We interrupt the Bernard Holland discussion with late-breaking news: Madama Butterfly comes to San Francisco Opera yet again. Here's the record:
October, 1995 - 8 performances
December, 1995 - 4 performances
June, 1997 - 20 performances (with several rotating casts)
January, 1999 - 8 performances
June, 2002 - 9 performances
January, 2003 - 5 performances
May/June, 2006 - [some number of performances I don't have handy]
December, 2007 - 5 performances
Perhaps this clarifies why I think it's a good idea to give the classics a rest once in a while. I would actually like to see Patricia Racette in this role, but, you know, it'll only encourage them if I buy a ticket.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Fish, Barrel
Bernard Holland on Nico Muhly's concert:
Explaining why Elizabethan church music and pieces by the young American Nico Muhly were found together onstage at Zankel Hall on Friday requires intellectual gymnastics beyond my competence.Read the whole stupid thing here. I'm betting that Alex or Steve will have something a little more cogent to say.
Compare and Contrast 3
Die Aegyptische Helene is performed at the Met for the first time since the heyday of Maria Jeritza, and there's some disagreement about what's on stage:
- Anthony Tommasini in the Times (it may go into the paid archive at the end of this week)
- Sieglinde's first, second, and third postings (okay, Sieglinde has also posted about Voigt, her size change, etc., but I don't want this getting too cluttered)
- Justin Davidson is here
- Wellsung has a few things to say too
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Die Meistersinger
I'm joining Steve in giving ACD just a bit of the vapors, or maybe not.
No argument here about the Kna magic in all things Wagner; I have a few of his recordings and there are no better conductors of the canon. He has some equals in particular recordings and performances, but a Kna performance is always special in its blend of detail, mass, and sweep. He's capable of making miserably-sung performances, like that live Tristan, come together and work as convincing music-drama despite the quality of the singing.
My argument is with "the rich, seemingly effortless baritonal heldentenor of [Hans] Hopf." I've got a Hopf performance that is roughly contemporaneous with the Meistersinger ACD has in hand, a Tristan from La Scala that I bought for de Sabata's conducting (surprisingly bad!) and Grob-Prandl's Isolde (stunning, bringing together the femininity and tonal beauty of Flagstad with the high notes, volume, and dramatic involvement of Nilsson). Hopf is an embarrassment after Act I, where he's acceptable. Act II...shudder. I'm afraid to put on Act III. Maybe Tristan is just too much for him, maybe he's lots better in that Meistersinger, but it's awfully hard to imagine Hopf's singing as "effortless."
No argument here about the Kna magic in all things Wagner; I have a few of his recordings and there are no better conductors of the canon. He has some equals in particular recordings and performances, but a Kna performance is always special in its blend of detail, mass, and sweep. He's capable of making miserably-sung performances, like that live Tristan, come together and work as convincing music-drama despite the quality of the singing.
My argument is with "the rich, seemingly effortless baritonal heldentenor of [Hans] Hopf." I've got a Hopf performance that is roughly contemporaneous with the Meistersinger ACD has in hand, a Tristan from La Scala that I bought for de Sabata's conducting (surprisingly bad!) and Grob-Prandl's Isolde (stunning, bringing together the femininity and tonal beauty of Flagstad with the high notes, volume, and dramatic involvement of Nilsson). Hopf is an embarrassment after Act I, where he's acceptable. Act II...shudder. I'm afraid to put on Act III. Maybe Tristan is just too much for him, maybe he's lots better in that Meistersinger, but it's awfully hard to imagine Hopf's singing as "effortless."
Monday, March 12, 2007
Changing His Tune
For years, we've heard KDFC's Director of Operations, Bill Leuth, telling us that KDFC has eliminated vocal music (except for that slot rather early on Sunday mornings) because the audience doesn't want to hear it - it interrupts the consistency of their experience.
I guess David Gockley made him an offer he couldn't refuse, because today KDFC and the San Francisco Opera announced an agreement to broadcast pre-recorded performances from the Opera:
Updates: The broadcast schedule is on the SFO Web site. Joshua Kosman reports on the broadcasts.
I guess David Gockley made him an offer he couldn't refuse, because today KDFC and the San Francisco Opera announced an agreement to broadcast pre-recorded performances from the Opera:
KDFC will broadcast full-length productions, digitally recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and presented commercial-free, on the first Sunday night of every month at 8 p.m. The series begins April 1 with Puccini's Manon Lescaut, with yours truly as program host.That's great news. For his next act, maybe he'll bring back the Met broadcasts.
It will be a thrill welcoming one of the world's finest opera companies to KDFC, and bringing opera back to Bay Area radio. Enjoy!
Updates: The broadcast schedule is on the SFO Web site. Joshua Kosman reports on the broadcasts.
Adès/Beethoven/Mozart
To the Symphony Saturday night, for the last performance in Alan Gilbert's current run, a program of Thomas Adès's Chamber Symphony, Beethoven's Triple Concerto, and Mozart's 41st Symphony ("Jupiter"). My companion, The Standing Room, took off after intermission, and he had the right idea: the Mozart was somewhere between eh and zzzzz. Gilbert's a perfectly decent conductor, but I want to hear him in new music, and, really, how much is left to say about that piece in 2007? I wish it could be given a rest for about 25 years.
The first half of the program was a different story, though. I'd never heard the Beethoven live, and I think I've heard it on record at most a few times. Lovely piece, well-performed: S.F. Mike has pictures, and let me add that the cellist is buff. The Eroica had an encore, Piazzola's Oblivion, played with no jagged edges, all homogenized, moody, prettiness, leaving TSR unhappy.
Best of all was the Adès. For one thing, you had to wonder what Robin Sutherland was going to do with that accordian; when he finally picked it up, you remembered that the accordian is a reed instrument. Accordian plus string harmonics: magic, one of the last gestures in a hugely eventful, dense, and fascinating 14 minutes of music. I loved it, would have loved to hear it again, and then I noticed that Adès was wrote it at 19. It's his Opus 2, written with the self-assurance, distinctiveness, and musical conviction of a master.
The last time TSR and I saw Gilbert, the programming was similar: Adams's Naive and Sentimental Music plus Midori in a lax performance of the Beethoven violin concerto. It's a waste of Gilbert's talents. As I said, he is perfectly competent but not revelatory in Classical-era music, and a fine accompanist, but it's in contemporary and 20th century music that he shines. As TSR said, neither contemporary music nor the audience are well served by tossing a new piece onto a program with no context. More Adès, or music by one of his contemporaries, or a British composer of a slightly earlier generation, would have made a much more interesting and exciting program.
The first half of the program was a different story, though. I'd never heard the Beethoven live, and I think I've heard it on record at most a few times. Lovely piece, well-performed: S.F. Mike has pictures, and let me add that the cellist is buff. The Eroica had an encore, Piazzola's Oblivion, played with no jagged edges, all homogenized, moody, prettiness, leaving TSR unhappy.
Best of all was the Adès. For one thing, you had to wonder what Robin Sutherland was going to do with that accordian; when he finally picked it up, you remembered that the accordian is a reed instrument. Accordian plus string harmonics: magic, one of the last gestures in a hugely eventful, dense, and fascinating 14 minutes of music. I loved it, would have loved to hear it again, and then I noticed that Adès was wrote it at 19. It's his Opus 2, written with the self-assurance, distinctiveness, and musical conviction of a master.
The last time TSR and I saw Gilbert, the programming was similar: Adams's Naive and Sentimental Music plus Midori in a lax performance of the Beethoven violin concerto. It's a waste of Gilbert's talents. As I said, he is perfectly competent but not revelatory in Classical-era music, and a fine accompanist, but it's in contemporary and 20th century music that he shines. As TSR said, neither contemporary music nor the audience are well served by tossing a new piece onto a program with no context. More Adès, or music by one of his contemporaries, or a British composer of a slightly earlier generation, would have made a much more interesting and exciting program.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Compare and Contrast 2
A young violinist, Margot Schwartz, who grew up in Oakland, just played the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Berkeley Symphony and the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She got three reviews by three critics:
I covered her appearance with the Berkeley Symphony.
Joshua Kosman wrote up her performance at the OEBS. So did Robert Commanday.
I covered her appearance with the Berkeley Symphony.
Joshua Kosman wrote up her performance at the OEBS. So did Robert Commanday.
Compare and Contrast 1
Start with an essay by a student of Greg Sandow's.
Continue to the predictable response from ACD.
Finish up with a thoughtful posting from Matthew Guerrieri.
Continue to the predictable response from ACD.
Finish up with a thoughtful posting from Matthew Guerrieri.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Music is Hard 2
Elaborating just a bit on my last posting:
You don't need to read too far back in music history to find out that up until some time in 19th or 20th century, what we now called classical music was popular music. By that, I mean that you didn't have to be an educated musician or a member of a particular economic stratum to have an active interest in notational music. Middle-class people had pianos, played them, and looked forward to receiving the piano arrangement of a symphony or opera aria, because otherwise, especially if they lived far from a big city, they might never hear that work in its original form. (If you don't believe me, find any piece of early 20th century sheet music by Ricordi and look at the number of arrangements that were available of, say, arias from La boheme, for all sorts of unlikely combinations of instruments.) Amateur choruses thrived (and still do; perhaps this is the last outpost of what "classical" music once looked like). All those secular part songs, from madrigals to the Haydn part-songs to the Liebeslieder Waltzes, were written to be performed at home, not in a concert setting. Mozart was a popular composer, writing in popular genres such as the Singspiel. Up until comparatively recently in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, Catholics could hear a rather complicated repertory of liturgical music written for performance as part of services. Ordinary people went to the opera and considered it entertainment. Classical music was part of a continuum of just plain music.
How notational music became confined to big professional institutions and came to be viewed as an "elite art form" is a complicated story, affected by such diverse factors as social and musical developments in the U.S., the professionalization of musicology and theory the history of recorded music, music's change from something performed by all to something consumed by all (the shift from playing to buying recordings of others playing), the development of amplification and electric instruments of various kinds, changes in the school systems, etc., etc., etc.
But it's ahistorical to the point of ignorance to insist that classical music is inherently an "elite" form or that attempts to make classical music more accessible to more people (economically, socially, culturally) are in any way wrong-headed. They're just returning classical music to the social position it used to occupy.
Minor Update, 3/9/07: Corrected the posting title.
You don't need to read too far back in music history to find out that up until some time in 19th or 20th century, what we now called classical music was popular music. By that, I mean that you didn't have to be an educated musician or a member of a particular economic stratum to have an active interest in notational music. Middle-class people had pianos, played them, and looked forward to receiving the piano arrangement of a symphony or opera aria, because otherwise, especially if they lived far from a big city, they might never hear that work in its original form. (If you don't believe me, find any piece of early 20th century sheet music by Ricordi and look at the number of arrangements that were available of, say, arias from La boheme, for all sorts of unlikely combinations of instruments.) Amateur choruses thrived (and still do; perhaps this is the last outpost of what "classical" music once looked like). All those secular part songs, from madrigals to the Haydn part-songs to the Liebeslieder Waltzes, were written to be performed at home, not in a concert setting. Mozart was a popular composer, writing in popular genres such as the Singspiel. Up until comparatively recently in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, Catholics could hear a rather complicated repertory of liturgical music written for performance as part of services. Ordinary people went to the opera and considered it entertainment. Classical music was part of a continuum of just plain music.
How notational music became confined to big professional institutions and came to be viewed as an "elite art form" is a complicated story, affected by such diverse factors as social and musical developments in the U.S., the professionalization of musicology and theory the history of recorded music, music's change from something performed by all to something consumed by all (the shift from playing to buying recordings of others playing), the development of amplification and electric instruments of various kinds, changes in the school systems, etc., etc., etc.
But it's ahistorical to the point of ignorance to insist that classical music is inherently an "elite" form or that attempts to make classical music more accessible to more people (economically, socially, culturally) are in any way wrong-headed. They're just returning classical music to the social position it used to occupy.
Minor Update, 3/9/07: Corrected the posting title.
Music is Hard 1
Just to put this concept as simply as possible:
- Once upon a time, "classical music" was popular music.
- Classical music can be popular again.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Carlo Grante
The excellent Music & Arts label publishes both work by living performers and important historic reissues. I'm on their mailing list, and today I got email that includes blurbs for a couple of discs by Carlo Grante. I was amused to read this at the end of a description of one of the CDs:
(Oh, and grain of salt time: read what William Barrington-Coupe now has to say about Hatto.)
And he has been in the news lately as one of the pianists whose work was appropriated by the late Joyce Hatto.I'm glad for the attention now being paid to some excellent pianists who aren't exactly household names. It's one positive result of the Hatto sideshow.
(Oh, and grain of salt time: read what William Barrington-Coupe now has to say about Hatto.)
Monday, March 05, 2007
Chora Nova
Chora Nova, with which I sing, has a concert in Berkeley on Sunday, March 25. It'll be great, I think.
Here's what our email announcement says:
Chora Nova, under the direction of Artistic Director Paul Flight, performs part songs for chorus from the Romantic masters and more….Join us for
Romance and the Part Song: from dashed hopes to the triumph of love
featuring Brahms' Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65
Serenade to Music — Vaughan Williams
Trois Chansons Bretonnes — Henk Badings
and works by Elgar, Rheinberger, Jenner, Schubert
Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
First Congregational Church of Berkeley , Dana & Durant
Tickets $15/$10 student at the door or online
More information at www.choranova.org
Join us in our inaugural season!
Here's what our email announcement says:
Chora Nova, under the direction of Artistic Director Paul Flight, performs part songs for chorus from the Romantic masters and more….Join us for
Romance and the Part Song: from dashed hopes to the triumph of love
featuring Brahms' Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65
Serenade to Music — Vaughan Williams
Trois Chansons Bretonnes — Henk Badings
and works by Elgar, Rheinberger, Jenner, Schubert
Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
First Congregational Church of Berkeley , Dana & Durant
Tickets $15/$10 student at the door or online
More information at www.choranova.org
Join us in our inaugural season!
Theater Tech
If you donate enough money to San Francisco Opera, you get invited to various events. I've been to rehearsals of various types and to several technical discussions.
The English National Opera now has a special Web site, Inside Out, that is all about what goes on back stage, from the flies to the makeup room. Take a look!
The English National Opera now has a special Web site, Inside Out, that is all about what goes on back stage, from the flies to the makeup room. Take a look!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Classics Without Walls
The Bay Area is down to one very bad classical music radio station, KDFC - and its corporate master has just sold it to another big corporation, so who knows what will happen to it? (I filled out their listener survey and gave them an earful about how to improve the programming.)
If you can get the KUSF signal - stream it to your computer if not - listen to Classics Without Walls, which is broadcast from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday nights (Pacific time).
The CWW DJ is Mark Theodoropoulos, whom I'm known for a long time. He is erudite, a great writer, and a fabulous programmer. Take a look at those playlists! Classic music with intelligence!
If you can get the KUSF signal - stream it to your computer if not - listen to Classics Without Walls, which is broadcast from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday nights (Pacific time).
The CWW DJ is Mark Theodoropoulos, whom I'm known for a long time. He is erudite, a great writer, and a fabulous programmer. Take a look at those playlists! Classic music with intelligence!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Keeping Track
I was going to blog the known and suggested sources of the "Hatto" CDs, but Andrew Rose is on top of it; visit the Pristine Classical Web site to follow the bouncing ball or the Joyce Hatto article at Wikipedia.
Andrys Basten has an excellent page of all the goings-on. Jessica has a link to pianist Christopher Howell's views of the matter. MusicWeb has a long list of Hatto-related material on its home page.
Andrys Basten has an excellent page of all the goings-on. Jessica has a link to pianist Christopher Howell's views of the matter. MusicWeb has a long list of Hatto-related material on its home page.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Hatto Update
There's plenty of commentary around the blogosphere at this point; use Google Blog Search to find many postings I haven't cited below.
Update, Feb. 19: Jessica links to an excellent editorial on Classics Today. It's in two parts, somewhat annoyingly: Part 1 and Part II.
- Mr. Dog has interesting comments (I'm not sure whether I'm convinced, however).
- Mr. Noise chimes in with very restrained remarks about how reviewers reacted to the "Hatto" recordings, demonstrating that he is more of an adult than I might have been.
- Jessica has two more postings up.
- ACD is horrified.
- Sieglinde has some insights into the vagueries of iTunes.
Update, Feb. 19: Jessica links to an excellent editorial on Classics Today. It's in two parts, somewhat annoyingly: Part 1 and Part II.
Breaking Scandal
The British pianist Joyce Hatto, who died last year, has become something of a cult figure - I believe I first heard her name on a great pianists mailing list I am a member of. The eminent critic Richard Dyer called her the "greatest pianist no one's ever heard of."
Perhaps not. In a rather fascinating breaking scandal, it seems a number of the recordings issued by the Concert Artist/Fidelio label, which is owned by Hatto's husband, are by other pianists, including Yefim Bronfman and Laszlo Simon. Here are links to relevant articles:
Perhaps not. In a rather fascinating breaking scandal, it seems a number of the recordings issued by the Concert Artist/Fidelio label, which is owned by Hatto's husband, are by other pianists, including Yefim Bronfman and Laszlo Simon. Here are links to relevant articles:
- The story breaks at Gramophone
- A writeup of one analysis at the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music
- Pristine Classical's analysis of a bunch of purported Hatto recordings
- A long thread at Google Groups. The real fun here is watching the Hatto partisans trying to cope.
- Vivien Schweitzer picks up the story at Playbill Arts
- Jessica Duchen is following the story and has many links
- Joshua Kosman's blog tipped me off to this in the first place
- The NY Times picks up the story
Not Much of a Girl
For various reasons, something I say about myself is that I am definitely a woman, but I'm not much of a girl. My partner (female) says this about me all the time, in fact. If you've met me, I feel sure you understand why.
Well, I am happy to announce that it's really true. A posting at Making Light, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog, pointed me to the Gender Genie, a site that analyzes word use in a block of text and then makes a guess at the author's gender.
I plugged in four chunks of text. Three were postings from this blog, one was an essay of sorts about things going on in my life at the moment (work, my mom's health, etc.). I indicated that the first two were blog postings and called the third posting and the essay nonfiction.
My scores were as follows:
For my blog review of The First Emperor, female score 1870, male score 2847.
For the blog posting about the Berkeley Symphony, female score 716, male score 873.
For the blog posting about Fidelio at S.F. Opera in 2005, female score 564, male score 1015.
For the essay, female score 1492, male score 1543.
Well, I am happy to announce that it's really true. A posting at Making Light, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog, pointed me to the Gender Genie, a site that analyzes word use in a block of text and then makes a guess at the author's gender.
I plugged in four chunks of text. Three were postings from this blog, one was an essay of sorts about things going on in my life at the moment (work, my mom's health, etc.). I indicated that the first two were blog postings and called the third posting and the essay nonfiction.
My scores were as follows:
For my blog review of The First Emperor, female score 1870, male score 2847.
For the blog posting about the Berkeley Symphony, female score 716, male score 873.
For the blog posting about Fidelio at S.F. Opera in 2005, female score 564, male score 1015.
For the essay, female score 1492, male score 1543.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Tetzlaff
Christian Tetzlaff got the short end of the stick the other day in San Francisco: his performance of the Brahms violin concerto, in which he more or less burned up his bow, the stage, and the whole auditorium, got buried under the coverage given to the premiere of Robin Holloway's Fourth Concerto for Orchestra.
I understand why, I really do. In most circumstances, the Brahms would have been the big piece on the concert. But the Holloway is a gigantic, entertaining, attractive, brand new, possibly important piece, and such works do need lots of attention. I'm glad it got the coverage it got.
STILL. Tetzlaff deserved more than a token couple of paragraphs at the end of the SFCV and Chronicle reviews. Based on what I knew, I was expecting a cool, restrained, austere performance of the Brahms. What I got...well. A hot, impassioned, intense, emotional, and extremely beautiful performance. WHAT a player he is, what assurance, what tone, what involvement.
I understand why, I really do. In most circumstances, the Brahms would have been the big piece on the concert. But the Holloway is a gigantic, entertaining, attractive, brand new, possibly important piece, and such works do need lots of attention. I'm glad it got the coverage it got.
STILL. Tetzlaff deserved more than a token couple of paragraphs at the end of the SFCV and Chronicle reviews. Based on what I knew, I was expecting a cool, restrained, austere performance of the Brahms. What I got...well. A hot, impassioned, intense, emotional, and extremely beautiful performance. WHAT a player he is, what assurance, what tone, what involvement.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Postcard from Paris
San Francisco Symphony's French program of Berlioz, Debussy, and Dukas: you really must go.
Encore!
The Met high-definition TV broadcasts are proving popular enough that it seems nearly all will be encored. You can catch I Puritani again on Tuesday, February 13 at 7 p.m. and Ha-Shi-Woof The First Emperor on Wednesday, March 7 at 7 p.m. or Sunday, March 11 at 1:30 p.m. (Two repeats?? Well, why not?) Times are the same in all time zones. Visit the Fathom Web site for more information and to buy tickets.
By me the repeats are real evidence of a pent-up demand for opera. The broadcasts are a win for everybody. $18 is more than movie theaters can get for a first-run film, but a lot less than a trip to NYC. The performers and the Met get lots of exposure (and the composers, in the case of permieres). Goodness knows, it's helping fill the gap between SF Opera's fall and summer seasons. Let's hope that Doctor Atomic is on the list for broadcast in a future Met season.
By me the repeats are real evidence of a pent-up demand for opera. The broadcasts are a win for everybody. $18 is more than movie theaters can get for a first-run film, but a lot less than a trip to NYC. The performers and the Met get lots of exposure (and the composers, in the case of permieres). Goodness knows, it's helping fill the gap between SF Opera's fall and summer seasons. Let's hope that Doctor Atomic is on the list for broadcast in a future Met season.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Goings-on at the Berkeley Symphony
Correction, January 28. I made a significant error below, and George Thomson has sent me the correct information. For the last decade, Kent Nagano has led 3 or 4 rehearsals per Berkeley Symphony concert, and Thomson has led one or two. I apologize for the error, which is entirely mine and which seriously misrepresented the division of labor for rehearsals at the BSO. I am very happy to post this correction. I am also making changes in line.
The Berkeley Symphony is more famous than most regional orchestras of its size and budget, and there are two primary reasons for this fame: very imaginative programming (with many contemporary works and commissions) and music director Kent Nagano.
Maestro Nagano, born in Berkeley, came to the Berkeley Symphony nearly 30 years ago. He has had an international career for 20 of those years, and currently has gigs at the Montreal Symphony and Bavarian State Opera.
This is accurate to the best of my current knowledge:Nagano is not in town all that often, but has shown remarkable commitment to the Berkeley Symphony anyway, leading most of the orchestra's rehearsals, with Associate Conductor George Thomson leading one or two before each concert. Thomson has also functioned as Artistic Coordinator, he has led the symphony's music education program, and he has conducted the important "Under Construction" series of works in progress.
Well, that was the situation until last week.
On Saturday, January 13, Thomson led the orchestra in a concert called Hold On, which included an important local premiere. (I reviewed it for San Francisco Classical Voice.)
On Thursday, the Berkeley Symphony held a press conference at which it announced Nagano's resignation as Music Director and said that an "international search" would be held to select a successor.
Now, take a look at the press release. There's no mention of Thomson and his contributions at all, and the fact that an "international search" is being held implies that despite all the work he's done, he's not in the running for the Music Director post. Really, it's a shabby way to treat someone who has done so much for the organization.
On Friday, Thomson turned in his own resignation. That speaks volumes. On his personal Web site, Thomson wrote the following:
(Full disclosure: I've never met or spoken with Thomson, but I was recruited for SFCV by Michelle Dulak Thomson, to whom he is married, and she was my first editor at SFCV.)(I guess it can now be said that I have spoken with Thomson, with whom I have been in email contact over the last couple of days.)
The Berkeley Symphony is more famous than most regional orchestras of its size and budget, and there are two primary reasons for this fame: very imaginative programming (with many contemporary works and commissions) and music director Kent Nagano.
Maestro Nagano, born in Berkeley, came to the Berkeley Symphony nearly 30 years ago. He has had an international career for 20 of those years, and currently has gigs at the Montreal Symphony and Bavarian State Opera.
What follows is mostly wrong:He's not in town all that often, and it's an open secret around the Bay Area musical community that Associate Conductor and Artistic Coordinator George Thomson does most of the orchestral preparation, with Nagano flying in to lead a rehearsal or two before the concerts he conducts. Think, for a moment, about this: it means that Thomson has been working with the concertmaster to determine bowings and with the librarian to mark up the scores. It means that most Berkeley Symphony rehearsal time for the last decade or more has been under Thomson, not Nagano. On top of this, Thomson has led the Symphony's music education program and conducted the important "Under Construction" series of works in progress.
This is accurate to the best of my current knowledge:Nagano is not in town all that often, but has shown remarkable commitment to the Berkeley Symphony anyway, leading most of the orchestra's rehearsals, with Associate Conductor George Thomson leading one or two before each concert. Thomson has also functioned as Artistic Coordinator, he has led the symphony's music education program, and he has conducted the important "Under Construction" series of works in progress.
Well, that was the situation until last week.
On Saturday, January 13, Thomson led the orchestra in a concert called Hold On, which included an important local premiere. (I reviewed it for San Francisco Classical Voice.)
On Thursday, the Berkeley Symphony held a press conference at which it announced Nagano's resignation as Music Director and said that an "international search" would be held to select a successor.
Now, take a look at the press release. There's no mention of Thomson and his contributions at all, and the fact that an "international search" is being held implies that despite all the work he's done, he's not in the running for the Music Director post. Really, it's a shabby way to treat someone who has done so much for the organization.
On Friday, Thomson turned in his own resignation. That speaks volumes. On his personal Web site, Thomson wrote the following:
Effective today I have resigned from my positions with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. In light of the Orchestra's announcement regarding Kent Nagano's departure, the Orchestra has made a plan for its upcoming seasons which of necessity excludes me from the level of involvement I have of late enjoyed. Furthermore, I felt that my close relationship to the musicians might be an impediment to the "international search" for a successor to Kent that the Orchestra has chosen to undertake. I wish the Berkeley Symphony the best of luck in their upcoming transition.More coverage in SFCV's Music News column.
(Full disclosure: I've never met or spoken with Thomson, but I was recruited for SFCV by Michelle Dulak Thomson, to whom he is married, and she was my first editor at SFCV.)(I guess it can now be said that I have spoken with Thomson, with whom I have been in email contact over the last couple of days.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)