Comments for Condemned to Music

Comment on Van Cliburn and his fraught generation by Nathan Davis

Nathan Davis — Mon, 20 May 2013 02:41:30 +0000

He was, indeed, a very nice man! As an impressionable teenager, I saw him in recital in Boise, Idaho in 1966. I was walking across the parking lot with my father afterward, and his car drove by. I yelled out, “Have a nice journey Mr. Cliburn!” He asked the driver to stop the car, rolled down his window, and, smiling, said “Thank you! Thank you very very much!” I will always treasure that moment!

Comment on From Rittenhouse Square to the Salome Chamber Orchestra: Are rare instruments starting to play us? by Ariel

Ariel — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:20:10 +0000

There is the Heifetz story of the lady gushing over the beautiful sounding Strad and he looking over at the
violin in its case then turning to the lady and says “funny I don’t hear anything ” . If one is correct
the violin of choice was always the Guarneri .

Comment on Maria João Pires: The Buddhist warrior who won by The Hidden

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Comment on From Rittenhouse Square to the Salome Chamber Orchestra: Are rare instruments starting to play us? by Martin Smith

Martin Smith — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:53:22 +0000

It’s increasingly obvious – with every post from America – that the culture that should be the vanguard of human creativity is searching in the small print of the cultural record for something to get excited about. Entropy has set in – the des Esseintes syndrome. Mallarme put it thus:

Hyperbole! de ma mémoire
Triomphalement ne sais-tu
Te lever, aujourd’hui grimoire
Dans un livre de fer vêtu…

[grimoire book of spells with which to enchant (of a wizard)]

Rilke claimed that a work of art should spring from necessity. But an unbridled taste for the new in both composition and performance has, I suggest, derailed musicians into the fabrication of simulacra of artistic performance and creation: it’s the logical outcome of post-modernism, wherein an opera on a slight theme – as we saw recently – is accorded the accolade of a tragic atmosphere befitting Madame Bovary. The compass no longer works as it should: the compass of the human soul that is. There’s been a catastrophic divorce from emotion and sincerity in favour of the merely plausible. It’s the job of the far-seeing – maybe – to try and counter this, but how? By somehow reacting – maybe – against a commercialized culture of the age? But that will be impossible, I guess, so long as we see life as a march into a godless, scientific, impossible future along the lines of 1984. These ideas of mine are very inchoate as of now but I thought I should record them. Because if you want to be creative these days, the environment in which we are constrained to operate is obviously a deep concern.

I dream of a day when to Mallarme’s rhetorical question someone somewhere can answer, ‘yes!’

Comment on Maria João Pires: The Buddhist warrior who won by payday loans uk

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Comment on Amram-ing at Symphony Space with prayers from our youth by David Patrick Stearns

David Patrick Stearns — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:13:36 +0000

I’m told the DVD will be out this summer. I’ll try to let you know. This same team – myself included – are unveiling another doc in June titled “The Face on the Barroom Floor,” possibly in Colorado (where most of it was shot) or maybe in Newport R.I. (where the producer/director lives)
All the best,
dps

Comment on Amram-ing at Symphony Space with prayers from our youth by Ross Heim

Ross Heim — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:45:47 +0000

Looking forward to seeing the movie. Many thanks.

Comment on Elliott Carter’s story of a real man by profile

profile — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:22:50 +0000

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Comment on Paul’s Case: An opera that buries carnations in the snow by MWnyc

MWnyc — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:33:24 +0000

It’s true. DPS is the most compassionate critic I’ve ever encountered.

Comment on Paul’s Case: An opera that buries carnations in the snow by Martin Smith

Martin Smith — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:59:56 +0000

What is most obvious is not profound; and what is profound is not obvious. The tragedy is that even enlightened creative people who have understood this can still falter and take Paul’s road. There was of course another faltering Paul who faltered first and then was redeemed. So as a response I’d say: may God’s grace (or whatever you like to call it) sustain the human spirit on its long pilgrimage – often through art – to ‘seeing God as he really is’ (or whatever you’d like to call it). I say that with no parti pris. I’ve always sensed how these can seem just unfathomable words, whose consolation is not always obvious. But I read DPS’s Cliburn and Cavalli pieces too. No-one wants to go the route of that unfortunate Emperor. But you can see his point. Then there came Jung, who made us realize that these realities are internal, and, finally, spiritual and even religious. Anyone who holds this torch of insight even for a small second must surely have a great reward. DPS’s writing, so sensitive and -finally- compassionate is surely treasured ‘both in this world and the next’ (or whatever you like to call them). Thank you.