Word: maag
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Some conductors prefer Beethoven, others Wagner. Some like sopranos, others tenors. Conductor Peter Maag's rather specialized preference is for the key of E-flat major. "Tonalities are like colors," he explains. "Have you noticed that when Mozart attacks E-flat he al ways uses clarinets, and when he attacks D-major he always uses oboes? E-flat suggests something very mature and saturated. D-major music is whiter and sharper. E-flat suggests a dark tone, a dark color like dark blue or green...
Last week at Lincoln Center's Mozart-Haydn Festival, Maag demonstrated his preoccupation in a concert with the New York Chamber Orchestra. Three of the four works were in E-flat -Mozart's Symphony No. 39, and Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and "Schoolmaster" Symphony (which he conducted from the harpsichord). Maag also programmed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, but that was scored in A-major, and everybody pretended not to notice...
Tonal Anguish. What the audience did notice was that there was nothing minor about Maag's conducting talent. He has all the requirements for a superior conductor of Haydn and Mozart -a faultless sense of classical proportion and a keen ear for blended Mozartean sonority that allows important detail to come through crisply...
Though this was his New York debut, Maag's music making was already familiar to American audiences. He has conducted an impressive number of recordings-notably the Mozart Prague and the Mendelssohn Scotch-in the past 15 years. Save for a four-year stint as conductor of the Vienna Volksoper, Maag, 49, has been a freelancer in Europe's concert halls and opera houses for most of his musical life...
...next night, Maag was back again in Philharmonic Hall repeating his triumph with a program that included Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26, but was climaxed by Haydn's "Drumroll" Symphony. Key of E-flat...