"Tannhauser," act two, at the Metropolitan Opera The Met’s current revival of Otto Schenk’s 1977 production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser is an event unthinkable in any European house – perhaps unthinkable in any other American house. Designed by Gunther Schneider-Siemssen, this was a rare attempt to faithfully render Wagner’s complex scenic intentions, albeit with access to … [Read more...] about A Timely Old “Tannhäuser” at the Met
Yet Again — The South Dakota Symphony
As readers of this blog now know by heart, I regard the South Dakota Symphony as a national exemplar. I’ve written about their Lakota Music Project, which connects the orchestra to Indian reservations throughout the state. I’ve extolled their ingeniously contextualized performances of Silvestre Revueltas’s Redes, of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, … [Read more...] about Yet Again — The South Dakota Symphony
Celebrating the Ives Sesquicentenary: An American Landmark
The upcoming Sesquicentenary of Charles Ives (1874-1954) is a landmark moment in American cultural history. Not only is he the towering creative genius of American classical music; he links to the highest American cultural pantheon, resonating in countless ways with the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville (connections I explore in my … [Read more...] about Celebrating the Ives Sesquicentenary: An American Landmark
A Great Present-Day Pianist
When I reminisce with pianists of my generation (born 1948), the perennial topic is Great Pianists of the Past. We tediously agree: in those days, famous pianists were great pianists – with their own sound, their own distinctive musical personality projecting into the far reaches of Carnegie Hall. No one could admire equally Arrau, Horowitz, Serkin, Michelangeli, Richter, … [Read more...] about A Great Present-Day Pianist
The Cultural Cold War Revisited — and Cultural Diplomacy in Africa Today
Leonard Bernstein at a USIA exhibit in Moscow in 1959 The vanishing presence of the arts in the American experience has implications for America’s reputation abroad, and for its pursuit of foreign policy goals. If the US is in fact embarking on a new Cold War, the cultural Cold War with the USSR is urgently pertinent. My latest “More than Music” program on NPR is “The … [Read more...] about The Cultural Cold War Revisited — and Cultural Diplomacy in Africa Today