In 1965, the United Nations asked Benjamin Britten to compose a choral work to celebrate the organization’s 20th anniversary. The piece, it hoped, would be “the natural and inevitable sequel to the War Requiem.” The Secretary-General, U Thant, explained that the new work would be premiered at the UN Day concert on October 24, 1965, […]
Archive
Posted inOpinion
Playing Along
American classical music institutions have been quiet lately. Quieter than they were about the murder of George Floyd. Much quieter than they were about the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Individual musicians have often been more outspoken. But in recent years institutions have taken political positions often enough that their current silence is surprising. When […]
Posted inEssay
The Disappearing Monument
It is easy to believe in the permanence of sound. Now every recording can be streamed and repeated on demand without degradation; files replicate flawlessly; loops repeat without wear; digital archives expand infinitely. Music appears inexhaustible as technology promises security against erosion—like nothing goes away. William Basinski’s “The Disintegration Loops,” receiving a deluxe reissue in […]
Posted inReport
A House of Mud and Hope
The rain poured through the mud-brick walls of her father’s house in Duk County, Nyarweng Community of South Sudan, soaking the earthen floor where Nyibol Thon held her newborn daughter. As water dripped from the thatched roof onto her makeshift bed, she began to sing. “From that pain, I composed a song and named her […]
Posted inEssay
Thin Fire
Not long ago, I read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. One line stayed with me: “Then I may tell you that the very next words I read were these—‘Chloe liked Olivia. . .’ Do not start. Do not blush. Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes […]
Posted inInterview
Crossing the Line
On September 11, the Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov gave an emotional speech following a concert with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London, decrying the carnage inflicted on Gaza and the West Bank by the Israeli government under Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces. “I know that many of us feel […]
Posted inOpinion
A Stale Start
Since last week, the conclusion has come to seem inescapable: By sticking with its new chief conductor François-Xavier Roth despite allegations of sexual harassment surfacing against him last year, the SWR Symphonieorchester—the renowned Stuttgart-based radio orchestra with a particularly strong contemporary-music reputation—has lost its way. Cancelling his contract following the allegations might well have led […]
Posted inInterview
The Question Mark in the System
I’ve known Georg Friedrich Haas for many years, first as a teacher and later as a friend and mentor, and his music has been a constant source of inspiration. Ahead of the North American premiere of his monumental “11,000 Strings” for 50 microtonally attuned pianos and chamber orchestra performed by Klangforum Wien at the Park […]
Posted inEssay
Two Siegmunds, Two Wälses
After writing 9,000 words on the “Ring” cycle, I thought that maybe I’d finally be done thinking about it. For a while, I was. Then, after what would be a two-month break in my obsession, I decided to return to something I wanted to write about at the time but never got to. During the […]
Posted inOpinion
Selective Empathy
When it comes to the Middle East, people regress into totalitarian positions and tribal logics with sobering speed. Where do you stand? Are you “pro-Israel” or “pro-Palestine”? Do you say “genocide,” or don’t you? In some parts of the Free Palestine movement, activism against the Netanyahu government goes hand-in-hand with the glorification of Hamas as […]