The Big Kahuna
Jan 18, 2011The Metropolitan Opera is one very large institution, sort of the Pentagon or General Motors of classical music. It’s the Big Kahuna in every way.
40 Comments Continue ReadingThe Original Cast Recording
Jan 06, 2011Instead of composing reasonably modulated lines that allow the vocal musculature to periodically relax and recoup its strength, I gave Chairman Mao lines that started on a high wire and just mercilessly stayed there. I must have been thinking at the time that if Mao were going to be heard by a billion Chinese he would have to sing very loud and very high—all the time.
23 Comments Continue ReadingStravinsky's Arm Farts
Dec 11, 2010The young composer-to-be rushed home to his family summer place in the Ukrainian countryside and practiced the technique assiduously until he was so successful at it that his parents forbade him to indulge in such an indecent accompaniment. (“Igor, stop that this instant, or go to your room!”)
23 Comments Continue ReadingLaunching the supertanker
Dec 06, 2010The charming old stories of Mozart scribbling out the overture to “Marriage of Figaro” an hour before the premiere and dropping ink-wet parts onto the players’ stands may or may not be true, but they for sure are the worst possible model for any composer who hopes to get a decent performance of his or her own music.
13 Comments Continue ReadingPiloting the Aircraft Carrier
Dec 04, 2010Rehearsing and performing supersized oratorio pieces, especially when they involve the added complications of staging, can be daunting. Keeping the disparate forces united and continually aware of the inner pulse becomes the first order of business. At such times the conductor can feel less like a sensitive interpretive “artiste” and more like the commander of an aircraft carrier or a jumbo jet tasked with piloting it through unknown terrain, sometimes at perilous speeds.
7 Comments Continue Reading"How Could This Happen?"
Nov 29, 2010The Nativity story is one of the simplest and most sincere in the Bible. Images of the scene in the stable of Bethlehem, with Mary and the infant surrounded by astonished peasants and placid farm animals, emphasize the humble circumstances of this particular birth. I pinned to the wall above my worktable several images by Giotto and other medieval and early Renaissance painters to remind me of the power of simplicity in rendering this myth.
23 Comments Continue ReadingThe Zen of Silence
Nov 20, 2010What emerges most powerfully in “Begin Again” is Cage’s enormous capacity for work, together with his exceptional self-discipline as an artist (something learned from Schoenberg) and his willingness to approach every new challenge with a “beginner’s mind.” For this alone it is a book worthy of being read by anyone, young or old, who is faced with the daunting task of a new creative beginning.
23 Comments Continue ReadingIn Bed With Beethoven
Sep 30, 2010Roll over, Beethoven, you and I have to share this bed, whether you like it or not. (Phew…when did you last bathe, dude?)
26 Comments Continue ReadingGlenn Gould and the Flash Flood of the Mind
Sep 19, 2010People absolutely must have a medical explanation to answer their discomfort with the idea of a talented and intelligent artist who was utterly original if a tad odd. Glenn Gould was a hypochondriac and wore winter clothes in the summer. So what?
27 Comments Continue ReadingBehind the Iron Curtain with John Cage, Part 3
Sep 14, 2010Thus I found myself, talking and laughing with John Cage when the vodka, like the neutrons in a plutonium sphere, went supercritical and I found myself boo-hooing into my tear-drenched hands like a confessing felon in some Dostoevskian tale.
10 Comments Continue ReadingBehind the Iron Curtain with John Cage, Part 2
Sep 10, 2010The Russian players were utterly jazzed to be performing this piece for the famous composer himself, and they all but outdid each other with the antic athleticism of their playing. Cage generously beamed his classic smile at them and everyone in the crowded small concert hall broke out into sustained applause, even the sour-looking bureaucrats.
5 Comments Continue ReadingBehind the Iron Curtain with John Cage, Part 1
Sep 06, 2010I fumbled in my bag and pulled out the thin strip of passport photos. In one I was stretching my lips diagonally, exposing my teeth like a dray horse. In another my tongue was sticking out and my eyeballs popping while Sam looked up at me laughing.
16 Comments Continue ReadingCopyright © 2010 by John Adams
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