ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    The editors of the glossy quarterly Tucson Guide (content not available online) asked me to write a preview of fall theater productions, and I was happy to comply; the magazine is run by good, smart people for whom I do a lot of freelance proofreading and write occasional articles on request. The only little problem this time was that Tucson Guide, intended as it is for tourists, new residents and upscale foothills denizens, is a relentlessly positive publication, and I am by no means a relentlessly positive reporter or critic. Even a sentence suggesting that the local theater scene isn’t as vibrant and diverse as it was 10 to 15 years ago was deemed too negative for inclusion. I’m not complaining; writers have to adapt to the editorial stance of the publication to which they contribute, and I certainly didn’t have to lie about anything. But I must confess that I find the upcoming season excessively light, and not quite as exciting as the article in the current issue makes it seem. To find out what I really think as the season develops, you’ll just have to follow my cranky outbursts in the Tucson Weekly.

THE WEAK IN REVIEW

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Norman Lebrecht, one of those writers who is great fun to read even though much of what he writes is wrong-headed, has, rather late in the day, produced this tribute to Anton Webern. It was Webern’s dire influence that killed public appreciation of classical music in the third quarter of the 20th century, when hack imitators with no musical talent insinuated themselves into American universities, declared that Webern was god, and cranked out arid little scores that were all formula, no inspiration. They presented it as music from the head rather than the heart, but the body part they actually employed was the colon. What Webern did was fascinating, but once he’d done it, what was the point of generating more of the same—“system” music to which individuality was alien? Composers who wanted to move forward with Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone system would have found much more success had they emulated Schoenberg’s other pupil, Alban Berg, who used 12-tone techniques to create vital, expressive, communicative music, unlike the junk produced by Webern’s academy-ensconced impersonators.
    At any rate, my argument with Lebrecht isn’t about Webern, whose influence is now nil (he still has a few imitators, but nobody pretends to care anymore). My complaint is about this foolish claim:

Scan the entire canon, Passacaglia to posthumously published piano pieces, and you will not find one weak work of Webern's, or one that fails immediately to proclaim its authorship. In the history of western music, that statement is true only of Beethoven and Wagner.

Excellence is the sworn enemy of the cult mentality in its musical manifestation, because one of the prime characteristics of this mindset is self-righteous anger on behalf of the object of worship. If everything that [conductor Jascha] Horenstein did had been exceptional and generally recognized as such, then he would not need a cult to support his claim to immortality. The music doesn’t matter. The quality of his conducting doesn’t matter. What matters is the satisfaction that cult members derive from belonging to the group, and the recordings are merely triggers that activate and reinforce the herd instinct.

ME, IN FISHWRAP NEAR YOU

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    This being Thursday, I’m splattered across the arts section of the Tucson Weekly. Elsewhere, too. Loose-canon columnist Tom Danehy recounts being lured to a Fourth Avenue restaurant for lunch with Emil Franzi, Chris Limberis, Renée Downing and me:

When James Reel invited me to lunch, I figured I had to go. Among many other things, James does the morning drive-time gig on KUAT radio, playing classical music and talking in a voice that sounds erudite and pimpish at the same time.

What we've got here is Tom Dulack's Breaking Legs, a very funny playwright-meets-mobster production that opened last weekend at Top Hat Theatre Club. True, the show's success rides on how willing you are to buy into the standard comic mob tropes. But Dulack, director Tony Eckstat and the Top Hat cast manage to fold the Mafia clichés into well-paced entertainment as colorful and garlicky as the antipasto plates Angie keeps hauling in.

SLIPPED DISC

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Three new Marantz “Professional” CD players were installed in the control room last year, and one of them is now on the fritz. Somehow I feel handicapped having to work with only two players, even though I got along fine with two turntables back in the 1970s and early ’80s. And that was when recordings—specifically, LPs—were a lot more difficult to cue up, as we bounced and dragged the stylus across the delicate surface looking for just the right groove. There’s no reason I can’t get by with only two players, but I like to plan ahead. I have six hours worth of announcements in proper order on my computer screen shortly after my shift begins; I cue up two discs ahead, just in case something goes wrong with the next one up, or I get distracted by a phone call or a search for a fill piece. Take away one of the CD players, and I feel just a little less secure.
    And if you think I’m fussy about these things, let me introduce you to Bill Pitts.

DON'T CALL HIM MELLOW CELLO

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Harry, my cello teacher, called early yesterday afternoon to cancel this week’s lesson; he was frantically preparing to leave town for a week and a half. Fine, I told him; I’d fill the open cello slot on my schedule by reviewing Pieter Wispelwey’s new set of the Beethoven cello sonatas and variations on Channel Classics. Harry merely grunted. When pressed to elaborate, he groused about Wispelwey’s capricious interpretive choices, not to mention his tone. “He doesn’t even make it sound like a cello!” he complained. Then, with a laugh, “Our instrument has gone downhill since Jacqueline Du Pré bit the dust.”
    So I listened to Wispelwey’s two-disc set, a beautifully recorded SACD release, immediately heard what Harry was talking about, but failed to share his exasperation. Here’s the gist of the review I’ll be sending Strings magazine today:

    Pieter Wispelway’s new Beethoven survey won’t change anybody’s mind about this high-profile Dutch cellist. Indeed, the very same passages can illustrate the arguments of his detractors as well as his supporters. Do you believe Wispelwey belongs to the new “mannerist” group of players, tugging at phrasing and dynamics on whim rather than according to musical logic? Or do you believe he illuminates too-familiar scores with unexpected detail, surprising articulation and hairpin dynamic swells and fades? Whichever, here’s your evidence.
    Me, after years of preferring the refinement of the likes of Pierre Fournier, I find Wispelwey refreshing. Make no mistake: These aren’t “the” Beethoven sonatas, they’re Wispelwey’s Beethoven sonatas (although I don’t mean this to slight pianist Dejan Lazi’s expert partnership). Unless you just can’t stand Wispelwey’s rather wiry period-instrument tone (even though he’s playing a “modern” 1760 Guadagnini for this, his second Beethoven cycle), you should listen to this recording if only to reinforce your prejudices.

SITE-SEEING

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Alan Campbell, the morning (sometimes afternoon) man at KUAT-FM for nearly 10 years starting in the mid 1990s, stopped by this blog last week, e-mailed a hello and conveyed his regards to his former listeners. Since he retired, Alan has been more than a warm glow on an old vacuum tube; he’s one of the people who founded MUSIClassical.com, a very interesting site with way more features than I’ve ever had time to explore.
    There you’ll find, among other delights, lists galore of classical holiday pieces, nicknames of compositions, recommended recordings and much more; links to purveyors of music books, sheet music and video and audio recordings; and a connection to an online discussion group “for lovers of classical music, broadcasters, composers, musicians, publicists, retailers, listeners and promoters of independent classical music.” It’s billed as a “forum for ideas and dialog supporting the independent classical music industry. You may post articles, comments, charts, new choice classical recordings, releases of new classical compact discs, tours etc.”
    I check two of the site’s features daily. First, the almanac, a day-by-day listing of birthdays, death dates, first-performance anniversaries and the like. (There’s way more information here about justifiably obscure, long-dead singers than most people really need, considering the sketchier details provided for composers and instrumentalists, but who am I to criticize somebody’s private passion?) Second is the page of links to classical-music news items and features, including many pieces that slip right by the valuable ArtsJournal.com.
    That should get you started. Now explore the site on your own, but be prepared to linger a while.