The Classical Music Guide Forums

THEHORN

Happy birthday indeed ! And congratulations on having reached such a venerable age !

THEHORN

Thanks, Maestrob ! Hoary new year to you too !

THEHORN

This new biography sounds interesting . Has anyone here read the long out of print biography of Koussevitzky by Moses Smith ? I read it long ago and it's quite fascinating , and often rather critical of the legendary Russian conductor's conducting technique and interpretations ,. No wonder Koussevit...

THEHORN

I wish Sir Simon well in Munich, where he has been a regular guest conductor with theBavarianRSO . Apparently, the really like him there, or he would not have been appointed successor to the late,lamented Mariss Jansons . Rattle has been conducting concert performances of Wagner's Ring in Munich, an...

THEHORN

Yes, I've sen the DVD of Gloriana, also on Netflix, and enjoyed it very much . It's a really good opera that deserves to be better known. But unfortunately, the premiere in London was a critical flop , and was rather unfavorably received , which caused Britten a lot of Tsuris , and the opera was neg...

THEHORN

I've heard several of her recordings and have aired them . Is there any explanation why she is retiring from public performance ? She certainly isn't very old and you would think she had a fair number of years to go before retiring .

THEHORN

Well, Gergiev has known Putin for many years . I don't know if he approves of Putin's ruthless suppression of dissent in Russia , but Putin is a classical music fan and a staunch supporter of the arts in Russia, and his generous support has allowed classical music to flourish in Russia .Putin's supp...

THEHORN

I'm glad you like my letter ! Thanks .

THEHORN

Interestingly, Gergiev is not actually a Russian, but an ethnic Ossetian . The Ossetians are an ancient people who are the descendants of the ancient Scythian and Sarmatian peoples and speak a language related to Farsi, Kurdish and Pashto . The Ossetians settle din the rugged Caucasus mountains long...

THEHORN

Admittedly, Gergiev can be erratic at times, and uneven , but this has been true of many eminent conductors . Like Furtwangler, forget about note perfect laying . But at his best, like Furtwnagler, Gergiev can give prformances of incredible power and eloquence . A few years ago, there was an article...

THEHORN

OK, here is the letter to the editor The title put up by the NY Poat editors is "Canceling Classics ". "As a lifelong classical musician and an unabashed liberal , I found Jonathan Tobin's article on the alleged threat of 'wokesters' to the immortal Ludwig van Beethoven and classical music in genera...

THEHORN

I've heard the huge EMI set ( about 30 CDs ! ) of Elgar's music which I've borrowed a few times from my local library . This includes some of the compose'r sown recordings of his music .This is a good chance to hear sone of Elgar's lesser known works, some of which are very much worth hearing but ra...

THEHORN

No, the music of Beethoven and other composers who happened to be "dead white European males " isn't being "canceled": by anyone , except perhaps by Covid-19 , at least for the time being when it cones to live performances . Much ado about nothing . Not too long ago, a conservative columnist who con...

THEHORN

Maestrob , despite your dismissal of the Kirov CD and DVD , I have the DVD and have heard the Philips CD , I still admire it very much . Yes, the playing of the Met orchestra may be more "refined ", but the Kirov orchestra plays superbly , and has the authentic Russian sound for the music, which doe...

THEHORN

I've always preferred the recordings made by Szell with orchestras other than the Cleveland to the ones he made with that acclaimed orchestra , as blasphemous as this may sound . I also prefer the Cleveland recordings he made with EMI to this eon what is now Sony Classical . EMI, DG, Decca and Phili...

THEHORN

Lately, I've been taking advantage of an opportunity to get to know the very interesting but for the most part neglected operas of Hindemith on youtube . I've known his genuinely great opera "Mathis Der Maler " , the complete opera, not the more familiar symphony for many years tfrom the superb EMI ...

THEHORN

Interesting, but I wouldn't call Lorin Maazel's recordings with the Cleveland orchestra"forgettable ". Certainly not his classic recording of Prokofiev's complete "Romeo & Juliette for Decca, their first recorded collaboration . Under Maazel, the orchestra sounded vastly different than under Szell ....

THEHORN

The music of Balakirev never "want out of fashion ". Outside of Russia,it has never been performed with any regularity at all . The only exception might be his incredibly difficult piano piece "Islamey, based on Circassian folk music , which is truly amazing even though hardly anyone in the west is ...

THEHORN

I don't think orchestras are "rushing" to do this, but they are making a serious attempt to give more black composers a chance to be heard at concerts, which I think is a good idea . They've a;sp been making an effort to perform more music by women composers , past and present, which is also admirab...

THEHORN

American orchestras do not intentionally try to discriminate against black musicians . The only reason for their scarcity in our orchestras is because so far, very few young blacks have aimed at careers in symphony orchestras . Few get exposure to classical music as children and not too many have be...

THEHORN

Interesting article, but I think Tommasini overstates his claim about the Met's repertoire being "overwhelmingly traditional . In fact, within the pas ten year or so, the Met's repertoire has become more and more diversified and interesting . And in fact if you compare the Met's overall repertoire i...

THEHORN

"Smaller scale opera " certainly has its place, and I have no objection to it . But there is absolutely nothing wrong with lavish productions of larger than life operas such as Aida, Wagner's Ring, La Gioconda, the Meyerbeer operas , Messiaen's Saint Francis , Les Troyens by Berlioz, and others . Tr...

THEHORN

I've been confirmed Bruckner fan ever since I discovered his music 50 years ago as a teenager , when I got the classic recording of his 9th with Carl Schuricht and the Vienna Philharmonic . His music instantly "clicked " with me and I became familiar with all of his other 8 completed symphonies , an...

THEHORN

An interesting article, but it doesn't mention one of the best recordings of the opera, namely Solti, with Tebaldi , Bumbry, Bergonzi, Fischer-Dieskau , Ghiaurov and Talvela, a cast which would e hard o beat anywhere , any time . And yes, Fischer-Dieskau was a much better Verdi baritone than most cr...

THEHORN

I've never found Abbado's performances to be "bland " or "too polite ". Certainly not his Chicago recordings . For example his recording of Prokofiev's " Scythian" suite with them is terrifically exciting . Possibly some get the impression of "too polite" because of his unpretentious,mild-mannered p...

THEHORN

Happy birthday, Lance !

THEHORN

I'm still stuck here at United Hebrew in New Rochelle because of my disability unfortunately . Things aren't too bad here but I've been stuck on my floor for about two months because of the corona virus , no visitors are allowed until further notice even immediate family , and I've been feeling pret...

THEHORN

There's an excellent opera channel on youtube called "Opera Vision " where you can see recent performances of operas , popular and obscure with large and clear English titles . The performances are from all over Europe from towns as diverse as Venice, Naples, Stockholm and Riga . Among the operas I'...

THEHORN

I too enjoyed this DVD performance very much . I had known this opera from way back on LP in the stone age , because my local library had the LP with Irina Arkhipova and the late Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting . I think "The Maid of Orleans " could be big hit in a Met production , say with Gergie...

THEHORN

Oh weh ! Beckmesser's revenge !

THEHORN

I've heard Gardiner's set of the Beethoven symphonies on Archiv with the same orchestra , and I enjoyed it on the whole . I wish I could attend the upcoming cycle at Carnegie hall .The only thing that bothers me is Gardiner's begging the question, assuming that we are actually hearing what the music...

THEHORN

He would never have been chosen for this key position in the Philadelphia orchestra if they didn't like his sound and style of playing a lot !

THEHORN

Yikes ! I haven't heard this opera, although I've been aware of it for who knows ho long . I have a CD of Marschner's opera "Der Vampyr " with the late Helmut Froschauer conducting the Cologne radio orchestra and chorus . The cast includes the young Jonas Kaufmann before became an operatic superstar...

THEHORN

Sad to see him retiring from performing . I've enjoyed many of the recordings of him as a conductor too . He's been regular with the Royal Concertgebouw, the Philharmonic , the Royal Philharmonic, the Cleveland orchestra , the Czech Philharmonic , the Deutsches Sinfonie Berlin, formerly the Berlin R...

THEHORN

Happy birthday, Donald !

THEHORN

Sad news . The great Barry Tuckwell, one of the greatest horn players of all time, has passed away at 88 . His virtuosity on this treacherous instrument was almost superhuman . His ability to play the instrument's treacherous high register with pupate and accuracy and agility in rapid fire passages ...

THEHORN

Like his conducting or not, Dudamel is the real thing, no shallow ,flashy glamor boy or flash in the pan . He's proven his ability and is was not created by slick publicity . He would not be music director of the L.A. Phil. and a regular with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics and other top orchest...

THEHORN

I've also seen a DVD of both of these early Puccini operas from one of the Italian music festivals, I don't recall which one conducted by Hungarian maestro Tamas Pal . This is also worth trying . If I remember correctly, I got this trough Netflix, which has an excellent selection of of opera and cla...

THEHORN

The New York city opera had a production of "Die Tote Stadt " from I believe the 70s, which it did with considerable success . If I remember, the late Julius Rudel conducted it .

THEHORN

Much ado about nothing . These operas were not written with the intention of disparaging non-whites or to incite racist hatred of them . Actors and operatic tenors have traditionally performed the role of Othello or Otello with makeup to make the skin appear darker not out of racism but in an attemp...

THEHORN

So sorry to hear about this . I often disagreed with John, but he was certainly a highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic music lover . He will be missed at this forum .

THEHORN

If you compare the programming of the New York Philharmonic with many other US orchestras, they have actually been doing more new or recent works than most of them for decades . They have performed new or recent works by Philip Glass, John Adams, Christopher Rouse,Thomas Ades, Henze, Tan Dun, Unsuk ...

THEHORN

Being general manager of the Met is one of the most thankless jobs in classical music . You're damned if you do and damned if you don't . No matter how hard you try , somebody will always be pissed off about your choice of repertoire , casting, conductors , directors and designers etc . Some people ...

THEHORN

"Les Djinns" by Franck, inspired by Arabic folklore from where we get the word Genie " is an interesting work - sort of a symphonic poem / concertante work for orchestra and solo piano . I remember this from a n old EMI LP with the lae Aldo Ciccolini and if I remember , Serge Baudo conducting . Ther...

THEHORN

Not too long ago, I borrowed a live recording of Callas and Corelli in "La Vestale " through library interloan on the same pirate label and enjoyed it too .

THEHORN

Levine is also suffering from Parkinson's disease, sciatica and arm tremors , so even if there hadn't been any scandals with him he probably will not be able to conduct anywhere again , which is terribly sad . I've never found his conducting or piano playing to be "shallow and facile ". Like his int...

THEHORN

If you're hearing a new or recent work by a contemporary composer at a a concert , or experiencing a new opera in an opera house , it's often difficult to judge it based on one hearing, if it's a work of any length or complexity . In many cases, only repeated hearings will enable you to decide if yo...

THEHORN

I know you're not suppose dot speak ill of the dead , but Bernheimer, even though he may have been a distinguished music critic , often wrote grossly unfair and gratuitously nasty reviews of many eminent musicians, such as Mehta, Maazel and others as cited in the obituary . It's one thing to disagre...

THEHORN

I recently heard his quirky take on "Don Giovanni" on Sony . It certainly isn't boring ! He seems like a really interesting character and I'd like to hear more of his conducting . I don't know why, but there seems to be a lot of hostility toward today's younger generation of conductors here on this ...

THEHORN

Both Bartoletti and Andrew Davis are and were highly respected in Chicago , and Davis is a very distinguished conductor . Not a conductor's opera house ? They've had many eminent ones there over the years . I haven't heard Mazola's conducting yet so I can't judge him , but from what I've read about ...

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