Are orchestras better than ever? Riccardo Muti thinks so. Recently, dedicating a bust of Fritz Reiner at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, he said: “The level of the orchestras in the world – especially in the seventies and eighties -- has gone up everywhere.” What is Muti talking about? I suppose he’s applying the criterion of perfection. Perfect intonation, perfect ensemble. What … [Read more...] about Are Orchestras Better than Ever? Why Riccardo Muti is Wrong
Music and the National Mood
PostClassical Ensemble – the DC chamber orchestra I co-founded a dozen years ago – produced a concert at the Washington National Cathedral last Saturday night that seemed to address the national mood. These are fractious times – times in which the arts can acquire a special pertinence. Times in which music can be a provocation or a balm. We titled our program “The Trumpet … [Read more...] about Music and the National Mood
Trifonov Plays Shostakovich
No other music so instantly evokes a sense of place as that of Dmitri Shostakovich. When Daniil Trifonov launched Shostakovich’s E minor Prelude at Carnegie Hall last week, the bleakness and exigency of Stalin’s Russia at once chilled the huge space. The Shostakovich affect can seem exotic or native, according to circumstance. I would say it today complements that part of the … [Read more...] about Trifonov Plays Shostakovich
Brendel and Schubert
This weekend's "Wall Street Journal" includes my review of Alfred Brendel's new essay collection, "Music, Sense, and Nonsense," as follows: It is axiomatic, to some, that music speaks for itself. But there are musicians who both perform and speak for music. In this country, Leonard Bernstein was surely the most influential exemplar. Bernstein’s landmark campaign for the … [Read more...] about Brendel and Schubert
The Future of Orchestras Part IV: Attention-Span
A colleague in Music History at a major American university reports that it has become difficult to teach sonata form because sonata forms transpire over 15 minutes and more. This topic – shrinking attention-span -- is obviously not irrelevant to the future of orchestras. My most memorable TV interview took place half a dozen years ago in a Southern city of moderate size. I … [Read more...] about The Future of Orchestras Part IV: Attention-Span