Concert Notes
Expanding the French Musical Palette
Expanding the French Musical Palette By Jann Pasler Written for the concert Orientalism in France, performed on Feb 10, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Expressing the complexity of French attitudes toward its Oriental “Other,” both imagined and real, Orientalism has appeared in myriad forms in French music. With aggressive marches representing imperialist desire, veiled dancing girls…
Read MoreStravinsky Outside Russia
Stravinsky Outside Russia 01/20/2012 at 08:00 PM – Carnegie HallThough he was the most well-known Russian composer of the 20th century, Stravinsky spent much ofhis life in Europe, and later, America. These six pieces represent his work in France, Venice, Los Angeles,and beyond. All-Igor Stravinsky Program Keith Miller, bass Anne-Carolyn Bird, soprano Heather Johnson, mezzo-soprano…
Read MoreIgor Stravinsky, Song of the Volga Boatmen
Igor Stravinsky, Song of the Volga Boatmen By Joseph Landers Written for the concert Stravinsky Outside Russia, performed on Jan 20, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. In 1996, an orchestration of “Song of the Volga Boatmen” was discovered among the holdings of the Mapleson Music Library in Lindenhurst, New York. This arrangement for bass-baritone and full…
Read MoreA Migrant Cosmopolitan
A Migrant Cosmopolitan By Tamara Levitz Written for the concert Stravinsky Outside Russia, performed on Jan 20, 2012 at Carnegie Hall. Igor Stravinsky lived for most of his adult life outside of his homeland, Russia. Raised largely by his German nanny, Bertha Essert, in the cosmopolitan theater world of St. Petersburg, where his father performed…
Read MoreParallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni
Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni, performed on Dec 11, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. The piano was central to the musical culture of the 19th century. It defined that culture’s aesthetics and perception of music’s meaning and logic. During the first decades, within Beethoven’s…
Read MoreFerruccio Busoni, Piano Concerto
Ferruccia Busoni, Piano Concerto By Byron Adams Written for the concert Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni, performed on Dec 11, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. Ferruccio Busoni was a protean figure: a pianist of fearsome virtuosity, a marvelous composer, an influential conductor, and a subtle writer. Like his great hero, Franz Liszt, Busoni’s magisterial ability as…
Read MoreFranz Liszt, Faust Symphony
Franz Liszt, Faust Symphony By Peter Laki Written for the concert Parallel Lives: Liszt & Busoni, performed on Dec 11, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. The unknown authors of the broadside The History of Dr. Johann Faust, written around 1580 immortalizing a real-life figure, never suspected they had created a true modern myth—a story that was…
Read MoreBauhaus Bach
Bauhaus Bach By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Bauhaus Bach, performed on Oct 21, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. Modernism in the arts during the 20th century can be said to have had two distinct (albeit related) and contradictory impulses: first, rejection, resistance, and rebellion on the part of the younger generation, born after 1860,…
Read MoreBack to Bach: The Conscience of History
Back to Bach: The Conscience of History By Stephen Hinton Written for the concert Bauhaus Bach, performed on Oct 21, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. Of the myriad topics that have claimed the attention of music historians, Bach reception is not only among the most persistent but also the most multifarious. The subject matter clearly warrants…
Read MoreLyonel Feininger
Lyonel Feininger By Barbara Haskell Written for the concert Bauhaus Bach, performed on Oct 21, 2011 at Carnegie Hall. Lyonel Feininger—world-renowned painter, printmaker, and caricaturist—was born in New York City on July 17, 1871 to German-American parents, both concertizing musicians. By age nine, he was studying violin with his father; by 12, he was performing…
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