Strangest choice of the Summer

Milton Babbit and Elliot Carter, two of the great figures of serialism, get together in Tanglewood to perform... Stravinsky? What am I missing here?

Opera, Take 1 - Ironic conducting

Lately, through my chronological survey of the 19th century, I've been listening to Tannhauser and La Traviata. When I studied conducting in college, La Traviata was one of my great frustrations. One of our early assignments was the prelude to Tristan, a piece that I own 6 recordings of; that I'd owned in score and reduction for several years; that I'd learned on the piano; and that I'd studied every measure of in theory class. I've even studied the never heard and largely unknown concert ending. And yet, I struggled mightily with it when I took up the baton. I know it's a maddeningly difficult score, but after weeks of practicing, I felt like I was getting nowhere.

So when I was assigned Violetta's first act arias from La Traviata, which I'd never encountered before, and which I don't really care for, I was a bit disappointed to discover that, in the words of my teacher, I had an aptitude for it. Funny how that works -- of all the different pieces I'd studied over my semesters of conducting, I was best at the piece I cared about least. I put effort into trying to like early and middle Verdi, but I never get anywhere. If anything, I resent Verdi after my experience in conducting class.





I also just watched Boris Goudonov on DVD. Somehow, I never noticed how much Gershwin owes Mossourgsky before.

Independent Music

I'll never understand why the centerpiece of the Pops [Esplanade] 4th of July Celebration is a piece of Russian propaganda music.