I’ll be honest. It took me a long time – a very long time – to warm up to Richard Strauss. No, not because of the whole “Hitler’s favorite composer” thing, though he certainly didn’t help his own image much … Continue reading →
I’m about to begin blogging more regularly as we head toward the beginning of the Inside the Classics season, and toward the MicroCommission premiere. I have a lot to tell you all about the piece and how it’s developing, and … Continue reading →
Sarah and I are in the early stages of scripting our first Inside the Classics show of the season, which goes up in early November and features Shostakovich’s always crowd-pleasing 5th symphony. And from a narrative perspective, this should be … Continue reading →
Okay, one more summer camp story and then I’ll stop, I promise. This one isn’t actually about the kids I taught this August, and it’s a story I hadn’t thought about in years, until some old photos started popping up … Continue reading →
After what felt like a solid week of driving, I’m back from parts East, and once again firmly ensconced in the mad dash that is Sommerfest. We spent this morning rehearsing this Friday’s all-Mozart program – two overtures, two arias, … Continue reading →
One of my favorite bloggers, MPR’s Bob Collins, has an excellent tradition of starting off his first post of the work week with a “Monday morning rouser.” It’s just a fun song, totally disconnected from anything else he’ll be writing, … Continue reading →
I didn’t actually intend to take most of this week off from blogging, but it does seem to have happened (the orchestra is off this week, and I’ve been taking advantage of the opportunity to catch up on seemingly endless … Continue reading →
We’ve just wrapped up an intense week of recording, during which Osmo, producer Rob Suff, and the team from BIS records somehow propelled us through Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto and Sibelius’s 2nd and 5th symphonies without causing anyone to drop … Continue reading →
The orchestra’s subscription concert season may have wrapped up this past weekend with four packed performances of Carmina Burana (during which, I might add, the Minnesota Chorale and Minnesota Boychoir absolutely outdid themselves,) but we’re still hard at work this … Continue reading →
I mentioned earlier this week that much of my time lately has been consumed by Aaron Kernis’s Concerto for Echoes, which is opening this week’s concerts. It’s always difficult to judge unfamiliar works while you’re in the middle of learning … Continue reading →
