Alex Ross's Blog, page 270

Horenstein

A couple of people noted my advocacy of Jascha Horenstein's Mahler recordings below and wrote in warm reminiscences of the conductor. I still believe what I wrote for the New York Times in 1994: that "Horenstein was the greatest Mahler conductor of his generation, perhaps of any generation."

CD of the Week: Richard Goode's Beethoven

The Adagio from Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto, with Richard Goode, piano, and Iván Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra; Nonesuch 480508.

A Mahler list

Pursuant to my Mahler column this week, here's a list of
favorite recordings of the nine, ten, or eleven Mahler symphonies,
depending on how you count them. I do this with some trepidation, since
Mahler is a personal matter and my tastes are hardly the same as, say,
Alec Baldwin's. But I hope the list will serve as a rough guide to
anyone traversing the Mahler mountain range for the first time.

No. 1: Rafael Kubelík, Bavarian Radio Symphony (DG)
No. 2: Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Sympho

Mahler symphonies at Carnegie

Endless Mahler. The New Yorker, June 8, 2009.

Bloomberg's masterpiece

In matters pertaining to the visual arts I defer absolutely to the sharp eye and fluid pen of my colleague Peter Schjeldahl, but I can't help taking brief note of an important, startling, and subtly trangressive art installation that is currently on view in the middle of Times Square. It is called What the Hell Are Those Lawn Chairs Doing in the Middle of Times Square, and the artist is a promising neophyte named Mike Bloomberg, aka "His Honor." Bloomberg has already drawn notice for works suc

Sydney

Cavalli and Venetian opera

 Unsung. The New Yorker, May 25, 2009.

At 2:45 in this video, Marie-Nicole Lemieux sings a portion of the great Didone lament discussed in the column. Also featured is the young Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu (see his celestial Vivaldi below). Recommended recordings: Emmanuelle Haïm's Lamenti disc, with Lemieux, Lehtipuu, et al; the DVD of  Herbert Wernicke's enchanting production of Calisto, with René Jacobs conducting; and Jacobs's rendition of Giasone, presently available only via MP3 download. R

Down under

Because of an impending trip to Australia, your błøgger will miss a slew of interesting events in NYC in the coming week. Next weekend sees the debut of 13 Near-Death Experiences, the latest conceptual work by the composer and singer Corey Dargel. Performances are on May 22 and 23 at PS 122 with the men and women of ICE. In 2007 I reported on Dargel's beautifully bizarre theater piece Removable Parts. On May 20 and 21, Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays the three Bartók piano concertos with Jonathan No

Note of thanks

I would like to express deep gratitude for two honors that recently came my way: the Royal Philharmonic Society of England gave its Creative Communication Award to The Rest Is Noise (book and blog), and the Manhattan School of Music pronounced me Doctor of Musical Arts, honoris causa.

Mr. Philharmonic

The actor Alec Baldwin explains to David Letterman how he came to be the radio voice of the New York Philharmonic: "All of the people who are prominent in classical music come from one of two locations — Vienna or Massapequa, Long Island." Baldwin seems a genuine fan; he has shown up for several installments of Carnegie Hall's current Mahler cycle.