Gershwin and Fitzgerald

I guess it’s impossible to understand the genius of Gershwin until you listen to Ella Fitzgerald singing the Gershwin songbook. Sure, I grew up on Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris just like any good American, but I think that a significant portion of Gershwin’s output eludes the American public. There are many serious landmarks in the life of a young musicologist, and I would say that I’m profoundly enjoying this one.

Breaking point.

However old I live to be, I will always remember that when I was 24, I realized that Heiliger Dankgesang is the greatest music ever written.

AMS Weekend.

Registration fee for AMS – $80
Hotel for three nights – $150
Brahms and His Circle - $10
Nietzsche and Music – $32
Stravinsky and the Russian Tradition (Vols. 1 & 2) by Richard Taruskin – $20

Having my former musicology professors see that I’ve finally made it – Priceless

More on AMS later in the week, when I recover from the most intense academic weekend of my life.

Cheers,
Adam

PS. New Alex Ross book, Listen To This – $0 (booyah, free stuff).

Wagner Shouldn’t Make His Influences So Obvious.

Seriously, though. I’m watching the Levine/Met production of Das Rheingold from 1990. It’s not as good as the Boulez/Chéreau production from Bayreuth.

 

I’m Back, Baby!

It’s been a long time since I posted on here. I guess my life went through a whirlwind of changes when I got back from Vienna. To make a long story short, I now live in Columbia, Missouri and am working on my Masters in Music History.

I’m playing some Scriabin, Mozart and Liszt on the piano right now. I’m trying to decide which Liszt piece I want to do- there are two from Années de Pélerinage.

I’ve been working on a research project about Mahler that will ultimately lead to my masters thesis being about Mahler and eschatology. Definitely enjoying that work.

It’s late and I need to go to bed. Just thought it would be a good idea to get back in the habit of posting. Look for another, more interesting, post very soon.

Cheers,
Adam

Back in the USA.

I’m back in the states. Love being home. Leaving in two months to start grad school at MU.

Been reading a lot. Doing a lot of research. Learning a lot about medieval music. Leonin, Perotin, organum, you know.

I’ve been listening to Television’s album Marquee Moon, which I’m convinced is the greatest thing in the world. I’ve had the title track on repeat for the past week. Maybe I’m a bit over-caffeinated right now, but the following might be the greatest 10 minutes of your life, if you should choose to listen.

Boheme, Sonnambula, Mahler, Freud.

A few weeks ago, I saw the Franco Zeffirelli production of La Boheme twice- once with Anna Netrebko and once without. Suffice it to say, the Netrebko version was way better. The production was incredible, probably the best thing I’ve seen on stage, at least in terms of direction. Everything about it was great.

Other than that, it’s been a slow few weeks for concerts. I saw Bellini’s La Sonnambula, which was basically a good production of a boring opera. Sure, there are some great arias in it, especially at the end, but the story and characters are so bland that I never enjoy it. In addition, the conductor was taking some sections so painfully slow that it was nearly unbearable.

There are some great things coming up this week, though. Tomorrow, I’m seeing the Tokyo String Quartet, which is very exciting. They’re doing some Schubert, Brahms, and Barber. Then, later in the week, is Krystian Zimerman, which should be wonderful. He’s doing an all-Chopin concert. I’ve been watching a video of him doing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on YouTube, it’s pretty great. At 20, he played it better than almost anyone I’ve ever seen or heard. That second movement always gets me- Chopin is arguably my favorite melodist.

Other than music stuff, I’ve been seeing some cool sights, but I guess even those are somewhat music-related. I went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum the other day to see a Mahler exhibit, which was quite interesting. They had a ton of artifacts from his life, including his famous glasses (the ones that sat on his nose), his cabbie hat, and many of his manuscripts from symphonies and lieder. There were also a lot of paintings and sketches from his operas. The exhibit really got into why he was such an innovative conductor, which you don’t usually hear much about.

I also visited the Freud Museum this week. It was exciting to be in his apartment, and to see his office, where he had his famous couch. The couch wasn’t there, but they had pictures up so you could imagine what the room looked like with all his furniture in it. Being in that room was very exciting for me, as I’m very interested in psychology. Cool experience.

Today, I’m just sitting around. I watched Act II of Siegfried this afternoon. Soon, I’m going to do some laundry, and tonight I’m practicing.

Thats all I got right now. I’ll post again soon!

Cheers.

Prague, Recent Operas.

I’ve been doing so much lately that I haven’t really thought about posting on here. I really should be writing more. Last weekend, I went to Prague, which was really great. The city was beautiful, and the sights were amazing. That being said, the people there were extremely rude to me. I feel like just because I’m an American, I was treated horribly. I guess thats how it works over there. Anyways, it was a wonderful trip, and I have lots of great pictures. I can’t put them on here right now, because I’m using Kamal’s computer (the internet isn’t working on my Apple right now).

In Prague, I had the pleasure of being able to visit the Prague State Opera to see a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. I really thought it was great. The set production was super, the directing was great, most of the singers were spot-on. The Queen of the Night completely nailed her aria, as did Papageno and Tamino. The guy who played Sarastro wasn’t too great, I didn’t think. However, my opera pallate isn’t as refined as my orchestral pallate, so maybe he was really great and I just didn’t know it.

I’ve seen quite a few great operas in Vienna since I posted last. I saw Die Walkure, which really blew my mind. I would have to say that it’s my favorite opera to date. After seeing it, I watched Das Rheingold and Siegfried on DVD, and plan to complete the cycle in a day or two with Götterdämmerung. Also, while on my Wagner kick, I went to the Staatsoper to see Parsifal, which was pretty unbelievable. The production wasn’t my favorite, it was pretty post-modern at parts. I saw a performance on DVD once where the production was fairly traditional, which I usually prefer. The music in Parsifal, however, is some of the best music ever written. I’ve been listening to the Act I Prelude for the past few days, trying to memorize some of the leitmotifs. Great stuff.

I’ve also seen a few other great productions at the Staatsoper recently. Earlier this week, I saw La Boheme which starred Anna Netrebko and was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Clearly, it was wonderful. I saw The Elixir of Love, which wasn’t my favorite. I saw La Traviata at the Volksoper, which is a wonderful opera, but I didn’t care for the production. I had a lot of problems with it, but I can’t write too much more because I have to get back in the practice room.

I’ll be on here again soon. Cheers.

Schoenberg, Boulez, Jazzland.

I haven’t posted in a few days, so I’ll have to do a good one.

I’ve been to some fantastic concerts in the past week. First, I saw Schoenberg’s opera Moses and Aron, which was really outstanding. Most of the people I was with really hated it, but I have a pretty good ear for serialism. I had an interesting conversation with Prentiss about Schoenberg’s contribution to aesthetics in music, and whether his impact in music was only in theory and composition, or if he really made music that was beautiful and that people enjoy listening to. I suppose that debate has been around for quite a while, but it’s exciting for me to get to see a work like this, and to have someone to speak intelligently with about it.

Then, on Friday night, I had the pleasure of seeing Pierre Boulez conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. This is as good as it gets. The concert was unbelievable, and the program was wonderful. He chose to conduct Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, “Das Lied in der Nacht”, Debussy’s Jeux, and some of his own Notations. Boulez, considered probably the most important living musician, did not disappoint as a conductor. His subdued yet potent style really affected me, and clearly drove one of the best orchestras in the world to play difficult music beautifully. This was a great concert. I have tickets for next weekend to see him again, this time conducting Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Symphonies of Wind Instruments. To say the very least, my time here is being well spent.

After the Boulez concert, I went to an old jazz club called Jazzland. It was in the basement of an old building. There,  I had some good beer and watched old Austrians play Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. On the wall, there were pictures of famous musicians that had played there. It was a pretty cool experience.

Tonight, I’m planning to go see Die Walküre. I’ll have to go pretty early to get in line for the standing room, but I feel like it’ll be worth it. I’ll need to get some work done today, though, before I can spend the whole night at the opera house.

Despite what you may think, I HAVE been doing some things that don’t involve music. Yesterday, I went to the Nachmarkt again, where I bought some olives, eggplant, pita, almonds, dried fruit, grapes, and a falafel sandwich. This week, I’ll be eating like a champion. In fact, I’m about to go make some pasta.

I haven’t done too many sightseeing things yet. I really would like to go to some art museums soon, and visit the graveyard where Beethoven et al. are buried. I’ll probably get to Salzburg sometime soon as well. I’ve never been one of the tourist types, but I’m going to try to figure out some things to do that don’t involve music or food.

I miss everyone in the US, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in a few months. Skype has been a great asset to me here, which I didn’t expect. I’ve also been chatting on Facebook quite a bit.

This blog has a spell-checker built into it, and it doesn’t recognize the words ‘serialism’ and ‘Facebook’. Maybe I need to find another website to run this blog!

Nachmarkt, Harnoncourt, String Quartet Concert.

I woke up early Saturday, and went with some friends to the Nachmarkt, which is a huge outdoor market in the city. It’s like Soulard, but way way bigger. They had fresh fish, meat, cheese, olives, hummus, wine, coffee… pretty much any food you can imagine. That part was cool, but once you get past that, there’s a flea market that is like a quarter mile long. It was so cool, I found a lot of neat things. I didn’t spend a cent there, but it was a good time.

At one of the antique stands, I found an original (maybe) piano/voice reduction of Parsifal by Wagner. It was a pretty amazing artifact, I really wanted to get it, but it was like €25, so I had to skip it. In the front of the book, there were pictures of the set designs, probably by Wagner himself, as well as a list of leitmotifs, which is super cool. I’m already learning such an enormous amount here, just by walking around.

Over the course of the morning, though, I was starting to have pretty bad social anxiety. For those of you that know me, which is everyone that reads this probably, you probably are aware that I don’t really like being in public, or around a lot of people, for a long period of time. By the time we were leaving the market, I was feeling pretty horrible. My friends were wanting to continue on to an art museum, but I couldn’t do it. I went back to the dorms and hung out alone for a while. Then, I met up with another friend, and we ate a bite for dinner.

After dinner, I traveled back to the city to see the concert that I had planned to go to. It was Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting a Beethoven cantata and an oratorio. The concert was just amazing, the venue was really indescribable. It makes Powell Hall look like a 7-11. The music was incredible, and it was really exciting to see Harnoncourt- he’s one of the best and most famous conductors in the world. Clearly, this is not something that I could have done in St. Louis.

Yesterday, I slept in and then went to the Prater with Sarah. It was really cool to see the ferris wheel from The Third Man, and some of the other things there as well. I stopped and got a falafel, which was excellent. All the food here is wonderful. Even now, as I write this, I’m eating some applesauce, a baguette, and some amazing cheese.

After the Prater, I continued on alone, back to the Musikverein, where I saw a string quartet concert of Beethoven’s G Major quartet and Brahms’ A minor quartet. The program was pretty incredible, but the encore was what really blew my mind- they played the 2nd movement from the Ravel, which is pretty much my favorite movement of my favorite string quartet. I hadn’t heard of the ensemble, TinAlley Quartet, but they were really world class. All in all, the concert blew my mind and was one of the best that I’ve ever seen.

Tonight is Cecilia Bartoli, who I’d really love to see. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to go. I already have a ticket to see Boulez conduct this weekend, and also one for the string quartet on Thursday, where they’re doing Milhaud, Shostakovich, Zemlinsky, and Schoenberg. This must be what heaven is like.

Well, this post is pretty long. I gotta get ready to go to class- I have my first Opera class today from 1:30-3:30, which I’m really looking forward to. I hope I meet some cool people there. Maybe I’ll talk to someone who wants to see Boulez with me- I feel like it’s probably a crime to go alone.

Cheers,
Adam