• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • The Unanswered Question
    • Joseph Horowitz
  • Contact
  • ArtsJournal
  • AJBlogs

Unanswered Question

Joe Horowitz on music

Falla and Flamenco — “The Birth of Spanish Music”

December 19, 2018 by Joe Horowitz 1 Comment

According to my friend the remarkably loquacious Spanish pianist Pedro Carboné, the “birth of Spanish music” occurs during the third of Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Pedro made this argument at length on our most recent “PostClassical” broadcast: “Falla and Flamenco.” And he clinched it by citing his distinctive live performance of this piece with … [Read more...] about Falla and Flamenco — “The Birth of Spanish Music”

High Culture Without Apologies — What Orchestras Can Do

December 8, 2018 by Joe Horowitz Leave a Comment

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

November 26, 2018 by Joe Horowitz 1 Comment

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

October 10, 2018 by Joe Horowitz 4 Comments

  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?

October 5, 2018 by Joe Horowitz 7 Comments

  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?

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

About Joe Horowitz

Joseph Horowitz is an award-winning author, concert producer, film-maker, broadcaster, and pianist/composer. He is one of the most prominent and widely published writers on topics in American music. As an orchestral administrator and advisor, he has been a pioneering force in the development of … [more] about Joseph Horowitz

About Unanswered Question

When a few years ago Doug McLennan invited me to write an ArtsJournal blog, I thought about it and said no. Having been born as long ago as 1948, I remain somewhat a stranger to the internet. And, as I am always writing a book (a form of therapy) when I am not producing concerts, I felt I didn't … [more] about The Unanswered Question

Subscribe to Joe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 254 other subscribers

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Rick Benjamin on Will Europeans Curate Our Receding Cultural Past?
  • Brooks on Will Europeans Curate Our Receding Cultural Past?
  • Robert Berger on “A Service to the Nation” — The University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra Tours South Africa
  • Ariel on “A Tale of Two Cities” — Music and Race in Boston and New York
  • Larry Fried on “Aida” in South Africa: a Sonic Earthquake

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in