Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Stop, Already!

Found in my in-box, and this is just a sample:

  • Her program, the complete Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, is one of the most beloved works in the piano repertoire (SF Performances)
  • Best known for the beloved children’s novels A Series of Unfortunate Events he wrote as Lemony Snicket – and which he has recently adapted into an acclaimed series for Netflix – Daniel Handler brings his relentlessly mischievous style to a new play for adults. (Berkeley Rep) 
  • Violinists Itzhak Perlman, Cho -Liang Lin, concertmaster of Philadelphia Orchestra David Kim and Midori have put together special video greetings to celebrate the centennial of their beloved teacher - Dorothy Delay.  (Dorothy Delay tribute)
  • Members and alumni of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program will also perform a variety of beloved arias, duets and ensembles. (LA Opera)
  • The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of New Jersey’s finest music organizations, a position established through performances of beloved masterworks, innovative music by living composers, and an extensive network of educational programs offered to area students free of charge. (PSO)
  • For the first time, this original jackets edition brings together all of the recital albums this beloved American mezzo-soprano recorded for Columbia Masterworks from 1974 to 1998.  (ArkivMusic)
  • The Bay Area’s beloved former SF Symphony violist Geraldine Walther, now violist of the world-renowned Takács String Quartet, will join forces with superb pianist David Korevaar to perform the Chopin Sonata for viola and piano, Schumann’sMarchenbilder and David Carlson's True Divided Light, commissioned for NVCM.  (Noe Valley Chamber Music)
  • The beloved biblical story of Noah's ark set to music,
    featuring nearly 500 performers of all ages 
    at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on May 6 (LAO - again)
  • Beloved Virtuoso Kyung Wha CHUNG Returns to Carnegie Hall,
    Tackling the Highest Peak:
    The Complete Solo Sonatas & Partitas of J.S. BACH in a Single Evening (Kathryn King Media)
  • First are the beloved outdoor Symphony for the Cities concerts from July 3 to 9. (Minnesota Orchestra)
  • Don’t miss Sonya Yoncheva as one of opera’s most beloved heroines, the tragic courtesan Violetta, opposite tenor Michael Fabiano as her lover, Alfredo. (Metropolitan Opera)
  • The Aram Khachaturian International Competition has aimed at identifying talented young musicians since 2003 when it launched as part of the centennial celebrations for the beloved Armenian composer. 
  • The composer, a true Romantic, became desolate and enraged, hatching a plan to return to France and murder his former beloved, her new suitor, and her mother, then kill himself. (Boston Symphony Orchestra - describing Hector Berlioz)
We need a few more adjectives.

13 comments:

Joshua Kosman said...

Why you gotta be such a hater?

Lisa Hirsch said...

I CAN'T HELP IT.

Anonymous said...

I nervously checked my old files, and found that I've only used "beloved" three times in a dozen years of reviewing, once sarcastically ("the subtext beloved among those who like to see Shostakovich as a secret rebel").

Anonymous said...

Try reading through this list, replacing "beloved" with "legendary," and be grateful for small favors: it could have been worse.

Anonymous said...

The only person I ever called "legendary" in a review was Piatigorsky, and he was already long since dead.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I must emphasize that every word of the garbage I quoted in this post came from a press release and was, thus, written by a publicist, pro or am. Not a publicist, not guilty.

Not that reviewers don't have their tics.

Anonymous said...

To sound like a publicist is a terrible sin for a reviewer. If they do, they don't get excused on the grounds that that's not what they are.

Some reviewers have begun as publicists. (Heidi Waleson, for instance.) If so, they need to shake it off.

Alex Ross said...

Indeed, an atrocious list — though could we perhaps excuse the last? "Belovèd," especially in a crazed Berliozan context, seems altogether less of a cliché.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I should not even have included the last - it's the proper use of the word rather than a publicity cliché. I will leave it in honor of Berlioz.

Alex Ross said...

The one that cracks me up is the beloved story of Noah's ark. Really? I mean, it does have its heart-warming aspects, with all the cute animals, but there's also the aspect of God's wrath and near-universal death.

Lisa Hirsch said...

As a child, I was certainly more aware of the animals two-by-two and the ark of gopherwood and the dove and the olive branch than of God's wrath...although, of course, that is implicit in the story. I do not know how terrifying the Britten is, and it's not obvious out of context, because they use the modern spelling, that the press release is for a performance of Noye's Fludde. (Point of shame for me: I believe I have a score of this at home, purchased in London in 1982, so I should know the piece.)

For the benefit of any readers who do not have this press release, here's what the communications dept. goes on to say about the work:

"Noah's Flood (Noye's Fludde) is a colorful pageant where children play all the animal roles, parading two-by-two into the ark. Regarded as Britten’s most lovable work, the opera is based on one of the famous medieval Chester mystery plays, dating back to the 15th century. Scored for a combination of both student orchestra musicians and a professional chamber ensemble, the opera features inspired and delightful musical innovations; for example, the raindrops are represented by the sound of a series of mugs of varying sizes slung on string and struck by wooden spoons."

More lovable than the Young Person's Guide and St. Nicolas? I have sung in the adult chorus for the latter; my most beloved episode is Nicolas and the Pickled Boys.

Anonymous said...

"the beloved story of Noah's ark"

Poo. One of the carnivores killed that pair of beloved unicorns ...

Bryan said...

Besides being florid, there's some execrable sentence structure in those samples; you'd think they could pass press releases past someone who can right before sending them out. ("Noyes Fludde" is a wonderful thing, by the way--I'm always glad to hear of someone performing it. It does in fact put a "beloved" spin on it.)