Stravinsky puts it pithily enough: Music “expresses nothing outside of itself.” It’s a dictum that puts critics like me on the back foot, accusing us of peddling only a pale and inadequate imitation of the thing itself. Those who can’t, write. But it also describes a deeper sense of music as incommensurable, elevated by thinkers […]
Category: Rankings & Roundups
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Sonic Distancing
In the last 10 years or so, countless theories have surfaced to describe what ails classical music’s concert halls. Is it the stuffy architecture; the ban on beverages; the hushers and passive-aggressive insiders; or the (crumbling) bans on social media use that turn off many potential visitors, especially those who are young and non-white? The […]
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Beethoven’s 10 Worst Pieces, Ranked
I like Beethoven. After all, he is VAN’s namesake. I’ll admit to wildly conducting along with the Fifth, in my bedroom, at age 13—the first classical music I ever loved. But one of the things that makes Beethoven so likable is the uneven quality of his work. No perfectionist, you can absolutely tell when he […]
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The Top 7 Clichéd Gestures of Opera
Opera is a remarkably durable art. Sitting through “Parsifal” in 100 degree heat at Bayreuth recently, and hearing the couple behind me making chitchat during the final chord, I was surprised to notice that I still was transported by the work. But if anything threatens to break the spell, it’s the stereotypical operatic gestures that […]
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#bassic
If a musician studies a score and doesn’t post about it on social media, does it still count? No point in risking it, which is why the VAN social media channels see a steady flow of visually pleasing, life-envy-inducing photographs of scores being studied. From carefully-placed pencils, symmetry or graceful asymmetry, to flat whites, whiskey, […]
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New Year’s Preoccupations
brin solomon, Staff Writer Let people clap between movements. I want the atmosphere of concert halls to open up, to make room for the joy that pulses at the heart of so much of this music, to welcome strangers and stalwarts alike into a space made for feeling deeply. I want classical institutions to abandon […]
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June 2017 Bagatelles
Steven Isserlis The cellist finds some tactful words for the Brutalist Barbican Centre’s bathrooms. Millenium Falcon Piano “Looks like a giant pendrive [sic],” writes one commenter. We agree. Thibaudet is known for his fashion sense, but we doubt his taste in instruments is quite this avant-garde. #DanielMullerSchott I No offense, but this got us thinking […]
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March Bagatelles
Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Costa Rica This campaign is supposed to get us in the mood for Summer Fun, but doesn’t it kind of look like everybody in these pictures is on the verge of drowning? Karajan I On International Women’s Day, the Berlin Philharmonic decided to honor…Karajan. Karajan II Who, if he was alive today, […]
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Can New Music Be Sexy?
I wrote this from a multidisciplinary arts residency, which I have the good fortune to be attending. There are nine composers here hailing from different parts of the world, which means I’ve gotten to witness firsthand the process people go through when asked about sexiness in new music.The reaction has been quite consistent. Each time […]
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February 2016 Bagatelles
Classical Music Sucks Is it just us, or is classical music humor getting funnier and a little darker? Here, the meme page Classical Music Sucks adapts the Breitbart reader archetype to the anti-Helmut Lachenmann set. Rolando Villazón “Mr villazon [sic] I would love to see you in some kind of Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde role […]