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Smackdown or touchdown?

March 24, 2009 By

I've just come off a WNYC Smackdown head-to-head with Anne Midgette on the never-ending question of my Wagner right or wrong. You can hear the debate here, I think, and I'm not going to use this space to have the last word on her. What is extraordinary, though, is how every time one attempts to balance the monstrosity of Wagner's ego and his cult against the musical genius of the work, you run up against a brick wall - not Anne, I hastily add - … [Read more...]

03/24/09 8:00 PM | filed under: main |

Free Bernard – he’s out now!

March 24, 2009 By

The campaign to give Haitink to the world has hit new heights with another free download offer from Netherlands Radio. The very young Haitink cut his conducting teeth on its philharmonic orchestra in the late 1950s. Some of those broadcasts can be accessed here. Repertory includes Grieg, Pijper, Brahms Bartok and Fauré. My thanks for the information to Rolf den Otter, who says it's easy to download the concerts if you have the right software (and a few words of Dutch). … [Read more...]

03/24/09 1:14 PM | filed under: main |

She got plenty of nuttin’

March 18, 2009 By

Apart from a newsbreak by an alert Tim Smith in her native Baltimore and a low-cal obit in the New York Times, America allowed the passing of its first operatic heroine to pass unnoticed. Anne Brown created the role of Bess in George Gershwin's opera not just by singing the opening night in 1935 but by sitting on the composer's piano stool, prodding him to give her more to sing. Porgy and Bess is, by general consent, the first American opera. Anne Brown was the definitive Bess. She continued to … [Read more...]

03/18/09 10:22 AM | filed under: main |

Bess, you is my woman now

March 17, 2009 By

Anne Brown, who sang Bess in George Gershwin's original 1935 production of Porgy and Bess died last week, aged 96, in Norway, where she lived since her marriage 60 years ago. What she did with the rest of her life is known chiefly to Norwegians, but a friend in Oslo describes her as a driving force in musical life, teacher of many of the country's best singers and actors - including Liv Ullmann - and, to the very last, 'the most beautiful creature in the whole world'. Anne … [Read more...]

03/17/09 11:00 AM | filed under: main |

Nobody sings like she can

March 15, 2009 By

The Times of London, which used to call itself a newspaper of record, has turned into the puff paper of the record industry.   Last week, the Times published a piece by its media correspondent about 13 year-old Faryl Smith, who appeared a year back on a television talent show and, though she lost, was signed by Universal Classics & Jazz (UCJ) - yes, them again - for a reputed £2.3 million ($3.1 million).   The comments of Dickon Stainer, UK head of UCJ and the man who signed the … [Read more...]

03/15/09 11:21 AM | filed under: main |

Shrinking Jenufa

March 13, 2009 By

It's an opera that never fails.   Leos Janacek's psychodrama of a foster mother who murders her stepdaughter's illegitimate baby in order to protect her marriage chances united performers and audience in a communion of grief and horror. Tears are shed in all parts of the house, including the orchestra pit. Jenufa, created in 1904, is the first reality opera, a slice of everyone's life.   David Alden's production at English National Opera strips it back to the core relationship between … [Read more...]

03/13/09 10:15 AM | filed under: main |

Duda here, Duda there, and the NY Phil go east

March 11, 2009 By

Hot on the South Bank's announcement of a London residency by Gustavo Dudamel and his Venezuelan ensemble, the Barbican is introducing annual residencies by no fewer than four major-leaguers: the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig and the philharmonic orchestras of New York and Los Angeles.   This is a bold diversification for a multi-disciplinary arts centre that depends heavily on the London Symphony Orchestra for its music. The visiting orchestras … [Read more...]

03/11/09 10:27 AM | filed under: main |

Michael Ignatieff: An open letter

March 9, 2009 By

Dear Michael Ignatieff As a former colleague of yours on the BBC's Late Show in the 1990s, I want to draw your attention to a Canadian phenomenon which, though you are not yet prime minister, can be significantly remedied by your intervention. There may even be some votes in it. You can guess what I'm referring to. It's the top-down dumbing down of arts and culture. Canada is a country that punches creatively above its weight. Its diversity of authors -from Margaret … [Read more...]

03/9/09 8:55 AM | filed under: main |

Free Bernard – the campaign grows

March 5, 2009 By

Here are some breaking updates on recent stories in this blog. - The free Haitink downloads have gone live in Holland - and in English. The first music comes free on March 9. Thanks to Rolf den Otter for these links. http://haitink.radio4.nl/en/kijkenluister/http://haitink.radio4.nl/en/home/80-years-bernard-haitink.html http://haitink.radio4.nl/en/kijkenluister/ - Cincinnatti fears the demise of Telarc will consign its orchestras to oblivion. Cleveland, too, is not that happy. - … [Read more...]

03/5/09 8:58 AM | filed under: main |

It rhymes with Zinfandel

March 4, 2009 By

The BBC's Culture Show ran a 30-minute special last night on Alfred Brendel. It went out at 11.20 pm and showed no more than 30 seconds at a stretch - at least so long as my eyelids stayed up - of the cheeky chappie doing what he used to do best, which is playing the piano. Instead, the media-savvy conductor Charles Hazlewood quizzed Mr Brendel reverentially about his poetry, which he recited with seesawing eyebrows, a feat I have not seen replicated since the early years of television … [Read more...]

03/4/09 9:02 AM | filed under: main |
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