Friday Miscellanea

Wow, I haven't done one of these for a long time. First up, this is what I am currently reading:

This is something I have wanted to read for a long, long time. Marcus Aurelius was the fifth of the "Five Good Emperors" of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire. The shocking thing one finds, even after reading just the first book, is that the Roman Empire during this period, 96 to 192 AD, was far better run than our contemporary democracies. As Winston Churchill averred, democracy is the worst of all systems, except for all the others. Nice quip, but, as we can see from this era of the Roman Empire, not actually true. As a philosopher manqué I have always had my misgivings about democracy. After all, it was 501 good Athenian citizens that voted to condemn Socrates to death in 399 BC, causing Aristotle to depart Athens so it would not "commit a second crime against philosophy."

Why was this era of the Roman Empire so well run? Let's let Marcus Aurelius explain with his list of things he is grateful for:

From Severus: love of family, love of truth, love of justice; ... to have conceived the idea of a balanced constitution, a commonwealth based on equality and freedom of speech, and of a monarchy which values above all the liberty of the subject...

If only we had governments that adhered to those virtues! Instead, the incentives that drive our politicians are all bad: they are constantly pressured to lie, to curry favor with financial contributors, to form partisan tribes for mutual support--and all in order to win elections. Policies are not chosen for their economic virtues, but so as to buy the votes of the citizens. There are a thousand ways this drives us towards the kind of dysfunctional politics we have today. The interesting thing about this succession of emperors is that they typically did not follow the usual rules of succession: the eldest male heir inherits the throne, but instead adopted as heir the person they felt would make the best ruler. This ended with Commodus, the natural son of Marcus Aurelius, who was a horrible ruler.

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The palace in an Italian village where two retired US sopranos ‘repair’ broken opera voices

Singers of all backgrounds come here every year: fresh out of the conservatory or with five-figure fees per performance, mainly from the world of opera, but also from pop and jazz. “Our three basic principles are spontaneity, beauty, and freedom,” Paglin sums up. “These days, the voice is highly planned; natural singing isn’t cultivated, and there’s an unhealthy obsession with power and volume that generates great muscular tension.” For Brilla, the key lies in breathing: “You only need a thimbleful of air, but it must be well managed, as babies do intuitively. That was baritone Gino Bechi’s best-kept secret…”

The two sopranos behind this school made a thorough study of vocal production:

Almost simultaneously, they decided to put their singing careers on hold to retrain their voices. “We studied historical recordings, consulted specialists like Maria Carbone, and read treatises by the great masters in search of our own method,” continues Brilla, who, after consulting 27 teachers, applied for a Fulbright scholarship that allowed her to research the roots of bel canto in their place of origin, Italy. “We lived in Rome, Florence, Milan…” adds Paglin. “But it was in Osimo that we set up our own studio.” Almost three decades later, the locals of this historic hill overlooking the Adriatic Sea describe the former palazzo the pair acquired at the time as a “sanctuary of voices.”

Voice is probably the most difficult "instrument" to teach as it is part of your body and invisible to the eye.

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Here is Jay Nordlinger on this year's Salzburg Festival:

In the Great Festival Hall was a concert by Utopia, the orchestra founded in 2022 by Teodor Currentzis. Utopia is composed of players from some thirty countries. Currentzis is a Greek Russian conductor, wizardly and individualistic (and not to everyone’s taste). He was duly on the podium for this concert. The first item on the program was a Shostakovich piano concerto—No. 2, in F.

This is less popular, or less frequently programmed, than the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1. Why, I don’t know. A great recording of No. 2 was made by Yefim Bronfman, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Bronfman once told me that orchestras seldom request the second concerto. If they want Shostakovich, they want the first.

The soloist with Utopia and Currentzis was Alexander Melnikov, a Soviet-born pianist who studied in Moscow with a legendary teacher: Lev Naumov. Shostakovich’s second concerto ought to have a number of characteristics, including military precision, melting lyricism, and electricity. Melnikov was never less than competent—but I could have used more of what makes this concerto lovable.

He played an encore, a piece introduced to many of us by Vladimir Horowitz: Scriabin’s Poème, Op. 32, No. 1. Melnikov rendered it expertly.

After intermission, Maestro Currentzis conducted the Utopians in a Mahler symphony: No. 4 in G, sometimes known as Mahler’s “Mozart symphony,” for it has an air of the Classical. Under the baton of Currentzis—or rather, under his hands, because he goes without a baton—every part was clear. All parts were in balance. Moreover, Currentzis communed with Mahler, reflecting his spirit. (Mahler was “wizardly and individualistic” himself—also “not to everyone’s taste.”) Currentzis is a shape-shifter, conforming his body to the music, able to represent it physically, somehow. His orchestras respond.

Members of his orchestras stand while playing—excepting cellists and a few others. Does this make a difference? Well, here’s a difference, possibly: I think I hear the woodwind solos better. These players sing or pipe more directly to you.

I heard Currentzis and his orchestra in an all-Rameau program a couple of years ago and it was magical. The only time I have seen the Salzburg audience actually give a standing ovation.

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Let's end with the suitable envoi of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2. This is Anna Tsybuleva with Risto Joost conducting the Wuppertal Symphony.