Piano Recitals - M.I.A. Charles Michener laments the death of the piano recital. "For some time now, I have remarked on a development that, while less dramatic than the Bolsheviks’ overthrow of the Tsar, represents a considerable loss: the disappearance of the piano recital as a staple of New York’s concert scene. Among the world’s generous supply of first-class pianists, only a handful of the most famous ones are heard with anything like regularity in our major halls, and then generally not more than once a year. Piano competitions continue to turn out the next Horowitzes at an alarming rate, but how these prodigies manage to make careers is a mystery, given that virtually none of them are ever heard hereabouts." New York Observer 12/18/02 

Dallas Opera Cancels "Tassie" The Dallas Opera has cancelled the North American premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's 'The Silver Tassie,' saying that "the cancellation of the antiwar opera was due to financial considerations and political sensitivities in the wake of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center." Andante 12/19/02 

Will Baz Boheme Spoil Opera For Those Who Already Love Opera? Anthony Tommasini is impressed by the glare and glitter of Baz Luhrmann's Broadway Boheme. "Yet from a musical perspective, many veteran opera buffs will be dismayed, as I was, by the compromises the production has made. Newcomers to opera who think they are experiencing the real thing are not. For all the dazzle and heart of this Broadway "Bohème," I sat through three shows (to see the three pairs of rotating leads) getting more and more glum about the future of opera. Will traditional companies that play by the rules be able to keep up as the public embraces amplified opera on Broadway?" The New York Times 12/22/02 

The Right Version of "Correct" So what does "authentic" mean in music? When there are 14 manuscript versions of a Mahler score, what were the composer's final final thoughts? "Two years of note-picking research in Vienna have exposed almost 400 errors and oversights in the published score" of Mahler's Second Symphony. On the other hand, maybe all 14 versions are "correct" in their own way. "It's not wrong. In all 14 of Mahler's scores he wants it to sound that way." La Scena Musicale 12/19/02 

Recently-Discovered Mahler Score May have Been Annotated By Another "A recently found score of Gustav Mahler's First Symphony, said to contain the composer's own handwritten revisions, actually may have been annotated by someone else, a scholar said Tuesday." Nando Times (AP) 12/17/02 

Music 10, Words 0... Many an otherwise good opera has been ruined by a dreadful libretto. "Why do composers ever assume that they can write their own words? There's nothing which makes the heart sink, going into an opera, like the words 'Music and libretto by ...' Very few good operas have ever been written to a composer's own words..." The Independent (UK) 12/10/02 

The Anti-Music Of Phones Increasingly, our time in public is being interrrupted with music. Music? I guess that's what they call those customized ring tones that cell phones make. "The proliferation of cellular phones has put the power of automatic melody into the pockets of your friends and neighbours, and there's no freezer on Earth big enough to hide all the cheesy sounds they can produce." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/21/02 
 

Founded and directed by conductor/pianist/ bassist James Freeman, Orchestra 2001 is generally a one-on-a-part ensemble. The core personnel numbers fifteen musicians, but many concerts involve additional players, often making the ensemble into a 30 piece chamber orchestra. Orchestra 2001's repertoire is devoted almost entirely to music of the 20th century, especially by American composers. 

Orchestra 2001 Detours to  Schnittke, Bartok, Brahams

by Deborah Kravetz

In a program featuring pieces for two violins, two pianos and violin with cello, Orchestra 2001 presented the area premiere of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso no. 3 for Two Solo Violins and Chamber Orchestra (1985). The piece was composed for the 300th anniversary of J. S. Bach’s birthday, and so the composer, who died in 1998, incorporated many Bachian references.

He has described the piece as beginning “neo-classically, but after some minutes the museum explodes, and we stand with the fragments of the past before the dangerous and uncertain present.” And, indeed, the opening is almost pure Bach, that almost immediately begins going subtly astray in a small fluttery way, before the sudden dissonance sets in; yet the rhythm of the soloists continues, until all dwindles to a unison buzz at the end of the Allegro. 

In Risoluto, the soloists valiantly strive to re-establish the opening theme by themselves. When the ensemble does join them, the mood is energetic, but chilly, with a separate tonality they struggle with, to a sudden and percussive finish. The final three movements are played without pause; fragmented classics, indeed, soloists, unison strings and harpsichord take turns with bleak and harsh phrases.

Schnittke was appropriately followed by the bleak but percussively dynamic Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra (1940) by Bela Bartok. Here, the paired pianos are more in counterpoint than duet, and the ear is captured by the rising and falling waves of rhythm and complexity.
After a tart appetizer and meaty entrée, the Brahms Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, Op. 102 (1887) was a sweet dessert, with echoes of the tart and savory that preceded it.
 
 

Previous Articles/
Busoni The Visionary
The Composer of the Moment:  Mark-Anthony Turnage
Electronic Music
Voices: Henze at 75
Henze Meets Emenim
On Finding Kurtag
Charles Ruggles:  When Men Were Men
Ballet Mécanique
The Adams Chronicles