Posts tagged as:

classical music

arts: cheap alternative in hard times?

by Charles Noble on January 26, 2009

Alex Ross has an excellent article in the current issue of The New Yorker, where he talks about the fine arts as a more reasonable alternative to other forms of entertainment in difficult economic times:
The image of the classical concert hall as a playground for the rich is planted deep in the cultural psyche. When [...]

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fix this!

by Charles Noble on October 9, 2008

(this came to my attention care of Sam’s excellent blog)
Nico Muhly has an interesting game that he played with the New York Philharmonic’s season opener – which was:
Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture
Ibert Flute Concerto
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
They initially decided to try to make the program worse, which it seems they weren’t able to bring themselves to [...]

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style or substance?

by Charles Noble on May 17, 2008

Style vs. substance the duality that’s on my mind as I write this.  I’m at a loss.  Why do individuals or organizations who do impeccably prepared, virtuosic performances passed over in favor of those who cloak mediocrity in the guise of a fancy mission statement?  Does it really all come down to marketing?  Are we [...]

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eastern exposure

by Charles Noble on May 9, 2008

I’m here in La Grande, Oregon with the Oregon Symphony, in case you’re wondering.  And it’s been a busy first day.  Yesterday my wife (a freelance cellist who plays often with the orchestra) and I arrived here at around 9:00 p.m., enjoying the great change of scenery and ecosystems that we continually marvel at when we [...]

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blog rankings 2008

by Charles Noble on April 8, 2008

I stumbled upon a post over at Classical Convert which has published lists of the Top 50 Classical Music Blogs using four different metrics – most of which don’t mean that much to me. However, I was please to see that this blog has cracked the top 50 in 3 out of the 4 [...]

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brahms the wallflower?

by Charles Noble on January 22, 2008

Anne Midgette, writing for the Washington Post, talks about her non-response to the music of Johannes Brahms, which she describes thusly:

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alex ross & marin alsop on charlie rose

by Charles Noble on January 17, 2008

See the video after the jump (click on title above or link at left to view entire post and see video).

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audiences pendulum keeps swinging

by Charles Noble on December 28, 2007 · 4 comments

John Terauds, the classical music critic for the Toronto Star, writes in a recent column that younger audiences are turned off by crossover efforts, and just want the “straight stuff”.

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stabler lists top events of 2007

by Charles Noble on December 28, 2007

David Stabler
David Stabler, the classical music critic of the Oregonian newspaper, has listed his top classical music happenings of 2007.

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duda-mania?

by Charles Noble on December 1, 2007 · 2 comments

This is the review that did it for me – New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini fairly wetting himself over the Philharmonic debut of conductor it-boy of this decade, Gustavo Dudamel.

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lachrymae

by Charles Noble on October 21, 2007 · 2 comments

There are instances where a topic sweeps across the blogosphere, sometimes it’s referred to as a “meme”. I hadn’t heard of this before, so I checked dictionary.com and found that a meme is described thusly:

a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of gene
In this [...]

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