Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
  • Home
  • About Colin Eatock
  • Composing
  • Catalogue of works
  • Writing about music
  • Eatock Daily (blog)
  • New and upcoming
  • Contact me

The Rite, Then and Now

5/29/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureThe man who wrote the Rite.
Today, the internet is bursting with articles commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Rite of Spring. So here’s my contribution: an essay I wrote for the May issue of Literary Review of Canada about Stravinsky’s masterpiece and its influence over 20th-century music.

Claude Debussy famously described Richard Wagner’s music as “a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.”

The French composer wasn’t the only one who saw Wagner as the culmination of an old era, rather than the beginning of a new one. Friedrich Nietzsche called Wagner’s music “the song of a dying swan.” And the Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick wrote, “Wagner’s art recognizes only superlatives, and a superlative has no future. It is an end, not a beginning.”



Read More
0 Comments

Interview with Gil Shaham

5/27/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureWith this album, Shaham launched Canary Classics.
I talked to violinist Gil Shaham last week about his do-it-yourself record label, Canary Classics. Here’s the interview, as it appeared in yesterday’s Kansas City Star.

At 42 years, Israeli-American violinist Gil Shaham has everything a classical soloist could want – and more.

First, he has a big international career. In the concert season now drawing to a close, Shaham has played concertos with orchestras in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal and Toronto, and next weekend he’ll be at Helzberg Hall to play Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto of 1935 with the Kansas City Symphony.



Read More
0 Comments

A Lawsuit Grows in Brooklyn

5/21/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureWhat will the courts make of Currier vs. the Brooklyn Phil?
I’ve written before about how the classical music world aspires to a state of “pristine issuelessness.” Dubious deals are hidden from view, scandals are swept under the rug, conflicts are smoothed over – and whatever the problem may be, everyone agrees it’s best not to talk about it.

The whole machinery runs like an exercise in Palestrina counterpoint: carefully regulated to avoid any kind of discord. (And then everyone wonders why classical music doesn’t get more attention in the media!)



Read More
0 Comments

Is There a Doctor in the House?

5/16/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureThe diploma and funny hat make it official.
Every now and then, I write on a topic not directly related to music. I wrote this essay – originally titled “A North American’s Guide to the Use and Abuse of the Modern PhD” – for the website 3 Quarks Daily, where it was posted on May 13, 2013.

You applied to the program, and you got in. Then you spent the next four, six, eight or more years stroking the capricious egos of professors, jockeying for position within your peer group and marking bad undergraduate essays for the minimum wage. You completed the research, the grant applications, the writing, the comprehensive exams, and finally the defence.



Read More
0 Comments

Carmelites at the COC

5/13/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureThese nuns are up to the challenge. (photo: Michael Cooper)
On Saturday night (May 11), I was at the Four Seasons Centre last night to see the Canadian Opera Company’s current staging of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. Directed by and designed by Canadians Robert Carsen and Michael Levine (respectively), it’s a thought-provoking production. And one of the many things I found myself thinking about, as I left the theatre, was the term “production values.”

The phrase is much bandied-about in the opera world. Often, it simply means that a lot of money was conspicuously spent. In this sense, “high production values” is an economic term, referring to the use of expensive scenery, costumes, lighting and stage equipment.



Read More
0 Comments

Interview With Janina Fialkowska

5/9/2013

0 Comments

 
PicturePianist Janina Fialkowska.
Here’s my interview with pianist Janina Fialkowska, from the Houston Chronicle.

When Janina Fialkowska returns to Jones Hall on Thursday to perform with the Houston Symphony, she’ll walk to center stage, sit down at the piano and play Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 – with both hands.

That may sound like an odd thing to say. But anyone who heard her last Houston Symphony appearance, in 2002, will recall that on that occasion she played with one hand only. The piece was Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, but Fialkowska played it with the only good hand she had – her right.



Read More
0 Comments

Ehnes, Braun and Maule at the WMCT

5/3/2013

0 Comments

 
PictureJames Ehnes, Russell Braun and Carolyn Maule.
In many ways, the decision by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto to pair up violinist James Ehnes and baritone Russell Braun in a joint recital was a stroke of genius.

Both are among the best Canadian artists currently before the public. As well, they share stylistic affinities: an unaffected, no-nonsense approach to interpretation that doesn’t shortchange depth, drama or virtuosity. Adding pianist Carolyn Maule (Braun’s wife) to this duo created a potent little chamber ensemble for a Thursday afternoon concert at Toronto’s Koerner Hall.



Read More
0 Comments

    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

    Archives

    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Index

    Click here for an alphabetical list of blog entries.

    RSS Feed

    Follow colineatock on Twitter
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.