Pianists don't come in complete packages anymore, or maybe never did. Artur Rubinstein and Clifford Curzon possibly fooled us into thinking that there could be a single classical pianist that you would turn to, from Mozart to Granados, for the duration of your musical life. Among current pianists, Paul Lewis can be trusted with nearly everything and delivers the kinds of peaks … [Read more...] about Modern pianists: Will they be everything to everybody? Hope not.
The Berlin Philharmonic dares us to love it – and we do
Mahler's Symphony No. 7, sometimes subtitled “Song of the Night,” is the composer’s most wayward symphony. It’s not one of the pretty ones. With five seemingly mismatched movements, the 80-minute piece doesn’t cooperate with itself in the manner of other Mahler symphonies — and certainly not with the history of western music. The final movement can be so bewildering that … [Read more...] about The Berlin Philharmonic dares us to love it – and we do
Music that changes the world – one catacomb at a time
Music - it is often said - is about one thing: Music. It only conveys itself. But it has magical adhesive qualities when in the company of words, ideas, subtexts, which is why the classical world has evolved into a medium for social justice. If the Supreme Court won't stand up for saving the planet, the composers will - but with an abstraction that, in its best instances, hits … [Read more...] about Music that changes the world – one catacomb at a time
Beethoven rewrites himself (with help from the Philadelphia Orchestra)
Between February 22 and June 5th, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”) rewrote itself — though the notes, orchestra, conductor and chorus were the same. The earlier performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra and its music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin was at Carnegie Hall as a finale to the orchestra’s Beethoven cycle there; the later one concluded the 2021-2022 season at … [Read more...] about Beethoven rewrites himself (with help from the Philadelphia Orchestra)
NYC Ballet Stravinsky Festival: Revelations at last.
Do you really know a piece of music when it’s only heard and not seen? With Stravinsky, possibly not. The composer always had an instinctual sense of three-dimensional physicality in his pieces, so much that even his Violin Concerto has been choreographed and his Three Pieces for String Quartet are partly based on a dance piece titled David that he worked on briefly with … [Read more...] about NYC Ballet Stravinsky Festival: Revelations at last.