Arte has made the opening event available for streaming here:
http://concert.arte.tv/de/eroeffnungskonzert-elbphilharmonie
And here’s a report (in German) on the new hall’s acoustics.
Filed under: music news
January 11, 2017 • 9:05 pm Comments Off on Opening of the Elbphilharmonie
Opening of the Elbphilharmonie
January 6, 2017 • 2:08 pm Comments Off on At Seattle Symphony, Cosmic Radiation from Beethoven and Messiaen
At Seattle Symphony, Cosmic Radiation from Beethoven and Messiaen
The Seattle Symphony, with guest musicians and vocalists, perform works by Messiaen and Beethoven this weekend. (Brandon Patoc)
My Seattle Times review:
In their first program of the new year, Ludovic Morlot, the Seattle Symphony and guests offer an inspired pairing of Beethoven’s immortal Ninth and the spiritually attuned music of Olivier Messiaen.
Filed under: Beethoven, Olivier Messiaen, review, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
January 5, 2017 • 3:48 pm Comments Off on Pierre Boulez, Modernist Legend, Dies at 90
Pierre Boulez, Modernist Legend, Dies at 90
On the first anniversary of Pierre Boulez’s death.
Filed under: Pierre Boulez
January 3, 2017 • 10:40 am Comments Off on Déjà vu?
Déjà vu?
I found the above image accompanying a review of The Cunning Little Vixen (aka Das schlaue Füchslein) from a Wiener Staatsoper production reviewed on Bachtrack.
Am I imagining things, or is this uncannily reminiscent of Seattle Opera’s so-called “green Ring” set?
Filed under: Seattle Opera, Wagner
January 1, 2017 • 12:00 am Comments Off on Revolution No. 9
Revolution No. 9
It was premiered almost two centuries ago. And Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 still feels as urgently needed today as ever.
Filed under: Beethoven, Ludovic Morlot, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
December 30, 2016 • 12:08 am Comments Off on The Healing Bach
The Healing Bach
A link to my feature story, in this month’s Strings magazine, on the inexhaustible appeal of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin:
Bach’s works for solo violin and cello are the Shakespearean monologues of the string world: The indefinable balance of technical mastery and interpretive insight they require is the touchstone of a great artist.
Filed under: Bach, violinists
December 26, 2016 • 5:11 am Comments Off on Abducted by Mozart
Abducted by Mozart
Enjoying a fresh look at Die Entführung aus dem Serail as I research for an LA Opera essay. In January the company presents James Robinson’s staging of the Mozart Singspiel, which the director describes as “one of the most unabashedly romantic pieces that Mozart ever wrote” along with being “a wonderfully funny piece.”
From Mozart’s letters when he was working on Abduction in 1781, the year he broke with his Salzburg boss and decided to settle in Vienna:
An opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme … The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix; in that case, no fears need be entertained as to the applause – even of the ignorant.
Filed under: Los Angeles Opera, Mozart
December 24, 2016 • 1:08 am Comments Off on A Messiaenic Christmas
A Messiaenic Christmas
December 20, 2016 • 12:58 am 2
Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin: A Sea Apart
On Friday, 1 December 2016, the Metropolitan Opera will premiere its new production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin. It will mark the first time since 1903 that the company will have presented an opera by a woman composer.
Here’s my essay for the Met’s Season book on this stunning creation by Kaija Saariaho:
Since its world premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2000, L’Amour de Loin has earned a place among the most acclaimed stage works of the 21st century. The opera won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Musical Composition in 2003 and has been performed in Paris, London, Santa Fe, Helsinki, Aspen, Darmstadt, and elsewhere. Yet it took years before Kaija Saariaho became convinced that opera could be a viable medium for what she wanted to express as a composer.
Filed under: essay, Metropolitan Opera, new music, Uncategorized
December 17, 2016 • 3:24 pm Comments Off on El Niño in Spoleto: Perspectives on the Miraculous
El Niño in Spoleto: Perspectives on the Miraculous
In honor of the LA Philharmonic’s performances this weekend, here’s a look at one of John Adams’s masterpieces from the millennium.
The Spoleto Festival USA for 2014 just opened with a production of a John Adams masterpiece, El Niño, fully staged by John La Bouchardière. Here’s the essay I wrote for Spoleto’s book:
Is it possible to be touched by a sense of the miraculous today? In our guarded, cynical age, can we feel anything remotely similar to the experience of wonder that was the norm rather than the exception for most of human history?
Just before the turn of the millennium, John Adams began a risky new project to explore art’s power to re-enchant us. El Niño is the intensely beautiful and moving result. It’s a work that offers an unforgettable entrée into his musical world — and one that tends to keep a high position on the favorites list of the composer’s most ardent fans.
“I’m very interested in the dramatic staging of musical works,” says Spoleto Festival…
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Filed under: Uncategorized
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 