Blog Archives

Young Conductors Step Forward

11/26/2012

"The Dude" is hard at work in L.A.

This is an advantageous time to be a young conductor in America. Here’s an article I wrote on the subject, from yesterday’s Houston Chronicle.

“Youth is hot and bold,” Shakespeare wrote. He might have also mentioned it’s highly marketable.

Increasingly, the message “youth sells” seems to be music to the ears of America’s symphony orchestras. And as orchestras grow ever more concerned about attracting new audiences, they’re increasingly looking to fresh-faced conductors to lead the way.

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A Late Quartet

11/17/2012

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Christopher Walken with his cello.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is presenting a screening of A Late Quartet on November 22 at the Isabel Bader Theatre. I recently saw this film – and was thoroughly impressed. Here are my thoughts on it.

A Late Quartet is a meticulous film. And that’s as it should be, given its subject: the tensions that bind together and threaten to pull apart a professional string quartet.

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The TSO and the Perpetual Virginity of Modernism

11/16/2012

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Composer Pierre Mercure.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra plays a lot of contemporary music. In fact, as Frank Oteri recently noted on the New Music Box website, in the current 2012-13 season the TSO is giving more world premieres than any other member of the League of American Orchestras. (See here, in the fifth paragraph.)

Much of the TSO’s contemporary programming is packed into its annual New Creations Festival. But other new works are scattered throughout the season on “normal” concerts.

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Interview with Stephen Hough

11/15/2012

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Pianist Stephen Hough.

In a world were so many classical musicians are entirely consumed with (and by) classical music, it’s refreshing to meet one who isn’t. Here’s an article I wrote about Stephen Hough, for today’s Houston Chronicle.

It’s an understatement to call English pianist Stephen Hough a remarkable individual. He seems more like a consortium of people: all with the same name and all busily engaged in their particular areas of interest.

It would be impossible to comprehensively summarize his multifaceted career. Instead, let’s take a close look what Hough has done this autumn:

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Interview with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

11/7/2012

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Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

I recently had a chat with the suave yet personable Jean-Yves Thibaudet – and the interview appeared in today’s Houston Chronicle.

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet clearly enjoys the respect of the classical music world – earning the admiration of audiences, his fellow musicians and even the toughest critics. The New York Times declared, “every note he fashions is a pearl.” London’s Financial Times neatly summed up his playing as “superb.”

Yet, surprisingly, Thibaudet didn’t win such high praise through an old-school emphasis on Beethoven and other Viennese masters. Rather, he’s known for playing an eclectic mix of French, East European and American music – even a little jazz.

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Young Conductors Step Forward

A Late Quartet

The TSO and the Perpetual Virginity of Modernism

Interview with Stephen Hough

Interview with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

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