Jan 06 2009
One of my New Year's resolutions is to use my blog to be more informative and a little more personal. I like using it to pass on international and national news and to expand on stories I write for the Post-Gazette and occasionally to rant and rave, but I think I should bring up more useful info, broach some bigger subjects that will be good fodder for discussion and even a little more revealing about my life as a critic. These are all things which supposedly make a blog more "bloggy" and better, and I buy in to that. The only problem is that I only have so much time and these days, with buyouts at the paper, I will be occasionally asked to work outside classical music (which I don't mind, in fact I will enjoy it, but classical music will still be the focus). We will see what I can do.
So here is one:
An e-mailer just asked me in a bit of a panic where one can buy classical CDs in Pittsburgh, and I thought it was worth sharing:
There isn't a store dedicated to classical music recordings in Pittsburgh (Not that most cities have them these days) now that Curtain Call has closed, but some of the major book retailers (Borders, Barnes and Noble) have decent classical sections. You should call ahead as not the stores have this.
But the problem is you will buy music full price, or rather -- over-price -- at these stores. If there is another local option out there, I don't know about it.
So, if you have a few days to spare, I recommend buying on the Internet. sites like Arkivmusic and CD Universe, Amazon.com, Classical Music Depot, CD Connection and others just have so much available and are so much cheaper. I personally love Arkivmusic and Amazon.com, but you might find the others better or find that one disc is not available at one online store but is at another.
Hope that helps, but if I am missing a good online store or a local one, please register and comment and I will put link to them.
Jan 05 2009
Two marimba players are among the 2009 Pittsburgh Concert Society Young Artists scholarship winners, named after auditions last Saturday. Each student receives a $500 Perlow scholarship and will be presented in concert March 1 or March 15.
In addition to marimba players William DeLelles, (Steubenville High School) and Jeremy Malvin, (CAPA), cellist Klara Pinkerton, (Homeschool Mt. Lebanon), flutist Leigh Poulton (Duquesne University), pianist Aleksandr Voinov (Ingomar Middle School) and violinists Inory Sakai (The Ellis School), Diana Shi (Morgantown High School) and Hope Vannucci (CAPA) also won the award.
Jan 05 2009
The mighty-sounding and magnificent-looking St. Paul Cathedral Beckerath pipe organ is "fully operational," to quote "Star Wars," and will be re-inaugurated at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 6) in a recital by James David Christie of Oberlin Conservatory and the Boston Symphony. The program includes works by Buttstett, Bohm, Langlais and Guilmant. The celebration continues at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 7) in a concert with the St. Paul Cathedral Choir and organists Ken Danchik, Russ Weismann, and Fellows. It features Vierne's "Messe Solenelle" and works by Bach, Karg-Elert, Mathews, Mathias and more.
Congratulations to the Cathedral and the Diocese on putting the money and effort into returning this historic instrument -- installed in 1962 more than 5,000 pipes. -- to its former glory.
Jan 02 2009
The
St.Barth Music Festival is celebrating its 25th annual season this January in the sunny Caribbean, with classical and jazz concerts January 8 through January 19. The festival is the brainchild of local violinist and impresario Frances De Broff, who plays in the Pittsburgh Opera pit and also helps to run the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society.
I wrote about her impressive feat a few years ago.
It is pretty impressive to have any music festival run 25 years, especially one that you basically do all on your own, as she does. So congrats to Frances on her success!
Dec 30 2008
The famous Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's concert will include Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony (at least the last movement), apparently the first Haydn work ever to make it on the famous concert's program. Seems odd to me that it took so long, but it works as this year is the 200th anniversary of the composer's death, and Austria will be milking it all year long. But I am not sure I get appointing the concert to Daniel Barenboim. The serious and often controversial conductor just doesn't seem a great fit for the lighter and more superficial affair. But he is a heck of a musician and the orchestra will probably sound great.
Here's a happy New Year to all of you. I look forward to a fun-filled second half of the classical season in Pittsburgh and beyond.
Dec 19 2008
A final goodbye to the somber-looking one. Alfred Brendel gave his farewell recital this week in, where else, Vienna, home to many of the composers on which he made his career. I was never a huge fan, but over the years I grew to appreciate his un-flashy approach. His last concert here was particularly nice. But I will never warm up to his poetry.
Here is the AP story:
Pianist Brendel gives final concert in Austria
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN
Amid shouts of "bravo" and thundering applause, Alfred Brendel bid farewell to the concert hall Thursday, ending a six-decade career as one of the world's greatest pianists. Accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic, Brendel performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 — known as "Jeunehomme" ("Young Man") or "Jenamy" — at the Austrian capital's prestigious Musikverein. He played two encores.
Brendel appeared energetic and entranced by the music, clearly captivating his audience in the packed Golden Auditorium.— as well as a piece he composed himself.
Brendel's adieu, coming just weeks before his 78th birthday, concluded a career that began rather unconventionally.
Born Jan. 5, 1931, in what is today the Czech Republic, he spent his childhood traveling through Austria and Yugoslavia. He took his first piano lessons at age 6 and had a series of teachers as his family moved around, but the little formal training he had ended when he was 16.
"Being self-taught, I learned to distrust anything I hadn't figured out myself," Brendel says on his Web site. "A teacher can be too influential."
"When I was young my overall career wasn't sensational at all, it rather progressed step by step," he says on the Web site.
To many, Brendel is one of a kind.
"After so many years of being at the top of his profession, it is hard to imagine musical life without Alfred's unique presence," Sir Charles Mackerras, who conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for Brendel's farewell performance, wrote in the concert program.
Brendel, who is also a poet, will continue to appear in public to lecture on music and to give poetry readings, his New York publicist said last year.
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Dec 18 2008
Fox Chapel is home to a talent group of siblings that play harmoniously with each other -- at least when they have instruments in their hands.
The children of Dr. Elie and Mrs. Lisa Hilal formed a string quartet several years ago and they have been improving ever since. Last year, the Hilal Quartet (left to right in the photo: Jad and Leila, violins, Salem, cello, Olivia, viola) won the 2008 Pittsburgh Concert Society's Young Artists auditions and the group was just named one of the 2009 Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra's Rising Stars, according to PCS.
"Each year the LPO sponsors a concert for young people featuring child prodigies from around the country. The idea is to inspire a generation of young people by showing them what their talented peers (musicians of roughly the same age as the concert attendees) have accomplished through dedication and hard work." That concert will take place January 9, 2009 in Laredo, Texas.
It may not be Carnegie Hall (yet), but what a great opportunity for the siblings. Here's betting we hear more from this talented musical family.
Dec 15 2008
If you didn't get a chance to see it, the recent Met production of John Adams' "Dr. Atomic" will be broadcast on PBS's "Great Performances." Gerald Finley stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Alan Gilbert conducts.
Check your local listings for the time, but nationally it will air at 9 p.m. Dec. 29.
Adams is not only one of our greatest American composers and one willing to tackle contemporary issues, but he is this season's Pittsburgh Symphony composer of the year and will conduct some concerts in January, including a symphony composed from the music of "Dr. Atomic." So, it might be fun to get to know the whole opera first.
Dec 12 2008
New developments from the deplorable situation at the Plain Dealer and its former classical music critic (and the Pittsburgh Press critic back in the day), Donald Rosenberg. The fact that the paper also is laying off people probably means Don won't get as much sympathy since he still has his job, but as ethics and reputation go, the Plain Dealer took a huge hit by moving Don off his Cleveland Orchestra beat (he still covers some classical music for the paper, but not the orchestra).
Looks like this is going to get ugly.
Here is the AP story
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A longtime reviewer sued his newspaper and the Cleveland Orchestra Thursday, charging that the latter pressured the former to have him removed from his beat because of critical coverage of the music director. He is suing for defamation, age discrimination and interference.
The lawsuit filed by Donald Rosenberg said the orchestra lobbied to get him reassigned and The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, breached its commitment to independence by caving into outside pressure.
The 56-year-old Rosenberg also says he was discriminated against because of his age, since he was replaced in his job by a 31-year-old former intern.
The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages in county court. It stopped short of asking for his return to the orchestra beat.
Rosenberg, who was the newspaper's orchestra critic for 16 years, was reassigned in September to cover other music groups. His removal from the beat caused a stir, with The New York Times warning the reassignment would "send shivers down the opinionated spines of critics everywhere." The Music Critics Association of North America asked the paper to reinstate Rosenberg.
Editor Susan Goldberg said the paper wouldn't comment on the lawsuit. She has said that The Plain Dealer never allows complaints against a writer to dictate personnel decisions.
Robert Duvin, a lawyer representing the orchestra, said the orchestra had done nothing wrong.
Duvin said conductor and music director Franz Welser-Moest has passionate backers among orchestra fans and reviewers around the world who disagree with Rosenberg. If any vendetta existed, it was by Rosenberg against Welser-Moest, Duvin said.
Rosenberg relentlessly criticized the conductor, Duvin said, and the views were "not just spiteful, they were wrong."
According to the lawsuit, Welser-Moest began a campaign to damage Rosenberg's reputation and ability to work as the high-profile orchestra reviewer after Rosenberg reported comments made by Welser-Moest in Europe in 2004. The conductor called Cleveland "an inflated farmer's village" where the orchestra was dependent on money from aging "blue-hair ladies" who attend matinees because they are too tired to go out at night.
The lawsuit said the orchestra reversed its long-standing policy and denied Rosenberg the opportunity to go backstage, attend rehearsals and interview Welser-Moest.
Rosenberg often praised the orchestra but frequently panned Welser-Moest, comparing him to a traffic cop who failed to delve into the music's essence.
According to the lawsuit, the orchestra continuously lobbied the paper to get more positive coverage and eventually met with Goldberg to complain that Rosenberg's relationship with the orchestra had become irreparable.
Plain Dealer Publisher Terrance C.Z. Egger, who serves on the orchestra board, told The Associated Press in October that he was unaware of any orchestra pressure to reassign Rosenberg. Egger declined to comment on Thursday.
Rosenberg was unaffected last week when the paper laid off 27 newsroom employees because of the struggling economy. The cuts were part of a previously announced reduction of 50 jobs, representing 21 percent of its unionized newsroom staff.
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Dec 12 2008
IMO, there should be a law against ads using the "Carol of the Bells" with different lyrics. But if you really need a break from all the Christmas music out there check out IonSound Project's concert at 7 p.m. this Monday (Dec. 15) @ Chatham University's Laughlin Music Center. The group, recently named ensemble-in-residence at Pitt, is calling it an evening of "spiritually inspired chamber music," and it will be joined by local favorite contralto Daphne Alderson.
The program:
- John Adams' Christian Zeal and Activity
- Zhou Long's Secluded Orchid
- Katherine Hoover's Winter Spirits
- Daniel Perttu's Elusive Unity
- Nizan Leibovich's Avaksha (premiere).
Tickets are $5-$10. or www.ionsound.org.
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