Comments on: Piano Music by Women Composers

By: Vanessa Lann

Vanessa Lann — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:41:35 +0000

Check out this article from “The New York Times” about a school teacher in Texas and her museum “class trip”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/education/30teacher.html?ex=1159848000&en=0adf54fecf9b630b&ei=5087

How aptly it pertains to the above discussion…

By: david toub

david toub — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:49:00 +0000

Glenn, had you placed a nude photo of Feldman on your latest DVD, I’m sure it would fly off the shelves….

By: Glenn Freeman

Glenn Freeman — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:32:44 +0000

Beth, there must a nude photo of you laying around somewhere … However, all those other covers will help you to obtain grants from conservative corporate/academic circles. If I were you, I would stick with the money.

By: Beth Anderson

Beth Anderson — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:49:26 +0000

Wow. Clearly I have been putting the wrong things on my CD covers– my grandmother’s crazy quilt, a meadow from our farm in Kentucky, a hillside from that same farm, art by a woman artist…

By: Glenn Freeman

Glenn Freeman — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 01:19:34 +0000

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000H7J9LW.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V58788185_.jpg

By: Glenn Freeman

Glenn Freeman — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:20:27 +0000

If you fancy topless males, take a look at Steve Martland’s CDs on the old Catalyst label. I’ve always enjoyed and purchased Martland’s music, but prefer images of beautiful women on CD covers. However, I’ve always purchased CDs for the music, not the cover. But, it seems many classical music listeners do otherwise, based on what sells and the stupid choices all those arts management firms (based in NYC) make on a daily basis.

By: david toub

david toub — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 03:29:47 +0000

Vanessa, thanks for the kind words!

Glenn, I don’t disagree at all with what you say. It’s just that in our society, I find that women are depicted sans clothes far more often than men. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a CD cover with a photo of Nigel Kennedy without a shirt or pants, nor one of Simon Rattle or any other male performer or conductor. I personally found the photo to be very artistic, and in that context it’s great. I just wondered why it’s necessary to depict a naked woman on the cover of a CD of music by women composers when there never seems to be a similar tendency when male or female performers perform music by male composers.

And even in more right wing states like Texas, I can assure you women do not hide themselves. Having lived briefly in Houston when I was at MD Anderson, I’m not sure I’d characterize it as fundamentalist. They did elect Ann Richards, for example (which was unfortunately followed by a certain moron who really is a New England blue blood, but I digress). But I would certainly characterize a good part of this country as fundamentalist, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim. And that’s unfortunate, since fundamentalist views are what have caused more than enough violence and death throughout history.

By: Glenn Freeman

Glenn Freeman — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:08:41 +0000

Provocative cover art attracts attention. Christina Fong’s recording of Cage’s solo violin Number Pieces featured the below cover art.

http://www.tcfgraphics.com/LargerImagePages/GraphicArtPages/1on1.htm

Beautiful women need not hide themselves (unless they live in fundamentalist states such as Texas or Saudi Arabia). It is one tool they can and should use to help them deal with such a sexist and stupid classical music industry.

By: Vanessa Lann

Vanessa Lann — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:08:21 +0000

Hi David, thank you so much for reviewing this cd. Tomoko Mukaiyama is an incredible pianist, and I was so pleased that she asked me to contribute a work for this project (“Inner Piece” / track 3). I was really excited about the result, and I’m grateful to you and to Sequenza 21 for bringing this cd to more people’s attention. As far as the cover is concerned, you make a very good point about the misleading message it could be sending out. The fact is that the late husband of Tomoko Mukaiyama, Philip Mechanicus, was a well-known, wonderful photographer in The Netherlands (where I also live). This photo is actually one of many nudes he made over the years. I think that the use of the photo on the cd cover was basically intended to show Tomoko in an artistic, beautiful, somewhat vulnerable, yet also powerful, manner. But, of course, there are so many layers of meaning in such an image, it makes sense that every viewer will respond to it in his or her own way. Especially when the cd features works which have in common the fact that all the composers are female! In any case, thanks for the positive things you said about all of the pieces, about the playing, and about the collection in general!