MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: NEWS performers
LATEST: Celebrated tenor JERRY HADLEY has received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church and his life support has been removed. The singer was admitted to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York last week (10Jul07) for a gunshot wound to the head which police say was self-inflicted. He has been on a life support machine in hospital ever since. Hadley suffered apparent self-inflicted brain damage after shooting himself in the head with an air rifle at his house in Clinton Corners, New York, according to The New York Times. Hadley won three Grammy Awards and appeared on recordings including Candide, Show Boat and Symphonic Sondheim: Sweeney Todd (at Carnegie Hall). Sources claim financial issues led to Hadley attempting suicide.
So, you think the classical recording business is dead in the water? Think again. Web-based options are helping to fill the void created by the shuttering of retail shops that once devoted extensive shelf space to classical music. 
A tribute to America's first great classical violinist, played by one of her musical descendants, on this week's Billboard classical chart. Making its debut at no. 12 is 
, performed by violinist Rachel Barton Pine with pianist Matthew Hagle. Powell (1867-1920) was once renowned for her virtuosity on both sides of the Atlantic — conductor Leonard Slatkin has described her as "the female Fritz Kreisler" (and Barton Pine prefers to think of Kreisler as the male Maud Powell) — and was a star of both the concert stage and the 78 RPM recording. This new CD is a collection of turn-of-the-20th-century miniatures for violin and piano which Powell made staples of her touring repertoire; many of them are arrangements she made herself.
The queue outside the Royal Albert Hall meanders down the stone stairs into Prince Consort Road, past the Royal College of Music and the ice-cream vans. People of all varieties perch on the parapets; some are first-timers, others turn up every day, every summer. Anoraks muddle together with posh frocks; golf umbrellas rub spokes with Woolworths' finest. The doors open, and there's a civilised stampede as the Promenaders surge in to bag the best spots. The central ethos of the Proms, which open tonight, is the same as ever: cheap tickets for standing places to hear great music-making. The result is a celebratory atmosphere in which a flood of enthusiastic takers each pay less than the price of a one-day travelcard on the Tube. 
Jerry Hadley’s career soared like his tenor voice at the start of the 1980s, quickly taking him to the world’s major opera houses. His career flourished. But in recent years, as he moved into his 50s, the bookings waned, and he was overtaken by financial worries and depression, musical colleagues, friends and the police said. Early Tuesday morning, the police said, he put an air rifle to his head and fired, causing severe brain damage. Hadley created the title role in composer John Harbison's "Great Gatsby" at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the lead in Paul McCartney's "Liverpool Oratorio." And Leonard Bernstein had chosen Hadley to sing the main part in a 1989 production of Bernstein's musical "Candide." ... 
Conductor Leonard Slatkin soared in St. Louis but struggled in DC Can he work his magic in Nashville? by John Pitcher The sound of the Nashville Symphony ... 