Friday Miscellanea

I'm sure that we have all had the thought that if only we could watch someone practicing we could pick up the Secret Tricks That Guarantee Greatness! Yes, if only I could have watched John Williams practicing during my student days, I could have stolen his methods and become a Second John Williams myself.  Hilary Hahn is providing us with some evidence: she is posting numerous videos of herself practicing. Let's see if it might help. The New York Times: Hilary Hahn Practices in Public, Wherever and However She Is. Here, have a look:   https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpTGA0wAUE_/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e0484d4f-b8f8-490f-94af-fa0b878fcfba

Maybe this is a big help, but I'm not so sure. The thing is that there are important differences between different players. Watching someone else work out their problems might be irrelevant to you working out your problems. The real secret is the internal mental discipline that knows exactly what kind of thought, tension, stance, attitude, tempo, dynamic or whatever is needed to handle, control, resolve whatever technical problem is happening. Watching someone else you can hear the problem, perhaps, and the solution once it is arrived at, but you can't see or hear how it was done.

My teacher in Spain would often play through a piece I had just played and after a while I realized that this was a big part of his teaching method. He didn't say "do this," rather, he showed me. And maybe he emphasized certain aspects to point them out.

* * *

Comment from a former BBC director:

For 23 years as director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and latterly the BBC Singers, I was custodian of three great ensembles that have shaped the musical landscape of this country for almost a century. They are celebrated worldwide for unparalleled versatility, flexibility and ability to respond to an ever-changing landscape and the demands of (in my time) six director generals, each keen to leave their mark. Delivering quality first and value for money was the mantra, and meeting the challenge of reaching new and diverse audiences was the reward. Or so we thought.

The BBC announced last week that its great cultural assets are to be savaged so violently that they may never recover; that is the reward. The corporation runs one full-time professional chamber choir, three full-time orchestras in England, and one each in Wales and Scotland. The plan is to axe the BBC Singers before the Proms, on the eve of their centenary, to reduce the headcount by 20% of the three English orchestras, while Simon Webb, the newly appointed fall guy is working with the nations’ orchestras “to consider whether there could be any lessons” for them. A dark warning indeed.

This is a battle over values: as has been mentioned, the idea of public service previously was to elevate public taste by providing high-quality music. Now the idea is more to provide the popular, what people want. Now sure how that qualifies as a public service needing tax revenues?

* * *

Speaking of culture wars: Man 'driven mad' by noisy neighbours put speakers against wall playing non-stop music and went away for the weekend

A Swansea man who was being driven mad by noisy student neighbours put speakers up against the wall and went away for the weekend, leaving music playing. But instead of having heavy metal or gangster rap on a loop, he went for something a little more sophisticated. And when he came back, said a councillor, the noise issue was resolved.

Cllr Allan Jeffery recounted the story at a meeting of a council panel which is carrying out an anti-social behaviour inquiry. The Uplands ward member said the resident's choice of music was Gustav Holst's The Planets - a sweeping, seven-movement orchestral suite.

I tried something similar once with Stravinsky against a barking dog, but the neighbors apparently were out, and the dog didn't care.

* * *

Here is one reason we like English journalism: Why does everyone hate Max Reger? I'm pretty sure this would never appear in the New York Times.

The German composer Max Reger, born 150 years ago next week, is mostly remembered today for countless elephantine fugues and one piece of lavatory humour. When he was savaged by the Munich critic Rudolf Louis, he wrote back to him: ‘Sir, I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it will be behind me.’ The quip was probably borrowed from Voltaire, but since no one can find it in his writings the credit has gone to Reger.

But let’s not dwell on the image of the morbidly obese composer taking his revenge. What’s interesting is that Reger was hated by so many critics. Then, as now, it was a thought crime for a young man (he died of a heart attack at 43) to make a point of embracing tradition.

Uh-oh, I guess I might be in danger. Or partly, as I only partly embrace tradition. From the sound of it, he seems a bit like Brahms, only more so.

* * *

While over at the Times Literary Supplement there is a review of a new choreography of the Rite of Spring:

Over the past twelve months the Sadler’s Wells theatre in north London has presented more than its fair share of versions of The Rite of Spring, from the Swedish choreographer Mats Ek’s new creation for English National Ballet to a restaging of Pina Bausch’s 1975 choreography, performed by a cast of dancers from fourteen African countries. The most recent to be presented is Dada Masilo’s The Sacrifice (2021), which received its London premiere at the end of February before embarking on its current nationwide tour.

Masilo is no stranger to reimagining well-known dance works: the South African choreographer has developed innovative interpretations of classical ballets such as Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and Giselle, which have gained her international recognition for her fusion of European and southern African dance styles.

* * * 

Let's have a little Hilary Hahn playing Bach. This is the Partita no. 1 in B minor, the Double to the Courante:

And how about the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing the Mars movement from Holst's The Planets:

And we have to have some Max Reger. This is his Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Hiller: