 Wednesday, May 28, 2003; 2 p.m. ET 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.
Tim Page: Good afternoon, and welcome to another on-line chat about classical music. A lot to be discussed today -- the death of Luciano Berio, a leading modernist composer; several recent concerts; an unusual fracas over cannon fire at Wolf Trap -- but we could probably take some more questions from you. So feel free to (ahem) fire away and I'll try to respond to as many of your comments as possible.
Let's see what's in the bank.
Springfield, Va.: Mr. Page- I want to call to your attention what I believe is a truly egregious effort to defraud Wolf Trap and NSO patrons of longstanding. After a month of advertising "live cannon fire" to accompany the NSO on the "1812," easily the most popular classical performance of any season, Wolf Trap now advertises simply "cannon fire" for the July 11 event. But they still won't say exactly what pathetic substitute the NSO will employ, even though they now say they won't use South Bend Replicas, the firm that provided the exciting, historically and musically accurate accompaniment for over twenty years. I believe that once the patrons who purchased tickets for this performance learn that this usually outstanding learn that cheap fireworks or (perish the thought) a recording will now be featured instead of the real thing, they will outraged, as I am. This must lead to someone at the NSO who holds the audience in total disregard. Will you please shed some light on this travesty for the thousands of purist "1812" fans? Thank you. Tim Page: Gosh, I'll do my best. Does anybody out there know about this? I'll put a call into the National Symphony and I hope I'll have an answer for you by the end of the program.
Washington, D.C.: You recently wrote about the auction of the manuscript of Beethoven's ninth symphony that was probably used for the symphony's premiere, and that includes numerous comments and corrections in Beethoven's own hand. Can you tell us if a photocopy of this manuscript will be published or otherwise made available? Tim Page: It certainly SHOULD be published, and I imagine that it will be. But the name of the buyer has not been released. Stay tuned.
Chevy Chase, Md.: Hi: I enjoy much more music when I have the score and I can follow the music. Dover has issued a good amount of music, however there are always things specially 20th century that I would like to get somewhere. So my questions:
- Where can I get these scores? Say Bruckner's 8th or Messian's Turangalila Symphony? Or maybe some Shostakovich ...
- Do you think I am approaching music in the right way? Sometimes I feel like I'm loosing the point following the score. Tim Page: Most of the scores that Dover publishes are out of copyright, which permits budget-priced editions. I remember purchasing the score to the Messiaen "Quartet for the End of Time" as a music student in the 70s, and it was about $40 even then. (I have no idea what it would go for today.) I would think there would be a popular-priced edition of the Bruckner Eighth available somewhere but Shostakovich and Messiaen are going to cost a lot of money. After all, estates need to be paid and publishers want to make a profit. Your best bet may be a library.
The Joseph Patelson Music House in New York is the best place I know to find scores. There is a good shop associated with Peabody in Baltimore, and I'd be grateful for any suggestions on music shops in D.C., as I've never come across them.
Schwerin/Germany: Hello, I would like to thank you for your wonderful review on Kissin’s Schubert/Liszt recital (I knew it would be good). I especially agree with you on his interpretation of the Schubert sonata –- simply great. I hope he is going to record it soon and I am very anxious to hear him play Beethoven’s piano concerts no. 3 and 4. I could not make it to the last chat since I was in Berlin attending a Rachmaninoff Foundation concert which brought us Mikhail Pletnev playing the 3rd pensioners with Valery Gergiev conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin and the 2nd symphony afterwards.
I have heard a variety of interpretations of these works before from artists such as Horowitz, Volodos or Previn conducting the 2nd symphony, which I thought to be quite interesting, some even good. But I regarded Rachmaninoffs own recording of his 3rd concert as the best interpretation so far, though one wishes todays recording technics were available then. Now I think I have just heard my ideal version of both the 3rd concerto and the 2nd symphony (I wish this had been recorded, at least we have Pletnev’s new CD). What a revelation to hear Pletnev play it. One gets to hear all the details and wonders why so many other pianists played it so loud, noisy and with such a flashy virtuosity covering and almost drowning the musics content and meaning when there is so much to say. Listening to the symphony reminded me of the russian landscape and its beauty captured in the paintings by Isaak Lewitan. Gergiev was –- once again –- outstanding.
After organizing series of concerts in the U.S. and Britain this was the first of a string of concerts in Germany in order to rebuild and improve Rachmaninoff’s reputation as a composer and to introduce people to less familiar works of his. German newspapers covered this effort widely, quoting critics and german literature on music. Many regard Rachmaninoff as a limited composer, too romantic and nostalgic and most of all too far behind his time. The pure fact that his music was/is often used in films (esp. the 2nd piano concerto in Billy Wilders “The Seven Year Itch”) is said to speak for itself. Well I did not know it was that bad. So there is much more work for the Foundation. The hardest part is perhaps to get people to doubt what still is widely said about him and discover the “real” Rachmaninoff so that they can make up their own minds (and surely not only in Germany).
I myself have to admit that I like a lot of his music for solo piano, piano concerts and symphonies, his “The Isle of Death” and “The Rock” and two recent “discoveries” of mine “The Bells” and “Vespers”. I guess there is more to add, especially with musicians as thoughtful and devoted as Pletnev and Gergiev.
What do you think about Rachmaninoff as a composer and his reputation in the U.S. and the classical world and have you already heard Pletnevs recording of Rachmaninoffs 3rd concert? Tim Page: Thanks for the kind words about the Kissin review.
I like Rachmaninoff quite a bit, and for many of the reasons you mention. For me, he is most appealing moment-by-moment -- in the songs, in the cello sonata (gorgeous) and in passages of the symphonies and piano concertos. Mind you, I'm not suggesting breaking the larger works up, only admitting that he doesn't always hold my attention throughout more extended pieces. I'm afraid that the prospect of an encounter with the Symphony No. 3 does not appeal to me very much -- there are wonderful moments, but it is awfully long.
Maybe those are just the words of a tired critic at the end of a busy year!
Capitol Hill: This may not be something you're interested in, but perhaps you've heard "rumors"... Many people who enjoy classical music were at one time trained as musicians themselves. We all achieve some level of competency ~ but your fingers and lips still move when you hear something that you've been playing since you were five or six years of age. When I was living in Europe, the opportunities to play with other musicians in an informal setting ~ more like salon music ~ was commonplace. We easily found a violist or a pianist in a community, got together and played music. There were even community chamber orchestras that got together to play a few pieces and that was it. It was all for the joy of community music making. We don't seem to do that in the United States, where music making is part of music enjoyment. Do you have any ideas on what opportunities may lie in our communities to simply "get together" to play some chamber music, with a commitment to a public performance? I yearn for those all night sessions where no one wanted to stop until the wee hours of the morning and where the group actually started to sound like a music at about 2am ... Tim Page: Amateur music making (and I do not mean "amateur" as a put-down) seems to be a threatened art in America -- and, to some extent, throughout the world. I think there are a lot of reasons for its decline -- increasingly musical illiteracy, increasingly busy days, and so on. Still, I would imagine there are people in the Washington area who would enjoy getting together for an evening of music. After all, Washington probably has more amateur choruses than any other city of its size. This is a very sophisticated place.
If anybody has any ideas for our reader, I'll post them immediately.
Falls Church, Va.: Since you are open to all kinds of music, have you heard the British female string quartet, Bond, and their CD, Born? It's not for classical purists, but its gripping rhythms based on classical motifs are fresh and innovative. Forget their hype as the "Spice Girls of classical music," they are accomplished players. Tim Page: The record has been sitting on my desk for at least a month. I should really give it a listen. I tend to catch up on CDs during the summer, when there aren't so many concerts to attend.
Washington reader: Hi Tim--
I saw a rather lengthy obit in the New York Times today of Italian composer, Luciano Berio. I'm afraid I didn't know much about him and was quite surprised to read such a long list of accomplishments. What's your take on Berio?
Thanks.
Tim Page: Berio was a major figure, albeit one of those major figures who somewhat outlived his reputation -- or so it seems to me right now. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was generally considered one of the world's leading composers -- and "Sinfonia" is still an exhilarating piece, wonderfully in and of its time. I also admired "Coro," which has just been reissued by Deutsche Grammophon -- a dense and timely song cycle for orchestra based on texts about political oppression.
Berio might be likened to certain American composers (I'm thinking of Roger Sessions and Wallingford Riegger) whose work was once revered but fell from popular favor. But you never know -- both Jean Sibelius and Samuel Barber died at a time when their music was thought to be entering a permanent eclipse, and they are both probably more popular now than they were when they died.
Karlheinz Stockhausen is yet another composer who was widely influential but isn't heard much anymore -- even before his crazy comments about 9/11 further damaged his reputation. (He compared the attack on the WTC to performance art ...) I predict a major re-evaluation but have no idea whether it will take place before or after Stockhausen dies.
The bottom line -- all aesthetic fashions aside, Berio deserved all the ink he received in this morning's Times and then some. I thought Paul Griffiths wrote an exemplary obituary.
Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: Dear Mr. Page, I was greatly impressed by the anonymous board member who asked for advice during your last online chat. It got me to thinking that success is not only a matter of a board's depth of understanding of the organization's goals and strategic plan and ability to communicate with arts management and speak the artists' language. Rather it's a three-sided partnership between board, management and artists. I have recently been given the opportunity to serve on a board for a performing arts organization -- I assume they wanted my experience as a musician since I have relatively little to offer in the way of donor contacts. After my first board meeting it was pretty obvious to me that I faced a steep learning curve. As far as I know, there is no book, "Being an Effective Board Member for Dummies" -- but I did find an excellent Web site on the basics of managing non-profits that has been very helpful: Thompson and Thompson It would help in the dialog many board members need to establish with performing artists if the performers themselves also had some knowledge of what the board's functions & responsibilities are. Tim Page: Thanks so much for the information. We need strong, enlightened board members.
Springfield, Va.: From Springfield to Springfield: Lighten up, Francis! Let's thank the NSO and Wolf Trap for all of the fine music they present to us. I'm sure they will refund your money. Tim Page: I'm still waiting to hear from the NSO.
Boyds, Md.: Sorry to hear about Berio. I remember hearing a recording of his Sinfonia years ago in the U of Maryland Music Library. It seems like we are seeing some of the leaders go away too quickly (or so it seems). Just a few days ago, I was reminded when I went through my CD collection and found a recording of Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto. Both are going to be missed big time. Tim Page: And Ralph Shapey, too -- for me, a titanic figure, and dead less than a year.
Washington, D.C.: Do you know of any classical orchestra recordings of punk rock classics? Tim Page: God, I hope not. Why would you need an orchestra?
To be fair, I may add that I doubt I'd enjoy Chopin or Beethoven played by a punk rock band.
Fairfax, Va.: I'm curious about your opinion on two items. (1) Grammy-awarded recording of Vaughn Williams Sea Symphony. Heard a good chunk of it on WETA last night. What do you think of the work and the recording? Moving? Sleep-inducing? Neither?
(2) Death of Luciano Berio. I had a chance to hear the San Francisco Symphony do a large scale atonal work with soprano a year or so ago. Georgeous sounds, but a bit too long and meandering. How would you rate this composer?
Thanks for your insightful reviews. Tim Page: I've already thrown out a couple of thoughts about Berio. As for the "Sea Symphony," I find it quite moving, especially the second movement, "On the Beach at Night Alone." However, I seem to have a stronger-than-average affection for British music and many listeners are allergic to it.
Cambridge, Mass. A question about keys ... are different keys associated with different moods? (aside from the obvious differences between major and minor.) Does C maj convey something different than D maj? How does A min compare with G min? Aside from C maj, what are the most 'important' keys used by composers? Tim Page: I have to bunt this one. Whole books could be written on this subject -- and have been. I can't even being to do justice to your question here. However, I will say that E-flat Major, D major, F major and G major are very "popular" keys. A very "unpopular" one is C-flat minor, usually written as B minor, although the theorists will tell you that it really isn't the same thing.
Have I made matters more confusing? I fear so ...
But there is no easy answer to this one.
As for the old "major keys are happy/minor keys are sad" truism, this is sometimes the case, but only goes so far and there are hundreds of exceptions.
Annandale, Va.: Good afternoon, Tim! I will be in New York next month to take in (among other things) one of Barenboim's Beethoven Sonatas concerts. What can I look forward to? Tim Page: New York is extraordinarily rich in musical events. I'd get the New York Times (or Time Out or the New York Press or the Village Voice or New York Magazine or the New Yorker) and check the listings for yourself. The summer is the slowest time of year in Manhattan but still very lively.
Levittown, N.Y.: hello Mr. Page! I am getting fed up with all of the distorted, one-sided and misleading commentary about the classical music scene that have been proliferating in publications like the New York Times, etc. We are told that classical music is in a bad way, that our orchestras do nothing but endlessly recycle the same old warhorses, that there is a lack of great performers today, that new music is neglected. This is all baloney. There is a wider variety of repertoire being performed than ever before in the history of western classical music, there are many truly great performers, and countless new works have been premiered in recent years. But critics never cease trotting out the same old specious complaints.What do you think? Tim Page: I'm going to adapt the somewhat hackneyed but still potent opening line of "A Tale of Two Cities" -- it is the best of times and the worst of times. I agree with much of what you say. On the other hand, classical music is an increasingly marginal part of the general culture and I sometimes fear that it is heading in the same direction as philosophy and serious modern poetry (setting aside Hallmark and Maya Angelou). A lot of symphony orchestras are folding; the leading classical record labels are issuing less and less; and it is an increasingly hard sell to get people into the concert halls.
Let's see what happens. There's evidence on both sides.
Rockville, Md.: Can you comment on the practice of critics writing about the programming (what works are on the program) vs. the performance? It seems that for well-known works, the focus should be on the performance. A recent review of a choral performance of the Durufle Requiem dismissed it by saying it was not as good as the Faure Requiem. It seems a cheap shot. Programs are put together years in advance, and by now most of the groups in town have published their schedules for next year. How about have a big article about programming, and then get off the subject. Comments? Tim Page: I don't think there is anything wrong with a critic expressing an opinion about the merits of a piece, even a standard one. I like the idea that we are still sifting through the classics, evaluating them anew for our time.
Silver Spring, Md.: You said:
"I'd be grateful for any suggestions on music shops in D.C., as I've never come across them." Dale Music, on Georgia Avenue here in Silver Spring: www.dalemusic.com. If they don't have it in stock or can't order it, it doesn't exist. Tim Page: That's great. Thank you!
Washington, DC: Great. Another Washington Post music critic who doesn't think the Washington area has any music stores at which musicians, music students, and amateurs can browse for, and purchase, music scores and music parts. - Musical Source near 14th and Q Streets, NW, 202 387-7401 (U Steet Metro) - Middle C Music 4530 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
202 244-7326 (Tenley Metro) - Dale Music Georgia Avenue, NW (near the Silver Spring Metro).
301 589-1459 (Dale is hiring, if you know any struggling local musicians or composers needing work.) Some day the Washington Post will hire a connected music critic with ties to the local community. Tim Page: Oh, let's not get nasty. Music is sent to me by publishers and publicists, and I already have a rather large collection. Rather than pretending to an omnipotence I don't possess, I thought I'd throw out the question to my readers.
Fairfax, Va.: Do you have any info on the Mumford work the NSO will be premiering shortly? What is this composers track record? I don't know anything about him. Tim Page: We have an article on Mumford's music coming up before the concert -- on Sunday, I think. Daniel Ginsberg will tell you all about Mumford and his premiere.
Re: "amateur" musicians: The Capitol Hill person who wants to get together with other musicians might want to start by contacting the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (202-547-6839). They are a terrific community resource and the executive director is a superb musician in his own right. Tim Page: That's a terrific suggestion. Thank you.
Fairfax, Va.: Tim,
It saddens me that people have to be so rude. I believe he/she is the exception, at least in this forum.
My apologies on behalf of those who appreciate your work. Tim Page: Thanks very much for the nice message. I get a lot of support from my readers -- and don't take the occasional unhappy letter too seriously. If I had grown up here, or if I taught, I would know all the music stores by heart.
Tim Page: I'm going to close today by presenting an article I wrote for musicalamerica.com about a dear friend and colleague, Andre Bernard. If you listened to classical radio in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, you knew Andre's voice. This is my farewell to a dear and decent man.
André Bernard Dies
By Tim Page
MusicalAmerica.com
May 28, 2003
NEW YORK -- André Bernard, the host of "Around New York" on WNYC-FM throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s, died here May 21 of a heart attack. He was 78 and had lived on the Upper East Side since 1950.
André had the perfect radio voice -- a big, booming, toffee-smooth tone that sounded both supremely authoritative and downright homey. He held court on WNYC from 1965 through 1990, greeting his hundreds of guests -- some of the leading writers, actors, dancers and musicians of the time -- as if they were old and valued friends. Indeed, many of André's guests later became his friends: I remember especially his close ties to the composer Lucia Dlugoszewski, the soprano Eleanor Steber, and the actress Irene Worth, all of whom would call him in the studio.
Because his radio manner was so eloquent and formal, visitors were often surprised to find out that André was given to the most casual dress, often wearing a sand dollar medallion around his neck. He followed a strict macrobiotic diet for much of his life, and brought his own pungent-smelling casseroles of unusual greens to the studio each day. He was an accomplished poet, a legendary (the word is not too strong) “movement instructor,” and something of a mystic. Above all, he was a kind and thoughtful man -- and these qualities pervaded his work.
I was lucky enough to work with André for six years, after my own program -- "New, Old and Unexpected" -- was started as a sort of annex to "Around New York." The initial response to my show was not all favorable (an airing of Steve Reich's "Six Pianos" in 1981 inspired more than 40 listeners to call the station and complain that the record was stuck!) but Andre was delighted with the change from a conservative format. "'Around New York' should represent the music being made in this city," he told me.
The composer David Garland, who is the present host of Evening Music on WNYC, paid tribute to André yesterday: “He set a wonderful example by embracing the new while being an exemplar of the grand old radio announcer tradition.”
André was born Bernard Moses on June 10, 1924 and grew up in Columbia, S.C. He moved to New York in 1950 and worked as an actor, appearing in roles on the Kraft Television Theater and the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was at about this time that he changed his name to André Bernard.
In 1952, André started dancing with the Erick Hawkins Company and it was Hawkins who suggested he become a teacher. He studied kinesiology -- a method of body alignment that helps reduce stress and coordinate ease of motion -- with Barbara Clark, who was herself a student of Mabel Elsworth Todd, the founder of the technique. A small book about André's work, entitled "Ideokinesis & Creative Body Alignment" was published by Contact Quarterly. Many dancers and choreographers in New York swore by André's teaching.
"If you were to ask me what it is I do, I'd say that I communicate," André said in 1989. "The thing I like about teaching is basically the same thing I like about radio announcing, and that I liked about acting -- they're all forms of communication."
Through it all, André was modest and self-deprecating. "Sometimes I sign off my show saying 'I'll be back tomorrow and I'm going to keep on coming back until I get it right.’"
He is survived by three sisters, Gloria Moses, Dolores de Maria, and Marguerite Ojalva and a brother, Stephen Moses, all of Columbia. His family may be reached through Gloria Moses, 5008 Clemson Avenue, Columbia, S.C., 29206.
I'll look forward to speaking with you again in two weeks.
That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.
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