Music
1939 results
Page 109
Tempesta di Mare's Bach with alterations
Bach without his organ
Tempesta di Mare sustained an old Baroque tradition, remodeling six of Bach's organ works to suit other instruments.
Articles
3 minute read
Two birds, one composer (Part II)
The composer's quandary: What does emotion really sound like?
Watching a fight between two birds had inspired me. Now came the real challenge: to pinpoint my emotion and translate it into music. Generic emotion, I knew, produces generic music, just as it produces bland acting, uninvolving painting, and vanilla poetry.
Articles
5 minute read
Shostakovich and free speech (3rd comment)
Shostakovich's problem, and ours
Even in a “free” society, creative people must confront the challenge that Shostakovich addressed in Stalin's Soviet Russia with his “Classical Symphony”: What do you do when your creative impulses conflict with the demands of the people who pay for your work?
Articles
6 minute read
Michael Djupstrom's contemporary pieces
The other side of the street
Like many young composers, Michael Djupstrom gives his work titles that link to stories and personal experiences. But in his case that's not necessary.
Articles
3 minute read
Yannick's new take on Bruckner
Bruckner, unhurried and very Austrian
Never have I heard Bruckner sound so Austrian as he did last weekend under Yannick's baton— not Classical, not Wagnerian, but relaxed in an Austrian way.
Articles
2 minute read
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Richard Goode plays late Beethoven
Realms of elation
Richard Goode's annual Philadelphia recital brought a lifetime of engagement to Beethoven's last three piano sonatas, which collectively constitute one of the summits of musical literature.
Articles
5 minute read
Orchestra's "inter-war' concert (2nd review)
A tyranny Yannick never knew
Yannick Nézet-Séguin is only 37, with no conscious memory of Stalin or Hitler. Yet he instinctively grasped the emotions of composers who suffered under those tyrants.
Articles
3 minute read
Clarinet debut: Romie de Guise-Langlois
Memories, encounters and good news from Syria
In her Philadelphia recital debut, Romie de Guise-Langlois explored the development of the clarinet repertoire, including a premiere that may evoke her earliest memories.
Articles
3 minute read
Tokyo Quartet's farewell at the Perelman
Going out in style
The Tokyo Quartet has been one of the world's premier ensembles for nearly half a century. In its penultimate Philadelphia recital, it fittingly provided a sense of the continuity of the Western Classical tradition
Articles
5 minute read
The hawk, the hummingbird and the composer (Part I)
Mother Nature's wonderful world of killing (and one composer who's grateful for it)
Outside my porch, a hawk struggled for survival with a hummingbird. On my porch, I struggled to produce a commissioned work of music. And you wonder where composers find our inspiration.
Articles
4 minute read