On May 2, 2023, Valery Gergiev turned 70. One week later, Russia celebrated Victory Day—a Soviet holdover holiday commemorating the country’s 1945 victory over National Socialism. Gergiev spent that day leading the Mariinsky Orchestra in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, closing out the 22nd annual Moscow Easter Festival—a marathon of concerts (often two […]
Category: Essay
Posted inEssay
A Private Place of Joy
I love that moment when the lights in the concert hall dim. The audience fades away, and all I see is the Steinway in front of me. Above the keys, in the black glow of the fallboard, I see the reflection of my fingers, poised for the dance. Everything is white and black, symmetrical and […]
Posted inEssay
Denazifying “Carmina Burana”
The legacies of Wagner and Nietzsche, German geniuses long dead before the advent of the Nazi scourge, still buckle under the taint. Festival destinations like Bayreuth and Oberammergau (home of the Passion Play) that long eluded denazification have, albeit only recently, embraced an ethos of reform. While these people and places were rightly seen as […]
Posted inEssay
In For a Pound
09:31 11/2/2022 It’s a sunny, fall day in Lyon, and an email appears reminding me that I am young. To be young in the opera world is to enter a transient realm, between the strictly policed age brackets of young artist programs, and an audience demographic fetishized by arts marketers; where young can mean anything […]
Posted inEssay
Out of the Woods
In the studios at Maida Vale, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers are warming up for a world premiere recording. It’s an opera that once graced the stages of Covent Garden in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Berlin State Opera. But the piece has gone without a professional performance for […]
Posted inEssay
“I Don’t Know Why I’m Angry, I’m Angry, I’m Angry…”
“Almost one year since the escalation of the war in Ukraine, a generation of children has experienced 12 months of violence, fear, loss, and tragedy,” wrote the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on February 21. According to the organization’s most recent statistics, at least 438 children have been killed by acts of war, with 842 […]
Posted inEssay
Quarter Rest with Fermata
Quarter Rest with Fermatafor Richard R. Schantz On this dayin the Weih-nocturne glowof this roomful of rhombicuboctahedronsthe real augmented by reflection time isn’t ordinary. Right on cue(you always said to anticipate entrances in light of narrative)there you areby your crystal fountain, posing unanswered questionsd’arte, d’amoreexposition, disclo(the)sure(your Sprechstimme unequivocalstill strictly, stubbornly non-rhotic). You extend, generouslyarsis, thesisup and down, […]
Posted inEssay
Retrospection for a Ragtime King
Joplin’s was a curious story. His compositions became more and more intricate, until they were almost jazz Bach.— Music publisher Edward B. Marks, 1934 In 1991, when I was eight years old, I found a simplified version of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” and relished playing it for most of the year that I was in […]
Posted inEssay
Wood Made Flesh
“If Marina Abramovic had been a violinist, she would’ve been drawn to” Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber’s “Rosary” or “Mystery” Sonatas for violin and continuo, violinist Daniel Pioro tells me. With organist James McVinnie, Pioro performs the complete “Rosary” Sonatas at London’s Southbank Centre on January 22. The cycle is spread across three performances in […]
Posted inEssay
An Infusion of Essence
British-Chinese composer Alex Ho tells me over lunch at a bao restaurant in central London: “Not only for the enjoyment, but even professionally and creatively—you’re gonna make better work if you just get on with people.” Ho is one of two artistic directors of contemporary music collective Tangram (七巧板), a group of composers and performers […]