I spent the last two days repeatedly viewing – and (as the orchestra’s pianist) participating in – screenings of the 1929 Soviet silent film The New Babylon, with Dmitri Shostakovich’s score performed by PostClassical Ensemble led by Angel Gil-Ordóñez. Every aspect of this astonishing movie has surged in my comprehension and estimation – to the point, for instance, that I … [Read more...] about Shostakovich and Film — Take Two
Shostakovich and the Fool: Boris Godunov and King Lear
The most galvanizing Shakespeare experience I know is the 1971 Soviet film version of King Lear directed by Grigory Kozintsev with music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Its dimensions are such that it fails on a home screen; it demands a big theater and big sound. The profound Russianness of the Kozintsev/Shostakovich Lear transcends language. Re-encountering this great film in the … [Read more...] about Shostakovich and the Fool: Boris Godunov and King Lear
Mieczyslaw Weinberg on Film
Is Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) a third Soviet composer to set beside Shostakovich and Prokofiev? An increasing number of musicians seem to think so, including the peerless Latvian-born violinist Gidon Kremer, himself a product of Soviet training. My own impressions of Weinberg’s music have been spotty and confused, the peak experience having been Ben Capps performing … [Read more...] about Mieczyslaw Weinberg on Film
It’s Not Over Yet: Babayan, Trifonov, Yuja Wang
At my age – I somehow just turned seventy – it’s considered normal to wax “sentimental” and yearn for better times. Nostalgia: a cliché. But in the case of the world of classical music that I have long inhabited, there’s nothing sentimental about fond retrospection. It’s an art genre in decline. Orchestras are in decline, Singing … [Read more...] about It’s Not Over Yet: Babayan, Trifonov, Yuja Wang
The Gershwin Moment
Some months ago I received an email from an exemplar of inquisitive musicianship: the pianist Kirill Gerstein, whom I had never met. (We mutually know a peerless Hungarian musical pedagogue: Ferenc Rados.) Gerstein had recorded a Gershwin album and wanted to know if I were interested in writing a note for it. I was more than interested. Not only do I believe in George … [Read more...] about The Gershwin Moment