Classical Music

[Belle]

In case anyone missed it, Andre Watts died last week. He lost his battle with prostate cancer. He had quite an interesting story. Can't say I heard a lot from him and I never had any recordings but he sure came on the scene like gangbusters.

Yes, I read about this sad fact on 'Slipped Disc'. He was a very fine musician.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Swan Lake over the titles for Dracula (1931)

[Sepiatone]

In case anyone missed it, Andre Watts died last week. He lost his battle with prostate cancer. He had quite an interesting story. Can't say I heard a lot from him and I never had any recordings but he sure came on the scene like gangbusters.

Never heard the news until now. That is sad. Excellent pianist. Saw him with the DSO back in the '70's too. He performed this, with past DSO music director and conductor Sixten Ehrling as guest conductor.



Sepiatone

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[Swithin]

This is one of my favorite pieces of 20th century classical music. It is so evocative of the past, yet so modern. It was commissioned by Eleanor Steber, whom I met once. This version is by Dawn Upshaw.

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BALLET DANCERS CAN DO ANYTHING


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[Allhallowsday]

I owned this on vinyl, hard to believe over 45 years ago, replaced once and again on the CD I listen to. I've owned the CD for decades, BUT it was annotated wrongly in production. It even incorrectly has the director as CHARLES DUTOIT!!! I have found incorrect annotation many times in various genres, but never as much as "Classical" CDs.

PIERRE MONTEUX Boston Symphony DEBUSSY Images Nocturnes

[txfilmfan]

Longtime Boston Symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa passed away, age 88. If not for broken fingers sustained in a rugby game, we might never have had Ozawa as a conductor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/arts ... -dead.html

Early in his career, he was a guest on What's My Line. Even though he had been an assistant conductor under Bernstein at the NY Philharmonic by this time, he was not a mystery guest. A young Woody Allen was on the panel. Guess those folks weren't Philharmonic subscribers...

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I am surprised that those NYers on the panel did not know him. Goes to show that the high brow industry is in our land is out of site, out of mind. But he was so young at the time of this program. This program was before he became Music Director (and conductor) of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, otherwise they would have known him very well. When I clicked on the link I FF to the Mystery Challenger for obvious reasons, but no. He wasn't famous yet. Some of the Boston Symphony concerts from famed Symphony Hall in Boston were syndicated and were broadcast nationwide on NPR. In 1973 I remember one such concert when he conducted Tchaikovsky "Pathetique" symphony (No. 6) and there was a burst of applause after the third movement, an exhilarating march that has you out of your seat. According to the "audience police watchers" it is bad form to applause before the end of the whole symphony and that march was not the end. Or was so at the time. The applause was so spontaneous and quite long, it was an exhilarating thing in itself.

[txfilmfan]

I am surprised that those NYers on the panel did not know him. Goes to show that the high brow industry is in our land is out of site, out of mind. But he was so young at the time of this program. This program was before he became Music Director (and conductor) of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, otherwise they would have known him very well. When I clicked on the link I FF to the Mystery Challenger for obvious reasons, but no. He wasn't famous yet. Some of the Boston Symphony concerts from famed Symphony Hall in Boston were syndicated and were broadcast nationwide on NPR. In 1973 I remember one such concert when he conducted Tchaikovsky "Pathetique" symphony (No. 6) and there was a burst of applause after the third movement, an exhilarating march that has you out of your seat. According to the "audience police watchers" it is bad form to applause before the end of the whole symphony and that march was not the end. Or was so at the time. The applause was so spontaneous and quite long, it was an exhilarating thing in itself.

Yes, I was surprised that they didn't recognize him, as he had been in NYC for a couple years at this point, and had been on Bernstein's Young People's concert series on TV.

The Boston Symphony was on PBS for many years (Evening at Symphony) during the Ozawa era as well.

The local music critic here in Dallas is having a slight battle with the DSO CEO over applause interruptions after movements. His last two reviews contained complaints about such during concerts, asking that the symphony address it by putting in a note in the program or making an announcement regarding concert-going etiquette. The CEO wrote an editorial in reply a week or so later stating that they need to attract new audiences, and they don't want to discourage their enthusiasm by playing school marm (OK, she didn't say that overtly, but that was the gist of it).

I wish American audiences were as restrained as (most) European ones are. Most European audiences wait to applaud until the conductor lowers his/her hands. This lets the last bit of sound reverberate until it dies away. The audience here locally applauds immediately, and is very quick to give a standing ovation. It's the theatrical equivalent of grade inflation.