This morning I played something from Itzhak Perlman’s Concertos from My Childhood CD, a collection of pieces that many violin students learn and present in recital, then abandon as they turn professional. The first “real” violin concerto that advanced students take up is usually Mendelssohn’s. I just turned in an article for Strings magazine about that work, in which Daniel Hope and Nicola Benedetti talk about their love of it, despite learning it young, recording it and performing it everywhere. Here’s an excerpt:
Is it truly so great? The standard version of the work is so overexposed that one can actually come to dread the next performance of the thing. But both Hope and Benedetti agree that the E-minor concerto is worth playing early and often.
“It’s a great thing for students to play great music, even if they’re not at a stage to cope with all the music’s demands,” Benedetti declares.
Says Hope, “I think the Mendelssohn has absolutely everything that you could possibly want as a technical study and as an audience-winning piece. It has phenomenal melody, virtuosity, lightness and brilliance, and a big ending that’s pure sunshine. His ability to sing makes it so infectious. It’s perfection in every sense. I would encourage people to start learning it as soon as they can, for its combination of technical prowess and real music-making a its finest.”
All well and good, but what about performing it again and again, season after season?
“Perhaps it’s a shame that it is played through all the different stages of the learning process and the violinist’s career,” Benedetti admits. “People say, ‘There are only so many times you can play this piece, and it’s wonderful but … .’ If it weren’t played so much, it would remain a beautiful and incredible concerto in all aspects. I went through a period of my life when I was performing it all the time, and I’m actually not performing it at the moment, because it’s important to take a break from certain pieces. A fresh ear and fresh understanding encourage you to hear the music as it was heard in the era in which it was written; things that were shocking and genius, and things only that composer could come up with, should never feel predictable. To be playing the Mendelssohn and only focusing on your sound and just delivering a good job is professional and important, but in addition, the creative aspect of being a soloist is what this piece needs. It deserves something fresh with every performance.”
If you missed Saturday's Congressional District 8 debate, you have other opportunities online and on TV.
AZPM's Christopher Conover moderated the debate between Gabrielle Giffords (D) and her challenger Tim Bee (R). You can watch it here on our website, or on KUAT6 Thursday night at 8:00. Cox Communications also will air the debate several times and it will be available on the company's OnDemand service for digital subscribers.
Over the weekend, the Arizona Daily Star carried a pathetically short blurb noting the suicide of David Foster Wallace, an important and very well-known novelist. Nobody at that uncultured and anti-intellectual newspaper seems to realize that Wallace obtained his MFA from the University of Arizona in the early 1980s—exactly the sort of local connection that the paper always plays up, sometimes to the exclusion of more important details. Here’s the news item from the Los Angeles Times, which you can follow with an appreciation of Wallace’s work in this article from Newsweek.
If you’ve been frustrated by the utter failure of the iTunes music store and other download purveyors to handle classical music in a logical way that is rational to classical-music lovers—in other words, not littering the catalog with crossover junk, making it easier to search by composer than by artist—a new download service has just opened in Britain. It’s called Passionato, and, not having tried to purchase anything myself, I’m not sure whether or not it’s legal to use in the U.S. (prices are given in pounds only, not dollars). But the site does look interesting. Passionato has tracks from Naxos and the Universal group (DG and such), and probably some other sources. But possibly not enough yet.
I did two sample searches to see how easy it would be to buy music by prominent B-list composers Albert Roussel and Walter Piston. Answer: There are several items available for each, but the offerings don’t reflect the breadth of material available on CD from a source like Arkivmusic.com or Amazon.com. (Piston would be in big trouble at Passionato if Naxos hadn’t taken a shine to him.) Furthermore, although it’s better than iTunes, the database has been compiled by people who don’t always know what they’re doing, especially when it comes to figuring out performers. The performer in Piston’s String Sextet, for example, is given as “Kuchar.” That’s actually the conductor of some of Piston’s orchestral pieces, not the name of the ensemble that plays the Sextet. And, even more tellingly, a Chandos recording of the Vaughan Williams “London” Symphony is credited to a conductor named “Williams.” Presumably as in “Vaughan Williams.” It’s actually Richard Hickox. And this is for a recording that Passionato is pimping on its home page.
I’m not entirely impressed, but the new company may yet get these things under control. You can read about the company’s launch here.
With political commercials the norm this time of year, it's a good time to take a look back. NPR did just that Friday morning.
"Morning Edition" profiled a website that has campaign commercials all the way back to 1952. The one below is really catchy. Click the arrow on the video to watch it.
They don't make them like that anymore, do they? You can check out all of the other ads at livingroomcandidate.org.
The University of Arizona today kicks off "Hispanic Heritage Month." There are a number of planned activities to honor the month, established in 1968 as week and expanded to a month in 1988.
Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and other countries in Latin America.
UA activities include artists' receptions, panel discussions, speakers, film screenings, book signings and other events.
The first big event is scheduled for Monday with Mariachi music on the UA Mall from noon until 1 p.m. That celebration will include announcements on activities planned for the month.
