When music starts talking to you in plain English, what - if anything - are you supposed to learn? Imagine a brilliant, engaging lecture on the origins of species encased in an ongoing musical narrative and you have Scott Johnson's Mind Out of Matter. Days after the premiere, I am still wondering what the piece wanted to give me, vs. what, in fact, I got. The aesthetic … [Read more...] about Scott Johnson’s Mind Out of Matter: Should music make so much sense?
4X4 Baroque Music Festival: Bach’s subversive multiple messages
More J.S. Bach cantatas? Yes, and that's good news not just for Bach devotees but for psychotherapists who stand to profit from the guilt that some (though not all) cantatas can induce among those who take them too literally. After centuries of neglect, Bach cantatas are becoming a regular part of the concert landscape, thanks to Bach@1 at New York's Trinity Church at Wall … [Read more...] about 4X4 Baroque Music Festival: Bach’s subversive multiple messages
Gramex to U.S. collectors: “Send us your enemies!”
London can be just about anything to anybody, but for collectors of classical recordings, whether CDs, LPs or 78s, it's Mecca, equalled possibly by Paris (if only because French recording artists tend to stay home more, so their work has been less-often exported). But during my summer trip to London, the usual haunts had been disappointing. There had been some excellent LP … [Read more...] about Gramex to U.S. collectors: “Send us your enemies!”
Dmitri Shostakovich, Yuja Wang, Cultural Drift and Cher
Cultural drift has been of particular concern with Dmitri Shostakovich. The world was still very much digesting his extensive output encompassing 147 opus numbers – like those acres of string quartets written near the end of his fraught life – when biographies began appearing, revealing that covert meaning was often more prominent than overt. Subtext eclipsed text, one … [Read more...] about Dmitri Shostakovich, Yuja Wang, Cultural Drift and Cher
John Luther Adams’ outdoor music needs to come indoors
Applause seemed inadequate and inappropriate, like some weird contrivance of civilized life at the end of John Luther Adams's Sila: The Breath of the World, performed by a dispersed collection of 80 singers and instrumentalists in its July 25 world premiere at Lincoln Center's Out of Doors festival. It was like applauding God for creating Magnetic North. Or tundra. Or … [Read more...] about John Luther Adams’ outdoor music needs to come indoors