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Last Sunday’s performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony by Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall was very possibly the peak concert experience of the New York season. And yet when it ended I discovered myself screaming.  Here is what happened: Bruckner’s Eighth lasts eighty minutes and is exhaled in a single breath. It invites – it demands … [Read more...] about Bruckner and the Cellphone

My forthcoming Mahler novel is now available for pre-order with a 20 per cent discount. Related events: April 4: “Mahler in New York.” A concert with film and readings (I’m reading from my book): Argento New Music Project, Dimenna Center, 7:30 pm April 23: Colorado Mahlerfest webcast, 6 pm ET – I’ll be talking about why I have fictionalized the story of the Mahlers in … [Read more...] about You can now pre-order my new Mahler novel (and get 20 % off)

I’m in Sioux Falls, where the South Dakota Symphony – to my knowledge, the most genuinely innovative American orchestra – is performing Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony Saturday night at 7:30 pm Central Time. A 30-minute preamble (which I’ve scripted) explores the extraordinary context of this work. It’s all being livestreamed … [Read more...] about Shostakovich in South Dakota

To close my recent National Public Radio documentary “The Gershwin Moment,” I pose the following hypothetical: What if George Gershwin, a contemporary of Aaron Copland, had lived as long as Copland did – and died in 1988 at the age of 90 rather than in 1937 at the age of 38? I then turn to the music historian Mark Clague, who heads the Gershwin Initiative at the University of … [Read more...] about “The Gershwin Moment” on NPR

The death of Michael Morgan, last August 20, was a heartbreaking loss to American music. As music director of the Oakland Symphony since 1991, he was a singularly impactful conductor. The evidence, as I discovered Friday night at an Oakland Symphony concert that in many respects invoked his memory, is a symphonic audience unique in my experience. “Diversity” is a term so … [Read more...] about Michael Morgan, the Oakland Symphony, and William Dawson