Posted in Uncategorized on December 31, 2007 | No Comments »
So my internet died on me for a few days during the holiday period there. I could still write, but I could not report… until now…
Arie De Bravura - Salieri, Mozart & RighiniDiana Damrau; Le Cerde De L’harmonie; Jeremie RhorerVirgin Classics #95250
For those out there who prefer their aria collections over the top then this [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 31, 2007 | No Comments »
Anthony Tommasini has a wonderful article in the NY Times. The punch line? Classical music is becoming relevant again.
Posted in Uncategorized on December 30, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The holidays have considerably slowed my posting. There are few concerts before the end of 2007. The exception is the Seattle Symphony’s annual performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Allan Kozinn’s story about music education has been rattling around in my head since it came out on Christmas Day. A few months back [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 30, 2007 | No Comments »
A fixture of the holiday season is, of course, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Here in Chicago, this famous ballet must be performed by our very own Joffrey Ballet. For the first time, I attended a performance of this well-worn masterpiece and was, not surprisingly, completely overjoyed. Knowing the music so well allowed me to focus [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 29, 2007 | No Comments »
There is a wonderful article in the web magazine New Music Box by Roger Rudenstein that attempts to pinpoint when the American public turned its back on classical music as something vital and important in American life. After all, there was a point in our history where Leonard Bernstein was able to have a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 26, 2007 | No Comments »
There has always been a strict divide between what we classical folk call opera and the world of musicals, those Broadway shows with singers using microphones and plots so silly, they rival opera. Although there is good reason to put Verdi and Wagner in one camp and musicals in another, sometimes they can approximate [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 25, 2007 | No Comments »
Merry Christmas from Iowa!
Posted in Uncategorized on December 21, 2007 | No Comments »
One of the best musical institutions in Davenport, Iowa is Chamber Music Quad Cities. Twice a year, Greg Sauer (cello), Tom Sauer (piano) and Serena Canin (violin) come to Davenport to visit their family, show off grand children, and perform chamber recitals for hometown audiences. The trio’s summer visit unfolds over the course of a chamber [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 20, 2007 | 1 Comment »
I am writing from the soggy shores of eastern Iowa. It seems I brought Seattle’s weather with me. At around two p.m. a light, persistent drizzle began to fall and hasn’t let up. Christmas shopping and other holiday requirements haven’t stopped me from reading the news coming out of Seattle. In fact, I enjoyed Gavin Borchert’s take on classical music [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on December 18, 2007 | No Comments »
Claudio Monteverdi, as the story goes, conceived and wrote the Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610 Vespers) as a musical resume. His relationship with his employer at the time, the Gonzaga family of Mantua, was going sour. The areas around Mantua were fighting off pestilence. And, like all good parents, he was worried about having enough [...]
