Classical Music Forum

Tim Page is the chief classical music critic for The Washington Post and the 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 the forthcoming "Tim Page on Music" (Amadeus Press). He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1997 for his writings about music for The Post.

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 Washington 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 it's one of those gross muggy afternoons in New York with about 100 percent air pollution. I came up here to see my oldest boy graduate from high school, incidentally catching the 89-year-old Les Paul at Iridium. Two terrific shows!

I'm told that it is even hotter in Washington, but I don't think the air pollution is as bad. To make matters worse, the Post's New York office is on 57th Street, in the heart of midtown, and the city is terribly congested.

We have a couple of questions today, but could take many more -- so if there's something you'd like to ask, please write in. With a little luck, we'll get to everybody today.

Let's see where we start....

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Takoma Park, Md.: Hi Tim,

Thanks so much for the chats. I learn a lot every time.

I am a novice classical music listener. Last week, I happened to run across a description of Smetana's Maldau, how it was structured, and what it was meant to communicate. I found listening to it an entirely different experience than listening to it without that information.

I was wondering if you could suggest a source of materials that would give me the same kind of information on other works. I know that music appreciation texts have some of this type of information, but I was wondering if there are composition specific sources that I could pick and choose from.

Also, are composer-written program notes available for most works and, if so, how would I access them? Would they be the best place to go?

(You can tell I'm sort of thrashing around here. Any advice is welcome.)

Thank you very much.

Tim Page: Thanks for the nice comment. I learn a lot from these chats, too.

I am a huge admirer of Michael Steinberg's books "The Symphony" and "The Concerto," which give detailed but easily comprehensible analyses of some of the best known works in the repertory -- a mixture of biography, history and formal consideration. The century-old "Essays in Musical Analysis" by Donald Francis Tovey are excellent, too. I admire Harold C. Schonberg's "Lives of the Great Composers," although he is mainly concerned with biography there -- and pretty hopeless on the 20th century in general.

Alan Rich, a superb critic, has done a number of CD/books on various musical works. Anything he writes is worth reading. Second hand stores will have old books with names like "The Victor Book of the Symphony" and "The Concert Companion," which are not always absolutely correct in their facts but will give you fair general introductions to some of the better known pieces.

I hope Steinberg continues his series. Program music -- such as the Smetana -- hasn't yet made it into his books. That's such a lovely piece, by the way -- one of the great melancholy melodies that is strangely uplifting at the same time.

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Washington, DC : Tim,

In the last forum you said you were in Cleveland. Did you get a chance to hear the Cleveland Orchestra? How does it sound after almost two seasons under Franz Welser-Most?

Thanks!;

Tim Page: I was in Cleveland visiting the author Dawn Powell's favorite cousin, Jack Sherman, to whom she dedicated her book "My Home Is Far Away." He is in his 90s, absolutely sharp, and we had a wonderful visit. I did not get to hear the orchestra, though, to my regret. I haven't even been in the new Severence Hall. I'm looking forward to it.

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Kingston, ON: How would you say Vladimir Ashkenazy's reputation as a pianist looks nowadays? I gather than his arthritis has forced him to give up and stick to conducting. I was comparing his Rachmaninov Preludes to Richter's, and I find that, despite Richter's greater reputation, Richter's playing has an inhuman and unyielding quality, whereas Ashkenazy has its own unique warmth and delicacy. He'll surely be remembered as one of the greats. What do you think?

Tim Page: I pretty much agree with your assessment of Ashkenazy. I, too, generally prefer him to the steely, superhuman Richter. I hadn't known of his arthritis and I am saddened to hear about it. I don't know if he is as remarkable a conductor as he is a pianist, but we need his musical sensibilities.

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Washington, DC: Tim, I just now read the discussion of two weeks ago about the new standing room policy at the Kennedy Center. I would like to offer a few additional comments on this and hope that you and/or the Washington Post -- perhaps its editorial board? - might take a strong position on the matter.

I think you, and your correspondent, are absolutely correct that standing room is a exceptionally important cultural resource for both young future classical and popular music patrons as well as, very importantly, future American artists.

I remember that twenty-three years ago the Kennedy Center similarly threatened to do away with standing room positions following some complaints by back row members of Washington's newly rich class (this was the beginning of the "Reagan Revolution" and its pernicious impact on classical performing arts culture in America).

A group of six regular standees of all ages, genders, and races -- including myself -- requested an appointment with then - Kennedy Center Chairman Roger Stevens in order
to request that standing room be retained despite the wishes of the house manager and the whiny nouveau-rich (I assume) suburbanites. Stevens, who was recovering from heart surgery, agreed with us on the importance of maintaining adequate standing room positions as "public goods." I remember contributing two thoughts to our joint petition to Roger Stevens: one was that the Kennedy Center was charged by Congress with maximizing its revenue and that standees represented revenue, then, of about $300-500 per performance; and secondly, that the one or one and a half percent of the audience in standing room positions represented, or would represent over time, many future American performing and creative artists -- whether they be American dancers, singers, musicians, stage designers, conductors, writers, choreographers, or composers.

Reagan may yet get his head on a small American coin, but let's also remember, this week, this rational and humane decision of Roger Stevens which prevented the Reagan Revolution from gutting arts education, and "arts enjoyment for all" of the Washington area's economic and social classes.

-In Central and Eastern Europe, obviously impoverished whole families are allowed to stand during "cultural center" events and none of the many nouveau-rich patrons there have yet complained and demanded their removal, to my knowledge.]

Tim Page: This is important for the Kennedy Center to remember. I thank you for sharing it with me -- and hope the editorial board will take notice.

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Arlington, Va. re Lawrence Brownlee: Missed the last chat live, but I wanted to follow up on your glowing (and well deserved) comments about Lawrence Brownlee's performance in the WCO at Lisner. Fans of Wolf Trap opera discovered Mr. Brownlee's talents a few years ago when he was a member of the ensemble there. Part of the enjoyment of going to Wolf Trap is in hearing these young singers and then following their careers. And while I'm at it, both Maestro Anthony Walker and Steven Blier worked at Wolf Trap before they were better known here in Washington.

Tim Page: Thanks so much for reminding us of the important work done at Wolf Trap.

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Silver Spring, Md.: I'm headed to London at the end of the summer. I'm thinking about attending one of the Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. On the program is Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in Beethoven's 9th. Have you been to one of these? What should I expect?

Tim Page: I'd LOVE to hear Rattle do the Beethoven Nine with the Berlin Phil. I thought their performance at the Kennedy Center last year was one of the great orchestral programs of my lifetime. Don't miss it.

The Proms are generally crowded, informal fun. The Royal Albert Hall is probably better to look at than to listen to music in, but it has a charisma of its own. I would think the Berlin and Beethoven would make this one of the more sober evenings of the festival.

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Washington, DC: I attended the NSO concert last Friday afternoon that featured Marc Ribot's performance of Stewart Wallace's electric guitar concerto. While I disagree with you on the merits of the piece (I thought it was fun and exciting and not excessively derivative, and Ribot is always a musician worth seeing), perhaps we can agree that it might not have been a great idea to schedule this piece for a matinee show!; Without lapsing into unfortunate stereotypes, let's just say that the typical member of a Friday matinee audience is not going to be happy with electric guitars and amplifiers. The level of dissonant feedback that came out of Ribot's amplifier was nothing compared to the level of dissonant feedback that came out of the Leisure World residents in the crowd after the performance. Ironically, there was probably more literal dissonance in the following piece ("Petrushka") than in the Wallace concerto...

Tim Page: I'm glad you liked the concerto better than I did -- and yes, the playing was excellent. Still, I'm not surprised that the conservative matinee audience was less than pleased. The problem with stereotypes is that there is often a little bit of truth to them.

I've never quite figured out how it is decided to put some Friday shows on in the afternoon and some at night. There's probably a simple reason for it, but I've never investigated it.

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Nashville, TN: Hi Tim,

I'm still waiting for Decca or RCA to issue on CD the Sibelius symphony 2 by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Monteux, and recommended by you in your Sibelius article in 1996. I loved your other Sibelius recommendations. Have you been listening to any Sibelius recently?

Tim Page: I'm always listening to Sibelius. He is one of those composers I not only admire but feel a deep spiritual kinship with as well.

Yes, that's a terrific performance and I have no idea why it hasn't come out on CD. It might be my favorite Monteux performance -- nobody else makes the final movement sound so desolate.

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Bethesda, Md.: Is anyone else as unhappy as I am about the comfort of the seating in the renovated Opera House? As a woman of average height (5'4"), I find that my feet don't quite reach the floor, causing my lower legs to go numb. In addition, the back of the seat is fairly far forward and very hard, causing my backside to lose all feeling. At the end of the evening, I leave the auditorium with my head having (usually) enjoyed the show but my body is not so happy about the experience.

Tim Page: I haven't found the new hall noticeably comfortable or uncomfortable.

Alice Tully Hall in New York is my idea of a comfortable hall; Miss Tully, as she called herself, was almost six feet tall and insisted on a great deal of space between seats. The Academy of Music in Philadelphia, for all of its beauty, is my idea of an uncomfortable hall -- my knees have to be raised higher than my lap!

What about it, readers? Any thoughts on the hall?

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Washington, DC: New music today (for the most part) does not relate to the average concert goer. Most music organizations are either unwilling or unable to change either the new music they program or change the concert goer.

Is classical music dying?

Tim Page: A whole book could be written in answer to your question. I don't think classical music is dying -- although precious little of it is finding its way into the permanent repertory these days -- but I do think it is changing. There are a lot of factors involved in this change -- the advent of recording, the massive amount of information about music and performance throughout the world, the aging of the traditional classical audience, the lack of rigorous musical education in the schools, the cost of maintaining orchestras and opera companies, and so on.

I don't have any reliable prognostications, so I'll just say "stay tuned..."

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Tim Page: Well, we seem to be out of questions, so I'm going to go brace the New York smog and sun and catch a train back to Washington. I'll look forward to our next meeting -- two weeks from today. Thanks for tuning in.

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