Word: conductors
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...know if Japan has yet produced any master artists. When you play Western music, what is most important is interpretation. We have mastered the technique. Now we have to go on." So far, few Japanese musicians have achieved international prominence; the best known is Conductor Seiji Ozawa, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At home he leads the New Japan Philharmonic, but his career has been largely Western...
Sometimes it is possible to be too talented. Take the case of Leonard Bernstein, for example. The protean golden boy of American music, who will turn 65 in August, has justly won renown as a flamboyant conductor, an engaging proselytizer and an omnidirectional composer. Bernstein has conquered in ballet (Fancy Free), the Broadway musical (West Side Story) and the symphony (The Age of Anxiety). But in the past 20 years, it seems, the vast range of his talent has hindered rather than helped him, especially as a writer of serious music. In 1963 there was the embarrassment of the "Kaddish...
...Steinway, but then for a change, they weren't supposed to. Last week Dudley Moore, 48, made his Carnegie Hall debut as a full-dress, classical pianist. Joining his friend, Violinist Robert Mann, 62, Cellist Nathaniel Rosen, 36, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Conductor-Violinist Pinchas Zukerman, 34, Moore offered a sensitive, well-paced performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto. And he played it straight, until the very end. Then, just before heading offstage for a congratulatory hug from his longtime squeeze, Susan Anton, 32, he reverted to the depths of British music...
Sellars and his conductor, Craig Smith, are scrupulous about observing all musical amenities. The scoring combines respect for tradition with a verve that comes within hailing distance of being ideal. The singers perform zestfully, even when Sellars requires the principals to sing lying on the floor, as if they were practicing some new kind of aerobic exercise for the vocal cords. Instead of reinforcing the staging, or indeed placing it in the kind of paradoxical context limned by Brecht and Weill, this straightforward musicality puts the brakes on the rambunctious staging. The rhythms of the songs and the pace...
Others disagree with this notion, however, saying that tradition is equally important. "You can't simply buy a great orchestra," says Boston's Morris. "You have to build a tradition, and preserve it." Lukas Foss, Milwaukee's conductor, puts it bluntly: "Money makes you famous, not great...