Classical Music Forum

Tim Page is the chief classical music critic for The Washington Post and author or editor of a dozen books, including "Dawn Powell: A Biography," "The Glenn Gould Reader," "The Unknown Sigrid Undset," "William Kapell: A Documentary Life History of the American Pianist" and "Tim Page on Music." He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1997 for his writings about music for the Washington Post.

Page was online Wednesday, Dec. 1, at 3 p.m. ET to discuss the latest news in the world of classical concerts, performances and recordings.

He has also worked as an artistic adviser (the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra), a radio host (WNYC-FM in New York), a record producer (BMG Catalyst) and, in his younger days, a rock musician and cocktail pianist. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives in Baltimore with his wife, Julieta Stack.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Tim Page: Good afternoon, and welcome to another on-line discussion of music, classical and otherwise.

I'm a little distracted today. About half an hour ago, I was working on my end-of-year round-up (and it has been, in many ways, a very good year for concerts and opera in the D.C. area) when a big gust of wind came by and blew out the window in front of my desk! Fortunately, it was some sort of imitation glass, so there was nothing to break but it was a real "Wizard of Oz" moment. Papers flew everywhere, and I'm now waiting for a repairman so that I don't sleep in an icy house this evening!

I'll still get to as many questions as I can. Please feel free to submit further thoughts as the hour progresses.

We had a special session a couple of weeks back when it was announced that Leonard Slatkin was leaving the NSO. I'll be happy to take any further questions you have on the subject but maybe we might link to that last chat, for those who want to find out more about that, since we covered it pretty thoroughly.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: I was in Paris over the last week, and saw Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski give a fantastic solo concert at the Theatre des Champs Elysee -- I don't have the program in front of me, but there was a little Bach and a lot of Chopin. Have you ever heard of Anderszewski? Does he ever come to D.C?

Tim Page: He's a wonderful pianist. I heard him in Baltimore a year or two back, playing a Mozart concerto, and thought he was first rate. I believe he has appeared at least once in Washington, as part of the WPAS Patrick and Evelyn Swarthout Hayes series that is such a pleasure of our musical life here in Washington, but I had to miss the show, for reasons I can't recall right now.

In any event, he seems to me a nimble, deeply musical and altogether remarkable young pianist.

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Alexandria, Va.: Hi Tim.

I hope you have the time and space for a non-music question.

I am usually not a nosy person and am definitely NOT a stalker, but I was wondering if, without divulging too much personal information, you could describe some of your experiences being a D.C. music critic while commuting from Baltimore.

Your situation seems to mirror mine in many ways. I enjoy partaking of the cultural offerings of the D.C. area (even on a week night, unlike most of my friends) but the real estate prices in this area are nuts. And let's not even discuss non-rush-hour public transportation options in Virginia. (Another non-driver here)

Are you satisfied with living in Baltimore? Do you Amtrak-and-taxi after an evening concert in D.C., and if so, how is that working out? Any tidbits or recommendations you could share would be much appreciated.

Tim Page: I'll answer this in the couple of minutes I have before the chat "officially" starts, as it is a little off the subject.

I've thought about moving to Baltimore for some time. As it became more and more clear that I was never going to be able to afford to buy a home in Washington -- or even anywhere on the Washington Metro system, for that matter -- I started to investigate Baltimore seriously, and found that I loved the place, probably even more than I love D.C., if I may confess such a heretical thought on this chat!

Travel is a little difficult. The last MARC train leaves at about 10:30; on weekends, you're stuck with either Amtrak (fairly expensive) or Greyhound (fairly unpleasant). I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll probably have to rent a hotel room in the city on occasion -- either that, or take a cab home, which costs almost as much. The MARC is $7, and I'm less than a mile walk, cab, or bus from my home.

When we were looking for a place, somebody observed that Baltimore was the last city on the East Coast where a punk rock drummer could own his own house. Classical music critics, too.

There's a trade-off, no doubt about it. Old friends don't get sent to Baltimore once a year in the same way they might get sent to New York or Washington. And I do live a long way away from most of what I cover.

On the other hand, this is a city of vibrant and interesting neighborhoods, beautiful old houses, terrific restaurants, and friendly, unpretentious people. And you can buy a near-palace for less than a one-bedroom condo would cost around Dupont Circle. In short, I'm delighted with the city and hope to live here for many years -- commuting problems be damned. (Remember, the fast train is only about 35 minutes from Baltimore to Union Station...)

There's a great Web site for those considering the move -- www.livebaltimore.com. I recommend it highly.

And now back to music!

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Chicago, Ill.: Tim,
I recently heard Steven Honigberg perform in a wonderful chamber concert with his mother, who is a pianist. If he is indicative of the NSO, then you have a terrific orchestra.

Is there any scuttlebut about the CSO's search for a new music director?
Thanks

Tim Page: It IS a terrific orchestra -- better and better.

No news on Chicago. The usual names come up -- James Conlon, David Robertson (currently ensconced in St. Louis) and a few others. I don't think anybody really knows who's next -- and my contacts in Chicago are not especially good.

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Richmond, Va.: The other night I was flipping channels when I came across "Perlman in Shanghai" on my local PBS station. I am now desperately trying to find out the name and composer for the last song that Perlman conducted with the assembled American and Chinese students. My local PBS station says that they have no plans to air the show again and I don't have a clue who the composer was. I would love to find out what piece it was. Any thoughts on how to find out any information about this work? I'm not a classical music fan usually, but I have to find this particular song. I was hoping it might ring a bell or there might be some reader who might know off hand.

Thanks Tim Page: I have no idea. Can I toss this one out to my readers?

You might try doing a Google search on "Perlman in Shanghai" -- there's an amazing amount of information on the web if we can only find it.

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washingtonpost.com: Classical Music Forum (washingtonpost.com, Nov. 18)

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washingtonpost.com: Live Baltimore Home Center

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Somewhere near Berkeley, Calif.: I just finished reading your review of Richard Taruskin's majestic "Oxford History of the Western Music" and needed a shoulder to cry on. The man labors on his love -- art musics of the Western canon-- for more than a decade, only to have his pamphlet trashed. If you prefer Sibelius to Stravinsky, why don't YOU write your own history book?

Tim Page: Gosh, I didn't think I trashed the book at all. It's always smart and sometimes brilliant. I just think it's very eccentric and not to be taken as any kind of final word on anything. I read Taruskin in much the same way I read Glenn Gould or Henry Pleasants or Cecil Gray or any number of other music writers who stimulate with their passionate but quirky intelligence.

In short, Taruskin is a maverick. He follows no leaders and leads no followers. I think that's great. But it seems to me that a standard history should be a little more mainstream. Or, to put it another way, I'm not sure that histories of this sort are best written by mavericks.

I wouldn't say I "preferred" Sibelius to Stravinsky -- both are very great composers. But Taruskin's complete neglect of the one and frantic obsession with the other struck me as odd -- and indicative of what seemed to me general problems with the book.

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Queen City, Iowa: Dear Mr. Page,
You'll be happy to know that our beloved RENATA TEBALDI, soprano assoluta, who had been ailing in recent weeks, has made an almost full recovery.
Would you join me in wishing Miss Tebaldi a continued speedy recovery?
In bocca al lupo, Renata, siamo tutti con te!

Tim Page: I'm pretty sure this is a joke -- hello out there! -- but Tebaldi HAS been sick, and I am relieved to hear that she is better.

For much much more on the subject, you might link to www.opera-l.org.

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washingtonpost.com: In Brief: The History of Music (Post, Nov. 28)

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Bethesda, Md.: Hi Tim -- Just a comment about Strathmore and the BSO. Two weeks ago I was fortunate to attend the first performance by the BSO at the new Strathmore Music Center. It was a concert for the workers -- a so-called Hard Hat thank you concert. I was one of the volunteer ushers. It was a fabulous event. The hall is beautiful (lots of wood) and the sound exquisite. The facility is basically finished with only a little additional work needed on the refreshment counters and other incidental features. I wasn't terribly thrilled with the selections (Ravel: Rapsodie Espanole; Milhaud: Scaramouche Saxophone Suite; and Schoenberg's orchestration of Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor) but the playing and sound were superb. This is going to be a magnificent concert venue. Parking is a breeze and Metro is only a short walk away. The feedback the ushers got from the audience as it left was extremely positive. I don't know if the Post had any critic there but I saw a piece by your colleague Marc Fisher that commented on the event very positively. In Montgomery, An Eyeful That Delights the Ear (Post, Nov. 21) Like many in Montgomery County, I had my doubts about this project when it was first proposed. But I'm now a believer. This is a terrific addition to our cultural lives.

Tim Page: This is all good news. I think Strathmore Hall is going to be good for Washington in a lot of ways -- not the least of them giving the NSO some regular competition with regular concerts by the Baltimore Symphony. Think of it -- we're the first metropolitan area in the country with the choice of two full-sized, full-time symphonies to choose from every week.

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washingtonpost.com: Opera-L

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Lancaster, Calif.: The Los Angeles Opera is presenting "Vanessa." Although the LA Times' reviewer dislikes Barber's opera, as I listen to it on a CD I purchased, I am entranced. Do you agree with Swed or me?

Tim Page: I think that much of the music is beautiful -- although I think I prefer the score to "Anthony and Cleopatra," Barber's second opera. Unfortunately, the libretto for "Vanessa" is frightful camp that effectively spoils my pleasure in staged performances.

We're looking into posting my review of the Washington Opera's production from a couple of years back.

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Washington, D.C.: Hope you can provide me with a couple of recommendations. Do you have a preferred recording of Brahms' symphonies? How about Haydn's London symphonies?

Thanks.

Tim Page: For Haydn, you can't go wrong with the old Jochum recordings on Deutsche Grammophon -- witty and comfortable. (I'm assuming they are still in print.)

I'd take the Brahms symphonies one at a time. Carlos Kleiber for Symphony No. 4. Maybe Bernstein for Symphony No. 1. I used to like Beecham's Symphony No. 2 a lot, and Koussevitzky's recording of the third (although lately I haven't much cared for the Koussevitzky I've revisted).

I like the old Mengelberg performances, but the sound is dim and some will be bothered by the liberties he takes with the score.

When in doubt, in the Germanic repertory, it's usually safe to fall back upon von Karajan, especially performances made after the 50s (when he was rather cold and efficient) and before the 80s, when he was beginning to get a little sloppy.

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Takoma Park, Md.: Re: Taruskin

I agree with you about him -- brilliant and always interesting maverick.

What on earth put him in position to have such a magnum opus published? Weren't there other musicologists (to use the PDQ Bach term) qualified and more mainstream?

Tim Page: It was an odd choice, no doubt about it.

Don't get me wrong, though -- there are many wonderful things in the book. My review was necessarily short, but I wish I'd mentioned his terrific analysis of the Berlioz "Symphonie Fantastique," which both explained to me why I've never much liked the piece (even though I am generally a Berlioz nut) and convinced me, finally, of its centrality.

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Alexandria, Va. (again): Just a thank you for taking the time to discuss your commuting experience from Baltimore.

Tim Page: No problem. I think it's the great undervalued city in America.

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Atlanta, Ga.: The Post's news that Leonard Slatkin's NSO tenure has an endpoint -- lameduck status till 2007-08 -- leaves us the big question: who will replace him, and more fun at the moment, who SHOULD replace him?
Do you think the NSO's music director needs to be an American? Can s/he need be foreign-born so long as American music is a specialty? Do any women need apply for the job? In sum, has the NSO become more sensitive to Washington politics than other orchestras?

Tim Page: Who WILL replace him? No idea. Who SHOULD replace him? I'd favor an American, all things being equal, but would gladly make an exception for an exciting visitor. I don't think the NSO should go in search of "Leonard II" but would hope that his successor would be at least somewhat interested in our home grown music.

Slatkin did a lot of good for this orchestra. I hope his best years are yet to come.

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Midwest: Tim,
I am a classical music fan and, like most fans, I am very picky about which recording I take on loan from library or buy. Lately, I have zero interest in actually going to a live performance. It is not even about our symphony (don't want to specify town I live in). I just don't get much enjoyment out of sitting in one spot looking at the orchestra. I don't even want to go see a famous conductor in a city nearby who is in his final year as director/stick waver. Has this ever happened to you? I would just rather listen to a great recording in my car on the way to the store.

Tim Page: Let me put it this way -- if I were paying to hear music, I think I'd spend a lot more money on recordings than I would on concert tickets. Recordings are less expensive than concerts, and you can revisit them again and again.

Then again, I can't imagine anything much more exciting than the live performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 I heard up in Boston a month or two back, under James Levine. Great music, played by a great ensemble, in a great space, is best experienced live. Problem is, it usually disappoints. And therefore, I'd probably spend most of my music money on recordings.

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washingtonpost.com: 'Vanessa,' Revived And Radiant (Post, Oct. 21, 2001)

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McLean, Va.: Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. I am a novice listener or classical music, I have recently developed a love for it. I'm wondering if you can suggest any classical CDs of Christmas music in time for holiday entertaining?

Tim Page: Hi. Thanks for writing in. There should be a list at the top of this chat with 25 "getting started" recordings. As for Christmas music, you can't go wrong with Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" (I'm quite fond of the old Richter recording), Handel's "Messiah" (too many versions to list) and maybe a collection of carols. The Robert Shaw Chorale did a nice a capella recording of carols for RCA Victor about 45 years ago -- I think it's still in print and it sounds excellent.

Don't forget Carl Orff's wonderful Christmas music -- haunting and mysterious.

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14h and U Street NW, Washington, D.C.: Agree with you about VANESSA -- I've seen it at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and at Washington Opera. I have always felt the libretto was written by a man who did not have a CLUE about women. Maybe never met any ...

Tim Page: It's a simply dreadful libretto -- as campy and mannered as anything this side of Tennessee Williams at his worst.

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Elkhart, Ind.: Greetings from the band instrument capital of America!
Now that Leonard Slatkin is planning to leave the National Symphony -- shouldn't the ensemble be known as the Washington National Symphony Orchestra? -- I'm wondering if my favorite American conductor, Hugh Wolff, has a shot to be his replacement? Wolff is a marvelous musician, substantive and eclectic and a true American star in the making. Might you, as chief music reviewer of the nation's most important newspaper, put in a plug for Hugh Wolff?

Tim Page: The last time I heard Hugh Wolff, I thought he was terrific. He's sort of vanished from the face of the map right now, rather the way Michael Tilson Thomas did for a while in the 1980s. It would be great if he could reinvent himself, a la MTT, for he's a big talent.

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Washington, D.C.: Any thoughts on Robert Spano and/or Roberto Abbado at the NSO?

Tim Page: Both men have their admirers. Abbado is liked by most musicians I've talked to, and would probably like a U.S. post. Spano is pretty busy in Atlanta, and I'm not sure he'd want what would seem a lateral move. But who knows? Leading the major orchestra in the nation's capital would have to be tempting.

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Hough Rachmaninov Concertos: Tim,
Should I ask for the new Rachmaninov concerto set for Christmas? I am hearing different opinions. I LOVED the Pag. Rhapsody recording (played on my local station) -- fantastic. However, I heard that some of the concertos have odd pacing. Have you heard? Did you like?

Tim Page: I haven't heard the set. I should think that Hough would be excellent in this material, however -- smart, musical, virtuosic but never brainlessly banging.

I still usually play Rachmaninoff's own performances when I want to hear these concertos. Kapell did a marvelous version of the second Piano Concerto. I don't want to hear anybody do the "Rach Three," although I will confess that I prefer it to that endless second symphony that seems to be becoming such a hit.

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Fairfax, Va.: If somebody wants a Christmas piece beyond the usual suspects, then they should give a try to Jan jaukub Ryba's "Czech Christmas Mass" which is regularly heard in Prague during the holiday season. Hopelessly naive yet utterly delightful and irresistable music.

Tim Page: That's a great suggestion. I don't know the piece at all -- but at least it isn't as hackneyed as the works I mentioned.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Hugh Wolff?! Ugh.
No ideas, lots of musicianship, a man sure to run any orchestra into the ground -- that's why you haven't heard from him in a while.

Tim Page: I was surprised by how much I liked him the last time I heard him -- people can grow.

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Washington, D.C.: Tim,
Don't you think you have a responsibility to the community to retract some of the many incorrect statements you've made in articles discussing the dismissal of Leonard Slatkin?

Tim Page: So far as I know, I haven't made one incorrect statement about the dismissal (if dismissal it was) of Leonard Slatkin. Some of the musicians like him a lot, some don't like him at all. He is a splendid conductor when he is at his best, and a rather bored and expedient conductor when he isn't. In short, he has strengths and weaknesses, friends and enemies, like any other mortal.

I've heard no complaint about my piece from either the NSO or the Kennedy Center management -- certainly no suggestion that I got any of the ascertainable "facts" wrong. It was a tough piece to write -- some readers thought I was too easy on Slatkin, others thought I was too tough. That's probably a pretty good average.

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Atlanta, Ga.: Robert Spano to the NSO? Trouble is, his current gig, the Atlanta symphony, is much better than the NSO. It wouldn't be a lateral move in any way.

Tim Page: A couple quick parting shots....

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Washington, D.C.: Abbado is liked by most of the musicians you've talked to? Who are you talking to? Seriously, I don't know where you get some of your information, but you are proving yourself to be sadly misinformed.

Tim Page: And another...

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Tim Page: Why do these chats always get so lively right as they are coming to a close?

Sorry to break it off here, but we're out of time. I'll look forward to speaking with you in another two weeks. Thanks again to all who tuned in.

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