Archives for March 2010

As Igor Stravinsky's impregnable twentieth century reputation fades with time, both the man and the composer seem ever more elusive. A recent visit to the New York Philharmonic Archives, preparing for the Philharmonic's upcoming Stravinsky festival with Valery Gergiev, reinforced the density of the Stravinsky conundrum. Stravinsky was born in St. Petersburg. His father was an … [Read more...] about Stravinsky, the New York Philharmonic, and Program Music

Leaving aside the problem that William Kentridge's spectacular production of The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera overwhelms Shostakovich's 1928 chamber opera, leaving aside that one departs the house with the questionable sensation of having seen inspired stagecraft inflicted on a weak work, I merely wish to observe a series of paradoxes. The Nose at the Met, with six … [Read more...] about The Nose, The Trojans, and Issues of Popularity

John Adams, on his blog "Hellmouth," has just posted a stirring piece in praise of Leopold Stokowski. These days Stokowski is by far the more fascinating phenomenon than his onetime rival Toscanini. John writes: "Anyone following [Stokowski's] career will be driven mad trying to cull the pearls from the swill." Consider his two recordings (live, studio) of Schoenberg's … [Read more...] about The Stokowski Conundrum

I'm still attempting to digest Berlioz's The Trojans, as performed by Valery Gergiev and his Kirov soloists, orchestra, and chorus at Carnegie Hall last week. The experience was humbling, overwhelming, enobling. A sentient listener can only shrink in the presence of Berlioz's masterpiece, an opera in two parts not wholly knowable. Its power, obviously, is archetypal (it sets … [Read more...] about Rrecuperating from The Trojans

As readers of this blog may recall, I have twice (re: Vladimir Horowitz on Feb. 1; re: "Interpreting Liszt" on Feb. 18) written about Mykola Suk - in my experience, the most galvanizing present-day exponent of the piano music of Franz Liszt. My son Bernie, with whom I joust about such matters, has just apprised me that Suk's epic 2008 performance of the Liszt B minor Sonata at … [Read more...] about The Greatest Present-Day Liszt Pianist