Alex Ross's Blog, page 184

Und nun etwas ganz anderes

The Adorno Monument in Frankfurt. Photograph by Eric Chinski, godfather of Noise.

Escucha esto

Escucha esto, the Spanish version of Listen to This, is now available, in a translation by Luis Gago. I'm surprised and delighted to report that it appears at No. 7 on El Mundo's non-fiction bestseller list. I'm deeply grateful for the tireless efforts of my Spanish publisher, Seix Barral.

Taking Wagner in stride

Maestro Ethan Iverson sent this deeply delightful piece of work my way. Lambert recorded it in 1941. Other items that I played in the course of today's Wagner lecture:

— Lohengrin Prelude; Kempe, Vienna Philharmonic (EMI)

— Stan Kenton, "The Ride of the Valkyries" (h/t Mark Stryker)

— Tristan Prelude; Carlos Kleiber, Dresden Staatskapelle (DG)

— Isolde's "Frau Minne will, es werde Nacht"; Flagstad, Furtwängler, Philharmonia (EMI)

— Excerpts from Act II of Walküre; Milinkovič, Hotter, Keilberth, Bayreuth 1955 (Testament)

— Excerpts from Act III of Parsifal; Pape, Domingo, Thielemann, Wiener Staatsoper (DG)

— Parsifal Act III Verwandlungsmusik; Muck, Bayreuth 1927 (Naxos)

Many thanks to all who came out to see the talk!

For Carlos Moseley

From the New York Philharmonic comes word of the death of Carlos Moseley, whose remarkable career with the orchestra lasted from 1955 to 1985. "Beginning as Director of Press and Public Relations," the announcement says, "he rose to become Managing Director (a post now referred to as Executive Director), President, and Chairman of the Board." Moseley presided over the Bernstein-Boulez era at the Philharmonic, during which the orchestra cut an uncommonly bold and unpredictable profile. He was an elegant, courtly man, whose South Carolina accent probably fooled more than a few Easterners into underestimating his intelligence and savoir faire. He was, above all, deeply musical, a pianist of considerable skill; while studying at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood), he played Brahms's fiendishly difficult Second Piano Concerto, under the direction of the young Bernstein.

I interviewed Moseley in 2002 — not about his career at the Philharmonic, although we inevitably touched on those years, but about his work as a Music Specialist in Bavaria in the late 1940s, during the Allied occupation of Germany. I recount some of his stories in The Rest Is Noise: his early advocacy of Bernstein, who made a hugely successful German début in 1948; his visit to Bayreuth and his eerie meeting with Winifred Wagner; and his role in negotiating Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner's takeover of the festival. (There's much more material in David Monod's 2005 book Settling Scores.) Above is a letter that I found at the National Archives: the Wagner brothers are inviting Moseley to attend a 1949 concert at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. The cultural files of the American occupation hold much more evidence of Moseley's pragmatic labors on behalf of German music — most notably, perhaps, his unstinting support for Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Musica Viva series in Munich. In 1948, he arranged for 350 Musica Viva tickets to be bought by the occupying authority and then given away to young German music students. The memos relating to Musica Viva are contained in an old gray folder stamped "NSDAP" — the Nazi Party. I assume that Moseley had found a stash of Nazi stationery and, with a fine sense of irony, repurposed it to different ends. Either that, or, canny administrator that he was, he chose to save a little money on office expenses.

Moseley died today at the grand age of ninety-eight.

Nightafternight playlist

New recordings of interest.

— Feldman, Crippled Symmetry; Eberhard Blum, Jan Williams, Nils Vigeland (frozen reeds)
— Bach, Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 and Partita No. 1 for violin; Isabelle Faust (Harmonia Mundi)
— Salonen, Violin Concerto, Nyx; Leila Josefowicz, Salonen conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony (DG; out Oct. 16)
— Kristin Norderval, Aural Histories (Deep Listening)
— Mission: Agostino Steffani arias; Cecilia Bartoli, Diego Fasolis, I Barocchisti (Decca)
— Tansy Davies, spine and other works; Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Azalea, Concordia (NMC)
— Górecki, Miserere, Lobgesang, Marian Songs; Los Angeles Master Chorale (Decca)
— Schubert, Piano Sonata D. 845, Wanderer Fantasy, Impromptus D. 760, Moments Musicaux; Paul Lewis (Harmonia Mundi)

Haas at Columbia

Word seems to be getting out, although I haven't seen an official announcement: Georg Friedrich Haas, one of the leading European composers of his or any generation, will begin teaching at Columbia University during the 2012-13 academic year, assuming the post previously held by Tristan Murail. An independent thinker with a profound knowledge of the American experimental tradition, Haas promises to be a rich addition to New York musical life. I wrote about him in 2010.

Wagner in Israel

A comment for the New Yorker website. The photo shows the Second Zionist Congress, in Basel, in 1898; at Theodor Herzl's behest, the Tannhäuser Overture inaugurated the meeting.

Wagner talk

Jean Delville, "Tristan et Iseut," 1887.

On Sunday, October 7, as part of this year's New Yorker Festival, I will give a lecture entitled "The Wagner Vortex." Details are at this link; tickets go on sale Friday, Sept. 14.

Cage = 100

The big day is at hand. I have a preview post at the New Yorker website, and the magazine has unleashed my 2010 Cage piece from behind the paywall. Here in New York, there will be Cage events all day at Symphony Space and a pair of evening concerts at The Stone.

Long and winding road

Allan Kozinn, a long-serving and widely respected classical critic at the New York Times, is being taken off the music beat and assigned to general cultural reporting. Allan wrote yesterday in a public message on his Facebook page: "It's been more than a privilege to write about music and musicians for the Times for the last thirty-five years. I've heard, seen
and covered a few lifetimes' worth of great and interesting music. Although there's a great deal more I wanted to do — I've really enjoyed
watching the new-music world catch fire in recent years — I'll
obviously continue to keep tabs on it through Steve Smith's work, not to mention directly, where possible, while I'm doing whatever it is I'll be doing instead." Many in the music world, myself included, are baffled and saddened by this development: a petition calling for his reinstatement gathered hundreds of signatures overnight. Whatever the outcome of that effort, Allan must be gratified to see this outpouring of appreciation for his decades of work. He is a critic of vast experience and keen perception.