Alex Ross's Blog, page 71

The state of the art

The Sounds of Music. The New Yorker, Aug. 27, 2018.

Jackie to Lenny

The Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress has recently added much new material to its online trove. Above is a letter from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to "Felicia and Lennie," dated January 1970 — some months before the appearance of Tom Wolfe's repellent, reactionary hit-job on the Bernsteins.

Bayreuth 2018

Wagner Rebooted. The New Yorker, Aug. 20, 2018.

Still Wagnerian

Wagnerism may not look much shorter than it did in January, but I have managed to excise more than eighty thousand words. Wagnerian and Wagneristic volumes fill the shelves behind.

Fifth Bayreuth pilgrimage

I passed through Bayreuth to see Yuval Sharon's new production of Lohengrin and last year's Meistersinger, by Barrie Kosky. A report will appear in a future issue of The New Yorker. In keeping with my composer-grave habit, this year I not only paid homage to the Meister, the Meisterin, and their dogs but also went to the Stadtfriedhof to see the resting places of Liszt, Hans Richter, and various other Wagners. Above lies Richter. An attempt to find the grave of Oskar Panizza, author of Das Liebeskonzil and "Bayreuth und Homosexualität," was unsuccessful.

Seldom does the ordinary operagoer have the opportunity to see stars just before they go onstage, but in a parking lot near the Festspielhaus a fortunate few caught a glimpse of the canines playing the roles of Marke and Molly in Kosky's Meistersinger. That production opens with a delightful pantomime of a day at Wahnfried, circa 1875.

Incidentally, last year saw the publication of Franziska Polanski's Richard Wagners Hunde, in which the history of Wagner's dogs is told in full.

For the first time I took a tour of the Mystic Abyss, the legendary orchestra pit at the Festspielhaus. How the man thought of this arrangement — and knew that it would work — is beyond understanding.

I was sad to find that the Markgrafen Buchhandlung, the book and music store opposite the Goldener Anker, had closed. Its replacement, Cosima, seems to be faring no better.

To achieve the requisite overstuffing of my luggage, I went to the Antiquariat Walter Bösch, where, amid a lavish collection of old Wagner books, scores, and programs, I found Max Kalbeck's monograph on the Parsifal première.

Sadly, I will miss Boybands Forever.

My first night in Bayreuth coincided with the recent lunar eclipse. A crowd of Bayreuthers gathered on a hill above the Festspielhaus to observe the event. In the end, the Blutmond was mostly hidden by long-hanging clouds, but it was a pleasant hour in the dark.

Until the Ring in 2020....

Previously: Bayreuth Pilgrimage, Third Bayreuth Pilgrimage, Snapshots from Bayreuth.

At the grave of various Wagners

I could not find the grave of Oskar Panizza.

At the grave of Franz Liszt

Previously: At the graves of various people.

New Boulez

The Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat has received permission to give the world-première performances of a previously unheard early work by Pierre Boulez: the Prélude, Toccata et Scherzo, from 1944. The first performance will take place at the Paris Philharmonie on September 8; van Raat will then play it on the occasion of his Carnegie Hall début, on Oct. 24, and in Rotterdam on Nov. 25. Van Raat reports that the work begins in with gestures reminiscent variously of Bartók and Messiaen, but that hints of Boulez's mature style become increasingly evident in the breaking down of melodic material into cells. Aside from the historical interest, van Raat believes that the piece will be a valuable addition to the twentieth-century piano repertory. Let's hope a recording ensues.

Nightafternight playlist

New and recent releases of interest.

— Haydn, Piano Sonatas Nos. 49, 50, 32, 40; Paul Lewis (Harmonia Mundi)

— Bernstein, A Quiet Place, adapted by Garth Edwin Sunderland; Claudia Boyle, Joseph Kaiser, Gordon Bintner, Lucas Meachem, Kent Nagano conducting the Montreal Symphony and Chorus (Decca)

— Bach, Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord; Rachel Barton Pine, Jory Vinikour (Cedille)

— Michel Lambert, Leçons de Ténèbres des Mercredi, Jeudi et Vendredi Saints; Marc Mauillon, Myriam Rignol, Thibaut Roussel, Marouan Mankar-Bennis (Harmonia Mundi)

— Christian Wolff, John, David, Rhapsody; Lothar Zagrosek conducting the SWR Symphony Baden-Baden and Freiburg, Petr Kotik, Peter Rundel, and Roland Kluttig conducting the Ostravská banda (New World)

— Songs and Poems: works of Andreas Dohmen, Hans Thomalla, Walter Zimmermann, Wolfgang Rihm, Aldo Clementi; trio accanto (Wergo)

— Shostakovich, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 11; Andris Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony (DG)

Bookshelf

New and recent publications of interest.

Naomi André, Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (University of Illinois Press)

Gundula Kreuzer, Curtain, Gong, Steam: Wagnerian Technologies of Nineteenth-Century Opera (UC Press)

Emily Abrams Ansari, The Sound of a Superpower: Musical Americanism and the Cold War (Oxford UP)

Susan Tomes, Speaking the Piano (Boydell and Brewer)

Brian Olewnick, Keith Rowe (powerHouse)

Katherine K. Preston, Opera for the People: English-Language Opera and Women Managers in Late 19th-Century America (Oxford UP)