Tag: 02.13.05

Can Orchestras Reinvent Themselves With New Music?

The Minnesota Orchestra’s highly regarded new recording of Beethoven symphonies might be a short-term success, but does it really bode well for orchestral recordings in the longer view? “The Beethoven series does nothing to distinguish the orchestra — countless other recordings of this music exist — nor does it further new music. Orchestras can’t afford to ground their 21st-century futures on 19th-century music… By championing living composers as their own and entwining the recordings of their works with performances, orchestras can establish distinct identities regionally and internationally and ensure the vitality of new music.”

Putting Grammy On A Diet

There are too many Grammy awards. 107, to be exact, as compared with 28 for the supposedly interminable Oscars. And while every single one of those awards probably has its defenders, there is little question that the ceremony is in desperate need of a hatchet job. To begin with, isn’t it time to dump most (if not all) of the classical catagories? “Classical musicians aren’t wrong to feel slighted in a culture addicted to base pop music. But the current arrangement seems mainly therapeutic, like a teacher giving every kid a gold star just for coming to class.” And on the pop side of the ledger, do we really need a Best Album, a Best Record, a Best Pop Vocal Album, and a Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album?

The Gates Open

One by one, on a sunny Saturday morning in winter, 7,500 huge ribbons of saffron-colored fabric were released from their bonds and turned New York’s Central Park into a blaze of color, courtesy of the installation artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “Like all projects by this duo, ‘The Gates’ is as much a public happening as it is a vast environmental sculpture and a feat of engineering… The gates need to be – they are conceived to be – experienced on the ground, at eye level, where, as you move through the park, they crisscross and double up, rising over hills, blocking your view of everything except sky, then passing underfoot, through an underpass, or suddenly appearing through a copse of trees, their fabric fluttering in the corner of your eye.”

Defying Category: Meredith Monk

“At age 62, Meredith Monk has 40 years of category-defying works that combine film, choreography, and voice-based tapestries that traffic in life-defining experiences. Her simplicity of musical means suggests, in the words of one critic, folk music for a civilization that hasn’t been invented yet. (Her detractors compare her music to high-toned commercials for Meow Mix.)”

Arthur Miller’s Legacy

Arthur Miller had such an influence on the world that it doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve seen his plays. “That’s the thing about great works of art: We can’t imagine a time before they existed, before certain phrases and ideas were part of the very air we breathed. And thus even if you’ve never seen “Death of a Salesman” or haven’t read “The Crucible” since high school — you’re still influenced by Arthur Miller, who died Thursday at age 89. The world is so suffused with the wisdom of those plays, with their indispensability, that we can’t envision somebody actually sitting down and writing them, line by line, and cursing and wadding up sheets of paper and trying again.”

The Orchestra Ritual

“From dress to choreographed movements and the courtly interplay between conductor and musicians, the classical music stage is rich in etiquette and sometimes hijinks that are not always obvious to the audience. Chronicling this tradition goes back to Hector Berlioz and his classic “Evenings With an Orchestra,” a collection of essays dissecting the world of 19th-century orchestras and musical culture.”

Last of The American Renaissance Men?

Arthur Miller’s contemporaries in the theatre world remember him as a man of principle, of deep intellectual curiosity, and possessed of an immense talent for observing the human condition through prose. “He was absolutely charming. He was cast-iron… You would say how are you and for the next fifteen minutes you could sit back and enjoy and wonderful reply.”

Sozanski On Christo: Ribbon Of Color? I Don’t See It

Ed Sozanski was in New York’s Central Park as Christo and Jeanne Claude’s banners were unfurled. “Despite the enormous number of gates, their spacing is such that they never coalesce into a memorable visual force. One perceives hundreds of individual elements instead of an ensemble. Even from a distance – looking across the spacious lawn of the Sheep Meadow, for instance – the effect is fragmented, even slightly chaotic. Only when one is sighting down a curve and the panels elide one into another does The Gates achieve coherence, but those impressions last only a few seconds.”