schwartz said.

That said, Schwartz pointed out that Boston does have a somewhat checkered history of supporting the art form: “This is a city that tore down its great opera house” in the middle of the last century.

The company’s final performance will take place Dec. 31 as part of First Night Boston.

BOSTON — Members of the fiddle choir Childsplay come from many different musical backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common: all of the group’s instruments were made by the same craftsman.

This is “child’s play” in name only. The music spans everything from classical to a rollicking Turkish arrangement to the moving, Celtic-tinged “Dante’s Prayer,” sung by featured vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, daughter of WGBH host Brian O’Donovan.
 
While rehearsing for their annual series of concerts, performers in the 21-member “fiddle choir” talked about what makes the group unique.
 
“It’s a real thrill. Everybody who you speak to will come from a slightly different walk of life,” said Childsplay member and Boston Symphony Orchestra violinist Bonnie Bewick.
 
Hanneke Cassel, a fiddle player who tours and teaches internationally, initially wondered how it would work. “When I first came into it, I was thinking we’re all coming from these different styles. Old-time Scottish, Irish, classical and more,” she said.
 
She quickly realized it was the instruments. “There’s something about the sound of the instruments, the timbre,” Cassel said. “It’s like they all have a vibe with each other.”

A luthier's musical "fingerprint"
 
It is all the sound of Bob Childs. He is the artistic director of the group, he’s a player and he made all of the violins, as he’s been doing for 35 years now. He now works only on commission from his Cambridge, Mass. workshop. It takes him two months and 200 hours per instrument. In his career, he’s made about 150 violins.

“I work by feel a lot, so I’m feeling the wood and I’m feeling what it feels like coming off the wood,” Childs said, planing a board. “Feeling the grain of the wood. Feeling the resistance of the wood. And I’m actually listening to the sound.”
 
Childs likes to say the violin completed its evolution 500 years ago. The back and sides are always made of maple, the top is always made of spruce. It’s up to him to discover the sound — which is, he said, already in the wood.
 
And taken all together, all under his hand, Childs’ instruments are as distinct as his own fingerprints. “It’s really mysterious to explain how you can get a consistent sound no matter that you may be starting with different pieces of wood,” Childs said. “But time and time again the sound sounds like I made the violin.”
 
To hear 21 artists bring those instruments to life together at once is, he said, very special:
 
“Childsplay is like a sum of all these amazing parts and I’m the luckiest person in the world because I get to stand at the center of that sound. And it’s a very humbling experience, actually, to be in the middle of that.”

Jared Bowen is a reporter and producer for WGBH's "Greater Boston." Follow him on Twitter @JaredWGBH.

BOSTON — The musical strains you hear from Symphony Hall beginning this week could easily echo the strains of relief. The post James Levine era has begun. No more fretting over the maestro's sudden cancellations. No more slumping ticket sales. No more hits to morale says Boston Symphony Orchestra Managing Director Mark Volpe.

"In terms of the orchestra can you imagine rehearsal, rehearsing four to five times a week not knowing whether [Levine's] going to make it, not knowing what condition he's going to be in," Volpe said. "And also, not to be melodramatic, but there were times when it was clear he was suffering."

To be clear, the BSO maintains great sympathy for Levine who ended his tenure this year after a series of health crises forced him to cancel nearly a fifth of his concerts during his seven years in Boston. "He was an important figure and the first several years were quite exciting," Volpe said. "And we always knew health was a risk and I don't think anyone anticipated, especially Jim, the health situation would become so central to our relationship."

But now the BSO is ready to move on — to find its 15th Music Director in the organization's 130-year history. It's a process that could take years, although Volpe won't commit to a timeframe. "The reality is there are people we haven't seen ever, a few conductors are coming to make their debuts with the Boston Symphony and a few conductors we haven't seen in many, many years — 15, 20 years that are coming back. So I think people should be patient," Volpe revealed.

Where he is more explicit is in outlining the criteria for Levine's replacement. Asked what he's looking for, "I think first and foremost a great, great conductor," Volpe answered. "A great artist and someone who can be, forgive the presumptuous dimension of this statement, but the moral force for music in Boston and beyond…We want someone to make Boston their primary address."

In the meantime the BSO has filled this season with star conductors and performers like renowned German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. To open the season, Mutter is assuming the double role of performer and conductor. Post-Levine, the orchestra is very strong she said. "Every group, the first fiddle, the second, the cellis, the violas, wonderful oboe and horn and flute playing. Really tremendous joy and of course perfect playing."

Over the course of her two performances, Mutter will perform all five Mozart violin concerti — pieces for which she has deep affection. "It's the simplicity of his music, the beauty and his depth of soul which shines through even in very early pieces where there's a sudden modulation from a major key into a minor and it almost breaks your heart," she said.

The world premiere of Illuminessence: prayers for peace, an interfaith oratorio by Silvio Amato (left), highlights the concert conducted by Benjamin Zander.  The NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra with chorus and vocal soloists perform the piece, commissioned by the Vatican and which touches on the commonality of human aspiration and the universal spiritual impulse as expressed in the prayers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, along with other works.

To hear the concert, click on "Listen" above.

Benjamin Roe talks with composer Silvio Amato:

On the program:

Key:  The Star-Spangled Banner

Barber:  Adagio for Strings

Massenet:  "Meditation" from Thaïs with violin soloist Yuki Beppu (NEC Preparatory School student)

Amato:  Illuminessence: prayers for peace
chorus composed of singers from:
NEC Youth Chorale, Jonathan Richter, director
Young Men’s and Young Women’s Choruses from the
Handel & Haydn Society Vocal Apprenticeship Program,
Joseph Stillitano and Alyson Greer, directors
Kirsten Scott '08 Prep, soprano
Cristina Bakhoum '12 G.D., mezzo-soprano
Michael Kuhn, '12 M.M., tenor

Beethoven:  "Ode to Joy" from Symphony No. 9
with chorus and soloists


 

The Montreal Chamber Music Festival was founded by Artistic Director and cellist Denis Brott, inspired by the example of his parents, Alexander and Lotte, and the "Concerts Under the Stars" they presented in the 1950's in Montreal.

 

The annual Amherst Early Music Festival is the cornerstone activity of Amherst Early Music, which also presents workshops in Boston, Philadelphia, and upstate New York.

During the two-week festival, students and enthusiasts are invited to participate in workshops, masterclasses, and performances with eminent early music performers and scholars, and to enjoy concerts given by those professsionals at the Cummings Arts Center at Connecticut College.  The theme of the 2011 festival, held in July, was Music of Spain and Italy and featured the Flanders Recorder Quartet, harpsichordist Peter Sykes, soprano Julianne Baird, viol soloist Sarah Cunningham, and many others.

The 2011 festival also featured a fully staged production of Alessandro Scarlatti's opera, La Principessa Fedele, directed by Drew Minter with dance choreography by Dorothy Olsson and Kaspar D. Mainz, costumes by Ronnie Snader, and texts by Lawrence Rosenwald.
 

Connecticut College is in New London, Connecticut, and offers comfortable accomodations.  Area attractions include Mystic Seaport, the U.S. Navy New London Submarine base, the Nautilus Memorial and Museum, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

For scenes from the Amherst Early Music Festival, view the slideshow below, and for more information about the festival, visit Amherst Early Music.