Not too many posts lately ...

[Lance]

... is everyone involved with the requirements of the season?

Insofar as CDs are concerned, I haven't seen anything too interesting of late. Sometimes December brings forth some new material or reissues that boosts sales of music for the holidays. But I haven't seen much. Maybe everything they can think of (reissues) has been accomplished?

[maestrob]

Hi, Lance! Merry Christmas!

It's true that there haven't been many posts recently: I guess people are busy with the holidays. Me too! Yet I feel like old faithful, reading and posting at least one or two answers to threads, and a review of a new issue here and there.

I've ordered the new Henryk Szering box from amazon: it's due to be shipped on December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. It will contain all his European commercial recordings, including his outstanding Mozart concerti, which I have long craved to have in my collection.

So what have the rest of us been buying, or even sharing on youtube? How about you, Lance? I've still got 100+ discs on my wantlist at amazon waiting for the New Year to happen so they can be dropped into my new shelves in the entryway!

[John F]

I'm no longer much interested in new releases of recordings, whether new matieral or reissues, so I leave that stuff to others. But I do post news about classical musicians and music when it may have general interest, with two such messages today.

[Chalkperson]

Classical Music died years ago.

[Lance]

Well, some of us are trying to keep it alive as much as possible. Things change, life changes, music changes, performers change, interpretations change ... but I still love it and live for classical music. We must try!

Classical Music died years ago.

[Belle]

Reports of the early death of classical music have been seriously exaggerated!

[Lance]

Hi Sue ... just thinking about all my friends, of whom there are many. Probably 80% of the people I know and relate to are friends, associates, pianists, conductors, professors, teachers, record collectors, and what have you; are all involved in music. Outside of music, other fields in the arts. Maybe I'm one of the luckier ones especially because of my radio work and in concert piano preparation. I have never regretted it. But you must know, too, I love movies, books, World War II history, and food - and my family, of course, the latter of which is at the top of the list!

Reports of the early death of classical music have been seriously exaggerated!

[Belle]

Then we truly share many things in common; I, too, books (mostly about music but also socio-cultural-philosophical ones) and films and plays. My husband is the WW2 history buff, though. He was born during the war years in Fiji. His father knew and used Morse Code; how ancient all that sounds now!!

My son is going through the horror of family breakup and I've told him, "you must have an inner life - yourself and your sons - particularly to sustain you in terrible times. Great music is the pathway to the transcendent". Ergo, I've been sending him music to listen to as he spends much of his time in the north of the vast arid state of Western Australia - in the middle of the desert where remote mining and aboriginal communities are. He speaks about the staggering beauty of outback Australia; when it rains suddenly thousands of colours awaken as if from a deep sleep. I feel that he has merely delayed his appreciation for music, given his pictorial sensitivity.

As I write this I'm listening via MediciTV to the Carnegie Hall 120th Anniversary concert of NYPO in 2011, conducted by Alan Gilbert. This would have been recorded the same year that I saw your wonderful orchestra in Vienna when they visited there; same conductor. I was never so glad to be sitting near the first violins and listening to English, which I had been deprived of during my sojourn in Austria. The orchestra members were chatting and taking 'selfies' before the music started. It reminded me of how warm and friendly Americans are!!!

[absinthe]

Classical Music died years ago.

Hi, Chalkie,
As a (still) practicing (if amateur) musician I tend to agree. I haven't composed anything for orchestra for years now, preferring small ensemble pieces that stand a chance of being played. Much the same with listening. Last night I looked nostalgically at my turntable willing myself to slap on a record but couldn't make a decision. I've given up on the avant garde. I keep my hand in playing lounge-styled music, get a few commissions, practice a few "classics" just to keep in trim - more like popping along to the gym to keep fit as I'm otherwise sedentary!

But it's there. I'm still more attracted to American music than anything else.

[jserraglio]

Classical Music died years ago.

If so, then only in the Occident.

[lennygoran]

Classical Music died years ago.

If so, then only in the Occident.

Didn't know that-was it an Accident? Len [fleeing]

[jserraglio]

Classical Music died years ago.

If so, then only in the Occident.

Didn't know that-was it an Accident?

Premediated murther most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

[lennygoran]

Classical Music died years ago.

If so, then only in the Occident.

Didn't know that-was it an Accident?

Premediated murther most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ah Shakespeare's Omlett-I can't top that-still murther-not as good as Werther! Len opera lover

[jserraglio]

Classical Music died years ago.

If so, then only in the Occident.

Didn't know that-was it an Accident?

Premediated murther most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ah Shakespeare's Omlett-I can't top that-still murther-not as good as Werther! Len opera lover

Werther goest thou? Oh, must be this guy, who didn’t have the mental capacity needed, was dumb as a rock and lazy as hell.

[lennygoran]

Classical Music died years ago.

If so, then only in the Occident.

Didn't know that-was it an Accident?

Premediated murther most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ah Shakespeare's Omlett-I can't top that-still murther-not as good as Werther! Len opera lover

Werther goest thou? Oh, must be this guy, who didn’t have the mental capacity needed, was dumb as a rock and lazy as hell.

You got me! Len

[jserraglio]

Who's our very own Don Briscola?

[lennygoran]

Think, who's our Don Briscola.?

The cheese or the card game-can't be the card game-I played some bridge when I was young but never briscola-afterall my last name is goran-otoh it's not goren-well it shouldn't be-I spelled it differently and played it much differently then that famous bridge columnist-I did get some master points before I stopped playing. Len

[jserraglio]

Yesterday, the SDNY pointed to him, alongside a consigliere turned snitch, as an unindicted co-conspirator in commission of a fraud upon the USA.

[Modernistfan]

The reports of the death of classical music, to paraphrase Mark Twain, have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, the genre has significant problems (when hasn't it?). The issue of costs and financial support has been with us ever since the days in which the audience shifted from the nobility and the established church to the paying public (we are definitely short of dukes these days). The United States faces a particular problem with respect to the aging of the audience and the difficulty in persuading young people to listen because of the general anti-intellectual mindset of much of this country and the conformity of many young people. This is not as much of a problem in many other countries where classical music is more ingrained in the general culture. We have tremendous composers, conductors, and soloists active. The quality of orchestral performance has improved greatly; who, twenty years ago, would have considered that Nashville (Nashville??) would have an orchestra good enough to make high-quality recordings of very difficult music, such as Charles Ives? The repertoire is continuing to expand, as the music loses its Eurocentric bias and takes in influences from many cultures, continuing a process begun as long ago as the fifteenth century when composers wrote masses based on popular folk tunes of the day. Even the recording industry seems to be in pretty good shape with the rise of independent labels and labels run by orchestras and ensembles more than counteracting any decline in the quality or quantity of releases from the traditional major labels. (I am listening right now to Symphony No. 7 of Krzysztof Meyer on Dux with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra of Katowice, a good example of what I am writing about.)
Let's look forward, not backward!

[John F]

The classical record market is one thing, the audience for live musical events is another. And of course the markets differ in other ways too, such as the cost to the consumer and payback for what you pay, such as repeatability. Even if the classical record market shows signs of life, due to the abundance of minor labels, no-name performers and second- and third-rank orchestras and opera companies, none of these (as far as I know) pay their way at the box office for live performances, on which ultimately they depend. To look forward, then, is more depressing than to look back.

[lennygoran]

Yesterday, the SDNY pointed to him, alongside a consigliere turned snitch, as an unindicted co-conspirator in commission of a fraud upon the USA.

Lock him up! Regards, Len [back from Secaucus]

[Modernistfan]

Sorry, I disagree with the use of the term "no-name performers." The exalted status of some performers in an earlier era, such as Heifetz, Rubinstein, or Horowitz, stemmed from the relatively fewer performers performing to a high technical standard as compared with the situation today, the high level of publicity afforded those earlier performers by the major record companies to which they were signed, and the relatively higher status of classical music among the general public as compared with today, when the attention of all too many people is fixated on celebrities who are famous for being famous, woman-abusing sports stars, and way too many Kardashians.

[maestrob]

If classical music is dead, then why are so many fine pianists and violinists emerging from the Chinese Empire and Europe and Russia? Not to mention great singers.

We're going through a rough patch here in the USA, that's true. However, the rest of the world looks fine to me.

My nephew (French horn) just played a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall of music by Glass and Shankar with the Pacific Symphony.

So, not dead yet.

PS: We can discuss the glass half-full or half-empty quandry all day long, but do remember that the glass is refillable.

[Belle]

Sorry, I disagree with the use of the term "no-name performers." The exalted status of some performers in an earlier era, such as Heifetz, Rubinstein, or Horowitz, stemmed from the relatively fewer performers performing to a high technical standard as compared with the situation today, the high level of publicity afforded those earlier performers by the major record companies to which they were signed, and the relatively higher status of classical music among the general public as compared with today, when the attention of all too many people is fixated on celebrities who are famous for being famous, woman-abusing sports stars, and way too many Kardashians.

Absolutely agree with this. I wish I had one 20th of the talent of these 'no-name performers'. Our local conservatorium has produced (not so many of late, it has to be said) fine organists, violinists, singers, academics and pianists and some of them have 'names' in Australia - but there can be no doubting their skill. They can do it all!! The 'big names' are usually competition winners and/or those promoted by recording companies.

Recently I saw Chopin Competition winner Seong jin Cho performing with the BPO and I was very underwhelmed. Not sure what has happened here. I felt he was rather anodyne.

[Belle]

If classical music is dead, then why are so many fine pianists and violinists emerging from the Chinese Empire and Europe and Russia? Not to mention great singers.

We're going through a rough patch here in the USA, that's true. However, the rest of the world looks fine to me.

My nephew (French horn) just played a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall of music by Glass and Shankar with the Pacific Symphony.

So, not dead yet.

PS: We can discuss the glass half-full or half-empty quandry all day long, but do remember that the glass is refillable.

My argument for some years in favour of the health of classical music is the rise of interest in the "orient" (as it was once called). It's nothing short of incredible!! Our own cultures (not in Europe) seem to be turning in the opposite direction.

I provide a link to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra program for 2019 and some clues might be provided there about where all this is heading: apart from a couple of concerts, this wouldn't interest me.

https://www.sydneysymphony.com/concerts ... 019-season

But, THIS is interesting:

https://www.weeklystandard.com/joseph-h ... gh-culture

[jserraglio]

Who sez CM is DEAD? The same ones who in the 60s said GOD IS DEAD? Listening to both of these today:

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/sunday-o ... e/10515690

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/evenings ... d/10455996

[Belle]

One of the fellows who lectures for our community music group sings in the Pinchgut Opera. I don't follow their events myself. But the link you provided shows that the baroque is alive and well in Australia.

[maestrob]

One of the fellows who lectures for our community music group sings in the Pinchgut Opera. I don't follow their events myself. But the link you provided shows that the baroque is alive and well in Australia.

Pinchgut Opera

I wish someone here (JohnF?) could find figures to back me up, but I feel that we are living in a Golden Age for classical music. Just look (or listen to) at so many stunning recordings of Baroque opera, which is undergoing quite a revival. Also the number of stunning soloists (singers, pianists, string players) that are being recorded and are having hugely successful careers worldwide. I'm very encouraged by the success of BBC magazine, which reviews roughly 110-120 new CD and DVD releases per month, many with four and five stars. Even conductors of first-rank quality are being promoted to fill the gaps left by their retiring predecessors.

Classical music has been and always will be a struggle to promote and finance, yet the quality of today's performers IMHO equals and sometimes exceeds those of yesteryear.

[John F]

The celebrity and box office appeal of the top classical music performers is not a product of the publicity about them. Anna Netrebko, for example, only began to be publicized by the Metropolitan Opera after she had a lot of fans thanks to her performances, the reviews they got, and word of mouth from members of the audience. Going further back, it wasn't RCA Victor that made Jascha Heifetz and Vladimir Horowitz but the likes of Heifetz and Horowitz that made RCA Victor.

We're talking mainly about the situation in the U.S., which of course is where most of us are and know the most about. But the U.S. is the largest market for all kinds of recordings, including classical; it has the largest number of professional symphony orchestras and opera companies in the world, though many have short seasons; no amount of rising interest in China, which is a new phenomenon, or in Japan, which goes back to the 1930s, can compensate if the U.S. goes down the drain after more than a century of top-flight classical music. So we're right to be concerned about the situation here and to worry about its effect on classical music in general.

(By "no-name performers" I don't mean merely that they aren't household names, as Caruso and Toscanini and Maria Callas and Beverly Sills once were, but that even classical music aficionados such as myself have hever heard of them. And why should I have heard of the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson, whose Bach record maestrob has not only heard but awarded "five enthusiastic stars"? His only performances in America that I can trace were as a Juilliard student a decade ago, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last year playing a piano concerto by fellow Icelander Haukur Tómasson. Just one of countless examples I could give.)

Belle thinks we're "in a Golden Age for classical music." Sorry, Belle, but I can't find any figures to back you up. A "golden age" is not defined by quantity but quality, including star quality, and most of today's performers just do not measure up to their great predecessors. Who today plays Beethoven sonatas to compare with Sviatoslav Richter's "Appassionata," which you've praised? Who sings the great Verdi and Puccini roles to compare with Maria Callas, or the Wagner heroines to compare with Birgit Nilsson? Nobody, that's who. What conductors today would you mention in the same sentence as your favorite, Carlos Kleiber? These are the kind of standards by which I would define a golden age for classical music, and they just aren't there.

I've mentioned Horowitz. Who today could have a newspaper report written about him like this one?

Vladimir Horowitz, returning to Vienna after an absence of 52 years, played today for the highest fee ever paid to a pianist in this country. For 85 minutes of Mozart, Liszt, Schubert, Chopin and Schumann he collected the equivalent of $427,000, or more than $5,000 per minute. Half the sum came from ticket sales and half from Austrian state television, which carried the entire piano recital in prime time just after the evening news. Austrian state radio carried the recital live in the afternoon.

Viennese fans filled Musikverein Hall, the city's mecca of classical music, after paying as much as $240, the highest box office prices in Austrian history. Minutes of stormy applause and shouts of "bravo" climaxed in a half-hour ovation, with three encores for the man the Vienna press hailed as the world's greatest living pianist.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... 937ddd6ab1

I'll tell you who: nobody.

[maestrob]

Um, John, that was yours truly who thinks that we're in a Golden Age of classical music, not Belle. Just to set the "record" straight.

As for golden age, I'm talking about the quality of performers today, not their status in society which is, of course, diminished compared to fifty years ago.

Olafsson's Bach, IMHO, stands equal to Richter's in my book, at least in his first recording. De gustibus, and all that, but did you actually take the time to listen to the recording?

[jserraglio]

We're talking mainly about the situation in the U.S. ... no amount of rising interest in China, which is a new phenomenon, or in Japan, which goes back to the 1930s, can compensate if the U.S. goes down. ... Who today could have a newspaper report written about him like this one? ... I'll tell you who: nobody.

The Occident is years-old news, the Orient new news.

[John F]

Oops! Sorry, maestrob and Belle.

Of course I haven't heard Olafsson's recording, and have said nothing about its quality, only that Olafsson is a no-name performer - which for nearly everyone is exactly what he is. I can trace no performance by him in the US after he graduated from the Juilliard School other than with the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing Haukur Tómasson’s Piano Concerto No.2. No doubt there are hundreds or thousands of skilled and well-schooled performers like Olafsson out there, but who have names to conjure with, like Caruso, Toscanini and Horowitz? Olafsson just hasn't had the career to create and justify such recognition.

Your and my preferences in musical performance are radically different, as you know. I look for individuality and even boldness; the performances and recordings in which I find them, you're likely to dismiss as distorting the music. What may seem to you like a golden age, then, is for me an age of lead. Not that I don't get any pleasure from what I'm hearing - indeed, I got rather more pleasure from Alan Gilbert's New York Philharmonic performances, those I heard, than you evidently did. But it takes a lot more than that to justify calling this or any period an age of gold.

While I'm writing, a couple of weeks ago I came across a Horowitz performance of the Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto that puts all others in the shade, even the famous recording with Fritz Reiner. It's a 1943 New York Phlharmonic broadcast with Rodzinski conducting, performed in memory of the composer who had recently died. Though uncut, it's 5 minutes shorter than the Reiner. The coda of the finale is not just extraordinary, I'd have said it was impossible if I hadn't heard it, and now you can too.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7HhHaWSqA

[Belle]

One of the fellows who lectures for our community music group sings in the Pinchgut Opera. I don't follow their events myself. But the link you provided shows that the baroque is alive and well in Australia.

Pinchgut Opera

Pinchgut is the name of the tiny little island right in the middle of Sydney harbour adjacent to the Opera House. For outsiders the name seems preposterous (I also think the same way)!

I notice somebody has listed his top composers, so I'll have a go too: the first 2 are my equal number 1 (have never been able to separate them) and I've provided 10:

Bach, Beethoven
Brahms
Handel
Schubert
Haydn
Monteverdi
Schumann
Ravel

Purcell
Chopin

[jserraglio]

One of the fellows who lectures for our community music group sings in the Pinchgut Opera. I don't follow their events myself. But the link you provided shows that the baroque is alive and well in Australia.

Pinchgut Opera

Pinchgut is the name of the tiny little island right in the middle of Sydney harbour adjacent to the Opera House. For outsiders the name seems preposterous (I also think the same way)!

What's in a name? Pinchgut's productions are splendid. I have seen many of them online. Never occurred to me their name was funny. So is mine. But, upon reflection, so are a lot of U.S.A. place names--New York being a telling instance of febrile lubricity.

[lennygoran]

What's in a name? Pinchgut's productions are splendid. I have seen many of them online.

Never heard of Pinchgut-I went to you tube and there seemed to be only short clips of their operas-have you seen full operas online-if so how do you get to them? Regards, Len

[jserraglio]

What's in a name? Pinchgut's productions are splendid. I have seen many of them online.

Never heard of Pinchgut-I went to you tube and there seemed to be only short clips of their operas-have you seen full operas online-if so how do you get to them? Regards, Len

Pinchgut Opera draws its unusual name from Fort Denison, a former penal site in the Sydney Harbour which was nicknamed "Pinchgut" by its inmates. According to its website, the company chose the name "as we wanted something recognisably Sydney, easy to remember and as a reminder of our tight budgets and humble beginnings".

Sorry, I think I confused Pinchgut with medici.tv which does offer time-limited full videos. Use the two links I posted above to hear, but not see, on Australia's excellent ABC Classic FM station.

Here Pinchgut offers CDs of their mostly unusual repertoire: http://www.pinchgutopera.com.au/cds/

[lennygoran]

I think I confused Pinchgut with medici.tv which does offer time-limited full videos. Use the two links I posted above to hear, but not see, on Australia's excellent ABC Classic FM station.

Thanks, I have gone to the medici site but haven't used them yet-I wish they had a wider selection-the Met on demand has plenty but there price per month has kept me away. I've gotten some good use from Amazon Prime-I'm only willing to pay if there are english surtitles. Regards, Len

[jserraglio]

I think I confused Pinchgut with medici.tv which does offer time-limited full videos. Use the two links I posted above to hear, but not see, on Australia's excellent ABC Classic FM station.

Thanks, I have gone to the medici site but haven't used them yet-I wish they had a wider selection-the Met on demand has plenty but there price per month has kept me away. I've gotten some good use from Amazon Prime-I'm only willing to pay if there are english surtitles. Regards, Len

I have always found student productions educational and charming and have seen many live here in the idyllic Heartland. Try this site. Past seasons archived. Operas are subtitled. Alternate casts and performances in almost every case. Great way to get to know an opera intimately.

https://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive/

[lennygoran]

I have always found student productions educational and charming and have seen many live here in the idyllic Heartland. Try this site. Past seasons archived. Operas are subtitled. Alternate casts and performances in almost every case. Great way to get to know an opera intimately.

https://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive/

Thanks--talk about student productions Julliard does a few each season and they're a delight-this season we saw Turn of the Screw for the first time-really enjoyed it! Regards, Len

[jserraglio]

I have always found student productions educational and charming and have seen many live here in the idyllic Heartland. Try this site. Past seasons archived. Operas are subtitled. Alternate casts and performances in almost every case. Great way to get to know an opera intimately.

https://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive/

Thanks--talk about student productions Julliard does a few each season and they're a delight-this season we saw Turn of the Screw for the first time-really enjoyed it! Regards, Len

The College of Wooster's Ohio Light Opera (specializing in Emmerich Kálmán and G & S operetta and off-the-beaten-track Broadway shows), the Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music are practically in my backyard. Too many shows to fully take in.

[maestrob]

I have always found student productions educational and charming and have seen many live here in the idyllic Heartland. Try this site. Past seasons archived. Operas are subtitled. Alternate casts and performances in almost every case. Great way to get to know an opera intimately.

https://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive/

Thanks--talk about student productions Julliard does a few each season and they're a delight-this season we saw Turn of the Screw for the first time-really enjoyed it! Regards, Len

Let's not forget Manhattan School of Music, which now resides in the building that Juilliard occupied before they moved to Lincoln Center. They've had some splendid productions over the years. The man who ran their opera program was on my advisory board for two years in the late 1990's....

[lennygoran]

Let's not forget Manhattan School of Music

Brian unfortunately we had a terrible experience with the one time we went there for an opera-a Haydn opera we really wanted to see and it was turned into a modern TV studio-just awful for both of us. Regards, Len



Insanely Pursuing Love, Be It Opera or Reality Show


By James R. Oestreich

May 4, 2014

To a listener familiar with Haydn’s opera “Orlando Paladino” only from recordings — a 1977 Philips release conducted by Antal Dorati and a 2006 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi release led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt — it has never been clear exactly how well the opera could be made to work onstage. A new production by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, which opened on Wednesday evening in the school’s John C. Borden Auditorium, does little to provide answers.

Mr. Harnoncourt, the early-music specialist, called “Orlando Paladino,” which Haydn termed a “heroic-comic drama,” “one the best works in 18th-century music theater.” Really?

True enough, it has superb music generally, and brilliant pieces for vocal display. But it is an opera without a hero or even a thoroughly sympathetic character. The title figure is a deranged Frankish knight who — infatuated with an exotic princess, Angelica, and insanely jealous of her beloved, the Saracen warrior Medoro — threatens to kill them both.

Other characters include Alcina, a sorceress who intervenes on behalf of the lovers; Rodomonte, another Saracen warrior (with more bluster); Pasquale, Orlando’s squire; and Eurilla, a shepherdess.

Shepherds? Medieval rural mountain settings? Not in the Manhattan production, which uses reality television as a halfhearted premise.

“What better place to set the romance of Angelica and Medoro, Orlando’s jealousy and madness, Rodomonte’s vengeance and Alcina’s omnipotence,” Robin Guarino asks in her director’s note, “than the sound stage of ‘The Bachelor and the Bachelorette,’ somewhere between reality and ‘reality.’ ” Might not a mental institution, for one, be better?

Well, that ground is covered, too, since that is where matters end up. But none of these parallels or relationships are explored seriously. The settings merely serve as pretexts for farce and mayhem.

Not that Haydn hadn’t gone a long way down that road himself. And as it quickly became clear that there would be no serious attempt at drama, it was pleasant enough simply to sit back and take in the antics of a mostly wonderful young cast in a variety-show kind of way.

Orlando, looking out of time and out of joint in Ms. Guarino’s conception, does more hulking and lurking (when he is not snorting cocaine) than fully participating, but Elliott Paige, a tenor, found a vein of vulnerability in the character. Leela Subramaniam, a soprano, proved even more touching as Angelica, especially when contemplating suicide as a way to rejoin Medoro, missing and presumed dead.

Ms. Subramaniam’s lovely tone retained its luster even when taxed to the full in arduous, altitudinous vocal flights. There were two other fine sopranos, Kerstin Bauer as Eurilla and Margaret Newcomb as Alcina.

But the hit of the evening may have been Cameron Johnson, a baritone, as Pasquale. Mr. Johnson brought the house down with his gymnastics, both vocal (remarkable ascents into countertenor territory) and physical (a wicked moonwalk). Kidon Choi, another baritone, raged powerfully as Rodomonte.

Christian Capocaccia conducted an energetic performance, sometimes challenging both orchestra and singers to keep up.




https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/arts ... music.html

[maestrob]

OK, Len, I understand, but perhaps a little research beforehand would have provided you with a better understanding of the staging and you would have avoided the production.

At any rate, my experience there was far happier than yours, especially as their opera department director was very supportive of my competition.

[lennygoran]

OK, Len, I understand, but perhaps a little research beforehand would have provided you with a better understanding of the staging and you would have avoided the production.

Brian yes if only I had known-otoh there's just no justification imo for what was presented. Regards, Len

[Rach3]

I've mentioned Horowitz. Who today could have a newspaper report written about him like this one?

That Horowitz recital in Vienna, 1987 ; you can judge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpyRHi2aIwY

[barney]

Sorry, I disagree with the use of the term "no-name performers." The exalted status of some performers in an earlier era, such as Heifetz, Rubinstein, or Horowitz, stemmed from the relatively fewer performers performing to a high technical standard as compared with the situation today, the high level of publicity afforded those earlier performers by the major record companies to which they were signed, and the relatively higher status of classical music among the general public as compared with today, when the attention of all too many people is fixated on celebrities who are famous for being famous, woman-abusing sports stars, and way too many Kardashians.

Well said. I utterly agree. With one caveat: the competition-inspired emphasis on flawless technique has come at a cost of musical personality. I bet Alfred Cortot wouldn't get far if he were starting today. But there may never have been more wonderful soloists at one time than right now.

[barney]

One of the fellows who lectures for our community music group sings in the Pinchgut Opera. I don't follow their events myself. But the link you provided shows that the baroque is alive and well in Australia.

Pinchgut are extraordinarily accomplished. Baroque opera is my least favourite opera, but Pinchgut can change my mind, at least while listening to them. Very even standards.

[John F]

The exalted status of some performers in an earlier era, such as Heifetz, Rubinstein, or Horowitz, stemmed from the relatively fewer performers performing to a high technical standard as compared with the situation today

High technical standards do not equate to great performances. Musicians with strong technique graduate from the world's conservatories by the thousands every year; few of them make significant solo careers, or deserve to. Nor were the technical virtuosos of the past so few as you appear to believe. Recordings abundantly prove otherwise. I'm off to the library so I'll have to stop here, but I'll resume later with some cases in point, since they appear to be needed.

[Belle]

I've mentioned Horowitz. Who today could have a newspaper report written about him like this one?

That Horowitz recital in Vienna, 1987 ; you can judge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpyRHi2aIwY

I watched this recital and I was struck by his hands lying flat on the keyboard and seldom lifting. He obviously found control much easier this way and his chiarascuro playing was amazing in terms of this control. The Schubert Impromptu was beautiful - even with the extra note!! It's a highly romanticized reading of all these works, to be sure, and the subito piano effects probably weren't in any of the scores!! Lots of rubato in the 19th century works and I don't think he overdoes these. Remarkable memory for an 85y/o, despite some lapses. I absolutely adored the Chopin Mazurka!!

That Viennese audience sure appreciated Vladimir Horowitz.

[maestrob]

Yes, JohnF, thanks for that! Wasn't 1987 the year that Horowitz went to Moscow? IIRC, his Moscow program was quite different from the Vienna one. I have the DVD; must pull it off the shelves and give it a spin.

What an extraordinary artist Horowitz was.