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☆ Can Marin Alsop Shatter Another Glass Ceiling?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Marin Alsop’s conducting students were taking turns on the podium recently in a rehearsal room at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. Alsop, who spent untold hours at Meyerhoff Hall during her 14 years as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, a tenure that ended in 2021, teaches in technical, tangible details. In a measure with 11 beats, she suggested using the last as a pickup to the following bar, to give the players an extra bit of clarity. “You’re not accompanying,” she told a rising maestro who seemed to be giving an invisible musician too much leeway. “You’re in charge.”

Persons: Marin Alsop’s, Stravinsky’s, Alsop, “ You’re, ” Organizations: Meyerhoff Symphony, Meyerhoff, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Locations: Baltimore

☆ The Lyrical Century of Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “A Chestnut Stuck in Time: Nostalgia Stymies Fusion,” by Ethan Iverson (Arts & Leisure, Jan. 28), about “Rhapsody in Blue” at 100:Mr. Iverson’s article saddles Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the task of not only changing music history (which it did) but also singularly overhauling Western music pedagogy. No artist in any medium could accomplish this, so I’m not sure why Mr. Iverson is holding poor Gershwin to this unrealistic standard. What the article did do was make me listen to “Rhapsody in Blue,” twice, for the first time in about 20 years. Mr. Iverson finds the work “naïve and corny” — points he does not elaborate upon — but I was struck by what a formal miracle the piece is. Like Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” written 11 years earlier, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody” holds together through the savvy repetition of varied and memorable material.

Persons: Ethan Iverson, I’m, Iverson, Gershwin, ”, Stravinsky’s, Mr, — Organizations: Arts & Leisure

☆ Review: In These Dances, the Themes Are Lines and Curves
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Siobhan Burke | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Since then, Fenley has returned to working quietly on new material, building on her nearly 50 years of making dances as the founder of Molissa Fenley and Company. Opening night, on Wednesday, felt like a private glimpse into her choreographic mind: no splashes, just a steady, rigorous exploration of movement to music. The program’s greatest force is Fenley herself, who, at 69, dances with a searing clarity and equanimity, no matter the limitations that naturally come with age. This is not one of those shows in which a veteran artist makes a cameo to be momentarily revered. The recurring themes are the lines and curves of Fenley’s limpid movement vocabulary, based in ballet and reminiscent of the Merce Cunningham technique, but developed, as she has said, around the idiosyncrasies of her own body.

Persons: Molissa Fenley, ”, Fenley, Christiana Axelsen, Justin Lynch, Timothy Ward, Michael Ferrara, Enriqueta, Merce Cunningham Locations: Downtown Brooklyn

NEW YORK (AP) — It's a little late for John Leventhal to be considered a hot young thing in music. The thought of doing a solo record sort of creeped into my consciousness and, when the pandemic hit, I really couldn't avoid it. AP: How do you think a first John Leventhal album would have sounded if you made it 50 years ago? I don't think I would have made a good record 40 years ago because it wouldn't have been tempered by what I've learned. It felt more like creating a product, like it was someone in the record industry's “good idea.” And it is a good idea.

Persons: —, John Leventhal, He's, Shawn Colvin, Jim Lauderdale, Leventhal, Marc Cohn, Sarah Jarosz, Joan Osborne, William Bell, Rosanne Cash, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen, Cash, Cohn, Matt Berninger, LEVENTHAL, I've, We're, Doc Watson, Howlin, Wolf, Igor Stravinsky, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, George Jones, I'm, It's Organizations: Boys of, Associated Press, Beatles Locations: New York, Boys of Alabama

☆ Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Revels, and Struggles, in Jazz
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Anastasia Tsioulcas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Much of 20th-century classical music owes a deep thanks to jazz. And while on paper, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night was organized for a festival at the hall, Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice, the subtext was American jazz. All three of the composers on the program (Stravinsky, Weill and Gershwin) loved and, to one extent or another, made references to the style in their music. Weill, who left Europe for the United States after the fall of the Weimar Republic, was also steeped in jazz. The orchestra staked out rhythmic details with crystalline precision and saw each phrase through with patience and a rich sound.

Persons: Stravinsky, Weill, Gershwin, wouldn’t, “, ”, Patrick Williams, Yannick Nézet, Nitzan, Edward Hopper Organizations: Philadelphia, Carnegie Hall Locations: Weimar Republic, Europe, U.S, United States

☆ A Los Angeles Home That Channels the Magic of ‘Fantasia’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Max Berlinger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By her own admission, the actor Anastasia Graff is a maximalist who loves “girlie things,” so it’s not altogether surprising that she wanted a periwinkle kitchen for her 1930s-era West Hollywood home. Still, such a bold choice could send some interior designers into a tailspin. Clad in white-painted wood siding with a wide porch, it had appealed to Graff because it reminded her of the traditional wooden homes on the East Coast, where she grew up. But it didn’t hurt that the place is part of local lore: It once belonged to the Russian-born composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky, who lived in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1969, while he conducted the L.A. Philharmonic both downtown and at the Hollywood Bowl. “You realize in Los Angeles, there’s a story behind every house,” says Graff.

Persons: Anastasia Graff, “, ”, Frances Merrill, Graff, ” Merrill, Igor Stravinsky, Merrill, gravitas, there’s, Marilyn Monroe’s Organizations: Hollywood Locations: East Coast, Russian, Los Angeles

☆ The Ups and Downs of Europe’s Most Interesting Opera Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Its draw is also in the departures from tradition. Without them, Aix would be another Salzburg instead of the most interesting opera festival in Europe — though at this point in Pierre Audi’s tenure as artistic director, “opera” is too limiting a label, with a slate over the past week of film, music theater, concerts and, yes, opera, including two new works, each of vastly different character. Many summer festivals exist primarily for the pleasure of music-making beyond the usual concert halls and theaters. In this edition, not everything succeeded artistically (or with audiences); some of what I saw was reckless, some of it offensive. In the pit, so to speak, was the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of its music director, Klaus Mäkelä.

Persons: Pierre Audi’s, ”, —, Klaus Mäkelä Organizations: Ballets, Vitrolles, Orchestre de Paris Locations: Aix, Salzburg, Europe

☆ Indiana Jones, John Williams and the Art of Music You Can Barely Hear - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Frank Lehman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

I’ve been fascinated with film music since elementary school, when I got a cassette tape called “Kid Stuff: An Afternoon at the Movies,” which featured Mr. Williams and the Boston Pops. No one exemplifies this better than Mr. Williams, who is still composing at 91. Mr. Williams accomplished this by inviting the trumpet section of the London Symphony Orchestra to blast away in its most piercing register. As he has with other cues, Mr. Williams has given this particular set piece an afterlife in concert performances. Keep your eyes shut!” Maybe then we’ll stop passively hearing film music and begin actively listening to it.

Persons: Indiana Jones, John Williams, doesn’t, He’s, I’ve, Williams, ”, Dvorak, Stravinsky, Bach, extol, Gene Shalit, “, —, “ Indiana Jones, you’ll, Kate Capshaw’s, Willie Scott, That’s, it’s, Mickey Mousing, Emilio Audissino, Daniel Goldmark, ” Mr, Mickey Mouser, Guy ”, Mousing, Beyoncé’s, Marion Ravenwood, Marion Organizations: Raiders, “ Star, “ Raiders, Boston Pops, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, ”, Hollywood, “ Locations: “, Indiana

☆ Sheldon Harnick, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Lyricist, Dies at 99
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Robert Berkvist | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Lady Bird: First Lady of the Land,” an opera about Lady Bird Johnson, for which he wrote the libretto and Henry Mollicone wrote the music, had its premiere in Texas in 2016 and has been performed in New York and elsewhere. In an interview with The Times, he said that he had no thoughts of retirement, and that he continued to attend every show on Broadway, as he had for many years. He added that he was working on a new show of his own. “I hope I live long enough to complete it,” he said. “I won’t tell you what idea I have, because you’ll steal it.”Robert Berkvist, a former New York Times arts editor, died in January.

Persons: Harnick, ”, Bizet’s “ Carmen, Jinks, Horse Marines ”, Jack Beeson, Norton Juster, Arnold Black, Bird, Lady Bird Johnson, Henry Mollicone, “, ” Robert Berkvist, Peter Keepnews Organizations: Horse Marines, The Times, New York Times Locations: Texas, New York, “ Dragons

☆ It Rocks in the Tree Tops, but Is That Bird Making Music?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Marlowe Starling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

According to Dr. Doolittle’s research, the song patterns of Eurasian blackbirds found in that region resemble Stravinsky’s compositional style. Neuroscience research points to the idea that this affinity between birds and humans is not so unusual. But the brains of monkeys and non-songbirds, like gulls, are organized in a different way, Dr. Bolhuis said. For example, both humans and birds can produce smash hits that evoke feelings in their listeners, the psychologist Dr. Tchernichovski explained. “This is the magic in music,” Dr. Tchernichovski said.

Persons: François, Bernard Mâche, zoomusicology, Igor Stravinsky’s, Dr, Johan Bolhuis, Bolhuis, Tchernichovski, ”, Birdsong, “ Locations: Ukraine

☆ Stravinsky’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’: An Opera That Surprises
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Emma Schneider | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 1913 “The Rite” took inspiration from Russian folk music. Less than four decades later, the music of Stravinsky’s opera “The Rake’s Progress” looked to the classical and baroque canon instead. Stravinsky began writing the opera in 1947, when he stumbled upon a series of 18th-century William Hogarth prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. The artworks, titled “A Rake’s Progress,” depict a young man whose inherited wealth leads him to debauchery and ruin. Wanting to compose an opera in English ever since his arrival in the States in 1939, he finally found his subject.

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