Friday, December 4, 2015

Friday Miscellanea

Here is an article about how both birds and humans make vocalizations: "A common mechanism for human and bird sound production." The way it is written is slightly confusing, but what they are saying is that both birds and humans use a physical mechanism called "myoelastic-aerodynamics" to produce sound. In humans this oscillation of vocal cords occurs in the larynx, but in birds it is located in the syrinx, located deep inside their bodies, so difficult to study. Different organs, located in different places, but they seem to be saying that the actual mechanism is very similar. Sadly, no illustrations!

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Here is something rather interesting: Kirill Gerstein writes about pianist Radu Lupu in the New York Review of Books. It is a pretty good article, given the usual journalistic blind spots: no technical vocabulary or description which forces the writer to utter things like:
Motivic repetitions become perceptible as rhymes, the structurally important is differentiated from the ornamental, the stretching and contracting of musical time acquires an internal logic and a living, breathing musical structure emerges.
Well sure, but all good performers do this. Also, it is deliciously ironic that this article is about Radu Lupu who, for the past two decades, as is noted in the first paragraph:
has chosen not to record any music. He does not allow radio broadcasts of his playing, he does not give press interviews, and he has almost no social media presence.
And of course the article embeds two recordings of his performances. Were they just not paying attention? By the end of the article we realize that the occasion for the writing was the issuance of the complete catalog of Lupu's recordings up to 1996 when he stopped recording. So it's a kind of record review. Of a guy who has forsworn making records. Ironic.

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If I have inadvertently micro-agressed anyone in the course of this miscellanea I would like to offer a micro-apology:

I'm sorry.

And now back to our regularly-scheduled program.

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Here is a rarity, both the piece and the performer: Grigory Sokolov playing the Geistervariationen by Robert Schumann.


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Cultural appropriation of the week: Luna doing John Lee Hooker on double-tracked kotos:


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I'm not a big fan of Slipped Disc which often seems to merely sensationalize classical music news. But here is one interesting and amusing item. Norman Lebrecht summarizes recent reviews of Lang Lang in London, which seem to remove all doubt about his strengths and weaknesses. My favorite line: "what should be filigree seems more like shrapnel" in his Chopin. Wish I had said that!

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This blog likes to talk about philosophy in connection with music, but I suspect a lot of musicians are not terribly fond of philosophy. I think that this brief interview with philosopher Lydia Goehr might be an example of why. It seems as if she is on the verge of offering some really interesting insights, but ends up by beating around the bush and polishing up a couple of half-truths. Yes, if you reduce music to the way it is often used, it doesn't seem very mysterious. But that is a bit like saying you understand how internal combustion engines work by watching a drag race.

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I suppose the logical envoi today would be to once more violate Radu Lupu's choice not to record by, yes, posting a recording of him playing. This is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No 23 in A major K 488; Radu Lupu, piano; Sándor Végh conducts Wiener Philamoniker:


Oh no, nothing mysterious there... Well, except that Maestro Végh seems to be conducting from a minature score.

6 comments:

David said...

Bryan, thanks for another installment of thought provoking ideas, commentary and links. The coincident appearance of items related to LL and RL in the same Friday Miscellanea presents an interesting window on classical music and its presentation and consumption today. It would seem an almost impossible task to find two world class pianists active at the same time who are so widely removed in their musical service to the world. Does the source of the differences lie in the age difference between the performers? If maturity is the key, the passage of time should mellow out the younger man and give him more insight and sensitivity to the music. Is the difference in the audience? (LL: the frenetic world of the social media crowd/ RL: the unhurried, thoughtful European). I don't have the answer. In today's world, the PC approach would be to say that it serves the greater good to have both approaches. I know which one I personally identify with and prefer. I suspect it will be a long time before we hear LL produce music that can honestly be called "practically incorporeal. Its material is transparent. It is sonorous air. It is almost Nature itself."

Bryan Townsend said...

Yes, perhaps it is simply a case of let a hundred flowers bloom. But consider how likely it is that someone of Radu Lupu's temperament would be able to carve out a niche for himself in the current musical environment. It is only the frenetic, publicity-seeking Lang Langs that seem to be making an impression. When the generation of Radu Lupu and Grigory Sokolov has gone, will we still have artists of their caliber? Actually, I think we will, because I can think of at least one younger artist that has that kind of grace and depth and that is Hilary Hahn and I am sure there are others.

Christine Lacroix said...

David I don't think that 'The coincident appearance of items related to LL and RL in the same Friday Miscellanea...' was 'coincident' at all! Am I right Bryan?
I enjoyed the comments under the Slipped Disc article. Bryan do you know the classical guitarist who left a comment under the article and was roundly insulted for defending Lang Lang?

Bryan Townsend said...

You give me too much credit for Machiavellian manipulation. No, it was rather by chance that these two pianists (plus Sokolov) appeared together in the miscellanea. But it is interesting to consider them side by side.

When I saw the Slipped Disc piece, the later comments weren't there yet, including from the guitarist. I think that those sterile, predictable debates can be avoided by being more specific and outlining exactly why you thought what you did about a performance. Otherwise, anytime you are critical, people tend to say you are jealous. That is often not the case. And no, I am not familiar with that guitarist.

Christine Lacroix said...

Machiavellian?! As a teacher I know that when you're trying to make a point there's nothing like contrast. I thought that's what you were doing. Maybe these exuberant musicians think that they are simply giving the audience what they expect. I saw a short clip of Lang Lang teaching children and he kept insisting that this one little boy lift his left hand in the air the way he does. I wondered about it at the time. I had a few piano lessons as a child and we never got as far as levitating hands. I thought maybe it was an advanced technique. Who knows, maybe one of his teachers in China taught him that. Wouldn't it be great if we could ask him? Have a back and forth on his style? Do you think that these really popular musicians have time to read their reviews?

Bryan Townsend said...

I was using the word "Machiavellian" largely in jest! Yes, you are quite right, contrasting different things is an important part of teaching and of how I work on the blog. Things that are hard to describe are often better shown.

There are at least two kinds of teachers: one kind teaches students to do what they do, i.e., apparently Lang Lang. The other kind tries to help the student discover what they should do. I always taught my students to ask themselves questions and was delightfully rewarded once when I was rehearsing a guitar ensemble piece and when the leader of the ensemble suggested doing a bit ritard in one place they all said "but why?"