Los Angeles Philharmonic names Susanna Mälkki principal guest conductor. The Orange County Register, April 6, 2016.
Albers and Weiss
Review: Julie Albers, Orion Weiss find gold in the seldom heard. The Orange County Register, April 4, 2016.
Two orchestras give the Musco Center a test run
Review: Musco Center gets a tryout in concert hall configuration. The Orange County Register, April 3, 2016.
More old vinyl (Monteux)
I began collecting the recordings of the French conductor Pierre Monteux more than 30 years ago, first on vinyl then on CD. I have almost everything he did by now.
Monteux was a wonderful conductor, never showy or exaggerated but always crisp, vital and vibrant, even in his late recordings. (The Mozart symphony recordings above were made when he was 88.) Most or all of his stereo recordings were made in his 80s, in fact, as he turned 80 in 1955. (Stravinsky wrote his “Greeting Prelude” as a birthday gift to Monteux that year.)
Click on the photos for larger views of some of my Monteux record labels.
Music criticism books (2): ‘Lexicon of Musical Invective’
Here we are at the “Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time,” written and edited by Nicolas Slonimsky and published in three or four editions over the years. Mine is from the University of Washington Press.
It’s an infamous and funny book, a collection of seemingly wrongheaded reviews of musical masterpieces. It would appear to lambaste the critical profession. But it’s really more than that — including a record of how certain pieces and composers were received in their own time; a record of how new music has always been a test to contemporary ears; and also a record of the once colorful language used by critics to describe their aural experiences.
Slonimsky himself cherished the latter, and regretted its disappearance, as you will see from his inscription in my copy (the second photo). I think he meant it. (Slonimsky, age 93, spoke and performed at my graduation from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Along with a few other students, I also had dinner with him at the time. This is when he inscribed the book, I believe.)
The photos show the cover; the page with Slonimsky’s inscription; the title page; the table of contents (which lists the prefatory essay, “Non-Acceptance of the Unfamiliar,” an important contribution to critical aesthetics); and two randomly sampled pages presenting invective aimed at Prokofiev and Brahms (they’re funny).
Click on photos for larger views.
Music criticism books (1): Virgil Thomson’s ‘The Art of Judging Music’
I thought I’d share a few of the music criticism books in my collection, for various reasons, but mostly just because people don’t seem to know about them.
The photos above are of the cover and some pages from one of my favorites, Virgil Thomson’s “The Art of Judging Music,” his second collection of his music reviews from the Herald Tribune, published in 1948.
In addition to being stupendous music criticism, Thomson’s writing is a superior example of good, honest American prose style.
My photos show a detail of the cover; the title page; the first page of the table of contents; and two pages of reviews. The reviews in the book duplicate the format of the Herald Tribune, which helpfully listed the cast of singers before an opera review, and the pieces that were performed on an orchestral concert.
Click on the photos for larger views.
Old vinyl
Every once in a while, people ask me to take their old vinyl records off their hands. I’ve been offered hundreds, even thousands of them. Since I already have quite a few, and still listen to them, I can only ever take a small fraction of what’s offered.
My father-in-law is the latest to rid himself of his vinyl and the above photos are of the labels of the records I kept. There’s some good stuff here, but also among the others I left behind. Maybe because I used to work at a record store (Tower Records on Sunset, in the classical annex), I have a fondness for record labels.
You can click on the individual labels for larger views.
William Wordsworth: Symphony No. 3 (1951)
Nicholas Braithwaite conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
To hear other works in my Neglected Symphonies series, click here.
Stewart Copeland’s ‘Ben-Hur’
Review: Copeland’s ‘Ben-Hur’ is a booming bust. The Orange County Register, March 20, 2016.
Review: Musco Center for the Arts
Review: Musco Center for the Arts opens with operatic celebration. The Orange County Register, March 20, 2016.
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