Alex Ross's Blog, page 261

What's happening?

Some readers may be wondering just what is going on with my various blogs. Last fall I announced that I was moving to the New Yorker's bustling site, which generously offered me a base. For some reason, though, I haven't been able to shake the present site, and lately I've found myself posting here more often. It's too tempting to spout nonsense here in the middle of the night. What we've decided is that The Rest Is Noise will remain my main base for shorter, breezier matter—news items...

CD of the Week: Finley's Britten

Charles Didbin's "Tom Bowling," arr. Britten; Gerald Finley, baritone, and Julius Drake, piano; Hyperion CDA67778.

A footnote: Britten and Pears performed the original version of the song on Dec. 14, 1941, at a recital at Southold High School, on Long Island. Pearl Harbor must have been on their minds.

Bienvenue!

My book (the old one) has been receiving some nice attention in France since Actes Sud published it last month; there is a very kind review in the current Nouvel Observateur. Laurent Slaars, my brilliant French translator, went so far as to play my Stravinsky-Lachnenmann-Bieber dance track, "Ritelachen," on France Culture radio (about two-thirds of the way in; brief excerpt above). Donc je voudrais saluer cordialement mes lecteurs français! On peut trouver ici un...

For Ernest Fleischmann

Ernest Fleischmann, the longtime manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a galvanizing force in modern orchestral culture, has died at the age of eighty-five. His monument will stand for a long time at the corner of First and Grand in LA.

Weekend video

From the Bay Area come glowing reports for the San Francisco Opera's production of Die Walküre, in which the brilliant Swedish soprano Nine Stemme sings her first American Brünnhilde. Above, Stemme sings the Liebestod from Tristan.

The history of applause

Official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson.

In 2005, I wrote a series of posts here on the changing etiquette of concert-hall applause. I summarized my findings in an extended "special report." I returned to the topic back in March, in a lecture at the Royal Philharmonic Society in London. I meant to post the text of the speech but never got around to it. Here's
a pdf. Incidentally, I was delighted by the response to my "Paris" Symphony experiment, in which I asked the audience...

Ear to the speaker

The UK edition of my new book will be published by Fourth Estate on October 28th.[image error]

The Emersons' Dvořák

Radical Simplicity. The New Yorker, June 7, 2010.

I mention the Bohemian and Prague Quartets' classic pre-war Dvořák recordings, which Ward Marston beautifully remastered for Biddulph. Unfortunately, that issue seems to be out of print. The Emersons' new three-CD set is generally excellent.

Weekend video

Barbara Hannigan sings Gepopo in a clip from the New York Philharmonic's recent production of Le Grand Macabre.

Radio Ustvolskaya

Tonight in Madrid, Petr Kotik, the longtime leader of the S. E. M. Ensemble in New York, will lead the Orquesta de la Comunidad de
Madrid in a program of works by the late Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya: three of her five symphonies, the Composition No. 3, the Octet, and the 1946 Concerto for Piano, Strings, and Timpani. The concert comes at the end of an Universo Ustvolskaya series by musicadhoy Madrid. I'm happy to see that the official Ustvolskaya site is offering detailed