#anne midgette

[verdiprati]

I really identify with Anne Midgette tweeting, at midnight, that it’s a good thing her singing has scared the cat off her desk because he’d had his butt on the keyboard and “I was hoping to use the Return key for some things tonight.”

[metropolisensemble-blog]

Washington Post: The Grammy Nobody Knows

From Anne Midgette's article The Grammy nobody knowson 12/7/10:

In the wake of the announcements of the Grammy nominations last week, two Los Angeles Times bloggers ran a post observing that “the Recording Academy is so much more eager to reward commercial hits than the motion picture academy.” The statement can be debated, but one thing is certain: the authors weren’t looking at this year’s classical music nominations when they wrote it.

We’ve heard a lot about how the record industry isn’t dying because there are so many new recordings -- more than anybody can listen to. This year’s Grammy nominations in classical music appear to show the results of this embarrassment of riches: a sampling of recordings so wide-ranging as to appear nearly random. It’s often said that the Grammy voters go for names they recognize, but the nominations this year may curb that tendency by not offering much name recognition at all. Works by the composers Steven Mackey and Michael Daugherty were both nominated for Best Classical Album; the five nominated operas were not by Verdi or Wagner but by Berg, Hasse, Saariaho, Shchedrin, and Sir Arthur Sullivan; and Mitsuko Uchida was the lone big name in a category -- Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) -- that included a mandolin concerto by Avner Dorman played by Avi Avital, Eliesha Nelson playing a viola concerto by Quincy Porter, and Joseph Banowetz performing a piano concerto by Paul Kletzki. No MTT (or a Hilary Hahn) in sight.

Click for full article.

[nh-illustrates]

Opera Talk

Everything and anything related to the opera culture and career. Here are three articles to start off. "The End of the Great Big American Voice" by Anne Midgette, November 13, 2005: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/arts/music/13midg.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& "So You Want to Be an Opera Singer?" by Susanne Mentzer, February 12, 2012: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1258727 "What Does an Operatic Career Look Like?" by Matthew Edwards, 2014(?): http://auditioningforcollege.com/vocal-performance/what-does-an-operatic-career-look-like/

[kunst-musik-blog]

Tzimon Barto performs Rihm's Piano Concerto

I just sent in my review of this concert to my mentor for review. It should appear on the San Francisco Classical Voice website some time soon. 

Feels so weird not being able to experience the catharsis of posting immediately! But I also look forward to getting professional feedback, something I've never had before.

Also, I like Anne Midgette's review and think it's spot on.

[kunst-musik-blog]

Differences in Perception... and Presentation

Heh, it's quite funny how different Anne Midgette's perception of the Busoni was from mine. I made a point of not reading the WaPost review before attending the concert. She says it's "easy on the ear," I say it's "generally unpleasant to listen to." I agree with basically everything else she said, but I never would have thought of articulating it that way. She put the music in the context of the performers more often, for one. That's nice. It flows well.

To be fair, when I said it was "unpleasant," I mean that I didn't glean much emotional connection with the music. There were definitely "exciting" moments, but I didn't feel immersed in them. I think I might like Busoni better if I listen to his music more. Perhaps it's an acquired taste, like that of Richard Strauss, whose music I hated for a while but have come to appreciate.

[kunst-musik-blog]

In 2010, the Croatian pianist Dejan Lazic played a recital in Washington, D.C., and got a mildly critical review. Somehow that stuck: It's the second item that comes up when you Google Lazic's name, after his own website. Now he wants it permanently removed from the search engine in Europe, under the European Union's new "right to be forgotten" ruling.

Interesting... It's a bit unfortunate that Google's pagerank would do this to him. This review is absolutely not defamatory, however.

[kunst-musik-blog]

Reminder

for me to list concerts I should've written reviews about and to reflect on how I've grown since the 2012-2013 season.

Also, I should try to interview Anne Midgette.

[thelastverista]

Claudio Abbado, Rusalka, and more on the Weight/Voice issue #opera #thelastverista #speakout #singers

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