More 20th Century Conductors [More Twentieth Century Conductors]: 7 Discographies Eugen Jochum, Ferenc Fricsay, Carl Schuricht, Felix Weingartner, Josef Krips, Otto Klemperer, Erich Kleiber. [1993].
The Arts Blog (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Berlin Philharmonic Led by Sir Simon Rattle, the world’s greatest orchestra, at least by some estimations, returns to Disney Hall with a pair of programs devoted, though not exclusively, to Brahms. The first pairs Arnold Schoenberg’s vivid orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 with the Symphony No. 1. The second features Wagner’s Overture to “Die [...]
Berkshire Review for the Arts (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
By opening the Berlin Philharmonic's three-concert series at Carnegie Hall with Schoenberg's arrangement of Brahms' G minor Piano Quartet Sir Simon Rattle made a definite statement about what was to come and how we should listen to it, but just what this meant was not clear until we heard the performance. Since the arrangement has found a place in the repertory, conductors have succumbed all too easily...
Andrew Patner: The View from Here (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Here is my Wednesday November 18 Chicago Sun-Times review of the Monday November 16, 2009, Orchestra Hall concert by the Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle, principal conductor, in music of Wagner, Schoenberg, and Brahms. Berlin Philharmonic in Chicago: Once is...
One More Take (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
One of the projects I've been working on, as producer, for over a year is Cohen Pod Talks , which launches today. This is a series of (currently) five podcasts in which the cellist Robert Cohen talks to interesting figures in the arts - musicians, administrators and commentators - about the place of classical music, and music education, in the world today. Guests are the former managing director of...
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
In the mid-1980s (just before the Riccardo Muti era began), Lorin Maazel often ruled the conductor's roost at La Scala.
Yarnplayer's Cello Blog (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Even if I don't feel really "ready" at the start of a concert, I play the best I can - and have fun! The "creative faking" I tried in the lightning-fast 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th just didn't work. Here's another approach - simply look like you are playing a divisi part where you have rests in those measures (grin). Ah, but the maestro has informed us that children from the...
operaman's blog (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
I posted last week about my meeting with PYP Maestro, David Hattner. Our meeting left me excited that I would be attending the opening concert of their season on Saturday evening (the first concert of the PYP I have ever attended) but really nothing prepared me for the experience I actually had. I am not going to try to write a reasoned review of the concert but I would like to share with you some...
AfriClassical (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
[Raymond Harvey, Music Director and Conductor, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra] The African American conductor Raymond Harvey is Music Director and Conductor of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. He is also Artistic Director of the El Paso Opera, in Texas. Raymond Harvey received B.A. And M.A. degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and graduated from the Yale School of Music with a Doctor of Musical...
Summer is Coming In (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
Belgium's most famous classical music export, conductor Philippe Herreweghe , fell victim to a brutal break-in, being robbed of his Audi A8 at gunpoint and locked up in his bathroom for hours in the middle of the night . Police think Herreweghe became a target by perhaps naively giving 40 euros to a begging girl at his doorstep a few days ago (supposedly for her sick brother's medical bills). Nonetheless,...
Chamber Music Today (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
Schoenberg discursively plays ‘chamber pingpong’ in 1930 H ow words are understood is not told by words alone. How music is understood is not told by music alone. [How films are understood is not told by film alone.]” — Arnold Schoenberg quote . T hough originality is inseparable from personality, there exists also a kind of originality which does not derive from profound personality....
dramma per musica (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Here’s the second part of my recent interview with conductor Anne Manson. Our focus at this point shifted to a discussion of Orphée and to some of the various musical aspects of Glass’ score. BK: It seems to me that once you get into opera and works for the stage, it’s possible to make a stronger [...]
dramma per musica (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
I interviewed Anne Manson, the conductor of Portland Opera’s current production of Orphée, two weeks ago today, but because of lingering problems with my recording software, I’ve only just been able to piece the audio portion of our session together in order to transcribe it for posting. My sincerest apologies to Anne for this unexpected [...]
New York Times (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Both the renowned director Patrice Chéreau and the dynamic conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen made their overdue Met debuts in Leos Janacek’s unorthodox and moving production of “From the House of the Dead” on Thursday.
Sacramento Bee (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Tenor Johan Botha is making "Otello" his signature role. SAN FRANCISCO – There is a signature moment in Act 2 of Giuseppi Verdi's "Otello" in which the title character confronts his jealous demon – and becomes one with it. It can be a throwaway moment, or it can cement the drama of this four-act operatic masterpiece. On Sunday afternoon in San Francisco's War Memorial...
DCist (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Conductor Philippe Auguin In 2006, when Washington National Opera opened its American Ring Cycle, few could have imagined that it would end as it did on Saturday night, with a concert performance of Götterdämmerung . After very promising productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in 2006 and 2007, financial considerations delayed the staging of Siegfried by one season, to last spring,...
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