Because I like it.

The big story today is that Opera News, which boasts the largest circulation of any classical music magazine in this country, will no longer review the Metropolitan Opera. Opera News is published by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a support group for the company, so you might think this is about conflict of interest, but no. It’s because the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, didn’t like the lambasting the magazine was giving to the company’s widely excoriated new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle.

Click here to read the New York Times article.

I hope that saner minds will prevail.

UPDATE (from Met Opera press release, via Alex Ross):

“In view of the outpouring of reaction from opera fans about the recent decision to discontinue Met performance reviews in Opera News, the Met has decided to reverse this new editorial policy. From their postings on the internet, it is abundantly clear that opera fans would miss reading reviews about the Met in Opera News. Ultimately, the Met is here to serve the opera-loving public and has changed its decision because of the passionate response of the fans.

“The Met and the Met Opera Guild, the publisher of Opera News, have been in discussions about the role of the Guild and how its programs and activities can best fulfill its mission of supporting the Metropolitan Opera. These discussions have included the role of reviews in Opera News, and whether they served that mission. While the Met believed it did not make sense for a house organ that is published by the Guild and financed by the Met to continue to review Met productions, it has become clear that the reviews generate tremendous excitement and interest and will continue to have a place in Opera News.”

Wow, saner minds did prevail. I didn’t know that happened anymore.

Photo Credits: Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging. You may click on for larger views.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau — “the 20th century’s pre-eminent interpreter of art songs” — has died. I’ve never heard a more beautiful voice.

New York Times obituary is here.

Click here to read Pacific Symphony to offer free simulcast of Beethoven’s 9th

In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s performance of Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great,” given by Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony. Also on the program: Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and “Sattha” by Narong Prangcharoen.

Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.

In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s concert given by the New York Philharmonic and conductor Alan Gilbert as they launched a California tour.

Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.

Incidentally, in his comments just before the downbeat, the president of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Dean Corey, mentioned me by name … which is a weird experience. He brought up my recent post here on clapping between movements. In context, it seemed as if he was implying that I was against it, but he didn’t actually say so. At any rate, he suggested to the audience that it not applaud between movements, and it didn’t. So, in this case at least, an announcement appeared to work.

It’s a big week for orchestras in O.C. and L.A.

The New York Philharmonic visits for the first time with music director Alan Gilbert. They perform Tuesday night in Segerstrom Concert Hall (closing out the Philharmonic Society’s season there) and Wednesday night in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Both programs have something to offer, though frustrate as well.

On Tuesday, Gilbert and the Phil perform three pieces that I consider among my favorites, all featuring sparkling orchestrations: Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture, Debussy’s La Mer and Ravel’s La Valse. Yefim Bronfman arrives for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. And while I look forward to hearing him playing it, I would much rather have heard Magnus Lindberg’s new piano concerto (his second), which Bronfman and the Phil will play in L.A. the next day (a concert I most likely won’t get to.) The Lindberg in O.C. would have made good sense too, since during its season the Philharmonic Society featured American orchestras that played substantial contemporary pieces (by Bates, Higdon and Saariaho).

And while the Disney Hall performance will include the Lindberg, it surrounds it with a pair of over-familiar works — Dvorak’s “Carnival” Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. (Here’s Martin Bernheimer’s review of the same program, played Thursday in New York.)

Thursday through Saturday, Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony take on Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, always a pleasure to hear. And yet, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a satisfactory live performance of it. I can only assume it’s difficult to pull off. It seems to me that a successful traversal of it requires a combination of factors not very often encountered. It needs to feel inevitable, like a train on rails, like a machine. But the machine plays folk music. So, it has to be a warm and gracious machine. My favorite recording manages it — this one, by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

St.Clair and his musicians add a new piece by Narong Prangcharoen (who once won the orchestra’s American Composers Competition, which included audience voting) and Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (a piece we haven’t heard in a long while) with the young American pianist Andrew von Oeyen as soloist.

And Gustavo Dudamel is back. Sort of. He dropped out of the Green Umbrella concert on Tuesday, citing the need to concentrate on John Adams’ new oratorio, “The Gospel According to the Other Mary,” which he will premiere with the L.A. Phil later this month.

Thursday and Saturday, though, Dudamel leads the orchestra in Mozart’s “Figaro” Overture and “Posthorn” Serenade, which sandwich Peteris Vasks’ violin concerto “Distant Light” (with Alina Pogostkina). Next week, it’s “Don Giovanni.”

Thanks to a colleague, I have Wednesday and Friday off from the celeb column, so I’ll be able to review the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday and the Pacific Symphony on Thursday.

Updated

Bought this for $1 in my local library’s used book store. It’s vinyl. I actually had the record on an old Stereo Treasury Series reissue, but this is the original vinyl from the late 1950s. It sounds terrific — not just the performance, but the recording itself. Decca’s crack engineers traveled to Victoria Hall in Geneva to capture it. There’s both space and clarity in the result, a real sense that you’re in the room with Ataulfo Argenta and the orchestra. What surprised me most is that the recording is monaural (it was also issued in a Stereophonic version, but this isn’t it).  Iberia is one of Debussy’s most underrated works, by the way.

The vinyl within.

On another visit to the library’s bookshop, I was amazed to find this book staring at me from the shelf. It’s a first edition of “My Mark Twain” by his friend and colleague William Dean Howells. (I paid a few bucks for it.) It was put together and published the year Twain died, in 1910. The first part of the book consists of Howells’ reminiscences of his friend; the second is a collection of his reviews of Twain’s books, written over many years. In the end, the book is a little uneven and leisurely but also charming and warm. You get a good sense of what both Howells and Twain were like.

Here’s the title page.

Alain de Botton’s “Religion for Atheists” explores the ways religious practices could be put to use in a secular society. De Botton is an atheist — he says so right off — but the book doesn’t attack religion. Rather, he thinks there are a lot of good things about religion that Enlightenment thinkers (and all of us) have thrown out with the bath water. Some of de Botton’s ideas are far-fetched, and they’ll never be put into practice, yet their very far-fetchedness points to how empty much of secular life can be. De Botton is one of my favorite writers; there’s no one that I know of that thinks or writes quite like him. This isn’t his best — start with “The Consolations of Philosophy,” “Status Anxiety,” “The Architecture of Happiness” or “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work” — but, as always with him, it is extremely thought-provoking. You look at life differently for having read it.

Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine: How Creativity Works” starts out by examining what goes on in the brain when creativity happens. (It’s the usual — scientists see different parts of the brain light up and interact with each other when various creative acts occur.) Interesting enough. He then approaches the subject from several angles — peering into the creative cultures and best practices at places like Proctor and Gamble (R and D is good!), Apple and Pixar; telling us how Bob Dylan and W.H. Auden did their best work. (Auden took amphetamines.) I found myself tiring of this second part. Too much about corporate culture, it reads like a prospectus for management types who want to get the most out of their workers. I guess I wanted more on how I could get the most out of my own creativity. Some of it’s there, but Lehrer’s tone is Polyanna-ish and the writing is, perhaps, on an 8th grade level. (“Very unique” — really?) I much preferred Lehrer’s previous book: “How We Decide.”

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