…press if I want to, press-if-I-want to…
These composer birthday concert festivities are getting ridiculous.
Steve Reich at 70: OK, that was kind of fun, but why not 75? Or 77, for that matter? Every year should metaphorically be “Steve Reich at 70”, as far as I’m concerned.
Leonard Bernstein this fall: I’m not entirely sure why New York City is celebrating his would-be 90th birthday slash the 18th anniversary of his death, but I’m not complaining about the Bernstein Mass et al being presented. I really don’t understand why 90 years (when you’re no longer with us) warrants The New Yorker profile the festival/Bernstein will surely get, though.
This year we also have Olivier Messiaen, who would have turned 100: another excuse for festivals and box sets (again, not complaining, but…), and Krzysztof Penderecki, alive and kickin’/composing at 75.
Do presenters really need arbitrary composer birthday celebrations to create new logos and generate potential press hooks? It all kind of loses meaning after a while, no? [This from the girl who sent out a media alert about Arnold Schoenberg’s 134th bee-day not one month ago, but no matter.]
Props to Penderecki for recently telling The Philadelphia Inquirer:
“This year, I’m a little tired of myself,” he said. “I have more than
50 concerts of my music to celebrate my birthday [Nov. 23]. It’s a
pleasure to hear my music in different performances, and with this
great orchestra and soloists. But it always takes my time from
[writing] another piece.”
The medieval-torture-device-stretching of anniversaries is amazing, too. When I worked at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, I swear we celebrated its “75th Anniversary” one year, and then managed to also celebrate its “75th Anniversary Season” the next. Carry the one, bring it down…mmm…those numbers just don’t add up.
In that spirit, I’d like to start the buzz for a 15-month, city-wide, totally-fake festival in 2011 right now:
Update, Wednesday the 15th, 11:15ish – The press powers-that-be at C to the Hall kindly informed me, “There’s in fact a convergence of Bernstein anniversaries this year. In addition to the 90th, there’s the 65th anniversary of his New York Philharmonic debut at Carnegie Hall (11/14) and the 50th anniversary of his appointment as the Philharmonic’s Music Director.” Fair enough. I really wish it was all timed with the ‘West Side Story’ revival on the broad way, though. ‘West Side Story’ opened in 1957, so 2009 would be 52 years? Jerome Robbins was born in 1918, so 2009 would be 91 years? He died 10 years ago, but by March 2009 it will be 11? Maybe it was just time for a revival, no anniversary? Unrelated, but if they’re keeping the original choreography I’m going to flip my lid. Wait for it.
Up here in Canadia, especially in Toronto, we celebrated Sir Michael Tippett’s 75th birthday, and 80th, 85th and 90th! A lot of Canadian composers felt ignored. And personally, marking every five years seemed rather ghoulish.