From Joe Queenan's essay,  "Why Not the Worst?" in the New York Times Book Review, May 6, 2007: Most of us are familiar with people who make a fetish out of quality: They read only good books, they see only good movies, they listen only to good music, they discuss politics only with good people, and they're not shy about letting you know it. They think this makes them smarter and better than everybody else, but it doesn't. It makes them mean and overly judgmental and miserly, as if taking 15 minutes to flip through "The Da Vinci Code" is a … [Read more...]

Well, finally I went to see one of those Metropolitan Opera live moviecasts -- the live performances streamed to movie theaters. And yes, it was marvelous. The work was ll Trittico, which, as ever, I find slow going in Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica, and divine in Gianni Schicchi. (Well, except for that climactic chord at the end of Suor Angelica -- the soprano on high C, G in the bass, and D, F, and A in between. I've never looked at a score, but each time I hear it, I just love that chord. It's a modern pop sound, decades before its time -- and … [Read more...]

I urge everyone to read a report from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation about the participation -- or lack of it -- of younger people in the arts. Its formal title: Involving Youth in Nonprofit Arts Organizations: A Call to Action. I was alerted to this by a reader who saw it mentioned in Andrew Taylor's terrific blog, and when I read Andrew's post, I thought he nailed one problem the report has. More on that later. But the report tells some unpleasant truths, and cuts through some of the fog we still find in discussions of youth issues … [Read more...]

I'm walking again, almost. "Almost" means that I'm cleared, medically, to put weight on my broken leg, and can gimp around without crutches -- but only for a little while. Then my not-yet-fully-healed leg begins to ache. And it'll swell up. Neither the ache nor the swelling are medical problems. They're not a sign that my leg isn't healing. But they're uncomfortable. On Sunday I gimped around quite a bit outdoors, crutchless, trying to jump start our second car, which we neglected while we were preoccupied with the leg break. The battery died. … [Read more...]

I'm writing this from O'Hare Airport in Chicago, where I'm waiting for a flight to Sioux Falls, SD. There I'm going to hear the premiere of my new symphony, played by the Dakota Chamber Orchestra, the chamber wing of the South Dakota Symphony. Which, in turn, is an orchestra that's getting some deserved buzz among professionals. Delta David Gier, the music director, does a terrific job, doing big, unusual repertoire, and getting the orchestra to play exceptionally well.  He also programs a lot of new music, and commissioned this piece from … [Read more...]

Of course I've been following the debate (if that's what it is) between Alex Ross (also here) and Norman Lebrecht (see also the comments to his blog post) about the classical record industry. Nobody who's read me a lot will be surprised to know I side with Lebrecht, and I think there's a very simple way of stating the issue. Classical recording used to be a profit-making venture, both for major labels and small ones, without anybody needing to release any crossover albums. Well, OK, major conductors might record an LP of Strauss waltzes, to … [Read more...]

There was a British newspaper piece linked on Musical America this week, something about Handel operas being boring. And then we had the opening of Handel's Giulio Cesare at the Met, with a worshipful review in the New York Times.  ("[T]he richness and endless variety of the music... the piercing psychological insights of this staggering masterpiece.") There's one thing I know for sure -- performances of Handel's operas today are nothing like the performances in Handel's own time. Back then, these operas (and in fact all operas, by all … [Read more...]

I'm sorry I've been inactive so long, but I'm happy to say that I'm home from a rather long hospital stay, and then a session in a rehab facility -- and now I'm recovering. There's a lot I could say about how medical institutions work, based on my own experience these past weeks, and on things my friends and family have gone through. Maybe I could put it this way -- try to imagine Gray's Anatomy combined with Catch-22. Or imagine a version of  Gray's Anatomy (a more truthful one) in which half the communications between people on the … [Read more...]

And now for a word from our guest blogger. This is Anne Midgette, finally getting to fulfill my long-held desire to blog, but for an unfortunate reason. Greg broke his leg on Sunday (he slipped on the ice on our front steps in New York), is going into surgery today (Tuesday), and will be out of commission for a few days (it was a nasty break). He wanted me to let everyone know why he won't be able to post or respond to comments for a while. I guess one could say that this week, for the purposes of this blog, the future of classical music is - … [Read more...]

About why I think the Pittsburgh Symphony things I described are so good... I talked about a pre-concert happening, in which people in the audience could find musicians scattered in various places in the concert hall, playing excerpts from a Jennifer Higdon piece on the program that night. The listeners could talk to the musicians, ask them questions, get to know them. I said that would energize the audience, and make them more excited about the concert. But not simply because they now knew something about the piece! It's a classical music … [Read more...]

From one of my Eastman students, Jennifer Turbes, a violist. Like Erika Lange (whose comments I posted earlier), she wrote this in response to some questions I asked on a take-home exam. I'm posting it with her permission: I was recently detained in New York City in the midst of my DMA audition tour. A fine city to spend a few extra days but my experience was stressful rather than invigorating and relaxing. The one satisfying thing I did with my time was attend a symphony orchestra concert--the Minnesota Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. I'm a … [Read more...]

In answers to a comment a few posts ago, I made the mistake of saying I'd seen half-full houses at the Pittsburgh Symphony. That was true, but it happened a few seasons ago, and the orchestra is doing much better now. As I should have noted! I was both discourteous and inaccurate. The growth in both total audience and subscriptions in Pittsburgh has been pretty dramatic in the past couple of years, in fact. We could argue about whether this reverses the trend in the industry, since Pittsburgh is recovering from a larger drop in sales and … [Read more...]

I think we’re really on a roll here, meaning not just me, but readers, too, to judge from the comments I’ve been posting. Posts about good things — real changes happening — are heartening to write, and also seem to be heartening to read. So I’m really sorry that I have to call a brief halt. I’m going away for a short vacation in the sun, as I do around this time every year. While I’m gone, I won’t be going near computers or e-mail, so I won’t be posting, and won’t be able to post comments, either. I’ll be back next Wednesday, and then I’ll … [Read more...]

The good news, from a Playbill Arts piece linked on ArtsJournal today: the Baltimore Symphony’s reduced-price subscription plan seems to be working, maybe even spectacularly. The Baltimore Sun reports that when the box office opened last Saturday morning (March 3), about 150 people were already in line at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, ready to snap up the tickets [writes Vivien Schweitzer, who also reviews music for The New York Times]. Music director-designate Marin Alsop was on hand to give out doughnuts to the eager subscribers.… Charles … [Read more...]

My Eastman students  (here’s a link to the course I taught) have been writing some terrific final papers. Here’s part of one by Erika Lange, posted of course with her permission. A delight to read, and important as yet another example of how classical music’s future is already here (or, maybe in this case, coming very fast): As a performer of classical music, one would think that I would feel completely at home in a classical concert, but this is not always the case. At times even I feel uncomfortable in the stuffy atmosphere of the concert … [Read more...]