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

  Long before I walked into the Park Avenue Armory for Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger in the much-acclaimed, much-traveled David Pountney production, the opera itself had left me puzzled and underwhelmed, namely in the DVD shot live in Bregenz that preceded the opera's many visits around the world. The final scenes of this opera about Auschwitz and its … [Read more...] about The Passenger: The reality behind the letdown

For American composers, over-exposure is a rare and grand accomplishment, especially for someone like Christopher Rouse, whose music is neither pretty nor minimalist. So prolific was he during much of the 1990s that he suffered the typical suspicion: Can anybody write so much, so quickly and still be good? Luckily, there's a second act in this American life. How could there … [Read more...] about Christopher Rouse: New music for existential terror

The tireless, ageless and ubiquitous conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos is suddenly no longer with us. His death at age 80 from cancer was announced on June 11 - only a week or so after he cancelled all conducting engagements. At that time, one could hope that it was a false alarm, that he was doing the right thing by letting orchestras know that there's trouble, thus avoiding … [Read more...] about Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos: A gentleman and an artist

Though I typically love Washington Post music critic Anne Midgette's reasoning and writing, her March 14 column on whether classical musicians should take political stands - forcefully argued and written - is deeply disturbing from the first sentence. Midgette thoughtfully examines the public roles of musicians, asking if they have a duty to speak up for human rights, … [Read more...] about Dudamel, Gergiev: Should they leave politics to the experts?