Jose Serebrier is one of today’s premier conductors. He burst on the scene at a very young age as a protege of Leopold Stokowski, who proclaimed him “the greatest master of orchestral balance.” Born in Uruguay of Russian and Polish parents, SerÂebrier started composing music at the age of nine, shortly after he had begun … Read more
Every election year in OcÂtober, I write an “opinion.” My views have, astonishingly, been known to be wrong from time to time. I write under my academic hat as a political science professor, a memÂber of a group likewise not known for prophetic accuracy, having been surÂprised both by the fall of communism and the … Read more
On a wintry day in Boston stood a man “devoid of genius, and with only an ordinary education,” eulogizing an insurrectionist hanged hundreds of miles away. He had too much integrity and too little imagination to compromise the single great principle of his life. “What is it,” he cried to the crowds gathered to hear … Read more
Last November, I marshaled some evidence against the inanity of the proposition that the symphony is dead. Despite attempts to execute it, the symphony thrived in the 20th century and has prospered into our own era. It is hardly necessary to guide you to Sibelius, Shostakovich, Martinu, Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams, and the other big names. … Read more
In his Confessions, the young Augustine proudly tells of coming across a copy of Aristotle’s Categories, which his professors were having a difficult time understanding. Augustine boldly says that he read the short treatise and had no difficulty whatever. The Categories is generally a brief treatment of the ten ways of predication that we can … Read more
Summer spells leisure because the days last longer. I plan to spend them listening to things I enjoy. This means new discoveries, which I particularly delight in, and visiting some old friends. Here are some brief notes on a lineup for the lazy days. For refreshment, I am turning to the piano concertos of Bohuslav … Read more
Nulla est homini causa philosophandi nisi ut beatus sit. This sentence is found in Book 19, Chapter 1 of Augustine’s City of God. I was first consciously alerted to it because it is cited, in both Latin and English, on the first page of E. F. Schumacher’s A Guide for the Perplexed. In English, it … Read more
There is a lot of territory to cover to bring a flood of spring releases to your attention for this summer’s delectation. This will have to be done at the expense of a general theme tying them all together or of a detailed analysis of each CD. I am, however, taken by American composer Beth … Read more
Persuasion is a novel of Jane Austen. Anne Elliot, whose word had “no weight” with either her father or sister, explains that, “If I was wrong in yielding to persuasion once, remember that it was to persuasion exerted on the side of safety, not of risk.” Persuasion concerns things that can be otherwise. Persuasion is … Read more
Here I sit in my study, surrounded by thousands of records and CDs, pondering what to write for my 100th Crisis music column. Recently, I pontificated on “how to listen” to classical music. Interestingly, that article provoked more reader response than anything I have penned during the last ten years. Many e-mails and letters contained … Read more
What needs salvation in our time, after our own souls, is the classical English language. From what does it need saving? From ideological censorship busily changing, crimping, sissifying, and otherwise ruining our great tongue. All of this is occurring in the name of “diversity,” “sensitivity,” and “rights.” It is really censorship, practiced in the highest … Read more
There is no 20th-century composer I am more predisposed to like than Robert Simpson (1921-1997). I have been in such sympathy with his endeavors that I was actually a member of the Robert Simpson Society, a group in Great Britain that promotes his music. Since the 1980s, Hyperion Records has brought out a steady succession … Read more
St. Thomas Aquinas is known for being, at the same time, very terse and very diffusive. He can state the basic princiÂples of all that is in a few brief, riveting Latin words. At the same time, he has no difficulty, in a short life, writing volÂumes and volumes of fundamental principles on all phases … Read more
Imagine a rash of fires, lit by fire chiefs, in certain ghettos of Eastern Europe during the 1930s. A synagogue burns to the ground in Kraków, another in Prague, a Jewish community house in Danzig, the Beth-salem Orphanage in Leipzig, and yet another synagogue in Bratislava. All are destroyed. Imagine that half of the leaders … Read more
Imagine a rash of fires, lit by fire chiefs, in certain ghettos of Eastern Europe during the 1930s. A synagogue burns to the ground in Krakow, another in Prague, a Jewish community house in Danzig, the Bethsalem Orphanage in Leipzig, and yet another synagogue in Bratislava. All are destroyed. Imagine that half of the leaders … Read more
When asked why he had never composed a string quartet, French composer Pierre Boulez responded, “The string quartet is dead.” Boulez (b. 1925) is famous for his musical obituaries. He once declared that “Schoenberg est mort.” By this he did not mean that Arnold Schoenberg’s system of atonality was bankrupt, but that Schoenberg had not … Read more
A professor I once knew gave history tests in the following format: “Draw a line down the center of the page. On the left side, write what you know on the subject; on the right side, what you do not know.” The logical temptation of such instruction is to put as many things possible on … Read more
As I was saying before we were interrupted by the Christmas holidays, the symphony is not dead, did not die, and is alive and well, even here in America. I submit as evidence the works of Libby Larsen (b. 1950), as engaging a young composer as we have today. Hailing from Minnesota, Larsen seems to … Read more
Truth has become unfriendly. We “hold” these truths that no truth can exist, that all views are created equal, that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are defined only by ourselves. They have no objective content. We have nothing in common except that we have nothing in common. Our civic peace exists on the … Read more
Several years ago, an upset Crisis subscriber confronted me at a dinner and scolded, “I bought some of your recommendations and played them at the office. They were terrible.” “Why?” I asked. “Because I couldn’t work,” he said. “Did it ever occur to you,” I responded, “that you were supposed to listen?” As far as … Read more