Concert Notes
John Cage at 100
John Cage at 100 By Leon Botstein Written for the concert The Cage Concert, performed on Dec 13, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. This ASO tribute to John Cage comes barely three months after what would have been the composer’s 100th birthday, and at the end of a year of Cage celebrations all over the world.…
Read MoreOld Friends, New Setting
Old Friends, New Setting By Laura Kuhn Written for the concert The Cage Concert, performed on Dec 13, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. It is a fitting finale to John Cage’s Centennial Year to bring works together into a single program by individuals to whom Cage expressed lifelong devotion: the revered Austrian composer, Anton Webern (1883–1945);…
Read MoreThe ASO at Fifty
The ASO at Fifty By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Fiftieth Birthday Celebration, performed on Oct 26, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Tonight’s concert is not just a season opener; it marks fifty years of concerts by the American Symphony Orchestra. The founding of the ASO was an act of vision by the great conductor…
Read MoreCharles Ives, Symphony No. 4
Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4 By Christopher H. Gibbs Written for the concert Fiftieth Birthday Celebration, performed on Oct 26, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. The genesis, musical substance, and fate of Charles Ives’s Fourth Symphony are in many respects representative of the singularly strange career of this unusual American composer. The son of a Connecticut…
Read MoreGustav Mahler, Symphony No. 8
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 8 By Christopher H. Gibbs Written for the concert Fiftieth Birthday Celebration, performed on Oct 26, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. “On the first day of the holidays, I went up to the hut in Maiernigg with the firm resolution of idling the holiday away (I needed to so much that year)…
Read MoreGeorge Crumb
George Crumb By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Crumb, performed on April 19, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. We have become accustomed to assuming that composers who are employed by universities deserved the designation “academic.” Indeed, with the exception of John Adams and Philip Glass, since the 1960s composers who were not also performers (e.g.…
Read MoreProgressive Trailblazer, Experimental Pioneer
Progressive Trailblazer, Experimental Pioneer By Robert Carl Written for the concert Crumb, performed on April 19, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. George Crumb is a rare artist: on the one hand, he projects an immediate, gripping poetry in his music. On the other, he has also developed a rich and innovative toolbox of extended instrumental and…
Read MoreTrapped in the Web of History
Trapped in the Web of History By Leon Botstein Written for the concert The Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed on March 8, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Today’s performance of Franz Schmidt’s opera Notre Dame, which he completed in 1906 and which was premiered in 1914, is perhaps the first effort to present this work on…
Read MoreFranz Schmidt, Notre Dame
Franz Schmidt, Notre Dame By Christopher H. Gibbs Written for the concert The Hunchback of Notre Dame, performed on March 8, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Gustav Mahler famously predicted that “his time would come,” and it did with a vengeance. Franz Schmidt, who played cello for ten years under Mahler’s direction at the Vienna Court…
Read MoreOrientalism in France
Orientalism in France 02/10/2012 at 08:00 PM – Carnegie HallIn the late-19th and early-20th centuries, Europe was fascinated with Eastern culture, and many artistsput their own spin on what they thought the Middle East looked and sounded like. These five Frenchpieces show Turkey, India, Egypt, and others as they existed only in the heads of…
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