Alex Ross's Blog, page 19

VoleFest

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Transpiring in Shoshone, California, April 19 and 20. For more, see Friends of the Amargosa Basin.

Previously: The Queen of the Desert.

A Schulhoff moment

The Escher Quartet's Bartók, Igor Levit's Eroica

Twin Feats. The New Yorker, April 1, 2024.

The San Francisco Symphony loses its way

Mark Swed addresses the bleak news from San Francisco, where Esa-Pekka Salonen has cut short his tenure out of frustration with a short-sighted board and an ineffectual management: "Claiming financial projections don’t look good, the board has embarked on a series of cutbacks affecting the SoundBox, eliminating the creative partners, calling off international touring, reducing commissions and so on. The board now presents the San Francisco Symphony as a survivor forgoing experimental treatment and in need of a cautious caretaker. Boards! We can’t live with them, and we certainly can’t live without them. By their very nature, they are about money. They keep the institution running. They raise funds. When boards are excellent, they recognize the artistic vision and make miracles happen. But that can take some doing, because by their very nature, they operate by committee. What has changed over the years is that many boards have become increasingly corporate, increasingly powerful and increasingly clueless.... "

Zedginidze plays Schoenberg

From Schoenberg's son Larry I heard the name Tsotne Zedginidze. He's a surreally gifted fourteen-year-old Georgian pianist and composer who has a strong attraction to Schoenberg's music and plays it with exceptional naturalness and lyricism. In January, he performed the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Simon Rattle and an ensemble made up of members of the Bavarian Youth Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony. You can hear a BR Klassik broadcast here (the concerto starts at 6:33).

James Dean on Schoenberg

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I mention in this week's column that James Dean, who studied piano with Schoenberg's pupil Leonard Rosenman, took an interest in Schoenberg's music. Dean liked to tell a famous anecdote involving Jascha Heifetz and the Violin Concerto. As it happens, Sanford Roth shot a series of photographs of Dean as he was telling the story. Here we seem to see Heifetz complaining that he would need to grow an extra finger to master the work. Schoenberg's legendary reply: “I can wait.”

Come back to the two and dime, Jimmy Dean

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I mention in this week's column that James Dean, who studied piano with Schoenberg's pupil Leonard Rosenman, took an interest in Schoenberg's music. Dean liked to tell a famous anecdote involving Jascha Heifetz and the Violin Concerto. As it happens, Sanford Roth shot a series of photographs of Dean as he was telling the story. Here we seem to see Heifetz complaining that he would need to grow an extra finger to master the work. Schoenberg's legendary reply: “I can wait.”

Schoenberg in Los Angeles

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James Dean telling a famous anecdote: Heifetz complains that he would need to grow a sixth finger to master Schoenberg's Violin Concerto, to which Schoenberg replies, “I can wait.”

Tone Poet. The New Yorker, March 18, 2024.

Nightafternight playlist

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Jürg Frey; String Quartet No. 4; Quatuor Bozzini (Collection QB)

Josquin, Motets and Chansons; Jesse Rodin leading Cut Circle (Musique en Wallonie)

Michael Hersch, Poppea; Ali Young Hong, Steve Davislim, Silke Gäng, Jürg Henneberger conducting the Ensemble SoloVoices and the Ensemble Phoenix Basel (New Focus)

Helvi Leiviskä, Sinfonia brevis, Orchestral Suite No. 2, Symphony No. 2; Dalia Stasevska conducting the Lahti Symphony (BIS)

Joseph Bologne, Three Violin Sonatas, Op. 1b; Andrew McIntosh, Steven Vanhauwaert (Olde Focus)

Messiaen, Turangalîla Symphony; Marc-André Hamelin, Nathalie Forget, Gustavo Gimeno conducting the Toronto Symphony (Harmonia Mundi)

Wagner, Parsifal; Georg Zeppenfeld, Elīna Garanča, Jonas Kaufmann, Ludovic Tézier, Wolfgang Koch, Philippe Jordan conducting the Chorus and Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper (Sony)

Arash Yazdani, Propagation of Uncertainty: works 2011-2023; Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Talvi Hunt, Ensemble du Bout du Monde, Julien Lapeyre, Jean-Marie Paraire, zone expérimentale basel, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian National Symphony (Kairos)

A Vitor Araújo moment