Aug 28, 2008
Blog
As I am in the process of preparing a Rachmaninov/Prokofiev class, a comment from Alfred Brendel caught my eye. "...I am not a Rachmaninov fan. The piano repertoire is vast, and Rachmaninov to me seems a waste of time." Not my view, but Brendel is not here to be a Rachmaninov fan. His specialty is German masters from Haydn to Liszt. But Brendel's cool. Just don't go to him to learn about Rachmaninov. So, for the purposes of this article, I want to consider if there are valid reasons to find Rachmaninov worthwhile.
Aug 24, 2008, 10:16pm.
Who Are We?
John lectures on classical music and teaches piano, composition, music theory and a variety of music appreciation classes for adults.
Two conductors on classical music and audiences today. David Robertson writes about the importance of live performance - not despite modern technology but because of it. Benjamin Zander speaks about the possibility each of us has to be inspirational, and demonstrates it by teaching some Chopin to a business audience.
Aug 8, 2008, 5:26pm
0 comment(s).
Viktor Ullmann's Der Zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug) and Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) will be broadcast on Chicago's classical radio station, WFMT, on Saturday, August 9 at 12:30 p.m. Not in Chicago? Listen free over the Internet.
Aug 4, 2008, 2:58pm
1 comment(s).
This Summer's Debate: Boring New Music
The unlistenability of modern classical music is as obvious to Joe Queenan as a naked emperor. It's an entertaining article, but how true is it? Read it, ponder some of the swift responses from the blogosphere, and tell us what you think.
Jul 18, 2008, 2:40pm
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The unlistenability of modern classical music is as obvious to Joe Queenan as a naked emperor. It's an entertaining article, but how true is it? Read it, ponder some of the swift responses from the blogosphere, and tell us what you think.
Jul 18, 2008, 2:40pm
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For those in a "beach reading" mood, here are some of my favorite light books on classical music. None of which, I promise, will get you any better at musical analysis.
Jul 8, 2008, 4:20pm
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Today we’re talking about the four concertos Mozart wrote at the age of eleven, based on pre-existing pieces, primarily by the Parisian Roccoco school, guys like Schobert and Eckard. These pieces aren’t even included in Cuthbert Girdlestone’s (!) classic study of the Mozart piano concerti.
Jun 21, 2008, 3:47pm
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Lovers of French opera don’t have to study learned tomes to find out about distant or exotic locales and ancient history. We take our ease sure in the knowledge that we got it all covered simply by listening to Meyerbeer’s Le Prophete, Les Hugenots, and L’Africaine, Massanet’s Esclarmonde, Herodiade, and Thais, Lalo’s Le Roi D’Ys, Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe Bleu, and today’s subject, Albert Roussel’s Padmavati, (completed shortly after WW1).
Jun 20, 2008, 2:19am
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Beethoven's "Missa"-Perched Between the Baroque and the Romantic Neo-Baroque
I can affirm most wholeheartedly that Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis absolutely succeeds outdoors on a balmy June evening, as proved last night by the Chicago Grant Park festival and its capable conductor, Carlos Kalmar. I’m too lazy to look it up, but was it not so long ago that outdoors summer festivals avoided pieces like the Missa?
Jun 15, 2008, 4:16pm
2 comment(s) on this page.
I can affirm most wholeheartedly that Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis absolutely succeeds outdoors on a balmy June evening, as proved last night by the Chicago Grant Park festival and its capable conductor, Carlos Kalmar. I’m too lazy to look it up, but was it not so long ago that outdoors summer festivals avoided pieces like the Missa?
Jun 15, 2008, 4:16pm
2 comment(s) on this page.
Conservatory Whippersnappers Shouldn't Be Allowed To Use Percussion
I’d like to retract those cracks I made in 2008 concerning Berlioz’s Harold in Italy: while the violist may as well join the section, and while the work is disconcertingly not a concerto, it is a strangely sympathetic symphony. Cynicism vies with sincerity, the satanic vies with the sublime, the self-absorbed vies with the universal, the bucolic vies with the refined, this is a work divided against itself.
Jun 8, 2008, 2:46pm
3 comment(s) on this page.
I’d like to retract those cracks I made in 2008 concerning Berlioz’s Harold in Italy: while the violist may as well join the section, and while the work is disconcertingly not a concerto, it is a strangely sympathetic symphony. Cynicism vies with sincerity, the satanic vies with the sublime, the self-absorbed vies with the universal, the bucolic vies with the refined, this is a work divided against itself.
Jun 8, 2008, 2:46pm
3 comment(s) on this page.
Ten More Arrows and Maxims
Remember: If you don’t disagree with these, I’ll have to reconsider my positions!
May 29, 2008, 5:11pm
3 comment(s) on this page.
Remember: If you don’t disagree with these, I’ll have to reconsider my positions!
May 29, 2008, 5:11pm
3 comment(s) on this page.
Thumbing through the Groves indices of Haydn’s works (massive indices; if Haydn did nothing but write quickly and constantly, without sleeping or eating or performing it would still be mind-boggling production, even not counting the dozens of spuriously attributed works) it occurred to me that my comment about the relative merits of Haydn’s and Mozart’s “functional” music might not be accurate.
May 28, 2008, 2:38pm
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A note on class planning and syllabi: I’m gonna say it flat out: Although students need to know where a class is going, broadly, and need advance guidance to books and pieces to be discussed, I believe rigid advance planning and meticulous adherence to a syllabus is a false virtue, and doesn’t even show particularly good organization. A teacher who cares about his subject is always learning, studying, and trying new things, even within a class.
May 27, 2008, 1:52pm
2 comment(s) on this page.
Steinway Buys ArkivMusic
As a web producer I hope the cash brings improvements to their site search capability (why can’t I combine the various search parameters?). On the other hand, I hope they do nothing to compromise Arkiv’s ease of use compared to Amazon (littered as it is with business development opportunities).
May 19, 2008, 9:08pm
1 comment(s) on this page.
As a web producer I hope the cash brings improvements to their site search capability (why can’t I combine the various search parameters?). On the other hand, I hope they do nothing to compromise Arkiv’s ease of use compared to Amazon (littered as it is with business development opportunities).
May 19, 2008, 9:08pm
1 comment(s) on this page.
Arts & Letters Daily has been on our blogroll for awhile now and is always worth a visit for any "elitist" looking for a good read in the arts, humanities or social sciences. Several Holde Kunst posts and discussions have been kicked off by articles found there. (Yep, it’s so elitist that it’s a service of the Chronicle of Higher Ed.) I thought I’d spend a few minutes taking note of the classical music items currently gracing AL Daily. Among them are some topics I’d love to write about but don’t know when I’ll get the time.
May 15, 2008, 1:16am
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Jan Swafford in Slate discusses the new solo piano recording by Pierre-Laurent Aimard of Bachâs Art of the Fugue (Read Wikipedia): “Itâs as if you told a physicist that Einsteinâs General Theory of Relativity was topping the best-seller list. Itâs not supposed to happen. This is because the 14 fugues and four canons that make up The Art of Fugue constitute one of the most esoteric musical works ever written.”
May 13, 2008, 3:40pm
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Wolfgang Wagner will step down on August 31, leaving Bayreuth in the hands of BOTH his daughters, Eva and Katharina.
May 6, 2008, 2:00am
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