Posts Tagged ‘classical music’

Finding Your Unique Path to Success

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

It has been pointed out to me that in my column last week, I inadvertently misspelled the name of the author of an article entitled “Being a Professional Chorister” which appeared on Laura Claycomb’s website. His correct name is Martin L. Poock. My apologies to Mr. Poock for this oversight on my part.

Congratulations to violinist, Mina Um, winner of the First Prize in the First Anniversary Ask Edna contest. Mina has won a free career consult with me and I look forward to meeting her soon.

Dear Edna:

How does a classical musician get to the international status of someone like Yo-Yo Ma or Itzhak Perlman? In the 21st century when classical music is no longer the “popular music”, do classical musicians need to make themselves look “hip” or “fun” to attract audiences? How did these people rise to fame and success, and would their methods work for students who are beginning their career now, in the 21st century? —Mina Um

Dear Mina:

It is interesting that you say that classical music is no longer the “popular music”, as if it was when Mr. Perlman and Mr. Ma were young. Regretfully, I don’t think that was ever the case, especially  in the United States. What is true is that the world of entertainment was very different then than it is now. With the absence of e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Netflix and text messaging, there were much fewer distractions competing for people’s leisure time. Music tended to be a more regular part of the school curriculum, thereby exposing people to the beauties of classical music and helping to build future audiences. When Itzhak Perlman appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show at the age of 13, he was an instant success. A huge mainstream audience who may not have ever before heard the music he played was captivated by him, eagerly awaiting more.  Yo-Yo Ma also appeared on American television at an even younger age in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Despite this early exposure, the careers of these artists were handled with great care and sensitivity, with Mr. Perlman cementing the early impression he had made by winning the prestigious Leventritt Competition six years later. Both artists were taken on by the legendary impresario, Sol Hurok, who had the contacts to book them in high profile tours throughout the world.

So you see, there were no real “methods” that worked for these artists which could be applied to aspiring artists today. Perhaps there was a smaller number of gifted and promising artists populating the music scene in those days but the key to success then was the same as it is now – extraordinary talent and accomplishment, and the ability to communicate with audiences in a very personal, heartfelt and memorable way. You didn’t need to listen to too many measures of music performed by Mr. Perlman or Mr. Ma to know that you were hearing something very special. These artists clearly loved to perform and were not afraid to take risks on stage. Their talent was totally natural, and there was no need to think about superimposing anything additional in order to please an audience.

It is rare today for a classical artist to become an “overnight sensation”. Mainstream television shows are rarely interested in presenting them. As always, careers with longevity are largely built by word of mouth. And what gets people talking? Artists with extraordinary ability who have something special to say and to offer their audience. The challenge for young artists, therefore, is to determine what makes them special. If they can identify what that is and let it guide them in choosing the music they want to share with their audience, they will stand the highest chance of building a devoted following. They can help to introduce themselves exactly as they would like to be known by creating an informative, appealing website and by uploading samples of their performances on YouTube. If part of their nature is a wonderful sense of humor, they shouldn’t hesitate to show that in their performances, especially if they choose to give spoken introductions to any of the works. If fashion is a passion for them and they want to reflect that passion in their performances, they can certainly do that and, in all likelihood, it will come across as genuine. It is only when artists try to be “hip” for the sake of being different that it is likely to backfire.  If you look at the genres of music that are reflected in both Mr. Perlman’s and Mr. Ma’s extensive discographies, you can conclude that they were very inventive in coming up with projects and collaborations that would engage their public. However, it is important to realize that Mr. Ma’s ventures into Appalachian music and the rich heritage of the Silk Road came out of a tremendous intellectual curiosity and awareness of a diversity of cultures. He was fascinated by this music and wanted to make it part of his concert life. Similarly, Mr. Perlman’s irresistible recordings and concerts of klezmer music were inspired by music he heard in his childhood and learned from his father. He was thrilled at the thought of sharing this music with his classical music audience. I feel confident that if young artists today bring this same kind of genuine excitement and imagination to the decisions they make regarding programming, they will stand the greatest chance of attracting a sizable and diverse audience, as well as gaining the attention of people with the stature and influence to help them advance in their careers.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

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Omus in Person

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark

I first met Omus Hirshbein in Carnegie Hall’s executive offices, where he worked for a brief time in 1973 between tenures at the Hunter College Concert Bureau and the 92nd Street Y. He was walking out of a planning meeting, saying in frustration to anyone nearby, “They won’t listen to me—they should be emphasizing the sound of Carnegie Hall.” Guess what Carnegie’s subscription campaign was the next season, after Omus left for the Y? There he would create a concert series that for two decades would dominate the chamber-music field in New York (and annoy the hell out of me because it was such a nuisance to get to from my apartment near Lincoln Center).

We became friends over the years, especially after buying one of his pianos several years ago when his upper West Side apartment could no longer house two Steinways. Every time my wife and her four-hands partner, the composer and conductor Victoria Bond, get together to play, we think of Omus and his wife, Jessica.

Omus died on December 31st after a long decline due to Alzheimer’s. It seems especially tragic that one whose mind was so fertile would leave us in such a manner. I’m sorry I took so long to take note of him in this forum. Perhaps I was stymied because Brian Kellow, who worked for Omus at the Y in the 1980s, captured his personality and accomplishments so warmly and vividly in an Opera News piece, as did Allan Kozinn in his New York Times obituary (January 7, 2012). So I decided I would do something different and reprint Omus’s own typically impassioned words from a panel discussion on the programming of classical music, which appeared in the 1995 Musical America Directory. Participants with Omus in the discussion were industry V.I.P.s Deborah Borda, Eugene Carr, Mary Lou Falcone, Christopher Hunt, and Jane Moss. I highly recommend your reading it; check out the Services section on top of the Musicalamerica.com desktop. You may find, as I did when I read it again, that it could have been recorded yesterday.

Omus Hirshbein: “I think there are two reasons why people like to go to concerts these days. One is being addressed by the kind of programming that the American Symphony is doing. Back in 1986 I agreed to put together a series of eight concerts for the Museum of Modern Art exhibition called “Vienna 1900.” It had to do with the years of the Vienna Secession, which are roughly 1898-1918, and the composers were Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Zemlinsky, Schmidt. And I said to them, “But no one will come.” To my surprise, tickets were being scalped on 53rd Street. I saw virtually none of the usual New York music people at those eight concerts. Audience members were reading, they were seeing the paintings, they were seeing the workshop of Hoffman, and they were hearing a group of composers described by curator Kirk Varnedoe as part and parcel of the Secession, and they went. Okay, that’s one reason.

“The other, of course, is that music is supposed to touch the heart. And it’s supposed to touch the soul. Now, there was a period of 40 or 50 years when what was new was ugly. Sorry, it was mostly ugly. And the legatees of those Viennese geniuses—and I speak of Schoenberg as a genius—made it worse. They became academic, producing a system of writing in this country that was not for the public. Now, there are some young people writing music today who are mobbed by audiences. I’m talking about Aaron Kernis, and Bright Sheng, and there are others. And maybe it signals a reversal of that horrible trend where what was new was impossible to listen to. That’s all I can hope for, because the teaching of music has become of little importance in most of the major cities today as they cope with their social and educational problems.

“Let me just add that money is really an issue. And I’m not talking about balancing budgets. On the wall in my new office is a blowup of an advertisement from 1971, announcing a repeat concert of Victoria de los Angeles and Alicia de Larrocha doing a program of Spanish tonadillas and whatnot. I ask people to look at it because it has tremendous meaning—and finally down at the bottom, they come across what is really disturbing about it. And this is 1971, folks. The top price at the Hunter College Concert Bureau, where this took place, in a 2,200-seat house, was a dollar below Carnegie Hall and a dollar below Lincoln Center: six and a half dollars. A movie was three bucks, or three and a half. A musical event of that magnitude was twice the price of a movie. And that was prevailing.

“Now, I throw down a gauntlet to the commercial interests that have ruined our business. I assure you that Mostly Mozart once was a three- and four-dollar ticket. Commercial interests, and the interests of unions, have hurt us a great deal. This not a high-tech business, this is not the movies, this is not mass media, and we are paying the kind of monies out that would say it’s mass media, and it ain’t anything like that.

“. . . I had a staff of music lovers in my previous job. Music lovers. A couple of them were married, they were in their thirties, and you know what they do? They get together with their friends in a restaurant, and they spend an evening, and that’s all they can afford to do; they are making $23,000 and $24,000 a year, and they cannot afford to go to these concerts.

“. . . There’s another side of the coin. Once the performer becomes recognizable, there is the most extraordinary avarice to get the fees up as fast as possible. And that, for me, is what has wrecked the business. An artist could go on the road and make a decent living at fees somewhere in the $5,000 or $6,000 range and that’s about all that anybody out there in the hinterlands can afford. Now, I think maybe that’s all I have to say.”

Of course, it wasn’t all he had to say. His last professional endeavor was to found, with his former Y colleague Jacqueline Taylor, a series of free public concerts with major artists that they called “Free for All at Town Hall.” They wrote about its genesis in the 2004 edition of Musical America Directory, and we can still look forward to these concerts each spring. Martin Riskin, who is now president and artistic director of the series, tells me that the upcoming concerts will be dedicated to Omus.

Looking Forward

My week’s scheduled concerts:

2/1 Paul Hall. FOCUS! Festival. Cage: Five Songs (1938); Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard (1950); Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939); Etudes Boreales, Nos. 1 & 3 (1978); Sonnekus² (1985); Satie Cabaret Songs; Child of Tree (1975); The Perilous Night (1944).

2/7 Rodgers Theatre. Gershwin: Porgy and Bess. Audra McDonald (Bess), Norm Lewis (Porgy), David Alan Grier (Sportin’ Life).

1/8 Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Gluck: Armide. Juilliard Orchestra/Jane Glover. Emalie Savoy (Armide), Alexander Hajek (Hidraot), David Portillo (Renaud), Alexander Lewis (Artémidore), Luthando Qave (Ubalde), Noah Baetge (Le Chevalier Danois), Wallis Giunta (Phénice), Devon Guthrie (Sidonie), Evan Hughes (Aronte), Renée Tatum (La Haine), Soo Yeon Kim (La Naïade), Pureum Jo (2nd Coryphée), Deanna Breiwick (Une Bergère), Lilla Heinrich-Szász (Lucinde), and Raquel González (Mélisse).

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The Secret Ingredient for Success

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

I was recently honored to be asked to participate on a panel at the annual Astral Artists auditions, during which I listened to a substantial number of pianists and wind players. While all were on a rather high level, I was struck by the relatively small number who grabbed my attention right from the start of the audition and sustained it all the way through. It got me thinking about a three letter word, not often mentioned, that for me constitutes an essential ingredient of successful performance, whether on stage or in the workplace:  JOY.  While it is indisputable that beloved artists such as Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma have earned their place as musical legends first and foremost by virtue of their extraordinary artistry, I am convinced that their joy in music making has been an essential ingredient in making them household names. It is palpable from the very first notes that they play. I believe that this element of performance is rarely addressed in the practice room, where the majority of attention may be focused on the mechanics of playing. Can joy be taught? Probably not, but I do think that all teachers can encourage their students to identify and perform repertoire that brings out the best in them and in which they feel they have something special to say. For works that are relatively unfamiliar, the artist should be encouraged to share with their audience some spoken comments regarding why they chose to program the work, thereby increasing the potential receptivity to it from their listeners. Joy in performance may result from confidence that a program has been well prepared, and from the artist’s belief that it offers works or interpretations that might be new to an audience or juxtaposed in an interesting way. The artist might pause, almost imperceptibly, before a phrase that they find particularly special, just as a storyteller would do, thereby sharing that moment more meaningfully with the audience. It seems to me that our most treasured artists are those who give us the impression that there is nothing they would rather be doing than performing for us. While a healthy schedule of performances is essential to a successful career, a concert should never be a means to advance to the next rung on the career ladder. It is a special moment in time, and the opportunity to communicate with a live audience should be savored.

And what about the workplace? In my twenty-three years as Managing Director of IMG Artists, I interviewed many job applicants and often made a positive decision after the first few minutes. A good number of people that I hired still work at IMG after ten years or more, and they have all advanced through the ranks to higher levels of responsibility and more distinguished titles. Their excitement about working at a dynamic and distinguished international agency was visible to me from the start, and it quickly became apparent that the pleasure they took in their work overshadowed any eagerness they may have felt to advance in their career. The promotions came naturally because they were great team players, galvanizing everyone around them with their enthusiasm and joy in having a job that allowed them to be surrounded by great performers and inspiring colleagues. This created a family atmosphere throughout the years, despite substantial growth in the size of the artist roster and number of employees, which I think was a key element in the company’s success.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony may be the most beloved work in the classical music literature, uplifting all who hear it with the final movement’s magnificent setting of Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy. Our lives will undoubtedly be richer and more meaningful if we can compose, and actually live, our own personal ode to joy.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2012

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Is There a Network of House Concerts?

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

By: Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Dear Edna:

I have been told by many of my musician friends that it is very gratifying and helpful to perform in house concerts because they allow for direct communication with a small and appreciative audience and an opportunity to play through repertoire in an unpressured environment. In some instances, they might even put a little money in your pocket. Can you tell me how I might go about identifying such opportunities? Is there any central house concert website? —Andrew K., violinist

Dear Andrew:

While it is true that house concerts take place all over the world, I am not aware of any directory that lists them. This may well be because of the need to maintain privacy and ensure security when opening one’s home to the public. There is an informative website, ConcertsinYourHome.com, which does provide its members with information about hosts of house concerts, enabling them to get in touch directly, but it is my impression that the opportunities are for singer-songwriters and folk music performers, not classical. They do offer a free and helpful “House Concerts Guide”, written by their founder, Fran Snyder, which walks the reader through all aspects of performing in or presenting a house concert. Most of what they cover is universal to any genre of music.

A good place for you to start would be to ask your musician friends whether they can introduce you to the individuals who have hosted their concerts. Perhaps you can also encourage them to program a work in their upcoming concerts that might include you. If you are still a student, you should visit your school’s concert office to see if they have a list of hosts. You could also check with the Development office, as they often coordinate private concerts for current or potential donors. Let them know of your interest in participating in them. Set aside some time to think about possible concert hosts among family friends, fans, or people you may have met in a variety of professional or social situations. Violinist Hilary Hahn was able to secure a substantial amount of the funding for her commissioning project that is generating twenty-seven new encore pieces via a house concert hosted by someone she happened upon by chance.

In New York, where I live, there are a wide variety of house concerts taking place regularly.  Some of them, such as the series at the home of Shirley and Sid Singer, have been going on for as long as twenty years and generally feature up and coming soloists and chamber ensembles who are recommended by managers or returning by popular demand. Others, such as chamber music concerts hosted by Dr. Daniel Kuhn, a cellist and psychiatrist by profession, are motivated by the host’s desire to play great music with artists they admire. A third category would be concerts for the benefit of a designated charity, such as Classical Action’s Michael Palm Series, which typically feature artists of some renown. None of these would be easy for you to penetrate. However, Michael Reingold, Producer of NYC House Concerts for the past six years, works with a variety of hosts in presenting 25-30 concerts per year. Some of the artists are his own choices outright but others approach him by e-mail, and he tries to introduce new faces into the mix. His particular motivation is to introduce his friends and their friends to the beauties of classical music. He also is happy to afford artists the opportunity to try out a new program and to gain experience in communicating verbally and socially with audiences that are new to this music.  Neither he nor the artist(s) receive any financial gain but if the host is in agreement, the artists can put a basket at the door for voluntary donations, and they can always feel comfortable selling cd’s. If you live in New York, you should definitely acquaint yourself with this organization.

Perhaps the most entrepreneurial individual I have met in regard to pursuing house concerts (and more) is pianist and composer, Kimball Gallagher. A graduate of Rice University and Juilliard, he is the founder of PIANOKEY, “a salon concert company that is dedicated to the revival of the romantic salon culture”. He is currently in the midst of “The 88 Concert Tour”, which he organized totally on his own and which has recently included performances throughout the U.S., as well as in Shanghai, Taipei, Mongolia, Hanoi, Bangkok, Tunisia, Turkey and Afghanistan. Each concert host receives a short personalized piano work that he writes for them, using a compositional system to spell out musical notes to match their names, and which is included as part of the program.  Mr. Gallagher receives a fee for these concerts which, added to income from private teaching, allows him to make a reasonable living. He does not conceive of the concerts as preparation for more significant events but rather as events in themselves. He connects with his audiences in interesting and innovative ways that wouldn’t be possible in a larger venue; for example, playing a virtuosic Chopin etude at a slower tempo before performing it as it was intended to be heard. His success at international networking is quite spectacular, and yet it breaks down into small, logical steps that follow from one another. He keeps track of every new contact he meets and has the charm and confidence to ask them to help, If he believes they can. When he has needed to fill out a tour in Asia, he has contacted Juilliard to see which alumni might be residing there. There is much to learn from Mr. Gallagher’s intrepid approach to organizing his own concert life. The fundamental answer to your question is: Don’t look for a network of house concerts. Research them as best you can but in the end, don’t hesitate to create one!

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

This is the final “Ask Edna” column of 2011. I wish all our readers a very happy holiday season and look forward to reconnecting with you on January 5, 2012!

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Getting to Know You (writing a good bio)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

by Edna Landau

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

Please note that in the months of June, July and August, I will be posting new entries to this blog on a bi-weekly basis. I am grateful to all of you for your interest in “Ask Edna” and wish you a very pleasant summer.

Dear Edna:

What do you think makes for a good bio these days (from an artist management point of view)? I’m sick of reading bios that are either A. Boring (laundry lists of accolades, credits, quotes and not conveying something distinctive) OR B. Overly chatty/personal (some non-classical bios are like this, as are musical theatre bios typically). —a management colleague

Dear management colleague:

I think a good bio is one that provides only as much information as is necessary to capture the attention of the reader and keep them engrossed until the end. It should come across as professional, be well written and well organized. It should find a good balance between sharing important factual information and also giving the reader a glimpse of what is special about the person it spotlights. It should whet the appetite of the reader to experience the subject’s artistry and to get to know them better, either by presenting them, hearing them or listening to their music making.

The first sentence and paragraph of a bio should help place the artist among their peers and highlight some recent significant accomplishments. This is not achieved by the all too typical introduction that reads something like this: Joe Smith was born in Buffalo, New York in 1984 and began to study violin at the age of five with his father. The opening of the bio should also avoid any grandiose statement that is out of proportion to the artist’s career. As Ellen Highstein has written in her book Making Music in Looking Glass Land, “ the expression ‘one of the foremost pianists of our day’ is only appropriate for someone who is undeniably one of the foremost pianists of our day.”

Here are some opening sentences that grabbed my attention when I surveyed a sampling of bios of young artists with burgeoning careers:

“Internationally renowned as a brilliant innovator of the classical guitar, Paul Galbraith has been working since the 1980’s towards expanding the technical limits of his instrument, besides augmenting the quantity and quality of its repertoire.”

“Born in Los Angeles in 1981, composer and performer Gabriel Kahane is a peerless musical polymath, invested in the worlds of concert, theater and popular music.”

“Formed in 1984 by four prize-winning graduates of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris, the Parisii Quartet won early acclaim with its triumphs at three major international competitions: Banff (1986), Munich (1987) and Evian (1987). Invitations followed from the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, and the Parisii has since toured regularly throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.”

“An accomplished young conductor and pianist, Kelly Kuo has had tremendous success working with both singers and instrumentalists in the United States and abroad in a broad spectrum of repertoire including nearly 60 operas spanning the 17th through 21st centuries. He is the recipient of a 2009 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award for young conductors.

“Dubbed a ‘Classical Rock Star’ by the press, cellist Joshua Roman has earned a national reputation for performing a wide range of repertoire with an absolute commitment to communicating the essence of the music at its most organic level. For his ongoing creative initiatives on behalf of classical music, he has been selected as a 2011 TED Fellow, joining a select group of Next Generation innovators who have shown unusual accomplishments and the potential to positively affect the world.”

You are totally correct that nothing is more boring than to wade through a laundry list of endless credits until one’s eyes glaze over. Performance credits should be limited to significant debuts and tours, recent and upcoming engagements, recent recordings, commissioned works, and perhaps some mention of associations with other artists, especially conductors, who may have played an important role in an artist’s career. They might also include examples of an artist engaging in outreach or charitable activities. The artist’s achievements should always be summarized in reverse chronological order so that the reader doesn’t have to navigate through several seasons to get to the most recent and significant accomplishments.

It is important to include dates of various performances and milestones in the artist’s career. I read a bio of a soprano which began: “Most recently heard worldwide in the Sirius Satellite Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Puccini’s Tosca…” None of the artist’s numerous accomplishments were associated with dates anywhere in the remainder of the bio. A quick visit to YouTube showed significant clips from 3-4 years ago so I could deduce that the artist was still quite active. This was reinforced by a vist to Ask.Com that indicated that satellite radio was introduced around 2004. However, this is far more research than should be expected from the reader of an artist’s bio.

The bios of all of the artists mentioned above remained compelling and informative to the end. They never became “chatty” but I enjoyed learning that Gabriel Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, New York, “in close company with a century-old piano and many books” and that conductor/pianist/vocal coach, Kelly Kuo, began his musical studies on the violin at the age of five, made his debut as a pianist five years later, but also later trained as a clarinetist. Today he has become a champion of contemporary music and has edited scores for two of Jake Heggie’s operas. None of the bios mentioned family members, as musical theatre bios so often do. I have no problem with a bio that does include such information, especially if the artist feels that their family is a major source of support to them in their career and that they bring balance and meaning to a life that can often involve long stretches of lonely time on the road.

The bottom line is that interesting artists have interesting bios. They don’t need to create heft in their bio by citing long lists of engagements. Artists who are still pretty young in their careers can prudently include brief quotes or phrases that pay tribute to their gifts and should focus on sharing with the reader their intense dedication to their chosen profession, the efforts they are expending to share their love of performing with new audiences, their joy in helping to expand the repertoire for their instrument (if applicable), and the other aspects of their lives that are important to them and that contribute to the persona they bring with them when they walk out on stage. If their bio conveys both humility and ambition, and reflects a sense of excitement and privilege at being able to pursue life as a performer, the reader will want to embark on the journey with them and support them as they reach new heights and become better known.

To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.

© Edna Landau 2011

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Three for Regie

Friday, January 28th, 2011

By James Jorden

Instead of beating my brains out trying to make sense of the comings and goings in the final act of Simon Boccanegra at the Met (or am I just deluded to find it unlikely that convicted rebels should be marched to their execution through the Doge’s unguarded council chamber?), I thought this week I’d take the lazy blogger’s way out and link to a few other blogs that are carrying on the Regie discussion. (more…)

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Beyond the Bathrobe

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

By James Jorden

It’s the laziest of journalistic tropes to lead off with “this guy I know says…” but in this case the guy in question has provided me with what I consider a really handy peg for a first column on opera stage direction. Anyway, this guy—who’s in his 70s now, a retired opera record pirate, but, more to the point, one of the survivors from the 1950s golden age of the Met standing room line—he’s got a “line” expression for just about every operatic experience imaginable.   (more…)

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A Reluctant Blogger Joins the Fray

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

My publisher made me do this.

I’ve always been leery of blogs, from the disgusting sound of the word to the colossal self-importance of the act. Still, I admit to a good read and insight courtesy of bloggers Alex Ross and Alan Rich, and I’m sure I’d find others out there if I took the time. I am told I needed a title. Among friends’ suggestions are “Musical Rants and Raves,” “Bloviation on a Theme by Sedgwick,” “Symphony in E Flatulence,” “Why I Left Muncie,” “High Forehead, Low Brow.” No—too many notes, Mozart. The publisher wants my name in the title, but I can’t hack that. (I’m still working on it.) My only diary experience lasted a few months after I arrived in New York City. Come my first real job, as a press department gofer at The Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, I no longer had time for such things. Samuel Pepys I am not.

I knew since at least the eighth grade that I would make my life in New York. I wanted to be a movie critic. My father was born in New York, but after the war my mother wanted to raise her family in her home town in Indiana. We vacationed in the Mohawk Valley each summer, so the move after college was as normal as blueberry pie—or Carnegie Deli strawberry cheesecake. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. For 40 years I have had the inestimable opportunity to savor all the arts in what I consider the center of the world. Perhaps my enthusiasm for my adopted city’s offerings will ring some others’ chimes.

Two young conductors. I got here in time for Leonard Bernstein’s final season as Philharmonic music director, 1968-69. His concerts and recordings have colored my tastes more than that of any other musician—no surprise, my being a child of his Young People’s Concerts. Nearly 20 years after his death, I walk out after many concerts wondering what Bernstein would have done. Obviously, I’m not alone. The night before going on vacation three weeks ago (1/14), I heard young Venezuelan hotshot (and Bernstein aficionado) Gustavo Dudamel conduct the Mahler Fifth at the Philharmonic. It was a young man’s performance, all drama and climaxes and exciting as all get out, and not even St. Martin’s balmy rays could expunge the memory of that Fifth. He may well be Bernstein reincarnated: all over the podium, barely containing his excitement, and sharing an instinctive sense of rubato that seems to have escaped most conductors and soloists of the last half-century. The orchestra played as if possessed, and then the damnedest thing happened: He comes out for bows, the audience goes wild, and the players sit there stone-faced like Eurydice. Eventually some of them can’t help breaking rank, smiling and tapping their bows. Why? I didn’t see him, but I’ll bet my blog that the New Yorkers’ new music director, Alan Gilbert, was in the house, and the New York Philharmonic wasn’t about to display any favoritism for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new music director. (Both conductors take over their new orchestras in September.) Gilbert had just introduced his new season programming three days before on the Fisher Hall stage. He’s a child of the Philharmonic. His parents were violinists in the orchestra (his father is retired), and young Alan heard Bernstein lead the Phil often. He’s a much different animal than Dudamel—earnest, laid back, perhaps even a little embarrassed at being in the limelight—and the contrast will provide press fodder on both coasts. He’ll be a breath of fresh air after Lorin Maazel’s unadventurous programming . . . if he’s allowed. He wants to encourage young contemporary composers at the Phil, and there are two concerts of world premieres scheduled—safely performed at small venues so that the usual audience suspects won’t look so lonely in Fisher. The other season treat is a three-week Stravinsky festival conducted by Valery Gergiev. I can’t wait! But, and it’s a big but, most of the subscription programs are awfully careful.

Artists of the Year. Last week (2/5) I took Charles Rosen (MA’s 2008 Instrumentalist of the Year) to Zankel Hall to hear Pierre-Laurent Aimard (MA’s 2007 Instrumentalist) juxtapose excerpts of Bach’s “Art of Fugue” with piano works by Elliott Carter (MA’s 1993 Composer). It’s hard to avoid “our” artists these days! February is quite the month for this. Like Aimard, Charles recorded the “Art of Fugue” and most of Carter’s piano music—in fact, he was one of the pianists who commissioned Carter’s “Night Fantasies”—and it was a treat to hear his comments on the works and watch his fingers mime certain passages. On Monday (2/2) at Carnegie I heard an extraordinary recital by Christian Tetzlaff (MA’s 2005 Instrumentalist) and Leif Ove Andsnes—edge-of-seat performances of Brahms’s Third Violin/Piano Sonata and Schubert’s “Rondo brilliant” and hardly less impressive ones of Janácek and Mozart sonatas. Although I already had planned to attend, I was cued by Alan Rich’s blog (soi’veheard.com) in his review of their LA performance of the same program the previous week: “This was a great evening: violin and piano without flash or schmaltz. . . .”

The Cleveland Orchestra played three concerts at Carnegie last week under Franz Welser-Möst (MA’s Conductor, 2003). I have never heard this most European of American orchestras sound so sumptuous! For months I had looked forward to hearing Ligeti’s “Atmosphères” live (2/4) at last—remember its use in Kubrick’s “2001”?—and it didn’t disappoint. The Carnegie Hall audience was absolutely quiet as W-M beat several “silent” bars at the end, as Ligeti requests; thank goodness he didn’t try that with a Philharmonic audience. Wagner’s “Wesendonck” Lieder featured ravishing pianissimos from soprano Measha Brueggergosman and a perfectly judged accompaniment. And what Strauss’s Technicolor “Alpine Symphony” lacked in drama, it thrilled in sheer tonal beauty. I see that Peter Davis (MA.com, 2/6) found the Ligeti a “quaint period piece,” and the soloist in the Wagner “underpowered and lacking firm support” as well as “overly fussy” interpretively. The Strauss “lacked panache and seemed excessively rushed,” he felt. I skipped the second concert, with Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony. I don’t understand why conductors prefer this melodically barren tub-thumper to the far superior Fourth, Sixth, or Eighth. I had greatly anticipated Janácek’s glorious Glagolithic Mass on the third concert (2/7), but after a rather unsettled Mozart 25th and beautifully performed Debussy Nocturnes, W-M chose to play a recent version by Janácek scholar Paul Wingfield “that seeks to restore the composer’s original vision.” Seems that “numerous compromises . . . had been made to accommodate practical needs in the first performance. . . .” Well, maybe so, but on first hearing I found the changes highly disconcerting and deeply disappointing, despite fine playing, solo singing, and superbly solid work from the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. I was astonished to see no mention whatsoever of the different version in Jim Oestreich’s otherwise perspicacious review in the Times.

Political hypocrisy. Once again the Loyal Opposition is contesting money to the National Endowment for the Arts. Why can’t they accept that the arts generate billions annually, employ millions of Americans, and most importantly, teach kids that everyone has unique talents to offer the world? But no, they’re still equating all the arts with Andres Serrano’s supposedly blasphemous “Piss Christ” and the homoerotic Mapplethorpe photos that were so controversial two decades ago. And now, believe it or not, after eight years of kneejerk voting of billions for a questionable war that may eventually bankrupt the American economy, they’re feigning concern about the monetary legacy we’re leaving our grandchildren. They say the arts aren’t an immediate concern. Like education? The mind boggles.

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