Stephen Hough ~ New York Times Feature
LONDON — Pianists can be bells-and-whistles showmen (Lang Lang, Liberace, Liszt) or soberly remote (Sviatoslav Richter, Rachmaninoff). But by tradition they are the mavericks of the music world, who spend long hours in small rooms poring over solo repertory that turns them into either thinkers or eccentrics. Maybe both. And an example of the thinking...
A Little Part Of Poulenc In All Of Us
“Take Chopin’s dominant sevenths, Ravel’s major sevenths, Fauré’s plain triads, Debussy’s minor ninths, Mussorgsky’s augmented fourths. Filter these through Satie by way of the added sixth chords of vaudeville (which the French call Le Music Hall), blend in a pint of Couperin to a quart of Stravinsky, and you get the harmony of Poulenc.” Nice...
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
We had a blast seeing the amazing Hubbard Street dancers the other night at Zellerbach Hall! The diverse program covered a lot ground stylistically and musically. There was an impressive world premiere from local legend Alonzo King in collaboration with his LINES dancers, bookended by two pieces sure to resonate with Zellerbach’s younger audiences. Cerrudo’s...
Random Acts of Culture
Check out this interview with Dennis Scholl about his Random Acts of Culture that now number over 1000! Dennis Scholl is a former accountant and sometime casino card-counter turned Emmy-award winning documentary producer, as well as a boutique winemaker who now distils artisanal mescal in Oaxaca. He is also currently Vice President of Arts for...
Wayne McGregor’s Borderlands World Premiere Review
Full disclosure: I am not a regular ballet patron. I haven’t attended a performance of any ballet in four years, or of the SF Ballet ever. But though ballet appears to be an esoteric, high-class art form, watching ballet seems to me a physical experience akin to watching a tennis match or a basketball...
MTT at TED
As a conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas might be best known for his interpretation of the emotionally charged music of Gustav Mahler. But his legacy won’t stop at his Grammy-winning recordings of the complete Mahler symphony cycle with his home orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony. He’s also the founder of the New World Symphony, an orchestra...
Making Overtures: The Emergence of Indie Classical
Making Overtures: The Emergence of Indie Classical – Via Pitchfork – LINK An examination of the ever-melding worlds of indie and classical music. By Jayson Greene, February 28, 2012 Illustration by Michael Renaud In January, I saw an unforgettably strange concert at the small NYC theater Le Poisson Rouge. Andrew W.K.– party-rock force of nature...
The Super Power of Franz Liszt
Josef Danhauser: Franz Liszt at the Piano, 1840. Seated are Alexandre Dumas Sr., George Sand, and Marie d’Agoult; standing are Hector Berlioz, Nicolò Paganini, and Gioachino Rossini. On the piano is a bust of Beethoven by Anton Dietrich,and on the wall is a portrait of Byron. The Super Power of Franz Liszt via The New...
Dispossessed – On parting with a beloved instrument – NYT
DANIEL J. WAKIN via New York Times Magazine On a cold day last winter, an ailing Bernard Greenhouse, wearing an elegant bathrobe and attached to oxygen, was wheeled into the living room of his Cape Cod home, which was festooned with paper cutouts of musical notes. Relatives and students, locals and caregivers had gathered to...
What does a conductor do?
Via New York Magazine by Justin Davidson In Italian, the word maestro also means teacher. As we power toward the final cadence and I exchange glance after glance with the young musicians, it occurs to me that they are bombarding me with unspoken questions and it’s my job to convey answers. That’s what a conductor...
Happy 100th SF Symphony!
Yuja Wang, Thomas Hampson, Gustavo Dudamel, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet join Michael Tilson Thomas in wishing the San Francisco Symphony a Happy 100th Birthday!
Hélène Grimaud – New Yorker
Grimaud, a bold reinventor of phrasings, admires “the more extreme players . . . people who wouldn’t be afraid to play their conception to the end.” One day in July, Hélène Grimaud was practicing the piano in a hotel room in Munich. The Palace, where she was staying, is near the Prinzregententheater, and is unusually...
