Concert Notes
Paul Ben-Haim, Symphony No. 2
Paul Ben-Haim, Symphony No. 2 By Jehoash Hirshberg, Hebrew University. Author of Paul Ben-Haim, his Life and Works (Second edition, IMI, 2009) and Music in the Jewish Community of Palestine 1880 – 1948 – A Social History (Oxford University Press, 1995) Written for the concert Composing A Nation: Israel’s Musical Patriarchs, performed on May 31,…
Read MoreRevisiting William Grant Still
Revisiting William Grant Still By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Revisiting William Grant Still, performed on March 22, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. When this concert, focused on the career of William Grant Still, was scheduled a year and a half ago, those who were betting on who might be the…
Read MoreGeorge Whitefield Chadwick, Rip Van Winkle Overture
George Whitefield Chadwick, Rip Van Winkle Overture By Byron Adams, University of California, Riverside Written for the concert Revisiting William Grant Still, performed on March 22, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Although one of his biographers has referred to him as a “common man,” George Whitefield Chadwick, while hardly cutting a romantic…
Read MoreWilliam Grant Still, Darker America, Africa, Symphony No. 2
William Grant Still, Darker America, Africa, Symphony No. 2 By Catherine Parsons Smith is the author of William Grant Still (Illinois, 2008); William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions (California, 2000); and Making Music in Los Angeles (California, 2007) Written for the concert Revisiting William Grant Still , performed on March 22, 2009 at Avery…
Read MoreEdgard Varèse, Offrandes
Egard Varèse, Offrandes By Byron Adams. University of California, Riverside Written for the concert Revisiting William Grant Still, performed on March 22, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. “I cannot resist that burning desire to go beyond those limits” wrote the French-born composer Edgard Varèse in 1928. By then, Varèse had already trod a…
Read MorePersecution and Hope
Persecution and Hope By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Persecution and Hope: Masterworks of Conscience, performed on Feb 20, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. It is not an exaggeration to assert that Luigi Dallapiccola was the greatest Italian composer of the twentieth century. He was an almost exact contemporary of Aaron…
Read MoreLuigi Dallapiccola, Volo di notte
Luigi Dallapiccola, Volo di notte By Paul Griffiths Written for the concert Persecution and Hope: Masterworks of Conscience, performed on Feb 20, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Dallapiccola found his voice in protest. After a long period of training and self-education, during which first Debussy and then Schoenberg were shocks to his system, he…
Read MoreLuigi Dallapiccola, Il prigioniero
Luigi Dallapiccola, Il prigioniero By Paul Griffiths Written for the concert Persecution and Hope: Masterworks of Conscience, performed on Feb 20, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The origins of Dallapiccola’s second opera go back to June 1939, just a couple of months after he had completed Volo di notte. He was visiting Paris with…
Read MoreMusic of the Other Germany
Music of the Other Germany By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Music of the Other Germany, performed on Jan 25, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. It is hard to believe that twenty years have passed since the fall of Communism. Almost until the very end, the idea that Communism would be…
Read MoreHanns Eisler, Auferstanden aus Ruinen, Hymne der DDR
Hann Eisler, Auferstanden aus Ruinen, Hymne der DDR By Laura Silverberg, Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, Columbia University Written for the concert Music of the Other Germany, performed on Jan 25, 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Lionized in the GDR as the founding father of socialist German music, Hanns Eisler (1898–1962) was an ardent…
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