Classical music programing on the radio has plunged dramatically over the past half-decade, according to a recent study by the American Symphony Orchestra League. Of 62 orchestras that responded to a survey, 27 percent noted a decline in airtime devoted to classical music on radio stations in their areas. Just one respondent cited a new classical station on the air.

Only 11 orchestras reported that they continue to broadcast syndicated national concert series—a significant drop from recent years. Meanwhile, however, a handful of orchestras did note that their performances are now released via Internet audio steams.

In fact, opportunities to hear classical music online are expanding, evidence from other sources shows. Most public radio stations now have Web sites and live streams for listeners in areas without a local classical music station (log on to www.npr.org).

What’s more, computer music lovers can tune in a variety of upstart "Webcasts," including Net Radio (www.netradio.net ), Music Web UK (www.musicweb.uk.net), GMN Music (www.classicalplus.gmn.com), and Beethoven Radio (www.beethoven.com). Listeners must install special software to hear these shows; however, much of it can be downloaded from the Web free of charge, and the music sites themselves often make the steps easy.

A lecture by the noted American violinist Aaron Rosand grew into a lively debate at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program Chamber Music Festival. Billed as a discussion on string performance and pedagogy, the lecture began quietly with Rosand’s comments on the most basic aspects of violin playing. But when he began to discuss bowing techniques in two major schools of violin playing—Russian and Franco-Belgian—other accomplished violinists in the room leapt in with contrary opinions.

The subject of debate? How to hold the bow. By the end of the session’s allotted time, the question of how best to produce sound on a violin had not found consensus. In a master class later that evening, Rosand illuminated the afternoon topic’s practical side.

These events composed only a small part of the offerings at the summer program, held from July 30 to August 3 in a mountain setting near Los Angeles, California. Now in its 52nd year, the festival has developed into a private high school of the arts with a student body of 250. Those participating were treated to a half-dozen accomplished artists still passionately exploring their craft after decades on world stages.

—Christopher Whiting

Lin Takes Charge in La Jolla

For his first season as artist-director at the annual Summerfest La Jolla, violinist Cho-Liang Lin enlisted some of the music world’s most distinguished performers—Mark O’Connor, Gil Shaham, Toby Hoffman, Cynthia Phelps, and the Borromeo String Quartet, among others. Also on the bill were a master class by the legendary Dorothy DeLay and two family concerts by composer-in-residence Bruce Adolphe, including the California premiere of his Tyrannosaurus Sue—A Cretaceous Concerto. Another highlight: cellist and author Mark Salzman’s talk on his experience writing the novel Lying Awake and learning to play Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, which he performed as part of his presentation.

Considering a Competition? Check the Web

The Music Competition Database, a free service that features full brochure-style information on competitions worldwide, is now available online. More than 80 percent of the contests listed have a link to a Web site and an e-mail address, as well as instructions for applying (some applications are online). Visit www.stonalink.atfreeweb.com, and click on Music World.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who died in his prime at age 35, may have been felled by undercooked pork, says a study published earlier this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The report sets aside many historians’ and scientists’ theories on what caused the composer’s death—rheumatic fever, kidney stones, heart disease, pneumonia, poisoning—and and instead blames trichinosis, an illness caused by a parasite that has historically lurked in raw pork but is now virtually eradicated in animals reared on modern farms.

Mozart did in fact enjoy a pork dinner not long before his death, reports author Jan Hirschmann, an infectious disease specialist at the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Seattle. "What do I smell? . . . pork cutlets!" Mozart wrote in a letter to his wife 44 days before his illness. "Che gusto [What a delicious taste]. I eat to your health."

Unlucky souls who indulge in rare pork tainted with the parasite typically experience fever, rash, limb pain, and dramatic swelling—symptoms all suffered by Mozart during his final days.

"There have been 150 separate diagnoses proposed, and now there is another one," says Faith Fitzgerald, a professor of medicine at the University of California at Davis, whose own theory that Mozart died of rheumatic fever received much attention. "It does strike me as somewhat strange the investment people have in something that is virtually unknowable."

No autopsy was ever performed on Mozart’s body, and just seven years after his death his remains were dug up and dispersed and his grave site reused.

Andreas Delfs hates being boring. So when the 42-year-old conductor, known for his adventurous programming and willingness to occasionally strap on his accordion, assumed the music director’s post with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra this fall, he brought some unique ideas.

Take the "salon orchestra" concept. Salon orchestras were popular in the early 20th century and played in the finest restaurants and hotels—and on steamships. "Just like you saw in the movie Titanic," Delfs says, adding that the movie helped spark a renaissance in salon-size groups. One of his first salon outings with the St. Paul ensemble was a program of eight short pieces, mostly popular waltzes and marches from the early 1900s, including the perky "Colonel Bogey March," for which Delfs required the musicians to whistle. On pitch, if possible.

Delfs will focus on two issues—programming and style—during his first year in St. Paul. "This orchestra was burdened in the last couple of years with an array of conductors, guest conductors, and soloists with very different ideas," he says. "The players prided themselves on satisfying all of these different requests, but an orchestra shouldn’t have to do that. They should be able to work on a style that is clearly theirs."

Besides experimenting with the salon orchestra configuration, the chamber orchestra this season will collaborate with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, an avant-garde Minneapolis theater company, and with Garrison Keillor, host of public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion.

Return of the Bride of Mahler Bride of the Wind, a movie based on the life of Gustav Mahler’s wife and widow, Alma Mahler, opened last summer to mixed reviews. Known throughout the Secession period in Vienna as a muse and patron of the arts, Alma Mahler embroiled herself in many torrid and fickle love affairs with artists and musicians of the time, including painter Gustav Klimt and architect Walter Gropius. The movie stars Sarah Wynter, Jonathan Pryce, and Vincent Perez. Described as "beautiful but banal" by the Detroit News, the film portrays a woman known more for her love life than for the beautiful music she composed for symphony and voice. The Bride of the Wind soundtrack—music by Alma and Gustav Mahler, reorchestrated by Stephen Endelman—is available on Deutsche Grammaphon (B00005K9QV). Released around the same time, The Artist’s Wife, a novel by Max Phillips (Henry Holt, 2001), depicts Alma Mahler’s colorful relationships from an unusual point of view—not that of an old woman but of a ghost. The book recounts Alma’s travails in a passionate and sometimes sarcastic voice. Her actual voice is on record in The Diaries, 1898–1902, by Alma Mahler with Antony Beaumont and Susanne Rode-Breymann, editors (Cornell University Press, 2000).

Need Leadership Skills? Try Conducting

Imagine you’re perched on a podium in front of a group of top-notch symphony musicians, commanding their attention with a wave of your hands. Now imagine you’re a corporate bigwig who has never even held a baton, let alone led an orchestra. Roger Nierenberg, conductor of the Stamford Symphony Orchestra, oversees this scene with regularity. Nierenberg leads "The Music Paradigm," a management-awareness seminar he devised several years ago to teach teamwork and leadership principals to corporate executives.

"The orchestra is an ideal laboratory for doing simulations of organizational dynamics," Nierenberg told the New York Times. "Communications are so fast you can experiment with one behavior and immediately see the results. It invites people to question their assumptions about organizational issues in a nonconfrontational way."

With guest CEOs standing by, Nierenberg likes to illustrate how an orchestra functions as a big machine, both with and without a leader. At a recent fund-raising event for the National Symphony Orchestra, Nierenberg worked with the musicians to illustrate successful and unsuccessful leadership. At one point he asked the violinists to let their minds wander while playing. The resulting cacophony brought loud chuckles from the audience.

"This exercise proves that you can have individuals executing their own instruments perfectly well and have terrible teamwork." Nierenberg took his analogy further by barely moving his baton and inciting little inspiration from the players; he calls this style "indifferent leadership."

For more information on Roger Nierenberg and his Music Paradigm seminars, visit www.stamfordsymphony.org.