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Modernistfan

I saw on the web that Naxos is supposed to release a recording of orchestral music by Esteban Benzecry shortly. I do not know the contents, the release date, or the orchestra (it might be Sao Paolo, which has been recording for Naxos). I shall keep you posted when I get any further information.

Modernistfan

I, too, have had my differences with Dudamel in the past. However, I generally trust Tommasini, and this sounds encouraging. I really would like to see him record some of Benzecry's work, virtually none of which is available (he did some with the Los Angeles Philharmonic).

Modernistfan

It's really good to see that the Boston Symphony is recording again (even on Naxos; see my earlier post). I am still holding off on Nelsons' Shostakovich cycle, but may consider it when it is completed if a box set is issued.

Modernistfan

The premiere recordings of the Piano Concerto and Totentanz by Thomas Adès are to be released shortly on Deutsche Grammophon. The soloist in the Piano Concerto is Kirill Gerstein. There are vocal soloists in Totentanz , Mark Stone (baritone) and Christianne Stotijn (mezzo-soprano) (Yes, I know that ...

Modernistfan

The originally Russian pianist Igor Levit, now based in Germany, played a concert in a town in southern Germany (the town was not named in the reports), under police guard after receiving an anti-Semitic death threat. Levit, who is Jewish, has spoken out against increasing racism and anti-Semitism. ...

Modernistfan

I have a number of recordings of Neuwirth's music, mostly on the Kairos label. I would love to see this, but it sure won't happen in San Diego!! (The opera here won't even put on Salome, Elektra, Wozzeck, Lulu, or Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.) Hopefully, a recording will come out on Kairos, and I shall ...

Modernistfan

It is true that Furtwängler was never a Nazi Party member, and it is unquestioned that he did attempt to assist some Jews, including his concertmaster, the Polish-Jewish violinist Szymon Goldberg. However, I am still having a difficult time understanding why he did not leave Germany, as did Erich Kl...

Modernistfan

Not me! I am not going to spend money on recordings of standard repertoire played in a mediocre fashion by orchestras all but destroyed by the consequences of Nazism and the Second World War and recorded in mediocre monophonic sound. I have never understood the Furtwängler cult and I still don't und...

Modernistfan

The Boston Symphony audience was always notoriously conservative. Around 1900, when Symphony Hall was being built, one local critic suggested that the signs over the emergency exits should read" "Exit in case of Brahms." (Brahms!!!--not Bruckner, Mahler, or Richard Strauss) If you want the kind of e...

Modernistfan

I have the Columbia recording, and I cannot believe that the Met would not use supertitles for an opera where about 75% of the dialog is in ancient Egyptian, about 20% in Akkadian (a form of Babylonian), and about 5% in Hebrew. Maybe some of the audience (a small minority at that) might be able to p...

Modernistfan

Ms. Mälkki should have gotten the music directorship in New York, but after pushing Alan Gilbert aside because of his "radical" repertoire choices (although other reasons may also have been involved), they certainly were not going to give the job to someone who also tends to specialize in contempora...

Modernistfan

This definitely needs to be recorded. Fortunately, the Cincinnati Symphony has its own label and does not depend on the major labels to get such new repertoire out. I shall watch for this.

Modernistfan

Well, they did mention the holiday today and did play a few additional selections, namely: another short work by Salamone Rossi entitled "Al Naharot Bavel' (By the Waters of Babylon), one movement of Ernest Bloch's work "From Jewish Life," and a brief choral work by the contemporary American compose...

Modernistfan

Well, they did play a very brief selection (about 3 minutes) by the Italian Jewish early baroque composer Salamone Rossi entitled "Adon Olam," a prayer that normally closes the service, at roughly 6:30 p.m. Rossi wrote Jewish liturgical music basically in the style of Monteverdi. Better than nothing...

Modernistfan

Well, I finally got a reply from one Mark Steinmetz, described as VP of Content, USC Radio Group. The reply is as follows: Dear Mr. [redacted], Thank you for taking the time to write us with your concerns regarding Alan Chapman’s Modern Times broadcast. Your opinions and concern matter to us. Each w...

Modernistfan

Yes, they should play "Tehillim," but they won't. I have not gotten an answer from the station as yet. On Monday, they did mention Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and did play a couple of very trivial items: "Omer Tantz" by Henri Oppenheim (who?) on an album on Chandos with Kleztory and I Musici...

Modernistfan

I almost hate to start another kerfuffle with KUSC-FM in Los Angeles, but I just sent the following message to the station: In your "Modern Times" segment of September 28, 2019, I was extremely interested that you were to feature the music of Steve Reich, as I am a big fan of his music. However, I w...

Modernistfan

It was announced that the American composer Christopher Rouse, age 70, has passed away. This is a huge loss to American music generally, and particularly to American symphonic music. I am a big fan of his music, and have automatically bought any CD with his music.

Modernistfan

Agreed, I have a number of those recordings on New World with the New York Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony. The NYPO also put out a recording of two symphonies by Christopher Rouse, conducted by Alan Gilbert, on the Danish label DaCapo. It's still a bit shocking to see the BSO on Naxos, though.

Modernistfan

This is not an April Fool joke a few months early, but an actual recording announced on the Naxos Direct website for November. Yes, the Boston Symphony, conducted by Andris Nelsons, will actually appear on a Naxos recording entitled "Boston Symphony Commissions," featuring new works by Timo Andres, ...

Modernistfan

Donald Weilerstein and his wife Vivian Hornik Weilerstein playing with their daughter Alisa Weilerstein (piano trio--Donald on violin, Vivian on piano, Alisa on cello).

Also, the Chung Trio (Myung-whun Chung on piano, Kyung-wha Chung on violin, Myung-wha Chung on cello; three siblings).

Modernistfan

Here we go again--a young American conductor who happens to be African-American and who is getting rave notices and a significant appointment in Europe but who is virtually ignored in the United States. Ryan Bancroft is from Los Angeles; he won the prestigious Malko Conducting Competition in Denmark...

Modernistfan

I got a more detailed look at the contents at naxosdirect.com. I was right that the listing at jpc was not complete. However, I realize that I do not need that much duplication (the only things that I do not have in one recording or another are some of the Vienna New Year's Day concerts and a relati...

Modernistfan

I got a look at the contents on jpc, which may not be complete (it doesn't seem that the listing that they have is enough to fill 96 CDs and 1 DVD). For one thing, it does not include the Richard Strauss Mehta recordings already re-released in a Sony box set, which I already have, and which is some ...

Modernistfan

Next month, Decca (yes, Decca!) will release a recording of Julia Wolfe's hour-long oratorio "Fire in My Mouth," with The Crossing, the Young People's Chorus of New York City, and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Jaap van Zweden. This work tells the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New...

Modernistfan

A huge box set is about to come out with all of the recordings Zubin Mehta made for RCA and Columbia/Sony. I heard Maestro Mehta a fair number of times when he was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later as a guest conductor. Some years ago, I heard him conduct the Bruckner Eighth i...

Modernistfan

A couple of names to add:
Alessandro Stradella was stabbed by a hitman almost certainly hired by a member of the nobility with whose wife Stradella had been messing around.
Marc Blitzstein was beaten to death by three sailors in Martinique in an apparent gay-bashing incident.

Modernistfan

Maybe few people today will openly admit to such attitudes, but they are more prevalent than any of us would presumably like. Remember the Gramophone reviews of, for example, the Shostakovich quartets by the Emerson Quartet (and also some other reviews of recordings by that ensemble). At that time, ...

Modernistfan

I would not dismiss this as "tripe," but there are a number of serious issues here. First of all, there has to be a significant distinction made between the existence of racism among practitioners of classical music and more generally, in the commercial structure of classical music, on one hand, and...

Modernistfan

Well, I finally got the Henze "Heliogabalus Imperator" from Presto Classical in England and listened to it this morning. What a spectacular piece! Henze throws everything but the kitchen sink into that work (and the kitchen sink may well have been in it with the percussion).

Modernistfan

The young American conductor Jonathon Heyward, just 26, was recently appointed Chief Conductor at the Norwestdeutsche Philharmonie, starting January 2021. This was a post held at one point by Andris Nelsons. I am still at a loss to understand why Heyward has not gotten more engagements in the United...

Modernistfan

I am convinced that if Ted Williams had seen Jackie Robinson at the tryout, such as it was, he would have gone to Red Sox management and said that they had to sign him. He probably would have said that, if they had Robinson hitting leadoff, he would not only have hit .400 again, but would have broke...

Modernistfan

It was well known that the Red Sox did give some sort of a tryout to Jackie Robinson prior to his being signed by the Dodgers, but they did not take it all seriously and did not really attempt to follow up or sign him. It was not so well known that the Red Sox also blew a chance to sign Willie Mays....

Modernistfan

Subsequently, Furtwangler also did conduct the premiere of Schoenberg's Orchestral Variations, Op. 31, a strictly 12-tone piece, as well as the premiere of Bartok's First Piano Concerto in 1927 at the ISCM concerts in Frankfurt, with the composer as soloist. The Bartok First Piano Concerto is not a...

Modernistfan

I can certainly understand why Mookie Betts and other Red Sox players who are black or Hispanic will not go to the White House. However, I hope that this does not open up a racial divide in the clubhouse or between the fans and the players. Although Boston has a reputation as an extremely liberal to...

Modernistfan

I will not, and cannot, listen to recordings made by a conductor who, AFTER the conclusion of World War II and the Holocaust, would refer to Schoenberg's atonality as "biologically inferior." (Yes, I know that Furtwängler actually conducted the premiere of Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, Op...

Modernistfan

Back to the Hans Werner Henze "Heliogabalus Imperator": According to the Naxos Direct website (Naxos is now the United States distributor for Wergo), this is to be released on June 14, 2019 in the United States. I also got and listed to the Cavalli opera "Eliogabalo"; it is definitely worth an occas...

Modernistfan

Well, the KUSC "Top 100" has been announced, and here it is: 1. Beethoven: Symphony #9 2. Beethoven: Symphony #5 3. Dvorak: Symphony #9 “From the New World” 4. Beethoven: Symphony #6 “Pastoral” 5. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue 6. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 7. Rachmaninoff: Paganini Rhapsody 8. Tchaik...

Modernistfan

Well, since this discussion was launched, I have been trying to find a recording of Cavalli's "Eliogabalo," about the cross-dressing Roman emperor. I finally found one on Amazon Italy, on the very obscure Recording Arts label, conducted by Roberto Solci. This is a 1999 digital recording. (If you are...

Modernistfan

I'm thinking about getting this. Sets of complete or nearly complete Tchaikovsky solo piano music are pretty scarce. There is the old Michael Ponti originally on Vox, Viktoria Postnikova (which I have) on Erato, and a set on Dynamic with Franco Trabucco (of whom I have never heard), and which has ga...

Modernistfan

From what I have heard on recordings, I am not a huge fan of Uchida in the Mozart piano concertos. I think that her playing is too "Dresden-china"-ish. Of course, that is only my opinion.

Modernistfan

William Schuman's "Witch of Endor" ballet, one that he wrote for Martha Graham, has finally made it to CD, on the BMOP/Sound label (the label of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project). It is coupled with "Night Journey" and "Judith," for which there are several modern recordings. (I wish that they had...

Modernistfan

For political reasons, DeBlasio has sucked up to the medievalist, backward-thinking Hasidic community for years. He has fought efforts to force the yeshivas to follow New York state Department of Education standards on education, with the result that many students, particularly boys, are graduating ...

Modernistfan

Well, Wergo has in fact gotten to it! The most recent new releases on the JPC website lists a recording by Oliver Knussen of "Heliogabalus Imperator," the Fantasy for Orchestra "Los Caprichos," "Englische Liebeslieder" for Cello & Orchestra, and "Ouvertüre zu einem Theater" with the BBC Symphony Or...

Modernistfan

The Democrats still do not get it. The reality is that no one outside the Beltway gives a rodent's posterior about the Russia investigation. The reality is that Trump and the conservative Republicans backing him are like a gang of pickpockets. Pickpockets generally work in teams; one distracts you b...

Modernistfan

I might add Francisco Lindor of Cleveland to that very short list if he can get his batting average up somewhat and to cut down on the strikeouts. It doesn't hurt that he can run and is an excellent defensive shortstop at a position where defense is very important.

Modernistfan

Well, KUSC-FM is running its "Top 100" again and voting is now open. You can make up to five selections, and they may be the same piece or multiple pieces. I have not given up the protest against their boring, blah, wimpy programming, and am using all five selections to write in Stockhausen's "Grupp...

Modernistfan

Trout is one of the few non-pitchers possibly worth this kind of money in a game seriously depleted of talent. Mookie Betts and Jose Altuve might be two others, but there are very few, if any, others. In my view, neither Manny Machado nor Bryce Harper is close to being worth that kind of money. Mach...

Modernistfan

I have posted previously about Norrington’s failings in the “Symphonie Fantastique” recording. For one thing, he cut the orchestra down to about 60 players, notwithstanding the fact that Berlioz had over 100 players in the premiere and his own writings said that he really wanted a huge orchestra. It...

Modernistfan

The Berlin Philharmonic label has just released a 22-CD set of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s wartime recordings with that orchestra, remastered in SACD. This is probably the most pointless set of recordings ever released. First of all, I cannot see the point of SACD remastering of 75-year-old mono recordi...

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