The current Weekly Standard has a long piece by me about the future of American orchestras. I write that orchestras can help us to heal our shredded national fabric and regain a lost “sense of place” – a shared American identity via our history and culture. And yes, I mean high culture. I continue in part: “Our colleges don’t teach much history any longer. Many cultural … [Read more...] about High Culture Without Apologies — What Orchestras Can Do
How South Dakota Shows What Orchestras Are For
Beginning in the 1860s, the conductor Theodore Thomas – a symphonic Johnny Appleseed – began touring the entire United States with his Thomas Orchestra. His credo was: “A symphony orchestra shows the culture of the community.” And in cities large and small, it did. Today, the American orchestra is no longer the civic bulwark it once was. There are exceptions. I would say … [Read more...] about How South Dakota Shows What Orchestras Are For
Jonas Kaufmann vs. the Orchestra of St. Luke’s
My father, who grew up on the Lower East Side, probably never heard opera until – like other Jews of his generation facing American quotas -- he went to medical school in Vienna in the 1930s. His only prior exposure to full-throated singing, I imagine, came in the synagogue: cantorial tenors. When I was very young and precociously amassing LPs of Beethoven, Brahms, … [Read more...] about Jonas Kaufmann vs. the Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Stokowski and Ormandy — What Happened in Philadelphia?
As I write in Understanding Toscanini (1987): “In 1932, in a minor cause celebre, Wilhelm Furtwangler was discovered likening American orchestras to ‘pet dogs’ (Luxushunden) in a speech honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic. To Furtwangler, whose rapport with the New York Philharmonic’s ‘dog owners’ had not been smooth, the absence of … [Read more...] about Stokowski and Ormandy — What Happened in Philadelphia?
The Artist and His Audience
As many who follow baseball know, Jacob deGrom is an artist. It’s not just that he’s likely to win the National League Cy Young Award. Or that his stats this season were off the charts: a 1.70 ERA; 29 consecutive starts allowing three runs or fewer; 269 strike-outs in 217 innings. DeGrom throws exceptionally hard. He is deceptive. He is a master of location. But the … [Read more...] about The Artist and His Audience