I Just Have to Comment

You will find some comments by me in these pages on the Verbier Festival Orchestra performance with Martha Argerich as soloist. You may also read the reviews on the two Chicago newspapers, on their respective websites. (See the ChiTrib review and the Sun-Times review.) Both newspaper reviews make a big deal out of Argerich’s history of cancellations, and the fact that she had been married to the conductor, Chas. Dutoit. Neither says anything whatsoever about the music. Do Chicago newspaper readers know Prokofiev and Berlioz so well? And one of the reviews, incredibly, described the accompaniment of the Prokofiev as “less than impressive.” Not true, not true, not true. Look at the score. The orchestration is full of problems, and the Verbiers did as good a job as could possibly be expected. And both of the reviews essentially misunderstand the nature of the Berlioz performance, which was brilliant sounding but immature, without a great deal of nuance. This is frustrating. Deification of performers is gross (Argerich was great, however)- Worse, it is boring. I put stupid jokes and irrelevant personal commentary in my “review”, but that’s gotta be better than talk of “impeccable passagework”; or junk about Dutoit being in a position as the pianist’s former husband to ensure her compliance with her contract…readers deserve something more.