The Classical Music Guide Forums

MahlerSnob

Of course I have. I wouldn't know I can't stand it if I hadn't. Okay, what recent Adams pieces have you heard? Anything within the last 10 years? Noise is noise. Idiotic blanket statements like that don't make you appear to be any less ignorant. I'm not telling you to listen to more of anything. I'...

MahlerSnob

I have to wonder if any of you who are trashing Adams have actually heard any of his music. Grouping him with Glass is also unfare, as John has not written a piece of strict minimalism since Shaker Loops.... in 1978.

MahlerSnob

I'd also put Wagner and Schoenberg in this group. Wagner's personal life and musical output are often mixed up for some reason. So what if the guy was a pre-Nazi, he was a brilliant composer. As for Schoenberg, though you may all be unfamiliar with it, he does have a certain stigma attatched to his ...

MahlerSnob

It's about time. Part of the thrill of performing in Symphony Hall recently has been the Russian Roulette factor of not knowing if the stage with collapse while you're on it.

MahlerSnob

This is actually a bit controversial and I had a (rather famous) college professor who went to great lengths to convince his students that there was no such thing as sonata from. That's a controversial view? I thought that was pretty widely accepted. The truth of the matter is that sonata form is n...

MahlerSnob

I've never seen much problem with it, honestly. There have been calls in the past for orchestras to become more casual in their performance attire, but this isn't easily done as the dress code is typically written into the player's contract. I wasn't happy about having to buy a buisness suit, normal...

MahlerSnob

The Genoveva production was actually quite good. I went to the dress rehearsal on Wednesday night. The opera itself did have some problems, but I didn't think it was nearly as bad as people seem to think it is. Far better than many repertoire standards, IMO.

MahlerSnob

There are many great works for chorus. Some that I haven't seen yet: Barber - Reincarnations Poulenc - Motets for Christmas, Lent; Mass in G Durufle - Ubi Caritas and the other pieces that come in that set Messiaen - O Sacrum Convivium Ravel - Trois Chansons Debussy - the three pieces that, I think,...

MahlerSnob

I thought it already was for the masses...

MahlerSnob

I'd recommend the Boulez/Bayreuth recording with Jones, McIntyre, Jerusalem, et al. I don't know if there's a CD recording of it, but I know it exists on DVD and VHS.

MahlerSnob

Britten's real masterpieces are his operas: Peter Grimmes, Billy Budd, Gloriana (the rest of it), Death in Venice, Curlew River, etc. Those are where he showed his true strengths as a composer.

MahlerSnob

BTW, another left handed conductor--Lukas Foss. He wasn't the last time I saw him conduct. Conducting left handed, while accepted, is generally frowned upon by conducting teachers. By the time you're in front of an ensemble you should have enough control over your limbs to hold the baton in either ...

MahlerSnob

On July 7, he opens the season with a program that features Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

Funny you should post this tonight - I just got out of a chorus rehearsal for that very concert.

MahlerSnob

Actually, my first choice would be a composer I did meet but could hardly engage in extensive conversation: Leonard Bernstein. Second choice: mahler. Two of my choices. Unfortunately, I am too young to have met Bernstein in a meaningful way, so he tops my list. I would prefer to meet him when he wa...

MahlerSnob

Telemann, maybe.

MahlerSnob

I am not sure everyone on list qualifies as a great conductor. ... Zander Ha. Maybe it's just because I've worked fairly closely with Zander for the past two years, but I don't have a very high opinion of his conducting. He's a good musician and is extremely charismatic (the actual reason he gets t...

MahlerSnob

I would suggest Ullmann to those people missing U's.

MahlerSnob

I repeat...Why aren't those concerts made available for general sale to the public via the medium of DVDs? PBS doesn't own the re-sale rights to these performances. They have broadcast rights only. I believe the copyright stays with either Lincoln Center or the performers involved. Since most of th...

MahlerSnob

You might try some of his more recent works: On the Transmigration of Souls, Naive and Sentimental Music, Century Rolls, etc. There will hopefully be a recording of Doctor Atomic soon. I heard a bit of it in a broadcast a few years ago (while he was still working on it, obviously) and I really liked...

MahlerSnob

I'll try to make it on Friday, Karl. However, that was the only morning this week that I didn't have to be in at 9. Oh well - plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead.

MahlerSnob

Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall/NEC, and Sanders Theater at Harvard are the three major venues in town. You also might want to look at the schedules for performances at Longy (Cambridge, near Harvard Sq), BU, Berklee, the Boston Public Library, First Church, Emmanuel Church, etc. There is always somethin...

MahlerSnob

Good suggestions! I'll probably stay away from Debussy, but I was definitely thinking of Mahler. I'm not a big fan of Dickie W....opera = Wagner's where all of that came from though. I strongly recommend looking at, if nothing else, the Prelude to Tristan. There's enough harmonic ambiguity in that ...

MahlerSnob

Welcome to the forum. Where are you doing your MM, if I may ask? I'm a composition/conducting student in Boston at the moment. My suggestions are probably the typical ones: Tristan, Mahler 9, maybe Verklarte Nacht, Afternoon of a Faun (an interesting piece harmonicaly that I just wrote a paper on la...

MahlerSnob

Sad news. I never met Caldwell, but I am institutionaly connected to her in many ways. She was both a graduate and a former faculty member of my school and influenced many of my teachers. It's too bad the company she started in Boston went under. We really do need a decent opera company in this town.

MahlerSnob

I was at the BSO on Wednesday night and I saw the whole thing. As he was walking off he tripped over something on the stage and fell into the path between the seconds and violas. He got back up almost immediately and seemed to be fine, but I guess he bruised his arm or something like that. Anyway, i...

MahlerSnob

Cornet is called for in l'Histoire, but I don't know of anyone who actually plays the part on cornet. Most modern players play it on C trumpet.

There's some great cornet stuff in La Mer. There are also really fun parts in some of the romantic tone poems by Tchaikovsky, Charbrier, Elgar, etc.

MahlerSnob

They are what they are: crowd pleasers. They're good as encores and pops programs, but I don't think Dvorak intended them to be profound artistic statements or great music. I'm with jbuck on this one.

And, for the record, there is some very good music written for wind band.

MahlerSnob

If Alsop improves ticket sales and is a successful saleswoman to corporate sponsors and government the orchestra members will realize what a brilliant artist she really is. ....Since when is marketing prowess a measure of a conductors artistic brilliance? I have expressed my views on Alsop here bef...

MahlerSnob

I don't know too much about free music on the internet, but Dover is good for most intents and purposes. Their scores are cheap and reasonably well made (they stay open if you use them enough and bend them backwards a bit). I have problems with Dover because of the accuracy of their scores. Dover sc...

MahlerSnob

I saw one of his rehearsals with the BSO at Tanglewood a few years ago. I don't remember many details, and I don't think I attended the concert (it was towards the end of the summer, if I remember correctly), but I did like what I saw of him. I hope to see him at work again.

MahlerSnob

At 50 I don't consider Ma to be young either. Especially since his professional career began nearly 30 years ago.

MahlerSnob

Are you sure it isn't the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Mildred Miller? The NYPO was on the same recording doing Sym #2, but the Wayfarer was not with the NYPO. Very possible. When I typed the post last night I thought it was Columbia, but I double-checked my copy of the CD (a burned copy) and I...

MahlerSnob

Alsop, Eschenbach, & Welser-Most today--

From what I've seen and heard of these conductors, all of the critical comments are justified.

MahlerSnob

The Bernstein/Hampson/VPO recordings of Kindertotenlieder and Songs of a Wayfarer are absolutely gorgeous. Probably my favorite recording of the Kinder. There is also an excellent recording of Bruno Walter doing Wayfarer with the NY Phil that is probably the best recording I've heard of the cycle. I...

MahlerSnob

Various things. Beethoven 4 in preparation for tomorrow's conducting class, two settings of southern hymns by Thomson for the youth choir, Copland's In The Beginning for the same group, various other choral pieces I might have to run rehearsals on. Otherwise... Mahler 9, Fledermaus, the on-going pro...

MahlerSnob

1. Bernstein/Concertgebouw 2. Bloomstedt/SFSO (1992) 3. No favorites. I'm not a big fan of this piece 4. Mengelberg/Concertgebouw 5. My favorite is a bootleg, so I won't comment. 6. MTT/SFSO 7. Again, no favorites. 8. Solti/CSO (1971) 9. Walter/VPO (1938) - a remarkable recording, for those who don'...

MahlerSnob

Oddly enough, a friend of mine just won fourth horn in the LPO and was supposed to start playing with them this season. He moved down to New Orleans a week before the storm hit and spent 6 days there before having to turn around and head back. Now he's playing around San Francisco again (where he wa...

MahlerSnob

This article is extremely broad and is clearly written by a person who has little direct contact with conservatories. There are many problems with the American conservatories (and they are all different problems). For example, Curtis has a habbit of favoring younger students. I personaly know severa...

MahlerSnob

A phenomenal pianist. He also kicked me out of a practice room at Tanglewood a few years ago, and was incredibly nice about it.

MahlerSnob

I usualy read Symphony, as well as any other choir/organ magazines that happen to be around.

MahlerSnob

Sam Adler once told me a story about the premier of one of his string quartets many years ago. He arrived late for the concert, and had to take a seat in the back of the hall next to an elderly woman. The woman began talking to him and said something to the effect of "Yes, they're doing Haydn and Be...

MahlerSnob

Dutchman is also a good introduction to Wagner. Wagner's operas are generally very slowly paced. The actual sequence of events happens slowly with lots of dialogue (and glorious music) in between. It takes some getting used to, but after you get used to the pacing and the way Wagner sets up storys t...

MahlerSnob

You don't know much contemporary American music, do you? Babbit, Carter, Wourinen, and Adams are all fine composers but they are hardly representitive of what's being written today. I also think your comment that contemporary European music is devoid of references to outside musical styles is a gros...

MahlerSnob

When asked how much money he made per year Gershwin replied $250,000.00 (which back then was a lot). Back then???? Even now that's quite a bit of money. As for highest-paid conductor today - probably Levine. The man splits his icome between the Met and the BSO, two of the world wealthiest musical o...

MahlerSnob

I didn't say there weren't any professional choral groups around. I simply said that the number of them that perform new music on a regular basis is fairly small. Take the Boston area choral scene, for example. We have the Cantata Singers, which will perform maybe one new choral work per season. We ...

MahlerSnob

There are many. Of the older crowd there are Ligety, Carter, and Pinkham. Peter Schikele, of PDQ Bach fame, has also written some very good "serious" choral music. The youngens are Eric Whitacre, Augusta Reed Thomas, William Hawley, Steven Stucky, Aaron Kernis, Thea Musgrave, Meredith Monk, etc. The...

MahlerSnob

What? You think Del Tredici's tone poem "Gay Life" was some how influenced by his sexual orientation? Ha. Absurd. But seriously - a composer's personality is always reflected in their work in one way or another. Does this mean that there are specific characteristics of gay composer's compositions? O...

MahlerSnob

Lay off the guy. Everything I've heard about this work indicates that it's about Oppenheimer, not Hiroshima. What I've heard is that it deals with all the psycological issues that Oppenheimer went through while he built the bomb and after it was used. Please stop trying to accuse Adams of going for ...

MahlerSnob

So much good music to suggest... Here's a short list: Rachmaninov - Vespers (1915). I agree with the other person who recommend this, but I'm going to have to go with the Robert Shaw/Robert Shaw Chorale recording of this work from the early 90's. When looking for choral works, if there's a Shaw reco...

MahlerSnob

Only a moral coward would even think of tarting up his anti-Israeli position in a "non-biased" "artistic" work and selling to the naive as such. A moral coward? Now what exactly do you mean by that? My concept of moral cowardice would be hiding behind the ideals of whatever party happens to be most...

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