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THEHORN

Brahms was dead wrong when he urged Dvorak to eliminate the Czech coloration of his music . Dvorak would not be Dvorak if he had not. put that distinctive Czech flavor in his music . It's. an integral part of it , as it should be .

THEHORN

"Cultural appropriation" is a recently coined and loaded term , and it's very foolish to judge pseudo Asian operas such as Turandot and Madama Butterly by the trendy. PC. standards of the present day . Today, cultural appropriation has to do with. white people doing things such as wearing. the cloth...

THEHORN

I's understandable that people have misgivings about. Klaus Makela being MD in Chicago and. Amsterdam simultaneously . It would be a demanding job for a highly experienced conductor to head. only one of these two renowned. orchestras . But let's give him and chance and I wish him well . He appears t...

THEHORN

I love so many symphonies , or at least like them it's impossible for me to choose a "top dozen " list . This may not be relevant to the question , but here is my list of. some. symphonies which are undeservedly neglected in the concert hall. but which can. fortunately be heard on CD 👍 In no particu...

THEHORN

Peter Pears occupies a very specialized niche among tenors . He wasn't suited to. tenor roles in Italian opera except for his portrayal of the aged emperor in Turandot on the classic. Decca recording with. Sutherland and Pavarotti. with Mehta conducting. or. most tenor roles in opera in general , bu...

THEHORN

So many of the most prestigious European orchestras and opera companies have had American music directors in out time : For example Lorin Maazel with the Vienna State opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian Radio orchestra , the Berlin Radio orchestra , James Conlon with the Rotterdam Philharm...

THEHORN

I suppose people who can't stand the music of Scriabin could say it smells !

THEHORN

I think Fricsay might be better remembered today if. not for his untimely death just a year before his 50th birthday and he had lived long enough to make more recordings than he did .

THEHORN

I don't know what all the fuss is about . The Rhapsody in Blue is a highly effective piece which has been popular with audiences everywhere for about a century . And one thing which is rarely mentioned is that it is also influenced by Klezmer music ! Virgil Thomson's description of the Shostakovich ...

THEHORN

2024 is. the Smetana bicentennial. as well as. for Anton Bruckner . I hope there will be as much celebration of Smetana as with Bruckner . I love the music of both composers .

THEHORN

I think Welser-Most would be a really valuable asset to the Met after he leaves Cleveland as a regular visitor there .

THEHORN

R.I.P. His sublimely groan-inducing puns will be missed .

THEHORN

Dalibor is a wonderful opera which deserves to be better known . But it has not been performed often outside the Czech republic, formerly Czechoslovakia . Eve Queler did a concert performance with the Opera orchestra of New York some years ago , with. the late Nicolai Gedda in the title role , and t...

THEHORN

Yes, in recent years there has been an astonishing number of Beethoven symphony cycles , more than necessary . For example, ones by Yannick Nezet- Seguin, Andris Nelsons , Gabor Takacs Nagy , formerly first violinist of a famous string quartet whose name I can't recall offhand , Michael Sanderling ,...

THEHORN

Belle, Klemperer's "leaden performances " were the result the recordings he made in his 70s and 80s for. EMI, now Warner classics . He had serious health problems in his later years , such as a stroke which. left him paralyzed on one side etc. But if you listen to his earlier recordings before the f...

THEHORN

So sorry to hear about his passing . 68 years is. not very old at all , and I wish he could have lived longer and accomplished more .

THEHORN

Thanks !

THEHORN

This joke is for Lance, but also for everybody here . I just found it on an email in my inbox . A woman hears a knock on the door , and. there is a piano tuner who asks to talk to her . Startled , she relies "But I didn't send for a piano tuner ! " He responds "I know you didn't . But your neighbors...

THEHORN

I'm all for their right to protest PEACEFULLY , but. the Metropolitan opera is not an appropriate place for this .

THEHORN

I'm familiar with some of Weingartner's recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic and London orchestras Lance, but I wasn't aware of any recordings with him conducting the Concertgebouw orchestra . I would certainly like to hear the Amsterdam recordings .

THEHORN

OOPS ! I meant to post this on the thread discusing Ormandy' recording of the Prokofiev 6th symphony ! My bad !

THEHORN

I have the recording by Yevgeny Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic on the Urania label , a reissue I guess from Melodiya . It's really intense and gripping performance, and the sound is surprisingly good for its time and place of origin .

THEHORN

Not at all ! The Circassians have been spread all over the globe , mainly in Turkey, Jordan <Israel and other middle eastern countries since Russia invaded their lands in the 1860s in an attempt to commit genocide against them . Temirkanov is a descendent of those who managed to escape being killed ...

THEHORN

R.I.P. Yuri Temirkanov was certainly one of the most compelling conductors of our time, not only in. Russian music . I wonder if his negative reaction to women conductors is due to the fact that he is not actually Russian , but an ethnic Circassian from the Caucasus . The Circassians are a very anci...

THEHORN

Eugen Jochum left so many wonderful recordings . I also admire his DG Meistersinger with. Fischer-Dieskau and. Domingo , the 3 Bruckner masses, also on DG among others .

THEHORN

i agree. The viola is a wonderful but sadly under appreciated instrument . One wrk for viola I really like is Hindemith's "Der Schwanendreher " ( the swan turner ), which uses old. German folk songs , especially. " Aren't you the swan truner ". A swan. turner was a. kitchen servant who turned roasti...

THEHORN

Lebrecht's claim that Karajan reorganized the Salzburg festival as a "showcase for superstars " and. an "advertising vehicle " is nothing but his usual bovine scatology . The Salzburg festival featured. the world's foremost classical musicians from the beginning and it was just the same under Karaja...

THEHORN

Ugh . Which operas are they going to ban next ? La Traviata because it's the story of a French courtesan ? And other operas some prudish, narrow-minded moron finds "offensive "?

THEHORN

The title "Who cares if you listen" was chosen by the individual who was editor of High Fidelity magazine at the time and Babbitt did not approve of it at all .

THEHORN

Could someone please translate this article into English ?

THEHORN

Thanks, MaestroB.

THEHORN

I've heard of him and saw a video of him playing a few years ago, and he's truly amazing, I was forced about 20 years ago to give up performing as a horn player because of a rare neurological disorder which took many years to rob me of the ability to walk and. I've been confined to a wheelchair for ...

THEHORN

I remember this opera from an. LP on a label I can't recall offhand and a cast I also can't recall ; I believe i may have made in Brussels but I'm not sure . This was ages ago before CDs existed . I do remember the conductor ; it was Edgard Doneaux , whom I otherwise know almost nothing about . I do...

THEHORN

Dvorak and Brahms both wrote wonderful music , but to me at least, the music of Dvorak seems fresher and more spontaneous . Many critics and musicologists have faulted Dvorak's music for not strictly following the "politically correct " methods of composition and dismissed his works as "structurally...

THEHORN

This article on the alleged " death " of classical music is nothing but the same old tired right-wing drivel applied to the arts . The author dismisses attempts to diversify the repertoire and find new audiences for classical music in New York and Philadelphia as "woke ". Woke Schmoke ! I'm sick of ...

THEHORN

This is odd, because Bernstein's nose was. not particularly large, nor was is aquiline like the stereotypical Jewish nose . There doesn't seem any need to put a prosthetic nose on Cooper .

THEHORN

The online classical recordings magazine. "Classics Today " has reviews of. a very. wide variety of repertoire , including. rarities of all kind , and is always interesting to read, even though I. often disagree with. the reviews by its executive director Dave Hurwitz , who is quite a character . Of...

THEHORN

Unfortunately , Opera News magazine, which has been in existence for some 87 years , will publish its last issue this November . The magazine will be incorporated into the English magazine Opera . I've been a subscriber for many years and have been reading Opera News for over 50 years since I was a ...

THEHORN

Not too long ago, I saw a video on youtube of the Netherlands opera production of "Der Zwerg" ( the dwarf ) by Alexander von Zemlinsky , and while the production was somewhat hokey , Lorenzo Viotti and the orchestra. gave a performance which. could hardly have been bettered . His late father Marcell...

THEHORN

This is certainly interesting and I'm curious to hear the differences . The conductor is a new name to me. Is he related to another Finnish conductor of an earlier generation ; Tauno. Hannikainen ? I remember his record of the Sibelius 2nd symphony with I believe a London pickup orchestra from LP ag...

THEHORN

The London symphony orchestra under Sr Simon Rattle was "virtually unimpeachable ? " You mean it's possible for conductors and orchestras as well as politicians to be impeached now ? This is a new one to me . I'm not sure which ones I'd like to see impeached , or what would be done if this were to h...

THEHORN

Years ago, I was privileged to attend. Abbado's concert with the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie hall . This was probably the most memorable concert I have attended , and their account of the Bruckner 7th symphony was. truly inspired. The orchestra sounded like the kind of orchestra you would hear i...

THEHORN

The historical Don Carlos was nothing like the handsome, courageous hero of the Verdi masterpiece . As a scion of the incredibly inbred. Hapsburg dynasty . he was a totally dysfunctional. and pitiful human being . He was terribly deformed , probably mentally retarded and. almost totally helpless . H...

THEHORN

Yes, thanks . Classical music on youtube is truly an embarrassment of riches ! There seems to be no end to all the cool classical music channels there .

THEHORN

Both truly great artists . But at least on recordings, I think Fischer-Dieskau was also outstanding in opera, and his repertoire was huge, even though hr did not sing all the roles he recorded live . There's a brief youtube excerpt from a Berlin performance of Don Giovanni from the 60s sung in Germa...

THEHORN

The Busoni piano concerto is a truly unique work. It's colossal , weird, wildly original and. enigmatic . Alfred Brendel has described the horrendously difficult piano part as "monstrously overwritten," or words to that effect . I wonder if this was merely sour grapes and envy of other famous pianis...

THEHORN

I wonder . Are Australian composers marsupials ?

THEHORN

I don't know if this was "an end to an era:" at the Met, but the company is adjusting as best it can to adverse circumstances . I'm certainly glad to see the Met doing more to support contemporary opera , and rather pleasantly surprised to hear about its notoriously conservative audience base reacti...

THEHORN

I met Camille Coppola several years when a number of singers from the New Rochelle opera appeared at a small public park very close to where I live during the summer , accompanied by a portable electric keyboard instrument played by an accompanist who works for the company . Some of those singers we...

THEHORN

I live in New Rochelle, just a stone's throw from the border of the Bronx , and the sky is perfectly clear and normal . I wonder how much of the five boroughs of the city were effected by this mess ?

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