Washington Post (Free subscription) | 12/07/2009
Competitions are a meaningless measuring stick of a musician's talent, and yet in the absence of any other way to assess young unknown talent, we continue to treat them as if they measured something that mattered. So it was that a chief credential of Plamena Mangova, a pianist who made her North...
Washington Post (Free subscription) | 11/29/2009
Bach's sacred cantatas are a gift that keeps on giving. He wrote more than 300, of which around 200 survive; chances are, you know no more than a handful of them. They generally represent a high and consistent level of inspiration: a cornerstone of the output of one of the greatest composers who ...
Washington Post (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
The National Symphony Orchestra offered a kind of yin-and-yang travelogue Thursday night, contrasting two pieces about Scotland with one about Spain. The evening's draw was the violinist Joshua Bell, the soloist in Lalo's "Symphonie Espagnole," actually a long violin concerto that calls for exact...
ArtsJournal (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
The Washington Post's classical critic answers ten questions about the decade past, covering such issues as the decline of record labels, the rise of the Web, hits (in both senses) at the box office, and the trajectory of classical radio. And she predicts the future. ("Classical music will survive. I predict that.")...
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 12/07/2009
In today's Washington Post: Plamena Mangova's show of force, by Anne Midgette. This "Daughter" is a delight, by Joan Reinthaler.
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 12/04/2009
In today's Washington Post: NSO crowd delights to piano concerto's debut, by Anne Midgette.
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
In today's Washington Post: Sonata cycle an accomplishment, by Anne Midgette.
Sandow (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
... the problem really is that I'm rocking the boat and asking for change. But let that be. My wife, Anne Midgette, addressed (in response to comments here) the question of labelling in her blog at the Washington Post , and what she said -- about the necessity of labels, as well as their limitations -- is well worth reading. She and I only rarely cite each other's work (too incestuous,...
Brian Dickie (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
FYI -there was an excellent description and appreciation of Saturday evening's shenanigans from Anne Midgette in yesterday's Washington Post. I am at O'Hare about to fly to New York. It is 5.10 am.......
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
A bonanza of classical music reviews in today's Washington Post: The NEA Opera Honors celebrate a cross-section of American opera, by Anne Midgette Lang Lang plays with the NSO, by Anne Midgette Kiri te Kanawa in recital (not farewell), by Joan Reinthaler The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (scroll to the bottom of the page), by Mark J. Estren Haochen Zhang, Cliburn winner,...
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
In today's Washington Post: The NSO's excursions with Wolff and Bell, by Anne Midgette.
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
In today's Washington Post: An introductory user's guide to the Beethoven piano sonatas, by Anne Midgette. Note: a reader wrote in to observe that in my roster of Beethoven sonata cycles currently going on or scheduled in the DC area, I neglected to mention one I blogged about earlier: Yuliya Gorenman's ongoing cycle at American University (the next is in April). Gorenman will also play...
Ionarts (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
... versions by (ongoing at American University) and (ongoing at Howard Community College), leading Anne Midgette to ask the question, in the Washington Post. So, it was a helpful way to organize one's thoughts about the Beethoven sonatas to hear Brendel, who has performed the complete cycle himself, quite famously, speak about how he views the contrasts of the sonatas. He spoke of various...
ArtsJournal (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Anne Midgette: "The main problem is that both fields seem to be incapable of coming up with an actual new business model, in part because both fields are so deeply invested in their own traditions that they tend to confuse those traditions with their function."...
Ionarts (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
... the Washington National Opera's recent performance of : don't miss his interesting interview with Anne Midgette this week. []Trying to predict, as some are doing, what living composers will be most widely played in 50 years' time is folly. Would anyone in Vienna in 1900 have been able to predict how often the symphonies of Gustav Mahler would be played in that city fifty or one hundred...
