Wagner

Whose opinion is more valued than mine?

RHETORICAL QUESTION. But as a loyal reader, you totally want to know all about my picks from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming season, right? Especially since I, personally, found that you have to wade through an unexciting beginning. Don’t be put off – there’s a gold streak running all the way from January to June!

• Alexander Nevsky (January 11 – 13) – Um, full Prokofiev score live, set to the film? Yes please.
• Hairspray (January 24 – 27) GOOD MORNING BALTIMORE! A concert opera version narrated by – wait for it – none other than John Waters himself.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (January 31 – February 2) – I said PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. Why aren’t you buying your tickets right now?
• Mozart’s Requiem (February 28; March 2 & 3) – Everyone knows I’m not Mozart’s greatest fan, but no one can deny theRequiem.
• Mahler’s Titan (March 7 – 9) – Oh, Mahler, I love your “Titan” so. Nothing can take that away from us.
• Saint-Saen’s Thundering Organ Symphony (March 14 & 17) – A friend recently informed me that this was the theme from Babe. My understanding of pop culture is weak; my love for this piece is strong.
• Wagner: A Composer Fit for a King (April 19 & 20) – Neuschwannstein! Mad King Ludwig! Obsession! Insanity! Fun!
• Time for Three (May 2 & 4) – I saw them premiere Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto Four-Three, and it was awesome. Let’s do it again.
• Romeo and Juliet (May 23 – 25) – PROKOFIEV version. Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, I’m terribly sorry, but you’re going to have to clear out.
• West Side Story (June 13 – 16) – Um, full Bernstein score live, set to the film? Yes please.

So those are my picks. Check out the concert calendar – anything striking your fancy?

Concert Roundup: A Letter

Dear BSO,

I refuse to speak to you until next week. Here’s why:

• This week the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs a program entitled “The Genius of Mozart.” They tried to distract me from the truth with Brahms, a Wagner overture, and Strauss, R., but you can’t hide Mozart and his big ol’ piano concerto from me. Especially when you put it right in the title. At least make an effort, sheesh. February 16 at Strathmore; February 17 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Perhaps you’re wondering if I love your siblings more than you. Well, the National Symphony Orchestra is rolling out Beethoven‘s fourth symphony, so clearly the answer is yes until you shape up. Also Strauss, R., but as a welcome accompaniment this time instead of a sin-covering condiment. Maybe you should try following your brother’s example. February 16 – 19. [ See it! ]
• And Strathmore is offering a whole day of free Duke Ellington stuff! Come visit me at Strathmore’s free open house on President’s Day from 11 am to 4 pm.  There’ll be gratis concerts, lectures, and more surrounding the life and works of Duke Ellington. I’ll be there; come visit me! [ See it! ]

Don’t be too downcast, BSO. I still love you. I just don’t like you very much right now.

Love (see?),
Jenn

P.S. If you’d like me to include your upcoming concert in next week’s concert roundup, leave a comment or drop me a line.

Look quickly before it all bursts into flames

Someone left a few old New Yorker magazines on the table in the lunch room at my old job. I found this particular cartoon while flipping through one, and naturally I confiscated it. I think that’s very Wagnerian of me; I expect to be smote by the gods any moment now.

Wagner Now!

In his book The Forgotten Soldier, Guy Sajer claims that on at least one occasion German tanks played Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” before a WWII assault. I read that, and my brain made a few leaps, and Now here we are.

Is it good because it’s famous?

It quite famously annoyed the hell out of Ravel that his most famous work was Bolero. “It has no form, properly speaking,” he said, “no development, no or almost no modulation.” And also: “It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from, or anything more than, it actually does achieve.” (Thanks Wikipedia!)

And yet the most well known work he ever wrote is Bolero. People who aren’t into classical music may not know the piece by name, but they’re sure to know it when they hear it. Which makes me wonder: is a composer’s most popular work necessarily his best work?

Ravel certainly didn’t seem to think so. In Fantasia, it is claimed that Tchaikovsky really detested the score to The Nutcracker, but what classical music is more universally beloved? But then Wagner seems to have had no problem with “Ride of the Valkyries,” even going so far as eventually permitting it to be performed outside of its opera. No one will contest that The Firebird is fantastic music, but coming so early in Stravinsky’s career, can it really be called his best?

Is it a question of the popular opinion being a crappy one? Ouch. Or maybe some otherwise good music becomes so ubiquitous that it gets played out? Or is a composer’s most famous work automatically best by virtue of the fact that it’s the most famous? Thoughts?

Btw, don’t forget about the BSO preview concerts and gala this weekend!

For your anticipation

The BSO summer season is over, but before we let them fly free on their weeks of hiatus, here are some upcoming season facts and events so that you can be prepared:

• Tickets for the 2011-2012 season go on sale at 10 am on August 8. That’s this Monday. Be ready!
• Need to know more before you commit to ticket purchases? There will be two preseason preview concerts on September 8 and 9, featuring snippets of Copland, Debussy, Prokofiev, Wagner, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and more. Every seat is $10!
• Oh, and when the season does kick off on September 10, it does so with a gala concert featuring Hilary. Hahn. You can get a press pass for those after-concert gala receptions, right? I need to get in. I need to get in and live tweet for the peoples!

So there you have it — everything you need to ready yourself in the coming weeks. If you want to know more about the upcoming season but don’t feel like messing around with the BSO web site, here’s the post I did with a rundown of all this season’s concerts. Wait, scratch that. All this season’s concerts that I think look interesting.

Now that there are no BSO concerts for me to hype for a few weeks, you can all look forward to a bunch of posts featuring My Thoughts And Opinions. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Morning — now in color!

When Disney premiered this Silly Symphony, it was a massive, technicolor deal — as in, first winner of the Animated Short Subjects Oscar. Enjoy!

Composer Cagematch!: Monteverdi vs. Just Verdi

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the Composer Cagematch! Seems to me that we can all carry on as before — but do keep in mind that I welcome comments and constructive criticism always, so feel free to let me know what you think, even if I haven’t asked. Maybe especially then.

Additional thanks to Mahler for not wiping the floor too hard with Wagner. You pile on too much Wagner, the floor gets slippery. Guess my dad never voted.

This round of Composer Cagematch! was suggested by the super cool and very hip Chris McGovern. And thank God he did, because I couldn’t settle on an Italian match up for the life of me. I very nearly tossed in every Italian opera composer I could find in together and let them sort it out, but luckily a cooler head prevailed. Plus, all complaints may now be directed to him!

And so in this corner — don’t look back at him or you’ll turn into a pillar of salt!* It’s

CLAAAAAAAUUUUDIOOOOOOO MOOOOOOONTEEEEEVEEEEEEEEEEERDIIIIIIII

And in this corner — do they call it The Scottish Opera? It’s

GIIIIIIIIIUUUUUUSEEEEEEEEEEEEPPEEEEEEEEEE VEEEEEEEEEEEERDIIIIIIIII

One practically started opera. One continued opera as hard as he could. Falstaff. Macbeth. Aida. Or — The Coronation of Poppea. L’Orfeo. The Return of Ulysses. Good luck.

* Because of Orpheus, see, and… shut up.

Composer Cagematch!: Interlude

Hi! I know we’re due for a match this week, but I’ve pushed it to next week; let’s talk shop, shall we?

Let’s talk Composer Cagematch! Philosophy. What is a Composer Cagematch!, exactly? Is it a fight between equals in popularity? In style? In country and time period? Is it a fight between equals at all?

I ask — and hope to elicit some healthy discussion and maybe even dig up a shred of clarity — because of this excellent comment from Classical Music Broadcast on the most recent match:

Jenn, I know you think all I do is whine about bad matchmaking…

This is like putting a middleweight in a super heavyweight match, where Gustav is wearing 4 oz, and Rick-ard is wearing eights.

Wagner wrote operas, so that automatically gives him a weight and reach advantage.

RW wrote the Ring cycle – so Mahler loses points on his ground game, but gains on his standup (6th Symphony and a BIG freaking hammer, anyone?)

Cara Fleck – great point regarding the harps – Wagner buried his and Gustav let his shimmer elegantly.

From round one, this match will go to the cards. Gustav got my vote, because I think Wagner should go mano-a-mano against another opera composer.

I would have liked to see a Mahler/Beethoven matchup.

Jenn, I don’t think Beethoven/Wolfie is a solid, because early Beethoven *is* a lot of Mozart recycled. The 1st & 2nd are flat-out tributes. Even the 4th has a lot of Mozart in it.

and I love both of those guys, so thats no insult to Ludwig.

Points well taken (except of course that Beethoven is clearly > Mozart, natch). Perhaps I have not always been the finest matchmaker. My own mother was horrified by my Dvorak-Copland fight — and even more dismayed when Copland took it by a point. But isn’t that interesting? That Copland bested Dvorak? They aren’t from the same time period or even the same country. So why did I match them? Because Dvorak tried to tell Americans how to compose, and Copland was an American who composed. To me it was a good hook. How did the voters choose between them, then?

Well, what sort of contest are we running here? Is it a question of popularity? Is Copland more popular than Dvorak? Is Mahler more popular than Wagner? Have you all been choosing based on artistic merit? One person commented that he had voted for Prokofiev over Stravinsky ultimately because the former appeared more often on his iPod. The reason I think Beethoven/Mozart is a valid match has less to do with music and more to do with musicology  — as a general rule, the top 3 composers on virtually every ranking list ever come down to Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart — but the order changes. I want to know less “Who’s the better composer?” and more “Who do you love?” I don’t believe the one necessarily implies the other.

So that’s how I’ve been approaching it. Now I want to open the forum up to you, the voters. Tell me about your voting philosophies. What works for you about the Cagematch!es? What doesn’t? Who should fight next? And can someone please start Claymationing these for me?

Composer Cagematch!: Mahler vs. Wagner

I am SO. RELIEVED.

Rachmaninoff was winning when I left, guys. Winning. Over Tchaikovsky! Is there anything that could possibly be more wrong? (Don’t answer that — I don’t want to know what you’ve seen browsing XTube, thank you.) Thank God a little bit of Disney magic followed me home, and when I closed the poll dear Piotr Ilyich had taken it by one.

Okay, enough of Cagematch!es past. Time for Cagematch!es present. I spent this whole morning trying to figure out what to do next. I still haven’t hit Italy, but I have no idea who to pair with Respighi. Should I go with the Gershwin-Berstein fight I’ve been pondering for awhile? Go straight for the girlfight and then move to round two? I was starting to get worried when I hit it. YES.

Germany, I hope you’ve had enough rest, because in this corner, programming his symphonies and leading with lieder,* it’s

GUUUUUUUSTAAAAAAAAAAV MAAAAAAAAAAAHLERRRRRRR

Are you ready? Well, you better GET ready, because in this corner, getting the nod from James Herriot, stubbornly defended by my dad, inspiring great ire and vehement admiration all at once, it’s

RIIIIIIIIIIICHAAAAAAAAAARD WAAAAAAAAAAGNERRRRRRRR

That’s pronounced Ri-kard Vahgner, muthatruckers, and don’t you forget it!

Oh, man, I hope this is as much fun as Brahms-Schumann. Mahler works, right? I mean, he gets pretty grandiose in his symphonies, and he loved Wagner! (I almost made it Mendelssohn, but then I realized that 1. Mendelssohn is so not Wagnerian and 2. some people have no sense of ironic humor. Updated to add: Haha, oops. I just remembered that Mahler was also Jewish. So take your irony pill after all.)

C’mon, be fair. Remember, we’re not voting based on whether we agree on the composer’s personal morals and philosophies; we’re voting based on music. I LIKE Overture to Rienzi. Of course, I also like the “Titan” symphony. I like all of Mahler’s symphonies, really, but then I appreciate the familiarity of Wagner’s operas — you hear a theme and immediately you know where you are.

I expect some fightin’ words in the comments — DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME.

* I know you wanted him to fight Schubert, Bek, but I hope this is some consolation.