Carnegie’s Season Of Glass Retraces Path Of A Master
NEW YORK - How times have changed for 81-year-old Philip Glass. An outsider spurned by the establishment in the early 1970s, the composer’s vast output and its impact were on display all season long at the epicenter of American music.
Orchestra Festival Lit Up Uniqueness Of U.S. Ensembles
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 2018 SHIFT Festival threw its spotlight on four diverse U.S. orchestras whose musical reach extended from the Kennedy Center to the corners of the nation’s capital – even to a concert at Union Station.
Mauceri, Slatkin Mull And Churn Conductor’s Craft
BOOK REVIEW – New books by two American senior statesman conductors – John Mauceri is 72 and Leonard Slatkin, 73 – take contrasting approaches, drawing insights from highly successful careers at home and abroad.
Seattle’s Maestro Designate Intends To Stir Repertoire
INTERVIEW – Thomas Dausgaard says his first love "was and is Beethoven," but that he's also keen to find new voices in American music for Seattle audiences. "It’s very important for me to keep the sensibilities fresh."
Toscanini Redux: From New Sources A Fresh Biography
BOOK REVIEW – A staggering number of recently discovered letters and recordings, studied by expert Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs, allow important new facets of the conductor's private and public life to emerge from the shadows.
Weill Fest Explores Music’s Advocate For Social Progress
BREVARD, N.C. – Perhaps only in the current age of stylistic pluralism may it be possible to reconcile Kurt Weill’s German and American phases. In a mix of scholarly talks and performances, the Brevard Festival takes a stab.
New Opera Award Goes To Mazzoli, Vavrek For ‘Waves’
Breaking the Waves, with music by Missy Mazzoli (right) and libretto by Royce Vavrek, is the first winner of the Music Critics Association of North America's Best New Opera Award. The presentation will be made July 19 in Santa Fe.
Fine Book Details Cliburn’s Victory At Tchaikovsky
BOOK REVIEW – In When the World Stopped to Listen: Van Cliburn’s Cold War Triumph and Its Aftermath, Stuart Isacoff brings a pianist's insights and historian's rigor to an event that shook the world nearly six decades ago.
Think Like A Pro To Get Big Sound At Your Desktop
DIGITAL – You may be surprised that you can enjoy great musical sound from your computer. To get there, you need to address some basic questions, ranging from what you expect to hear to the space available on your desk.
Anton Coppola, Feted At Age 100, Still The Maestro
By John Fleming
TAMPA – Conductors tend to be durable, but maestro and composer Anton Coppola, still active, hit the century mark on March 21. Four days later, Opera Tampa honored the ageless Coppola at a two-hour concert – which he conducted!
New Light On Nazi Rule In Orchestras Of Vienna, Berlin
By Paul E. Robinson
BOOK REVIEW – The Political Orchestra by Fritz Trümpi provides important new information and a broader context for understanding how the two greatest orchestras in the German-speaking world were affected by politics.
Hear, Hear! New Halls Diverge In Acoustic Designs
By Nancy Malitz
When it comes to concert hall acoustics, controlled comparisons are difficult, but the temptation was irresistible on a Chicago Symphony tour of new halls in Paris, Hamburg and Aalborg, Denmark, followed by two old gems.
Critics, Gathered In Charleston, Honor A Leader
By John W. Lambert
IN MEMORIAM – Robert Paul Commanday, who died in 2015 at the age of 93, was fondly remembered in Charleston, S.C., where the Music Critics Association of North America heard a tribute to his guiding force in a transitional age.
Canada Tempest: Debating Critic’s Role In Our Time
By Allan Kozinn
ANALYSIS – A publicist for Canadian Opera took issue with a National Post critique of Maometto II, an editor yanked the review, the critic was in the dark, emails went viral and things went downhill from there. What's at stake here?
Robert W. Gutman Altered Views Of Mozart, Wagner
By James L. Paulk
APPRECIATION - The American scholar, who died May 13 at the age of 90, was best known for landmark biographies of two seminal figures. The books dispelled myths and provided fresh and surprising perspectives.
Arts Groups Tweak Sights, Aiming For A Younger Crowd
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO – Renée Fleming helped launch Lyric Young Professionals as a new generation support network aimed at ages 21-45. The Lyric Opera of Chicago's effort, part of a national trend, revisits an old standby, the subscription.
Music From Japan: Bearing The Stamp Of Global Fusion
By Richard S. Ginell
NEW YORK – Music From Japan, in its 41st year of concerts, featured works by Misato Mochizuki and eight other composers, all written after 2000 in the freeing spirit of what the event's curator has dubbed "neo-Japonism."
Steven Stucky’s Twin Legacies Of Music And Light
By Richard S. Ginell
LOS ANGELES – Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky, who died of brain cancer Feb. 14 at age 66, was an inspiring teacher, lecturer and author whose long association with top orchestras left a lasting impression on many lives.
Extra Special: Evolving Role Of Supernumeraries
By Barbara Jepson
All of those non-singing performers on opera stages are there to help fulfill the director’s vision for a production — from serving as warriors in Aida to wearing a fish head in the dream sequence in Hansel and Gretel.
