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Today, the world changed

December 22, 2008 By

Anybody notice that today is the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven's fifth symphony? It was 22 December 1808 at the Theater an der Wien, if Thayer is not mistaken. The orchestra played badly, the hall was cold and audience tolerance was exhausted by an overlong programme. But this was the night that the symphony shed its courtly deference and became a universal art form - a work that represented fate and the individual, and indicating that a free … [Read more...]

12/22/08 3:19 PM | filed under: main |

All’s quiet at the NY Philharmonic

December 21, 2008 By

Since last week's sordid events, there have been three developments: - The Philharmonic's chief executive is apparently unwell. - The critic who praised Gilbert Kaplan's performance of Mahler's second symphony has admitted he did not acknowledge the conductor's full authority in his review. - And two more players have reiterated the trombonist's attack on the guest conductor in language so similar to one another as to suggest a football huddle. On the first … [Read more...]

12/21/08 1:21 PM | filed under: main |

The player who forgot his place

December 18, 2008 By

- Hold the front page, hot story coming in. - What is it? - There's a player in the orchestra who didn't like last week's conductor. - Come again? Yeah, that's right. There's a trombone in the New York Phil beefing on his blog about the guy who did Mahler 2. Get some pictures in. Is this some kind of mistimed joke, or the end of journalism on the New York Times? For reasons better left uninvestigated, the Times has made a C1 splash today of comments made by a trombonist - the third trombone, I … [Read more...]

12/18/08 6:13 PM | filed under: Uncategorized |

The Record Doctor’s surgery is open now

December 4, 2008 By

This coming Monday, Dec 8, I'm doing a half-hour slot on WNYC at 2-2.30 pm, called The Record Doctor.   The idea, linked to my book The Life and Death of Classical Music, is that people can email or ring in to ask me to prescribe a record remedy for their particular lifestyle dilemma - dinner with the boss's new post-modern wife, a second date with a Nigel Kennedy fan, a ceasefire negotiation with Condoleeza Rice - or just a deep-seated need for a piece of music to cope with … [Read more...]

12/4/08 3:10 PM | filed under: main |

Does Ma’am love Brahms?

December 3, 2008 By

Checking out the Condoleeza Rice Brahms recital clip at Buckingham Palace, one had to cast the mind back an awful long time to fathom when a serving officer of the US government last performed a piece of music before a reigning British monarch. I guess President Truman, a decent piano player, might have done had he ever been given the royal command, but other than Harry - and his daughter, Margaret, who played professionally (but not very capably) before taking to … [Read more...]

12/3/08 10:10 AM | filed under: main |

Stand by for the u-turn

December 1, 2008 By

Life has its little ups and downs, but seldom so extreme as the ones that have just hit the composer Brett Dean.   Last month, the Australian government announced it was closing down the National Academy of Music, of which Dean is director. Dean, 47, had given up playing viola in Simon Rattle's Berlin Philharmonic to help raise the next generation of Australian musicians in a so-called 'centre of excellence'. But a new Labour government, suspicious of elitism, … [Read more...]

12/1/08 7:29 PM | filed under: main |

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