First symphony concerts of the 2022 season. The orchestra is in very fine form with new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The new programming employs a terrific balance of war horses, obscure classics and emerging composers.
zacmorrison
Review: MTT’s Return
First symphony concerts of the 2022 season. The orchestra is in very fine form with new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The new programming employs a terrific balance of war horses, obscure classics and emerging composers.
Review: A Favorite Symphony
First symphony concerts of the 2022 season. The orchestra is in very fine form with new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The new programming employs a terrific balance of war horses, obscure classics and emerging composers.
The Basics: Orchestral Pieces Most Often Encountered and Approximate Durations
How many different types of pieces are there?
The Basics: When is a Song a Song, When is a Piece a Piece?
Some Nomenclature for clarity.
Essential Composers: Haydn is the Most Underrated “Great” Composer
A life in music from age 6. Member of the Vienna Boys Choir until his voice broke. Respected as an innovator of the Symphony and the father of the String Quartet, but infrequently performed or given a dedicated festival. He wrote tons of music for all sorts of ensembles as court composers did, performing managerial […]
Essential Composers: Bach is THE Essential Composer
A really good place to start. He wrote for almost every genre except opera. The textbook nature of his music means that everybody who comes after has learned from it.his well-tempered clavier is literally a textbook you can listen to again and again and hear something new. In Bach, you’ll find every aspect of musicianship: energy, […]
Review: Salonen Ushers in a New Era of Mahler Interpretation
San Francisco has become a Mahler orchestra of global note. Often, and successfully, a conductor picks a sensible tempo and the music proceeds more or less down the white water. Salonen’s river is a little calmer at points and might drift towards a tide pool, and that’s ok. There’s an exaggeratedness in Mahler that often gets smoothed over or rushed past.
Review: John Adams Premiere of Antony and Cleopatra – Commissioned for the Centenary, San Francisco Opera
Unconvinced as ever that Adams lives up to his reputation as the world’s most decorated, performed and recorded living composer.
Review: First Time Back at the Symphony – 32nd Season Begins
First symphony concerts of the 2022 season. The orchestra is in very fine form with new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The new programming employs a terrific balance of war horses, obscure classics and emerging composers.