Out of the vortex…
Miles and me at a location scout for the final scene of the upcoming video Out of Night and Fog…
Monthly Archives: June 2015
A breath of fresh air for Berlin? from the Slipped Disc blog…
All eyes have been on the Berlin Phil recently as they worked to name a new Principal Conductor. Mid-May they found themselves at an impasse. Now they have made their choice…a fascinating one too. Here’s my comment:
“It is charming that Mr. Petrenko was selected not simply for expediency, but for serious artistic merit. How delightful that he is considered shy and has a mystique.
Who cannot resonate to the idea of watching this man rise to the challenge in Berlin; perhaps not unlike King George VI tripping into power just prior to the start of WWII with the world holding its breath…
And I can’t help but wonder what his gifts and insights are regarding Mahler…and, of course, Mozart…:-)”
See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/06/kirill-petrenko-the-morning-after/#sthash.bg1kclRl.dpuf
Putting a square peg into a round hole? How not to evaluate Mozart…M4B*
(You know I’m right…:-0)…
One of the more annoying things I hear and read said about Wolfgang Mozart is that he was ‘not good with money.’ That he dealt with significant issues having to do with money is not the issue — it is that Mozart tends to be judged as a spendthrift. Some have claimed he was a gambler. All of this tends to color his achievements with something flagrantly negative. And let’s not forget that usually those who knew him personally and then claimed he was ‘not good with money’ frequently did little or nothing to help him. Even worse, some of them deliberately sandbagged him.
All of Wolf’s issues about ‘money’ started with his overbearing father Leopold, who claimed responsibility for creating the Mozart legend. That he used a young child in a manner that nowadays might have (or at least should have) gotten him in trouble for exploiting a child…
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A few of the lessons to be learned from Mozart’s mistakes…M4B*
Indeed…
I can honestly say that were it not for all the information we have available about Wolfgang Mozart, and, most particularly, his own letters, I doubt that I would be here today. It is said that those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. In my case, it seemed as though nothing made sense in my life until I looked at it from the perspective of Wolf and what had happened to him. I vowed that I would not repeat his mistakes.
Hindsight is perfect, and, when I began to research Wolf’s life in depth, some time ago, I discovered early-on, as had just about everyone else, that Wolf made a lot of mistakes. He was considered arrogant and selfish. He was often politically-incorrect. He was obnoxious. He enjoyed making others squirm as he exercised his superior musical powers, correcting their mistakes and chiding them…
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#MinnegeddonPartDeux…What do Mssrs. Schrickel, Vanska, Henson and Sprenger have in common?
Ahem!
Answer? They all have first-hand information about or have personally experienced die zauberflote, which was born, musically speaking, on the stage at Orchestra Hall, and also, not incidentally, recorded there. As virtually every music professional in the world claims to ‘love’ Mozart, I am sure it can’t be long before they are jumping up and down with excitement and unable to remain silent…:-0
Le Chant du Rossignol...(song of the nightingale) 