Religious oratorios would hardly seem to be the musical medium of our times, but they are cropping up with a persistence that invites attention. In April, I wrote of American composer John Adams’s new Christmas composition, El Nino, a deeply flawed but fascinating attempt to come to terms with the 21st-century remnants of Christian faith. … Read more
When I interviewed America’s great composer David Diamond (b. 1915) in Crisis several years ago, he lamented that he most likely would not live to see his eleven string quartets recorded. “I think the story may end up being like Shostakovitch’s,” he said. “Nobody really knew anything about his string quartets until after his death.” … Read more
The central fact of history is the Nativity. It poses the single most important question: Who is Christ? Few ages would seem further removed from a concern over the answer than our own. However, America’s most popular composer, John Adams (b. 1947), has now written an opera/oratorio on the subject, titled El Nino or, as … Read more
If you have heard of American composer Peter Schickele (b. 1939), it is probably because of his musical antics as P.D.Q. Bach or his Public Radio International (PRI) program, Schickele Mix. In either case, these means of acquaintance would probably leave you surprised to know that Schickele is also a “serious” composer. It surprised me. … Read more
I am generally suspicious of modern interpolations in traditional religious texts, like the Requiem or Stabat Mater. For centuries, the Latin words seemed perfectly capable of expressing themselves without being interlarded with commentary from other sources. I am suspicious because this is often done to make the texts “relevant” to modern audiences by relating them … Read more
I am torn between writing about American composer George Antheil’s life and writing about his music. Each contains such wild improbabilities that one cannot help but be intrigued and amused by the delightful eccentricities of both. I wonder if the connection between the two might not be crime—of both the literal and musical sort. Take, … Read more
This is my 77th consecutive article in this space. I didn’t know I had it in me. Yet I plow on into my eighth year. It is not as if I could ever run out of material. Time is the finite commodity. I will run out of that long before I have exhausted the treasures … Read more
Before he died, a great music-loving friend of mine, Phil Nicolaides, said that he would regret departing this life because of the wonderful melodies he would never hear. He was wrong. The best melodies are in heaven. This is especially so in the case of the music of Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981). Tveitt lived … Read more
Many people see America as the new Rome. Americans are builders and organizers, practical people who, when in need of culture, borrow from Europe just as Rome borrowed from Greece. Of course, there is truth in this comparison, but it has its limits. It is precisely the practical nature of the American people that insulated … Read more
Despite Hollywood’s attempts to portray our lives as empty and ugly, there is such a thing as beauty in America, and those who do not know it are tone-deaf. Just listen to American music. A thread of beautiful music runs through the nation’s entire history. The Naxos label has embarked on an extensive survey of … Read more
Because this column usually focuses on a specific composer or theme, I have fallen behind in bringing to your attention a flood of excellent individual releases. Herewith is an attempt to catch up in time for your summer vacation. Summer is full of moments for music that is not meant to storm the heavens but … Read more
I was in L.A. I should have known better. I went to Sunday morning Mass in a beautiful Spanish Baroque-style church that lulled me into expecting a liturgy that comported with its appearance. That didn’t happen. The experience reminded me afresh of the pod-people feeling I have as a pre-Vatican II Catholic every time I … Read more
In January, Crisis music critic Robert R. Reilly spoke with Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti (b. 1911) when he was at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., to direct the 50th- anniversary production of his opera, The Consul, for the Washington Opera Society. Menotti has written some of the … Read more
Still shaken over the passing of the millennium, I have retreated to my favorite musical refuge, the 18th century. Thanks to the Naxos, Chandos, CPO, and Hyperion labels, my refuge is secure. The composers of the last half of the 18th century produced some 20,000 symphonies, along with similar quantities of compositions in other genres. … Read more
Growing up in pre-revolutionary Russia, Alexander Tcherepnin (pronounced cher-up-neen) imbibed music from his composer father, Nicolai, and his mother, an accomplished pianist and singer. “There was plenty of music paper around our home,” he recalled in his autobiography. “I observed how my father was writing his scores and tried to do the same while alone.” … Read more
Last month, I wrote about the rough treatment American composer George Rochberg received from the artistic “community” when he turned away from systematized cacophony toward tonality in the 1970s. “Why is George writing beautiful music?” asked one shocked colleague. “That’s already been done.” Rochberg felt an arctic blast familiar to many other American composers who, … Read more
The Cold War was so cold that only now, more than ten years after its end, are some composers’ works being thawed out for a general hearing. Hungarian composer László Lajtha (1892-1963) is finally emerging from the deep freeze in which the Hungarian Communist regime placed him. In 1947, when Lajtha (pronounced “Loy-tah”) returned to … Read more
I was considering a lovely invitation to the Flanders Music Festival in Belguim this fall, wondering whether its extraordinarily broad and ambitious program could have any connection to the general interests of our readers. Pondering the scores of concerts over several months’ time, I almost gave up. What could possibly tether this welter of riches … Read more
The two giants of 20th-century Scandinavian music, Danish composer Carl Nielsen and Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, were born in the same year, 1865. Though they sound nothing alike, together they account for my initial love of music. Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony and Nielsen’s Fourth, both written around 1915, are the two works that revealed to me, in … Read more
Two composers dominated the music of the 20th century: Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). Robert Craft was especially close to the former and knew the latter, whom he called “the one composer who challenged Stravinsky’s supremacy in 20th-century music.” Maestro Crafthas had a front-row seat on the most important musical developments of our … Read more