It is no exaggeration to say that Antonio Vivaldi’s baroque masterpiece “The Four Seasons” changed the course of my life. Vivaldi’s monumental homage to the natural world is a work resplendent with fantasy, storytelling, tunes one can hum after a single listen, and particularly exquisite writing for the violin. Ostensibly a vehicle to show off […]
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Posted inInterview
Indeterminate Acts
In 1959, the Smithsonian Folkways label released an album called “Indeterminacy,” a piece that features John Cage speaking, and David Tudor playing mashed-up material from the former’s “Fontana Mix” and “Concert for Piano and Orchestra.” Since comedian Stewart Lee and pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford first decided to perform “Indeterminacy” around 15 years […]
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The Last of the Kapellmeisters
“He who has no time must make time” is a Confucian maxim with dangerous implications for musicians. The line separating the moment of satisfaction from an expanse of respectable boredom is thin. And it’s different for everyone, informed by mood or previous experience. As I got on the bus at the Elbphilharmonie after a recent […]
Posted inInterview
Puzzles and Courage
Masato Suzuki plays the harpsichord and leads the Bach Collegium Japan with a clean, pearly touch, creating performances with the delicacy of freshly trimmed and polished fingernails. The son of the ensemble’s founder, Masaaki Suzuki, Masato will lead the group’s latest European tour, beginning January 21. We spoke on video call about composing in the […]
Posted inEssay
Seven Lives
I often think about the life Sibelius led in his remote villa of Ainola. He had stopped traveling to his favorite cities—Berlin, Vienna and London—and must have felt quite lonely and isolated. Perhaps part of the reason he burned his Eighth Symphony was that he didn’t feel connected to the new modernistic trends in Europe. […]
Posted inInterview
A Fast-Rising Star Reveals His Humble Origins
Tall, thin as a rake, with wispy hair and piercing blue eyes, Kurt Dirigent looks more like an imaginary character than the artistic director of the ground-breaking ensemble Lorem Ipsum. He orders a flat white at the Soho branch of London-based independent coffee shop Gail’s, with the pained look of a man who has seen […]
Posted inPlaylist
A Norma Beecroft Playlist
The composer Norma Beecroft (1934-2024) was known for works that combined computer-generated and natural acoustic sounds. One among only a few Canadian female composers of her time, Beecroft’s musical formation, beyond her early training in Toronto, came with notable Italian musicians: composers Goffredo Petrassi and Bruno Maderna, and flutist Severino Gazzelloni. Yet her three years […]
Posted inOpinion
An Expansion of the Project
Artificial intelligence may be able to mimic emotion, but it cannot feel it. It may be able to research the context in which it exists, but it doesn’t know it. AI is based on algorithms, patterns and imitation, so how can it possess creativity? Well, it can’t. But, by embracing what it can do—patterns, pastiches, […]
Posted inInterview
The Truck in the Nave
Earlier this month, Notre-Dame opened its doors after five years of construction work. The two-day reopening ceremony saw the cathedral filled to the brim with thousands of people, including celebrities, politicians and heads of state. Even Olivier Latry, titular organist at Notre-Dame, had to do his usually solitary work surrounded by film crews and security guards. […]
Posted inReport
Multisensory Perceptions
The traditional standards of ability and expression in classical music have often overlooked diverse perspectives. Such practices have helped create systemic inequalities that are still profoundly entrenched; recent findings from the Musicians’ Census reveal that 71% of disabled musicians have faced or witnessed discrimination, with 19% reporting it as a significant barrier to career progression. Such […]