“In the case of melody-notes the pressure required is surprisingly great. Masters of cantabile tone, such as Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Kempff, instructed their pupils to press sustained melody-notes so strongly that the white under the finger-nails becomes visible”
– from Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard by Paul Badura-Skoda
Fischer and Kempff were indeed great masters, but does this sound like good advice to you?
– I very much enjoyed last night’s performance of Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin at the Met. Stellar performances from Eric Owens, Tamara Mumford, Susanna Phillips, the Met orchestra and chorus, and conductor Susanna Mälkki were framed by the best of the Robert Lepage productions I have seen – simpler than his Ring, or the Adès Tempest (though certainly not simpler technically), and the more effective for it. The music is gorgeous and moving but sometimes distractingly static. It seemed odd for something so finely made and fluid in small details (though with a good bit of repetition) to be less varied on a larger level. I kept waiting for the bass to move during the storm scene at the beginning of Act IV – and it never did. I suppose one could respond that the sea – where most of the piece takes place – never changes on the larger level either. Here’s a trailer:
and here is Susanna Phillips rehearsing (it’s not right that the pianist is not identified!)
– coming up on January 13, 2017, the Daedalus Quartet will be presenting George Crumb’s Black Angels along with works by Joshua Hey and Scott Ordway at the Chinese Rotunda of the Penn Museum. (Friday the 13th, perfect for this piece!) Young composers who think extended performance techniques are something novel need to check out this piece and see how such devices can be used for maximum expressive impact. Here’s a preview:
– lastly, here’s my annual reminder to keep up your musicianship skills during Christmastime.
Sharon Browning has written a remarkable post on her Just Listening website. Go here for How to Build a Wall: A Nativity Story. As Sharon puts it:
Please read on for a seasonal story that will not only thaw the winter chill but give you a blueprint for your own Love in Action in 2017.
A few items of interest on a chilly day in Philadelphia:
– Two choirs that have performed my music offer Christmas concerts this weekend: The Crossing, and Cantori New York.
– Did you know you can hear performances from Yellow Barn online? Lots of new music, including works by Michel van der Aa, Charles Wuorinen, Oliver Knussen, Hans Abrahamsen and many more, as well as traditional repertoire.
– The Association for the Promotion of New Music presents an all-Babbitt program in his centennial year on December 19 at the Di Menna Center in New York, including performances by the New York New Music Ensemble.
– There will be a concert of music by Robert Capanna on Friday, January 6, at the Settlement Music School’s Queen Street Branch here in Philadelphia. Presented in collaboration with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the performers include the Network for New Ensemble conducted by Jan Krzywicki, soprano Sharon Harms, pianist Charles Abramovic, and the Prism Saxophone Quartet.
Here’s a letter to the New York Times I wrote concerning the awful cutbacks in arts coverage in the Weekend Arts section:
To the editor:
I am appalled by the horrific cuts in coverage of the arts instituted by the Times. What I want as a subscriber is broad coverage of a wide range of arts events, including classical music and jazz, not a section that is overwhelmingly dominated by movies. I don’t care if a concert does not have additional performances, I want to read about it because I rely on the paper not as a guide to date night, but for thoughtful contributions to a critical conversation about the performing arts. By failing to cover a broad range of performances – including more than just the major institutions like the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic (although you seem to not even be covering them now) – you deny your readers a comprehensive picture of the performing arts in New York in all its variety and vitality. You are not doing your readers any favors by cutting back the Listings to “the most timely and important performances”. Are readers of the New York Times really so naive as to need “Critic’s Picks” labels and an easily digestible “Listings” section that offers only a small fraction of New York’s huge array of “timely and important performances”?
The New York Times is doing its readers and the performing arts a tremendous disservice with these cutbacks, and I hope you will reconsider your plans.
If you feel similarly, please write to .
[UPDATE: The Saturday Times now has a page devoted to classical music reviews. I wonder if this bundling scheme lets classical music reviews have more of an impact, rather than having them dispersed here and there throughout the week – or if it means classical is being yet again ghettoized rather than being integrated into regular life? It remains to be seen if classical reviews will only be printed on Saturdays…]
[UPDATE #2: I received a quick and gracious reply from the Times, reprinted here with permission.]
Thank you for the note. Please know that we take your comments seriously.
Did you have a chance to see the Arts section today? We had a cover story and full page of classical music coverage inside. We’ll be dedicating a page like that to classical music every Saturday going forward. And of course we’ll continue to run important reviews and news over the course of the week. We believe this will provide serious concertgoers a reliable destination while also giving more casual readers and easier point of entry into this part of our report.
My best,
Blake Wilson
Senior Editor, Culture
And here is my reply:
Thank you for your speedy and gracious reply. Yes, I was relieved to see the classical music reviews and Critic’s Notebook piece in the Saturday paper. I’m not certain if aggregating events by field on a particular day gives that field more impact (by occupying more page real estate, albeit only once a week) or less impact because events are not integrated into the daily conversation of the paper.
I remain concerned that fewer events are receiving coverage, either in the form of a review or a listing of events, and that what does get covered will inevitably be the big organizations – the Met, the Philharmonic – rather than a fuller view of New York’s musical life in all its splendid variety. Is there a possibility of a truly comprehensive listing of events being posted online? The direction of the print edition seems to be tilting toward the “casual reader” as you put it, rather than the “serious concertgoer”. Perhaps online material can help strike a healthier balance.
I also wonder what will be happening with coverage of jazz.
Here’s hoping the Times finds ways to offer broad and deep coverage of music, welcoming to the casual reader, but comprehensive in its vision of the city’s musical life.
It’s a remarkable event: 10 of Mario Davidovsky’s masterful Synchronisms – works for live instrumentalists combined with pre-recorded electronic sound – will be performed on December 8 and 9 in Philadelphia at Holy Apostles & the Mediator Episcopal Church, 260 S. 51st Street. This has been organized by harpist Elizabeth Huston, and you can read more about the concert here. Like the evening of Berio Sequenzas that Elizabeth staged in 2014, this program will position the performers in various spaces throughout the church. Mario was one of the pioneers of the “instrument and tape” genre – folks call it “instrument and fixed media” these days – and nobody has done it better. His Synchronism Nr. 6 for piano and tape won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. Here it is, played by Aleck Karis:
The New York Times ran a piece about women composers – excellent idea. But why is there only one living composer mentioned? By structuring the piece as a “history”, the article perpetuates the misunderstanding of classical music as something that happened rather than a living presence, and it is supporting the work of women active today that is the best hope for changing the culture.
Here are links to a just a few of the female American composers in whose work I am interested that might help supplement the article a bit; of course you could add myriads more to the list, let alone those working overseas. (I beg pardon of those colleagues I am forgetting to mention. Please list other names in the comments.) Wikipedia has a list of 20th century American women composers here.
Eve Beglarian
Yu-Hui Chang
Shi-Hui Chen
Marti Epstein
Stacy Garrop
Tania Leon
Missy Mazzoli
Shulamit Ran
Laura Schwendinger
Augusta Read Thomas
Melinda Wagner
Anna Weesner
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Yes, program the excellent Clara Schuman piano trio (just as an example), but the first priority should be to program music by living women.
