Classical Notes: June 2006 Archive

Dawn Upshaw

Posted at 8:24 AM on June 2, 2006 by Rex Levang

Sweet anecdote told by the soprano Dawn Upshaw, on the travails of being on the road:

I hate practicing in hotel rooms, because I always worry about the people next door. I mean, I’d find it irritating if somebody were singing a few feet away on the other side of my wall. But I had no other place to warm up for rehearsal, and so there I was, one day in Ann Arbor, singing away in my room. And this nice lady came to the door and said "I’m awfully sorry, but I’m working with numbers across the hall, and I just can’t think while you’re doing that." And I said, "Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I’ll stop right away – no, really, it’s perfectly fine, please don’t worry." And she thanked me and then said, "But I want you to know that I really think you have something there, and I hope you’ll stick with it."

Yesterday Upshaw was named one of the artistic partners of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Read all about it.

Summer Music, Cont'd.

Posted at 8:11 AM on June 7, 2006 by Rex Levang (1 Comments)

Some more upcoming events: North Star Opera does Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, which is one of those stories à la Little Mermaid, about who gets to get married to whom. In Northfield next month, there are overlapping conventions, devoted to the viola da gamba and to the vintage wind band. And in Duluth, the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra takes to the stage at UMD, with, among other things, a cell phone concerto.

No word on whether:

Iolanthe will get an updated treatment in view of recent public debates

The viola da gamba folks and the brass band folks will join forces for a unique extravaganza

The cell phone concerto will include audience participation.

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Misc.

Posted at 9:25 AM on June 9, 2006 by Rex Levang

Alex Ross has an appreciative note on the classical fare on Youtube. (I’d link directly to Youtube, but Ross’s blog is a treat – hence this plug.) I seem to have better luck on Youtube using rather specific search terms; if you just search on “Mozart” or “Berlioz,” you’re likely to get video of a garage band or someone’s pet hedgehog. . . .

The Saint Paul Summer Festival of Song starts tonight!

Washington press should credit St. Paul pioneers

Posted at 3:15 PM on June 12, 2006 by Don Lee

An article in The Washington Post recommends that Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra borrow a big idea pioneered by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

The NSO is looking for a music director to replace Leonard Slatkin, who leaves DC in two years. Since no successor appears to be in line, writer Mark Mobley (who happens to be my former colleague) says the orchestra should seize the opportunity to experiment. He suggests a strategically chosen series of guest conductors, each contributing different ideas to the season. It sounds a lot like the SPCO’s Artistic Partners.

But Mark doesn’t mention the SPCO. Instead, he cites newer and less unusual leadership models in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. “I thought about the SPCO,” he told me after I called him on the omission, “but they’re such a different beast....” While that beast may not be slouching toward Washington, I wouldn't be surprised to see its hour come round elsewhere.

Mozart Party Records

Posted at 9:56 AM on June 14, 2006 by Rex Levang (1 Comments)

From the wonders of the Web come two, um, unique performances of the Queen of the Night’s aria from Mozart’s “Magic Flute.”

The first, from the remarkable collection of old cylinder recordings now digitized and maintained by the University of California at Santa Barbara, is Maria Galvany’s galvanizing performance from 1910.

And, speaking of Youtube, as we just were: this second one has made the rounds, so you may already have seen the aria being performed by a boy soprano in lederhosen.

Thing is, the kid’s pretty good!

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Compulsory reading

Posted at 2:35 PM on June 14, 2006 by Don Lee (2 Comments)

Music critic Greg Sandow's blog is worth a look when you've got the chance. In the past I've recommended his online book about the future of classical music. He's just published another chapter, his last before a summer hiatus.

But more interesting at the moment on Sandow's page is a commentary thread responding to an article Allan Kozinn wrote in the May 28 New York Times. Kozinn observes that there's more good news about the health of classical music than press coverage would lead us to believe.

It’s high time someone mentioned the discussion on these pages because, as one commenter put it, it's "compulsory reading for all of us in classical music." The article has gone into the Times archive so you'll need to pay to read it, but the comments on Sandow's blog will tell you most of what you need to know.

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Rejoyce

Posted at 9:44 AM on June 16, 2006 by Rex Levang

Mr Browne could go further back still, to the old Italian companies that used to come to Dublin – Tietjens, Ilma de Mazurka, Campanini, the great Trebelli, Giuglini, Ravelli, Aramburo. Those were the days, he said, when there was something like singing to be heard in Dublin. He told too of how the top gallery of the old Royal used to be packed night after night, of how one night an Italian tenor had sung five encores to Let Me Like a Soldier Fall, introducing a high C every time, and of how the gallery boys would sometimes in their enthusiasm unyoke the horses from the carriage of some great prima donna and pull her themselves through the streets to her hotel. Why did they not play the grand old operas now, he asked, Dinorah, Lucrezia Borgia? Because they could not get the voices to sing them: that was why.

--James Joyce, The Dead

June 16 is the day on which Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” takes place. It’s a book of hundreds of pages in which Joyce follows his hero Leopold Bloom through the streets of Dublin, depicting, scrutinizing, amplifying and mythifying all the events in one day of Bloom’s life. Today, the 16th has also become the occasion for a celebration of all things Joycean.

Joyce himself was a gifted singer and a passionate music-lover. Joyce being Joyce and Ireland being Ireland, music is never far away in “Ulysses” and Joyce’s other works, and there’s a whole cottage (and Web) industry devoted to Joyce and music – or should I say, music music music music, since no single link is enough.

Happy Bloomsday!

Takes a lickin'....

Posted at 8:39 PM on June 20, 2006 by John Birge

...keeps on tickin'.
What better way to celebrate the birthday of Johann Maelzel, inventor of the metronome, than a chance to hear, and SEE, Gyorgy Ligeti's Poeme Symphonique for 100 metronomes.

Miss Minnesota

Posted at 12:31 PM on June 21, 2006 by Rex Levang (1 Comments)

If you’re worried that classical music: 1) is only for the 40+ crowd; 2) is neglected in the school system; 3) is in a state of unhealthy isolation from the larger culture, then you can take heart from Nicole Swanson, the newly-crowned Miss Minnesota.

Swanson, who was crowned earlier this week, has a degree in viola performance from the University of Minnesota, and played a classical viola piece in the talent section of the pageant. (Sorry, don't know the repertoire.) And as Miss Minnesota, she plans to work with students, teachers, and parents to promote the value of music in education.

On to the nationals!

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When is appropriation appropriate?

Posted at 1:09 PM on June 21, 2006 by Don Lee (38 Comments)

The other day I was arguing with my college-age daughter about "cultural misappropriation"--indiscriminate or exploitative adoption of elements of another culture's tradition. We disagreed about the best response to uninformed, but sincerely motivated curiosity, debating a question raised by an illustration in an essay she showed me: Is a Lebanese woman justified in feeling angry that an American buys a derbake (a Lebanese drum) only because he wants to take it home and tap on it a bit?

It's a complicated question. Much depends on the American's awareness (or lack thereof) that the derbake might be a potent cultural symbol. Knowing that, if he did, how should he behave?

I was reminded of the issue today when I came upon a comment by Daniel Barenboim, who has just conducted the Chicago Symphony for the last time as its music director:

In the hotel where I stay, they think that it is very culturally minded to play classical music in the elevator, or in the foyers of concert halls before the concert. And I have been on more than one occasion subjected to having to hear, because I cannot shut my ears, the Brahms violin concerto in the lift, having to conduct it in the evening. And I ask myself, why? This is not going to bring one more person into the concert hall. It is not only counter-productive, but I think--if we are allowed to speak of musical ethics--it is absolutely offensive.

Barenboim is alleging cultural misappropriation. I'm sure he's right that Brahms in the elevator won't send anyone to the concert hall…not directly anyway. But I wonder how his charge that the practice is "absolutely offensive" would fall on the ears of Daisuke Takeuchi. In a comment posted here one week ago, Mr. Takeuchi described himself as "a new fan" who, until recently, had "stayed away from classical music because I did not understand."

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Reith Lectures

Posted at 8:29 AM on June 23, 2006 by Rex Levang

In the course of this very interesting thread, the “Reith Lectures” were mentioned – which is a nice way of connecting our discussion with the world of radio.

The Reith Lectures are a series of lectures given every year under the auspices of the British Broadcasting Corporation; they’re named in honor of John Reith, who led the BBC in its formative years. This year’s lectures were given by Daniel Barenboim, and you can read them, listen to them, and find ample amounts of accompanying material here.

I’ve had the chance to meet a few folks from the BBC, and even though Reith left the BBC in 1938, and died in 1971, they still invoke his name in a tone of bemused affection.

A member of Parliament says pipe down

Posted at 5:52 PM on June 26, 2006 by Don Lee

Thanks to John Birge for pointing out an important development in the British Parliament:

A Bill to Provide for the Secretary of State to draw up a plan to prohibit piped music and the showing of television programmes in the public areas of hospitals and on public transport.

The bill, now before the House of Lords, was introduced by Green Party member Lord Beaumont of Whitley. Arguing for the bill earlier this month, he stated, "I dislike most forms of noise pollution, including wallpaper music." He continued, "When we listen to a sound, whatever that sound is, including music, if the listener does not want it, it is noise. Noise is defined as unwanted sound."

Fear not, adherents of the Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. In the words of the bill, “'Piped music' means pre-recorded background music played through loudspeakers."

More on Richard Rodgers

Posted at 8:39 AM on June 28, 2006 by Rex Levang

Couple other Richard Rodgers waltzes, continuing John's thread of a few days back: "Lover" and "Falling in Love with Love." (At least I think that last one is in waltz time.)

People have pointed out -- and rightly -- the differences between Rodgers and Hart, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. But there's also a continuity there. Some of the thumbprints remain the same. A liking for waltzes is one.

Another example: take the first phrase of "Surrey with the Fringe on Top," slow it down, and smoosh the repeated notes into one long note -- and you'll get something quite close to the first phrase of "The Blue Room." And yet they have two different lyricists.

Any other composer thumbprints that people have noticed?

Pope vs. pop

Posted at 5:22 PM on June 28, 2006 by Don Lee (1 Comments)

Again today I'm indebted to John Birge for pointing out an interesting news item: Pope Benedict XVI, a classical music lover, has spoken out against contemporary, popularized liturgical music. Quoted in London's Telegraph, the pope says he prefers church music that follows "the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."

I'm a big fan of pop and rock, electric guitars and amplified sound. I understand why it's been brought into church: newer-sounding music can make the worship experience more vital and appealing to some churchgoers…if it's well done.

But often, it isn't well done. And there's a larger reason for coming down on the traditional side: Worship in the Catholic Church, especially, is built on ritual that connects back to the foundations of the faith. Music that does not reinforce the ritual is at odds with the entire experience.

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Opera at the Movies

Posted at 3:55 PM on June 29, 2006 by Rex Levang

Following up on Bob's post: In the opera "Rusalka" the Song to the Moon is sung by a non-human creature (in this case, a sort of mermaid) who has fallen in love with a human being.

I haven't seen "Bicentennial Man," so maybe someone call fill me in. Are there any parallels between the opera and the movie?