Recently In The Blogs
Being an occasional survey of some of the interesting
articles in the classical music blogosphere ...
For a comprehensive link list of classical music
blogs, see Chris
Foley's page and for a list of the blogs referred to in this
series of articles, click here.
April 15
We are travelling to a little-considered part of the classical
world for this posting's new blog: Thailand.
Classicalive
Classical music is not what you think of when Bangkok comes to
mind. For me, Bangkok, which I have never visited beyond the
international airport(s), is being stuck in a aeroplane for seven
hours at the old international airport, which was deserted for
the very good reason it is now the domestic airport and we we
were diverted there at 1 am. So instead of .... no, I better
not go any further on this.
Anyway, onto Brian Hinrich's blog about musical
life in and around the Thai capital (did you know that it is
only called Bangkok by ignorant outsiders - the local's name
for the city
is the
longest
place name in the world and shortened to Krungthep). Brian is
an expatriate
New
Yorker, which explains all his links to blogs on musical life
in the Big Apple, and on a Fulbright scholarship studying ethnomusicology,
and also the growing influence of western classical music in
Thailand.
One specific post that I want to mention tells
of a recent concert with a rather curious juxtaposition: John
Cage
in Bangkok. He described it as an interesting experience,
but concluded with "sales for the recital unfortunately appeared
similar to those in the States for all-contemporary concerts".
Elsewhere
Jessica Duchen in Sokolov
makes a stand records the ridiculous
situation that has arisen with the new work visa laws in the
UK, and
their
impact
on
visiting musicians. The Russian pianist, Gregory Sokolov,
has visited the UK regularly for the last eighteen years,
but his next visit, which may not happen, will require him
to supply biometric data.
Alex Ross (The Rest Is Noise) has returned
from travels to China and Alaska (he includes some photos) with
the Sad
news from LA which relates
the news that a prominent arts critic, Alan Rich, has been let
go from the LA Weekly.
Bob Shingleton at On an Overgrown Path has
a wonderfully diverse range of topics, including Handel's
suites are miracles - some comments on the 1982
recording of the Handel suites by Richter and Gavrilov - and
Glenn
Gould engineered, about a novel by the Austrian
writer, Thomas Bernhard. He has even "pinched" my musical
quotation challenge idea in
Xenakis
- the eyes have it!
March
17, 2008
It does rather look like a monthly update is all I'm going
to be able to manage, but I promise not to let it slip further
than that!
For this posting's new blog, I thought I would find a well-known
recording artist who wrote a regular blog. In fact, I found
two, though to be absolutely pedantic, they aren't really blogs
in that they have no provision for reader feedback.
Hilary Hahn
The brilliant young American violinist has been writing an online
journal since 2002, and also includes photos from her travels
(not professional ones of her playing, but her own personal
record of the places she has visited). As far as I can tell,
the journal entries are restricted to her touring dates, but
nevertheless, the journal does get a regular update (four so
far this year, all in February).
Her most recent post from Copenhagen (February 25) recounts
the experience of having been the sole guest on a late-night
Danish chat show:
"I actually got to play music at the length at which it was
intended. No one-minute cutoff, no requests for fast and happy
showpieces, just artistic freedom and a nice conversation and
some goofing off with a thoughtful host".
Her writing is informal, but intelligent, and allows the reader
to get some sense of the loneliness of being a concert soloist
travelling the world. Homesickness and isolation make it less
glamorous than it might seem.
Angela Hewitt
I am pleased to be able to include one of my favourite
pianists. Like Hilary Hahn, it concentrates on her touring and concerts, and
the individual entries are relatively short, unlike Hahn's which can occupy a
number of screens.
Sadly, one of her recent posts (January 20) was to record the death of her mother
in Canada,
whilst Angela was performing in London.
Elsewhere
Returning to some of my favourite blogs, Jessica
Duchen is busy promoting her
new novel Hungarian Dances, and her husband, a member of LPO, is off on tour
also. Robert Hugill has written about the stereotyping of woman in 19th century
opera,
under
the title Virgins
and Whores. John France has added several more thoughts about works
by British composers, such as Elizabeth
Maconchy, John
Foulds and Alan
Rawsthorne.
Forty One
Finally, modesty
should forbid me from mentioning another blog, which has just
sprung into life.
Forty
One - a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - is simply
a collection of my thoughts, mostly music-related. One that might pique your
interest is an account of a party in the 1820s at the house of Johann Goethe
in Weimar,
attended by the teenage Felix
Mendelssohn.
February
16, 2008
A three week gap this time
between articles, since I'm now back at work on my daytime job - the bills do
have to be paid. As promised, I will always try to include
a new blog in each issue, and today's is first up.
Violinist.com
The site describes itself as "a global community
of violin players, teachers, students and fans. We gather here
to ask and answer questions about the violin, to post daily diaries
of our lives with the violin and to waste time between practice
sessions" and claims 6,000 violinists as members (I wonder how
you prove you are a violinist). It is run by Californian Laurie
Niles, who not surprisingly is a violinist and Suzuki-qualified
teacher.
The most recent entry (February 12) is an extended interview with
the American violinist Anne
Akiko Meyers. The conversation ranges
from her earliest musical education through to the author's thought
about a recent recital, on the way referring to the numerous new
works written for her. Meyers has purchased a 1730 Strad and talks
about how important it is
to her, but equally how vital is her bow: "I would die without
that Peccatte. It’s my life blood."
At the end of the article is a link to a YouTube performance by
Meyers of the Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with
the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at an outdoor concert (you do
have to put up with some disconcerting clunks, as though someone
is kicking a microphone).
Elsewhere
Jason at Too Many Tristans has been busy with a number
of interesting posts.
Firstly, he continued to delve into the
archive of awful LP & CD
covers again: the series is now up to Part
6.
He also provides an illuminating list of the Google
search phrases that led people to his blog (as opposed ot those
who followed a link from another site, for example). It might surprise
you to know the top three phrases involved Anna Netrebko and
nudity or sex, but this is understandable on further investigation,
since Jason wrote a post entitled "Anna
wants to be naked" relating
to an article in The
Times,
in which Ms N declared she very much wanted to do Salome,
and that this would mean appearing naked. I can hear the phones
ringing at the ticket agencies already!
Finally, he provides a
link to a site - Handelmania - which has a number of hilarious
excerpts from operas (in mp3 format). The title of the post
is
"Shut
up with your damn coughing", referring to Jon
Vicker's outburst at a performance of Tristan & Isolde in
Dallas.
John France at Land of Lost Content has been very busy
establishing his new blog - there are now 45 posts in the space
of 6 weeks - and some of the most recent have been reflections
on works by little known English composers, such as William
Blezard's Battersea
Park Suite, Haydn
Wood's Soliloquy and
Greville Cooke's High
Marley Rest. John provides links to
the recordings, and I certainly shall be chasing them up.
Good reading.
David J Barker
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