tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post652544381339204945..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Friday MiscellaneaBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-88139784659335324602017-02-25T07:36:29.979-06:002017-02-25T07:36:29.979-06:00Marc, my first reaction to the Soper was just as y...Marc, my first reaction to the Soper was just as yours: who is she kidding? But I kept listening and after a while it got more interesting. I suppose I have a weakness for avant-garde chamber opera with four performers from having given several performances of El Cimmaron by Hans Werner Henze way back when.<br /><br />Yes, I think that there is still a deep well of guilt in many German people about the role Germany played in the 20th century. Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-60956688872198024382017-02-24T23:47:01.397-06:002017-02-24T23:47:01.397-06:00'Oh, you've got to be kidding me' is m...'Oh, you've got to be kidding me' is my initial reaction to the Vimeo clip from Kate Soper's <i>Ipsa Dixit</i>. But have been listening to the ''37-'38 recording' of Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Mozart's Magic Flute so my head isn't likely in a good place for the Soper. Admirable spectacle, but "21st century masterpiece"? A few great men may no longer "dominate the conversation" but Kate Soper isn't going to do that, either. Gosh. If only someone would pay me to write about <i>my</i> enthusiasms of the moment, I'd gladly give Alex Ross my job.<br /><br />Am just finished being distracted by fifteen or twenty minutes of her <i>Tales from the Killing Jar</i> (don't ask me), however, which seemed more accessible than what I heard of the <i>Ipsa Dixit</i>. <br /><br />The Germans are still doing penance for their descent into barbarism last century, I guess. (That is a comment on the McDonald's advertisement. If John Adams can psychoanalyze Donald Trump, and expect to be lauded for his diagnostic skills, I-- who, I'm pretty sure, have as much expertise in two or three different schools of psychology as he does-- don't see why I can't put an entire civilisation on the couch.) <br /><br />Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-68231667047143456782017-02-24T12:56:04.298-06:002017-02-24T12:56:04.298-06:00I think I just decided to do a series of posts on ...I think I just decided to do a series of posts on Monteverdi! I had the Harnoncourt Orfeo recording from when it came out in the 70s--just loved it!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-91474614280510299532017-02-24T12:29:09.723-06:002017-02-24T12:29:09.723-06:00Great article on Monteverdi. I fell in love with ...Great article on Monteverdi. I fell in love with Cruda Amarilli (book 5) and Ah Dolente (book 4) over a quarter century ago, and I return to the madrigals again and again, they are so beautiful and durable and rich. A group called Apollo's Fire has done an exquisite recording of the Vespers, I can't recommend it highly enough. Jiveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02430049896063808671noreply@blogger.com