Today's "Wall Street Journal" includes my mini-review of a remarkable film. It's appended, along with a chunk of my book-in-progress about Wagner the man. The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s current Luchino Visconti retrospective climaxes with more than a week of screenings (June 16 and 22-28) featuring the restored, four-hour version of Ludwig (1973)—a rare … [Read more...] about VISCONTI’S FOUR-HOUR “LUDWIG” — A Momentous Wagnerian Film
Shostakovich and the Cold War
“It is difficult to detect any significant difference between one piece and another. Nor is there any relief from the dominant tone of ‘uplift.’ The musical products of different parts of the Socialist Fatherland all sound as though they had been turned out by Ford or General Motors.” This October 1953 assessment of contemporary Soviet music, by Nicolas Nabokov in the … [Read more...] about Shostakovich and the Cold War
“The Great Composer You’ve Never Heard Of” — and how he was suppressed by Carlos Chavez
“The Great Composer You’ve Never Heard Of” – the most recent “PostClassical” broadcast via the WWFM Classical Network – spends two hours exploring the astounding achievements of Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940). The show also reveals how Revueltas’s colleague Carlos Chavez – a lesser composer, but with more institutional clout – suppressed Revueltas’s music. It’s all here. As … [Read more...] about “The Great Composer You’ve Never Heard Of” — and how he was suppressed by Carlos Chavez
Leonard Bernstein at 100: An American Archetype
My 5,000-word piece on the Leonard Bernstein Centenary, in The Weekly Standard this week, begins with a story you’ve never heard before: “In 1980, at the age of 62, Leonard Bernstein undertook the composition of a formidable full-scale opera, commissioned jointly by La Scala, the Kennedy Center, and Houston Grand Opera. He called it A Quiet Place. It’s the story of an … [Read more...] about Leonard Bernstein at 100: An American Archetype
THE FUTURE OF ORCHESTRAS — Part Five: Kurt Weill, El Paso, and the National Mood
“Wherever I found decency and humanity in the world, it reminded me of America.” Kurt Weill wrote those words after returning from a visit to Germany in 1947. I read them aloud at least a dozen times during the Kurt Weill festival in El Paso last week. Every time I invited my listeners to consider whether or not they still apply. Because Weill was an exemplary immigrant, … [Read more...] about THE FUTURE OF ORCHESTRAS — Part Five: Kurt Weill, El Paso, and the National Mood