Breaking with tradition a bit, I start with a Wigmore Hall recital by Korean pianist Yunchan Lim. I love the unusual programming of Dowland arranged by William Byrd, Bach sinfonias and Beethoven bagatelles and variations:
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Over at Slipped Disc we learn of an affair between Shostakovich and the ballerina Nina Pavlovna Ivanova.
A Russian auction house is putting up for sale a cache of ten love letters between Dmitri Shostakovich and the Bolshoi ballerina Nina Pavlovna Ivanova, a relationship unknown until now. ‘Fate has sent me great happiness in you,’ he tells her.
The letters, dated 1935 to 1939, are passionate and persistent. Shostakovich aimed to marry Nina ‘in 3-4 months’, oblivous of the fact that he was already married to the scientist, Nina Varzar – albeit in an open relationship – and had two small children.
Hey, nobody's perfect!
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I'm puzzling over this: Thoughts On Classical And Metal Music: Counterpoint And Motion
There are many technical similarities between classical music, especially music from the baroque period, and metal, which others more versed in music theory are better qualified than I am to discuss. At a fundamental level, both types of music are interested in exploring complexity. Sometimes this can appear like complexity for the sake of complexity, giving us the negative connotations of the word “baroque” (as in “the baroque language of government documents”). However, both the best baroque music and the best metal put their complexity to work in the service of building a musical architecture, an abstract structure that keeps the brain in motion, trying to work out how the pieces fit together.
I'm not sure how true this is, but I'm always interested in fresh perspectives.
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And here is one of those odd musical facts: 11 Iconic Christmas Songs That Were Written By Jews
6. “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin — who may be most famous for his patriotic hit, “God Bless America” — was born Israel Baline in Russia. Along with his family (including his father, a cantor), he immigrated the U.S. in 1893, where they lived on the the Lower East Side of New York City. The Jewish Standard reports that Berlin’s daughter said that it was her father’s gratitude for America — the country that brought his family out of poverty — that fostered an appreciation for Christmas as an American family holiday. Thus, he wrote “White Christmas” in 1947 as another patriotic homage to this country and its distinctly American Christmas traditions.
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Trouble in operaland: Criticism on Fridays: The Voices Raised Against the Coming Changes At the MET
Since the Metropolitan Opera announced its plans to change the policy towards the repertory and schedules to remedy a difficult financial situation the institution is facing after the pandemic, the audience simply cannot stop expressing displeasure with General Manager Peter Gelb’s new strategy.
Prioritizing new operas and reducing the number of performances by almost 10 percent is only a part of the bigger plan, which also includes the withdrawal of up to $30 million from Met’s endowment and intensified work with donors.
But are those changes so crucial or are we afraid of losing the Met we got used to?
Going into the unknown is scary, but if we think about it, this actually sounds like a good business development plan. The previous model did not perform well, and the pandemic changed the habits of consumption. Something had to be changed. And, I suppose, management spent long weeks trying to figure out what people want [to pay for], so they would return and fill the hall to the desirable 80 percent.
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Not many interesting items this week, so let's have a few music clips. Oh, and if you want to avoid those annoying ads on YouTube, switch to Opera as your browser. Here is a fascinating clip of interviews with singers from the Netherlands Bach Society about, yep, singing Bach:
And here is one of their latest releases:
Here is a new quartet by Russian composer Andrey Rubtsov with the Julia Fischer Quartet:
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