[Addendum: I do realize that the quote, the music, and the overall angsty anti-Modernist zeitgeist of this post are very 1990’s, but whatever — it still rings true, and as much as the situation may have changed, one must be ever vigilant.]
tells of a (fictional) visit in 1972 in Oxford between the onetime artistic collaborators Auden, who would die the next year, and Britten that finds room within it for the competing attentions of a rent boy (Stephen Wight), whom Auden has hired for a frolicsome bit of fellatio, and of Humphrey Carpenter (Adrian Scarborough), both men’s real-life biographer, who is on hand to dispense important bits of narrative and raise questions about “the shortcomings of great men.â€
Meanwhile, the British remain privy to the greatest, boldest artistic festival in recent memory: the London Philharmonic’s “Between Two Worlds” festival, featuring the music of Alfred Schnittke. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media across the pond is just as dunderheaded as it is here:
It seems a trifle self-indulgent of Jurowski to follow up this fiasco so soon with another hugely costly and equally bizarre mish-mash of mysticism and doggerel – Alfred Schnittke’s opera-cantata The History of D Johann Faustus, unperformed since its Hamburg première in 1995.
Um, did you just call Al Schnittke “doggerel“? Burn. I’ll let my readers be the judge:
The Faustus score embraces everything from pseudo-Bachian chorales and declamatory recitative in the style of the Passions through the manic depressive symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich to Weill’s cabaret songs and even, I felt, a touch of Lloyd Webber schmaltz.
Wow, is that what you felt, Rupert? Well you must be like really, really smart to hear all of those things. I’m just overwhelmed. Did you also write this review?
I am so exasperated to find that the Evansville, South Dakota Volunteer Fire Department Symphony Orchestra has mandatorily decided to perform the cacophoneuous gross concertoes of the communist Alfred Schnittke.
What is wrong with the pomp and fireplace of Elgar? Or a rousting rendition of John Williams scores? The Conductor of the Symphony promised us Scheherazade and Paganini’s Violin Concerto Number One.
I did not purchase my season tickets to the ESDVFDSO to be treated to a barrage  of communist music .
This Schnittke is hurting my ears. Help me.
But seriously, much of the press concerning this festival brings up a larger critical problem concerning Schnittke and his music: that he is inevitably compared to Shostakovitch. Folks, this has simply got to stop. Because let’s be honest — objectively, Schnittke is a way better composer. Like, orders of magnitude better. Yes, they both lived in Soviet Russia, and Shostakovitch was certainly an influence on AS, but Schnittke is working on a whole different level, and the musical and extra-musical issues associated with his music are a total different beast.
Well, all of a sudden, it seems that there is a new major international figure in the world of conducting: Long Yu, whose Shanghai Symphony recently went on tour to the U.S. He’s sort of a Chinese Valery Gergiev – non-stop schedule, responsible for all the top Chinese orchestras (China Phil, Shanghai Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, Beijing Music Festival) and a powerful political figure to boot.
The question is, why haven’t we heard of this guy before? I guess it’s probably my own fault for not investigating the Chinese classical music scene more extensively, despite my true belief that China is the single major emerging market for classical music, and that anybody truly interested in classical music as an Industry really ought to pick up a Mandarin Dictionary.
Anyway, here’s some of the scant videographic evidence I was able to find of Mr. Yu, conducting the Mozart Requiem for the Vatican… somehow it doesn’t look or sound very Mozarty to me, but I’ll let you be the judge of that:
[p.s. I’m a conductor – why has no member of the press ever asked me to “talk whiskey”? Also, there’s surprisingly little actual “whiskey talk” for an article that bills itself thus. It doesn’t even say what brand he drinks.]
[pps. I’m a Wild Turkey man myself, in case any journalists happen to be reading this.]
Robin Usher of Australia’s “The Age” newspaper reports that
a secret revolt by leading Melbourne Symphony musicians led to the decision by the orchestra’s management to terminate the contract of its chief conductor and artistic director, Oleg Caetani.
Unfamiliar with the work of Mr. Caetani, I did a bit of sleuthing. OK now, seriously — does anybody else find this video unintentionally hilarious? It exists in French, Italian, English and German… I’m going with the latter (lattest?) just because that’s the first one I found and I just like it the best. Also, isn’t the unintentional hilarity of this video somehow amplified by its being on YouTube? Or is it just me?
While everyone has been mourning (ok well, at least noting) the passing of Alex Ross’s “The Rest is Noise” blog, in my own personally dorkish way, I am more upset about the end of Henry Fogel’s “on the record” blog. I highly recommend the archives to anyone interested in orchestras or arts administration. Mr. Fogel is a renaissance man, having been the CEO of the Chicago Symphony, the President of the American Symphony Orchestra League, and now Dean of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts (can we say ‘major coup’?) His insights are required reading for anybody interested in the behind-the-scenes governance of an American orchestra.
Meanwhile, amid all the hubbub of Dudamel’s new L.A. gig, did anyone realize that he renewed his contract as music director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra of Sweden? So, you know what would be really funny? If citizens of Gothenburg decided to parody this video:
by making their own video of regular (and increasingly awkward) Swedes-on-the-street coming up to the camera and saying, “We are pleased to renew your contract for the next 3 years, Gustavo!” or “We’d like to keep you on our payroll for another 36 months, Gustavo!”, or “Please don’t forget that we’d be happy to have you use our orchestra as a testing ground for your future projects on an additional triennial basis, Gustavo!”
I kind of doubt that they’ll do that though… something about it strikes me as extremely un-Swedish. I don’t really know much about Swedish Humor, but if it’s anything like a Bergman film, it’s not very funny.
