On the Berlin Philharmonic website, there’s a kind of frequently-asked-questions section. One section addresses “who decides where the sections of the orchestra sit?” “The answer is simple,” it reads, “the conductors. It’s their responsibility to ensure the best possible presentation of the music.” But theory and practice are not always the same thing. On Thursday, […]
Category: Interview
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Pre-Election Paralysis
On September 6, the citizens of Saxony-Anhalt, a state in the former East Germany, will vote in a closely watched election. Recent polls put the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at an unprecedented 43 percent. Among the potentially profound consequences for the region if the party governs Saxony-Anhalt are changes to its artistic life, […]
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Savor the Calm
We all have the pieces we listen to less than we sit through. Where we think, “Wake me up when it’s over.” Every so often, though, a performer will play those works in a way that makes us bolt upright. Few violinists do this to me as regularly as Augustin Hadelich. He lavishes such attention […]
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“The Music Still Has to Go On”
Like few others, the composer Carlos Simon’s artistic work has been subject to the changing political winds at the Kennedy Center. He came to the institution in 2021 as part of an industry-wide reckoning with legacies of racism. He will leave amid unprecedented turmoil and with the Center itself closed for Trumpian renovations. We spoke […]
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The Play of Possibilities
Last month, Resonus Classics released an album of orchestral compositions by Avril Coleridge-Taylor, the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and a composer whose works defied the gendered and racialized expectations of her time. The project, which includes the world premiere recording of her Piano Concerto, was realized by pianist-scholar Dr. Samantha Ege, conductor Dr. John Andrews, […]
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How You Say The Thing
The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is among the most active and interesting conductors of his generation. His work is characterized by a constant curiosity and a sensitive yet revealing approach to the music, with a refreshing combination of intellect and—in the case of Gustav Mahler—explosive spontaneity. He also stands publicly in opposition to the Russian […]
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Clinging to Beauty
Under a makeshift shelter—a parachute canopy from aid airdrops stretched over a wooden frame—Ahmed Abu Amsha gathers children for music lessons on the beach in Nuseirat camp, central Gaza. The sounds of guitar, oud, and drums mix with the crash of waves. Displaced children, some barefoot, wearing torn clothes, their bodies thin and faces pale, […]
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The Generator
I first met the composer Huang Ruo in 2017 at a crosstown bus stop in New York after a performance of Pierre Boulez’s “Repons” at the Park Avenue Armory. We talked about the effect of the chamber group situated in the middle of the audience, surrounded by the soloists and amplification, with waves of sound […]
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“To Be a Musician Is to Desire a Piece of Music”
Last week at the Philharmonie in Berlin, the ensemble Pygmalion under conductor Raphaël Pichon performed a concert of sacred music from during and after the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). It was a brutally destructive conflict that by some estimates decimated the German population by half. And though religious tensions were among the causes for the […]
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The Unconscious Process
On a recent warm autumn evening in Porto, the Russian-Armenian pianist Eva Gevorgyan performed before a crowd so spasmodic with coughing fits it may yet prove to be a locus of the next pandemic. The barking did nothing to quell Gevorgyan’s performance of Chopin, Brahms, and Schumann. Dressed in a Celedon-green sequined dress, a silken […]