G & T Is Growing

According to StatCounter, this blog is experiencing a healthy upward trend in visitors. Last month, October, the first full month for which I have statistics, StatCounter recorded 183 unique visitors. For the first two weeks of this month there have already been 134 unique visitors. Returning visitors are up, too. I know that these numbers are not always accurate, but whatever the actual counts, the trend is most likely still there. Thanks to all for visiting my blog!

Orchestral Maneuvers

Greg Sandow makes an important point about the Berlin Philharmonic (and by extension most non-American orchestras): they move when they play: "You can see the violinists putting their entire bodies into many bow strokes. You see them bend forward, then swing their bodies back. The basses were especially dramatic."

That kind of passionate intensity is striking when encountering the Berliners. And something of a trademark. There's a story that during the Karajan years the orchestra was trying to decide on new chairs, and the decision hinged on the comfort of the backs of the chairs. To which one longtime member of the ensemble said, "Since when has a Berlin Philharmonic player needed the back of his chair?"

But what's shocking is the contrast to American orchestras, so often slouched back on their seats, looking bored to the point of somnolence. Sandow thinks this comes from how they're taught: "Classical musicians are taught not to move. I've heard that from my Juilliard students. Their teachers tell them not to move when they play. It's undignified, they're told, it's not artistic."

Sandow believes the Berlin sounds better because it moves. That may be. I don't know. I do know, however, that their energy and passion come through, and American orchestras might want to consider the example.

Off-Topic: Why Jagr is Great

I don't think this photo from Wednesday night's Rangers-Devils game is from the moment I'm thinking of, but at one point during the game, Jagr was all alone in the Devils' zone while his teammates where shifting. He had five guys in red sweaters swarming around him. And he somehow managed to hold onto the puck.

Doing Haydn Right

Over at San Francisco Classical Voice, Michelle Dulak Thomson praises the new attention Haydn's vast oeuvre is getting. I love the way she describes how interpreters are approaching this magnificent music, capturing its playfulness and wit:

"But it’s more than that — it’s the way players are increasingly approaching Haydn today, with a degree of intensity and alertness and specificity quite incompatible with 'letting the music take care of itself.' Often the first thing you’ll notice in such performances, interestingly, is that the players are making much of Haydn’s humor. They will point up the famous outright 'jokes' with glee, they’ll add insinuating or flippant or mock-tragic inflections at whim, they’ll seize on a prominent leap or an unexpected repetition or a quirky rhythm as an occasion for horseplay. I’ve heard sheer high spirits take over an ordinarily sober-minded ensemble to the extent that the players seemed determined to one-up each other in plain clowning around."

It's this kind of high spiritidness that informs Bernstein's famous readings of Haydn symphonies. I'm glad to know so many musicians are finding ways to communicate this quality.

Crazy Eights

In honor of a recent performance of Philip Glass's Eighth Symphony, David Bratman of San Francisco Classical Voice has a lively and surprising round-up of other symphonies with that number. Sure, he includes Beethoven, Schubert, and Bruckner. But how about Kurt Atterberg, Havergal Brian, and Vagn Holmboe?

An Excuse to Run a Picture of Anu Tali

Seriously, the young Estonian conductor (managed by HarrisonParrott) got a nice review for a concert of Beethoven (the "Emperor" with, ahem, Helene Grimaud) and Shostakovich's Ninth.

On Kubelik

Over at the Horizon blog, Benjamin Ivry, whose music posts are always interesting, discusses a new DVD documentary about Rafael Kubelik. It reminded me of a Chicago Symphony concert I heard in a radio broadcast some years ago. It was the orchestra's 100th anniversary, and several conductors, Solti and Barenboim, were on hand to lead a recreation of the CSO's first concert. What I remember is that things sounded somewhat adequate but unspectacular, and then Kubelik took the podium to conduct Dvorak's Husitská Overture--and I have rarely heard such a full, deep and rich sound from an orchestra.

Rumor is True, But ...

Playbill Arts is reporting that Bocelli did indeed try out at the Met, but there are no plans for him to sing in an opera. He might be enticed to sing a concert there. Phew!