Archives for 2011

Continuing from my previous post, about applying criteria to measure how well orchestras play...Why should it matter, to measure orchestra quality in such detail?Because, to begin with, we for the most part discuss how well orchestras play only in the most general way. We have an idea, let's say, that Cleveland (or at least this used to be the belief) stands above most American orchestra. Or that Berlin might be the best orchestra in the world. But what exactly do we mean by that? Or we think that San Francisco, under MTT, stands very … [Read more...]

[Forgot the links when I first posted this. Sorry!]In previous posts:How well, I asked, do our orchestras play? In my first post about that, I said that I thought this subject is -- to say the least -- curiously muted inside the orchestra world, and not adequately discussed in public outside it. I got some pushback on that (no surprise), which I'll address next week (though some of what I say in this post might clarify what I meant). And then, in a post Wednesday, I offered four criteria for judging how well an orchestra … [Read more...]

The story so far: In an interview with The Australian, about the Philadelphia bankruptcy, I said that -- just possibly -- a new orchestra with eager young musicians might surprise everyone by playing with more fire than an established group. This caused some commotion (as I noted in a post), and I thought I might talk more broadly about what I think is a difficult topic: how well orchestras play. So I started with a post about how this topic, rather strangely, I thought, isn't often discussed.  So now to continue. Maybe after this post, … [Read more...]

How well do orchestras play? That's a question I raised, implicitly, by asking whether a new, young orchestra might surprise us with some edge-of-the-seat commitment. Playing better, in some crucial ways, than the big established orchestras. But that's a long discussion, which -- at bottom --  invokes a larger question. How good, overall, are classical music performances these days? In my recent talk to graduating students at New England Conservatory, you'll find me urging them to play with more heart-melting passion, more edge of the … [Read more...]

I've had some urgent personal business, and couldn't immediately respond when Dixon -- the cartoonist at Adaptistration -- so wonderfully lampooned me. Adaptistration, as people in the business know, is Drew McManus's enterprising blog about the orchestra business. Enterprising enough, in fact, to have a cartoonist, and here's what Dixon did to me (follow the link for the original):I don't think I've ever been caricatured before. And, quite honestly, I wouldn't have thought I was well enough known to caricature. So I'm really quite … [Read more...]

Here's the cover of Soap Opera Weekly (captured with my iPhone), screaming in rage about the news that two iconic soaps were cancelled. Didn't matter that people weren't watching, that ratings for soaps have been sinking for a while. No, the cancellations were an outrage. Appalling. Irresponsible. We want our soaps!Am I the only one who might see an echo here of what we in the classical music world have been known to do, when (let's say) public radio cuts back on classical broadcasts? We're outraged! How dare they?And, often enough, we bypass … [Read more...]

That black-tie extravaganza at Cambridge University, the debate on young people in classical music that my side so decisively lost -- you can stream it now. Complete. Lots of fun, I think. It's a long stream -- nearly two hours. I'm at about 1'17" In black-tie splendor. And as I said in my post on the debate, the best thing about it was meeting my co-debaters, on both sides, and talking in the most friendly way about the issues we'd knocked around.  … [Read more...]

An oddball item here, maybe more interesting to musicians than others. Or maybe not! Your call. First a conundrum. Or at least a conundrum for me. Twenty-five bars from the end of the third movement, in a passage marked Presto, Mahler writes what follows for the three bassoons (in unison) and the tuba (joined, with a slightly different configuration of notes, by the contrabassoon and the bass clarinet). It's in the bass clef, of course:And then two bars later comes this, for the same instruments:So -- bassoonists, tuba players, … [Read more...]

This is a long post. But the part I'd most love you to see comes toward the end, where I quote a heartbreaking reminiscence of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder -- his songs about the death of children -- in his Ninth Symphony, which is about his own death. For me, it's profoundly moving to hear the two passages back to back, the music from the song simple and direct, its distant memory in the symphony already evaporated into a world that's not ours. So if you're not inclined to read  the whole post, scroll to the reminiscence. You'll see … [Read more...]

I have to smile when I read that Mahler's Ninth Symphony uses, however distantly, familiar structures like sonata form. To the extent that I hear those structures, they loom like the silhouettes of ruined castles, dimly seen in a fog. Because there's nothing stable in this piece.As I was sorting CDs in our DC apartment, I found Roger Norrington's recording of Mahler's Ninth. I was curious to hear it. I know Norrington has recorded lots of Mahler, but I've never heard any of it, and was curious to hear how his typically objective approach to … [Read more...]

Previously: the London Symphony presents alt-classical new music, to a giant audience...the Guildhall School of Music and Drama teaches classical music students to improvise, has them work with actors, and does research on what professional music education (and music-making) really means. And now...The RoundhouseThis terrific performing arts center -- which, back in the 19th century, was a place where steam locomotives turned around -- is, where music is concerned, essentially a pop music space. But it also presents classical music, and … [Read more...]

Guildhall School of Music and DramaI was invited to visit Guildhall, and was greatly impressed by three things:Every classical music student is required to study improvisation for two years, with two more years optional. The only other music school I know of that requires improvisation, for classical students, is DePauw University, in Indiana. If there are others please let me know!Classical music students work with actors and (if I remember rightly) teachers from the drama school, on their stage presentation.The school has a research … [Read more...]

Second way that the UK might be ahead of the US:The London SymphonyI've known for a while that this orchestra has mastered social media, in ways that most orchestras haven't. For one example of their wonderfully personal approach, see this post from their tour blog. But what really knocked me out was their embrace of the music I call alt-classical. During my visit, I went to a concert curated by Gabriel Prokofiev, maybe the leading alt-classical figure in London, a composer, DJ, and creator of a record label and club night called … [Read more...]

Why -- very tentative thought, here -- the UK might be ahead of most of us in the UK, as we move toward classical music's future.First: posters. Maybe I shouldn't read too much into this, but I just loved some posters I saw for classical music events. For instance this, from the London Symphony (rough photo, which I took from my iPhone): So much fun, so personal, so impossible to resist. And -- to say the least -- two very serious artists. And note the text, not easily readable in my photo. Uchida says:"A desire to experience music is … [Read more...]

After six whirlwind days in England, I get the idea that they're ahead of us in some ways, as we all move toward the future of classical music. But more on that in another post. First, the now-famous debate I took part in (famous, to judge from the media/online/Twitter mentions of it). The proposition being argued, at the Cambridge Union Society, was that classical music is irrelevant to younger people. I was one of four people taking the affirmative side, and -- when the audience, mostly of Cambridge University students -- voted on which … [Read more...]