tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post6114096908467182790..comments2024-02-28T21:14:54.693-08:00Comments on MRS JOHN CLAGGART'S SAD LIFE: Verdi Tells the TruthAlbert Innauratohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-90157429179852267752013-10-23T07:21:41.258-07:002013-10-23T07:21:41.258-07:00Sounded so good on recordings, I mean.Sounded so good on recordings, I mean.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-15781660369024221632013-10-23T07:20:35.867-07:002013-10-23T07:20:35.867-07:00Well, the only time I've heard the Philly live...Well, the only time I've heard the Philly live was in their old hall with Sawallisch - it deadened the famous string sound, which is perhaps why it sounded so good (to fight against that acoustic). A very dreary Beethoven Emperor with Ax and a straightforward if hardly hair-raising Heldenleben (now that's a piece for an exuberant young fella like Nezet-Seguin. His Lied von der Erde that's just come out is full of amazing sounds, but ruined by the too-close recording for the voices and, as in the performance, Sarah Connolly says nothing about the great settings to me.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-6610322784949133282013-10-22T01:31:05.158-07:002013-10-22T01:31:05.158-07:00Great seeing you here again, David, so soon!! I do...Great seeing you here again, David, so soon!! I don't have the DG YNS CD, it's hard for bloggers to get press samples, so I rely on the occasional and sometimes quixotic kindness of label press people. I hate that idiot at Universal so that's gone. I've heard YNS do a so-so Mahler 4, a wonderful meet and great for this season that started outside and continued with a jammed Kimmel center, and will be seeing him do Berlioz and Brahms in November. He's certainly popular and it is an orchestra of virtuosos, though it isn't so common to hear them play with a ripe, blended sonority. Some blame the Kimmel acoustics, which have a way of emphasizing or selecting certain frequencies to bounce out and occasionally muddy climaxes, but it's been a long while since the orchestra had one of those maestri who can get a thrilling over-all sonority, while allowing sectional color and point when necessary. YNS is young and new to it, so we'll see. Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-82128305198416560832013-10-21T01:05:24.375-07:002013-10-21T01:05:24.375-07:00I was struck when Muti mentioned that Verdi had th...I was struck when Muti mentioned that Verdi had the score of Don Giovanni in pride of place on the piano at Sant'Agata. Plot situations if not music mirrored, I like to think, in Forza del Destino and Sicilian Vespers (Henri and Helene are like Don Ottavio and Donna Anna until it all goes wrong).<br /><br />Always happy to keep faith with a truth-seeker like your distinguished self, Mrs C.<br /><br />Curious to know if that Philly Rite is any good. YNS hasn't disappointed in anything I've heard him do so far - and his Proms Prokofiev 5 with the Rotterdam Phil was absolutely the best I've heard live (and I've heard a few).Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-77010383495516296122013-10-20T22:39:38.851-07:002013-10-20T22:39:38.851-07:00It's always great to hear from you David. I am...It's always great to hear from you David. I am addicted to melodic and harmonic quotations and am sometimes wrong (an expert on Carmen attacked me for finding that the "fate" theme in Carmen, is the source for the theme of Tatyana's longing in Onegin, that dominates that opera, but I think I'm right, because I can "derive" the chromatic Onegin theme from the chromatic Carmen theme. But I respect this person greatly so maybe dementia has finally set in??!!). Yes, the list of Boulanger's pupils is quite funny. MANY were far from radical, either when they worked with her or subsequently. Of course, you're right about harmony and the orchestra being strongly present throughout Verdi and that was the point of insisting on the fact that he was the best educated Italian composer of his time musically, genuinely a sophisticate and connoisseur (it's well documented that he always had scores of Haydn, Mozart and Bach at his bedside to read before he fell asleep throughout his life); but the tune was the common coin of his time in his place and his abilities in that area are what made him rich. But of course, much is musically sublime and the Otello love duet is an excellent example, thank you for it. I'm glad you're keeping faith with poor Mrs. Claggart!!! Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-71929420175134100072013-10-19T04:16:47.949-07:002013-10-19T04:16:47.949-07:00Fascinating free ramble on a Verdian theme - start...Fascinating free ramble on a Verdian theme - starting with the enlightenment of the Mahler 'quotation' (I did a study day on Mahler and opera the other week; Die schoene Galathee and Das Lied came up, the wails in the Resurrection finale and Otello (probably just a shared common language), connections between the Requiem and the first movement of the Eighth Symphony, but I never thought of that).<br /><br />Take a look at 'Invidia fortumam est' in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. Same key, expressive directions and voice as the Ingemisco in the Requiem, though the line is deliberately more elliptical. So fascinating. I love what Stravinsky said about the use of simple ingredients in the Rigoletto storm scene.<br /><br />Not sure that harmony and orchestration were always incidental - not in the Otello love duet (those progressions) and not in the orchestral colours of everything from Traviata onwards. But if you mean at the service of melody, I agree.<br /><br />Love the phrase about the bass drum and the telly, as well as those points about Boulanger's pupils...lil orphan Annie will never sound the same again.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-38486722213771255702013-10-16T23:01:58.579-07:002013-10-16T23:01:58.579-07:00Thanks schmup53; some ass already attacked it on F...Thanks schmup53; some ass already attacked it on Facebook through a "friend". Let me be clear that every "fact" here is attested in Roselli and/or Matz, nothing is "made up" by me, and both of them are carefully documented. This cretin averred that Verdi had NEVER been attacked as a musician, an astounding statement since I was in conservatory by the time I was 12 and one could never mention his name without a knowing and dismissive sneer and the accusations of crudeness were everywhere in books and essays on music. It was a "liberal" position to suggest he was very talented but "untrained, a Primitive" (the untrained part is entirely untrue in reality.). I do make personal value judgments, they are not from on high and are fair game. But the allegations of this fool made me angry. But thank you so much for reading and commenting!!Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-13505938745714872822013-10-16T20:27:39.521-07:002013-10-16T20:27:39.521-07:00Thank you for this terrific piece. Thank you for this terrific piece. schmup53https://www.blogger.com/profile/03995304894519528582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-27274706879954090132013-10-15T14:10:07.981-07:002013-10-15T14:10:07.981-07:00Thanks, Joost -- big target to aim at. I should th...Thanks, Joost -- big target to aim at. I should thank MICHAEL HARDY for the picture of Muzio, it's from his Facebook page Claudia Muzio L'unica, he also has pages on Eugenia Burzio, Tina Poli-Randaccio and Maria Farnetti and I recommend them highly. I should also mention Mary Jane Phillips-Matz' huge biography of Verdi, and the late John Roselli's The life of Verdi, compendiously researched but short and tightly organized with an emphasis on the politics (musical and other) and economics of Verdi's time. Frank Walker's biography, though older is still worthwhile. Italian biographies are disappointing, oddly, while the most easily available collection of Verdi's letters, the coppialettere, leaves out letters that show him in an unflattering light. The three volume Budden consideration of all the operas from a musical perspective is a great achievement and maybe the last word on someone who is famous because they composed music, not because of what they got up to privately in a very long life, where Verdi carefully guarded his interactions so that some things will never be known for sure. Albert Innauratohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00372127500758892700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704055254870121256.post-63443495252057849452013-10-15T13:30:00.599-07:002013-10-15T13:30:00.599-07:00a great piece - i learn so much from you
thank you...a great piece - i learn so much from you<br />thank youj van bergehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17356000334149995923noreply@blogger.com