Aaron Copland on words and music

Well at least you and I both know that this quote doesn't apply to this blog ...

"'The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, "Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.'"

- Aaron Copland

Rudolf Barshai, conductor (1924-2010)

Rudolf Barshai

Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai died November 2 at 86. Noted as conductor and founder of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the founding violist of the renowned Borodin Quartet, Barshai was a student of Shostakovich and quite close to Prokofiev. As a member of the Borodin Quartet, he performed at the funerals of both Prokofiev and Josef Stalin, which took place on the same day.

Barshai conducted performances by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra on three occasions for the Celebrity Series, in 1963, '66, and '75. The performances included, in the 1966 concert, the Boston premiere of a joint "rearrangement" of Shostakovich's Tenth Quartet, renamed Chamber Symphony, undertaken by composer and conductor.

The Globe and Mail

BBC News

Telegraph (UK)

The Vancouver Sun

The Guardian (UK)

German interview with Rudolf Barshai (captioned) part 1

German interview with Rudolf Barshai (captioned) part 2

German interview with Rudolf Barshai (captioned) part 3

The Claremont Trio playing DBR's "Volvic Maritum"

Here they are performing a work by another Celebrity Series artist, Daniel Bernard Roumain (always nice to see that sort of thing), but the Claremont Trio will join Rob Kapilow for a What Makes It Great? outing examining Beethoven's "Archduke Trio" on November 7

.

Mark Morris talks with Globe about world premiere

Laura Collins-Hughes spoke with choreographer Mark Morris for Boston Sunday Globe about his new Celebrity Series of Boston commission, Petrichor:

"I love making up titles. You know, it's interesting because it makes people tempted to think that something has a relevance that it either does or doesn't have. There's a dance we do called 'A Lake,' and I just called it 'A Lake' because it occurred to me that I should call a dance 'A Lake.' There’s no lake in the dance. But, you know, 'petrichor,' it's a fabulous word that I'd never heard before. The dance is, first of all, it's for all women. There's eight women in the dance, and it's this amazing piece of music that’s very under-known and a very tricky, beautiful piece of music. And, you know, Villa-Lobos was very devoted to his Brazilian heritage. He says that all of his music is Brazilian; it all contains the rain forest. I’m not Brazilian, the dance isn’t a rain forest, and the title seemed to work."

Read the complete article.

Mark Morris Dance Group dances October 14-17 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. On October 14, Petrichor will receive its world premiere performance at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

Handel and Hendrix were neighbors

The Hendrix and Handel houses on
London's Brook Street (note the blue sign on each)

George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street, Mayfair in London. 200 years later rock and roll guitarist Jimi Hendrix moved in next door at 23 Brook Street (Handel had left by then). The good folks at The Handel House Museum in London, who use Hendrix's former address as administrative offices for the museum at 25 Brook Street, have mounted an exhibit of Hendrix memorabilia to celebrate the famed neighbors. Read The Guardian's coverage.

In their August newsletter, the Handel House Museum noted the passing of longtime Bostonian Sterling Hale, who was instrumental in negotiating the 999-year lease on the house for the museum. Read the Handel House August 2010 newsletter.

One man's Brahms ...

"The classical
composer par excellence of the present day, who free from any
provincialism of expression or national dialect... writes for the whole
world and for all time - a giant, lofty and unapproachable - Johannes
Brahms."
- Edward Elgar, 1886




"I have played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a
giftless bastard!"

- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1886




"The real Brahms is nothing more than a sentimental voluptuary...
He is the most wanton of composers... Only his wantonness is not
vicious; it is that of a great baby... rather tiresomely addicted to
dressing himself up as Handel or Beethoven and making a prolonged and
intolerable noise."

- George Bernard Shaw, 1893




"Brahms is just like Tennyson, an extraordinary musician, with
the brains of a third rate village policeman."

- George Bernard Shaw, 1893




"Take Brahms: the product of the misty landscapes of north
Germany, his works are full of groping, dreaminess and introspection.
Mist gives a sense of infinity; it may be only two feet deep but equally
it may cover the world, there is no knowing."

- Yehudi Menuhin

Announcing the Celebrity Series of Boston 2010-2011 Season

Subscription sales begin April 30

So here is our season for next year in all its 41-event glory. You can't order your subscription, yet, that starts April 30, but you can check out the artists, dates, times, venues and even programs (follow the links), request a season brochure (if you're a subscriber this season, you will already get one), and join our e-mail list and get a reminder before subscription sales begin. We're announcing a little early this season so you can begin setting your arts calendar for 2010-2011.

October 2010

Mark Morris Dance Group
Program features the world premiere of a Celebrity Series commission
October 14-17
Cutler Majestic Theatre

Chucho Valdés with The Afro-Cuban Messengers
Celebrity Series Debut
Thursday, October 28, 8pm
Berklee Performance Center

November 2010

What Makes It Great? with The Claremont Trio
Beethoven's "Archduke Trio"
Sunday, November 7, 3pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Liza Minnelli in Concert
Celebrity Series Debut
Sunday, November 7, 5pm
Symphony Hall

Basil Twist's Petrushka
Boston Debut
November 11-21
Subscription performances:

November 11-17
The Paramount Theatre

Kremerata Baltica
Gidon Kremer, violin soloist and leader
Celebrity Series Debut
Friday, November 12, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Murray Perahia, piano
Sunday, November 14, 3pm
Symphony Hall

Tokyo String Quartet with Lynn Harrell, cello
Friday, November 19, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Pinchas Zukerman, violin/viola
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Sunday, November 21, 3pm
Symphony Hall

Parker String Quartet
Bonus Subscriber Event
Monday, November 22, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

December 2010

Haochen Zhang, piano
2009 Van Cliburn Gold Medalist
Boston Debut
Friday, December 3, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Pilobolus
December 3-5
Cutler Majestic Theatre

January 2011

Christine Brewer, soprano
Celebrity Series Debut
Saturday, January 15, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway, "Boom!"
Friday, January 21, 8pm
Sanders Theatre

Balé Folclórico da Bahia
Celebrity Series Debut
Saturday, January 22, 8pm
The Opera House

Philharmonia Quartett Berlin
Boston Debut
Friday, January 28, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Savion Glover, "SoLo in TiMe"
Saturday, January 29, 8pm
The Opera House

Golden Dragon Acrobats
Sunday, January 30, 3pm
Symphony Hall

February 2011

Joshua Bell, violin
Friday, February 4, 8pm
Symphony Hall

Ira Glass, "Radio Stories and Other Stories"
Saturday, February 5, 8pm
Sanders Theatre

Tierney Sutton Band
Celebrity Series Debut
Friday, February 11, 8pm
Sanders Theatre

What Makes It Great?
Excerpts from Mozart's Don Giovanni
Sunday, February 13, 3pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Takács Quartet
Friday, February 18, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone
Sunday, February 27, 3pm
Symphony Hall

March 2011

Evgeny Kissin, piano
Wednesday, March 2, 8pm
Symphony Hall

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
Celebrity Series Debut
March 4 & 5
Tsai Performance Center

Emerson String Quartet with Sir James Galway, flute
Friday, March 11, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Saturday, March 12, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

KODO Drummers
Sunday, March 13, 4pm
Symphony Hall

American Legacies:
The Del McCoury Band with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Saturday, March 19, 8pm
Symphony Hall

Matthew Polenzani, tenor
Boston Recital Debut
Thursday, March 24, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

John Williams, guitar
Friday, March 25, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

April 2011

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Friday, April 1, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

BeijingDance/LDTX
Boston Debut
April 1 & 2
Tsai Performance Center

Patti LuPone, "The Gypsy in My Soul"
Sunday, April 3, 5pm
Symphony Hall

St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Yuri Temirkanov, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello soloist
Sunday, April 10, 3pm
Symphony Hall

Dubravka Tomsic, piano
Friday, April 15, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Friday, April 29, 8pm
NEC's Jordan Hall

May 2011

Sweet Honey In The Rock
Friday, May 6, 8pm
Symphony Hall

Compagnia TPO, Farfalle
Boston Debut
May 10-15
Black Box Theatre, Paramount Center

Complexions Contemporary Ballet
May 20-22
Cutler Majestic Theatre
_________________________________

Call for a free 2010-2011 season brochure: (617) 482-2595
or visit www.celebrityseries.org.

Important Dates:

Season Subscriptions go on sale April 30, 2010

Priority Seating Deadline is Friday, June 11, 2010

Subscriptions by phone begin Monday, June 14, 2010

Individual performance sales begin Monday, September 13, 2010

Finckel, Han and Setzer on the Schubert Piano Trios (video w narration)

David Finckel, Wu Han and Philip Setzer will perform Schubert Trios nos. 1 & 2 on February 21 at Jordan Hall. In this video, they play and discuss Schubert trios (from Music@Menlo in 2008).

"Morris on Mozart" - Mark chats with critic Richard Dyer at Sanders (Free)

Morris on Mozart

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 7pm

Sanders Theatre

45 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA



Hear celebrated choreographer Mark Morris in conversation with
journalist and classical music critic Richard Dyer. Morris, known for
his eclectic musical tastes from classical to country, will discuss music and
his work.



Admission is FREE but tickets are required. Two per person.



Available by phone only through the Harvard Box Office at Holyoke Center,
Harvard Square (Wed-Sun, 12-6pm):

617.496.222 (TTY 617.495.1642)

Tickets will also be available at the door one hour prior to event,
subject to availability on a first-come, first-served basis.

Presented by OFA Learning From Performers, Celebrity Series of Boston and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

The Mark Morris Dance Group performs Mozart dances January 29-31 at The Boston Opera House.

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff adds György Kurtág to Boston recital

György Kurtág

The German violinist Christian Tetzlaff has added four selections from György Kurtág's Signs, Games, and Messages to his January 31 unaccompanied violin program at NEC's Jordan Hall.

Charles Ives is on Twitter

The UnTwittered Question

Charles Edward Ives, internationally renowned American modernist composer (and explorer of such musical techniques as polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones), and insurance industry innovator (author of Life Insurance with Relation to Inheritance Tax) whose work helped lay the foundation for modern estate planning, has risen from the dead to launch a Twitter account:

http://twitter.com/CharlesIves

Stay tuned for more innovation.

And check out Ives' String Quartet No. 1 tomorrow night with the Emerson String Quartet.

Charles Ives gets a green light

"Never you mind what the Ladies' Committee says, my opinion is that God gets awfully tired of hearing the same thing over and over again."

-John C. Griggs, Choirmaster at New Haven (CT)'s Centre Church to organist Charles Ives


Charles Ives' first string quartet leads off the Emerson String Quartet's program this Friday at Jordan Hall.

Samuel Barber: composing in, football out

"Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t
cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I
suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with
I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer, and
will be I’m sure. I’ll ask you one more thing .—Don’t ask me to try to
forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes
I’ve been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very)."
-Samuel Barber, at age 9

The Emerson String Quartet will perform Samuel Barber's Adagio for String Quartet, Opus 11, and selections by Ives, Janacek and Shostakovich on Friday, December 4 at Jordan Hall. The performance will not be followed by a game of touch football (as far as we know), but you are welcome to organize one.

Clara Schumann on Brahms' Symphony No. 3

Clara Schumann


"I have spent such happy hours with your wonderful creation ... that I should like at least to tell you so. What a work! What a [musical] poem! What a harmonious mood pervades the whole! All the movements seem to be of one piece, one beat of the heart, each one a jewel! From start to finish one is wrapped about with the mysterious charm of the woods and forests. I could not tell you which movement I loved the most."

-Clara Schumann to Johannes Brahms, responding to the two-piano score of his Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Opus 90

The Berliner Philharmoniker plays Brahms' Symphony No. 3 at Symphony Hall on Sunday, November 15.

Summer Sun, Winter Moon

Our own Rob Kapilow (well, he's been doing shows with us for quite some time, so he feels like family) undertook an interesting project a few years ago, a commission to create a work that is "a reflection of the enduring legacy of the Lewis and Clark expedition." But the commission from the St. Louis Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic and the Kansas City Symphony was not specific as to how this might be accomplished. For inspiration, Kapilow retraced Lewis and Clark's steps and began confronting what was for him a new world. Kapilow struggles with how to tell this new unexpected story, the story he finds most compelling, and which is largely untold; the story of Lewis and Clark from the perspective of today's native Americans.

Together with Blackfeet Indian poet and language preservationist Darrell Robes Kipp, Kapilow creates a symphony and discovers a world of which he previously knew nothing, Kipp writes the libretto for Kapilow's symphony, and discovers a new direction in his own work of tribal preservation and possibility. Thus do these two unlikely partners begin the process of bridging the divide between worlds begun at the time of Lewis and Clark.

The film about this process, Summer Sun, Winter Moon, is now being shown on PBS stations across the country. the next showing's in the Boston area will be on November 6 on WGBX World. A complete schedule of showing in other locations is available here.

There is also this brief video made by the Blackfoot teenager Jesse Desrosier. Jesse also appears in the film: Diary of Jesse Desrosier

On another note, Rob Kapilow performs two versions of his acclaimed What Makes It Great? program in the 2009-2010 season:

What Makes It Great? Mendelssohn Octet
What Makes It Great? The Music of Cole Porter

Christian Tetzlaff, sublime Bach

Christian Tetzlaff

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff's program was all J.S. Bach, all of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas, in fact, so it was not a complete representation of what Boston audiences will hear on January 31 at Jordan Hall. However, according to Allan Kozinn of the New York Times, Tetzlaff's performance (as well as the program) was sublime.

Bach's Sonata No. 3 in C and Partita No 2 in D minor, both of which were on Sunday's 92nd Street Y program and are mentioned in the review, will be played in Boston. But we will also hear Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonata for solo violin and for Paganinni caprices. Hear is a snippet of Kozinn's review to whet your appetite:

"Technique is never an issue with this violinist. The clarity and
solidity he brings to the music’s chordal writing remain among the most
striking characteristics of his Bach playing, as does the sharp
articulation he uses to suggest independent lines of counterpoint. What
has deepened is the intensity of the emotional charge he draws from
this music, in readings that match Bach’s 18th-century ingenuity with
passion and warmth in the here and now."

Read all of Emphasizing Bach's Unity.

Ask Stephen Sondheim. No, really, ask Stephen Sondheim ...

Stephen Sondheim

At the close of his onstage conversation with Stephen Sondheim at
Sanders Theater on November 14, Frank Rich will include questions
submitted in advance by audience members and other Sondheim fans.

Please email your questions for Stephen Sondheim by Thursday, November 12 to:

asksondheim@gmail.com

Questions
will not be accepted after November 12. Questions may be presented in
edited form. There is no guarantee your question(s) will be selected.



During this live, unscripted conversation, Mr. Sondheim and Mr. Rich
will reminisce about Stephen Sondheim’s career including his
collaborations with Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins; his
predecessors, including his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II; the state of
American musical theater; and, in a very personal series of
reflections, his own creative process, speaking specifically on works
ranging from his early shows Gypsy and West Side Story to such later classics as Company, Follies and Sweeney Todd.

Note: Remaining tickets for this event are limited.

Stravinsky conducting Firebird from 1965

Igor Stravinsky conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra in "Lullaby and Final Hymn" from The Firebird Suite. The concert is from London's Royal Festival Hall in 1965.

NY Times: "Searching for Chopin in Warsaw"

Have you been noticing more attention being paid to Chopin and his music of late? Well, there is a reason. For those of you who are not aware, 2010 is the bicentennial of Chopin's birth. For our part, Chopin is getting some additional Celebrity Series attention in 2010, too. Three of the four pianists on the Series are playing Chopin (and Pollini is playing only Chopin). The latest additional to the public discussion of Chopin comes from today's story in the New York Times about looking for clues, any clues, of Chopin's presence in Warsaw. Read Searching for Chopin in Warsaw.

I can't say this article left me feeling good about the state of Chopin's legacy in his home country, but it is an interesting micro-examination of the issue, at least.

WGBH to acquire WCRB 99.5 FM

There are "wows" and there are "WOWS"! This one gets ALL CAPS.

WGBH, our NPR/PBS colleagues over in Brighton have announced plans to acquire classical music station WCRB, at 99.5 FM on your FM dial. WCRB will become non-commerical, "in keeping with our public mission," as the WGBH web site says.

Read more about this remarkable development here.

UPDATE: And here is today's Boston Globe article (9/21).

FURTHER UPDATES: Dan Kennedy weighs in. And Bob Oakes at WBUR.