Archives for 2011

The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities are endangered by impending Congressional budget cuts. Few people know what these agencies do - which is to say, it's little appreciated how vitally they contribute to American lives, and how disproportionate their contributions are in relation to their very modest budgets. A pair of events in … [Read more...] about What the embattled NEH does for education: a case in point

For American orchestras, these are changing and bewildering times - and will become moreso if Congress sees fit to de-fund the nation's invaluable arts endowments (whose functions are little known or understood by the public at large). A lingering conventional wisdom prioritizes a "big five" symphonic constellation: the orchestras of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, … [Read more...] about Pittsburgh and Tchaikovsky

The American businessman Julius Block, who introduced the phonograph to Russia in 1889, proceeded to record many hours of music performed by the leading instrumentalists, composers, and singers of Moscow. The astounding "Block cylinders," thought lost, were discovered in 2002 -- and subsequently turned into listenable CDs by Ward Marston. For the recent Pittsburgh Symphony … [Read more...] about Eavesdropping on Tchaikovsky’s Russia

THE GERSHWIN MOMENT (CONTINUED) As readers of this blog are aware, I have for some time been proclaiming a "new Gershwin" - in, e.g., the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. In Classical Music in America (2005), he ranks with Ives as our most important concert composer (my view of Copland, in that book, irked some reviewers). My book-in-progress is a study of … [Read more...] about The Gershwin Moment (continued)

It's nice to be noticed, so thank you to those who have complained about the paucity of recent filings in this space. Usually I write a blog when I'm excited or upset. I don't notice that I'm any less excited or upset than usual - just that the blog engine has been running down lately. So here is a list of things I should have been blogging about: 1.Some kind person has posted … [Read more...] about The Greatest Vocal Recording of All Time, etc.