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[Above: Boston's Symphony Hall, built by Henry Higginson and opened in 1900.] Last week I heard the Boston Symphony perform Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth at Carnegie Hall. The conductor was their music director since 2014: Andris Nelsons. I had planned to write a blog but instead emailed my impressions to a dozen friends in the music business. The emails that came … [Read more...] about The Boston Symphony In Trouble

Reviewing Fiona Maddocks’ beautiful new book on Sergei Rachmaninoff in exile for The American Scholar, I write:  “With the waning of modernism, Rachmaninoff’s stock began to rise; for the first time, he became an object of serious scholarly inquiry. Today, he ranks with Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Serge Prokofiev as one of four great Russian composers … [Read more...] about Rachmaninoff in Exile: “Implacable Poise and Sovereign Humanity”

Conrad L. Osborne has now chimed in with a typically riveting review of the Met Tannhäuser, bristling with insights into the opera and its performance last December 12. Read it. As a brief postscript to my three previous Tannhäuser blogs, and Conrad’s blog, would like to draw particular attention to his observations about the current condition of the Met … [Read more...] about “Tannhäuser” — Take Four

The Ride of the Valkyries, from Francois Rochaix's Seattle "Ring" The emails continue to roll in, responding to my two Tannhäuser  blogs. Here’s one from a former member of the Met orchestra: “Your two articles pretty much describe what I observed at the Met during my 40-plus years with the Met Orchestra. The best performances I had a chance to … [Read more...] about “Tannhäuser” — Take Three

On the heels of my Tannhäuser blog, Conrad L. Osborne has posted yet another of his indispensable mega-essays – on the topic of cultivating American opera. I wrote: “The arts are today vanishing from the American experience. There is a crisis in cultural memory. How best keep Tannhäuser alive? Flooded with neophytes, the Metropolitan Opera … [Read more...] about “Tannhäuser” — Take Two