I often seem to find myself lamenting the lack of quality 20th and 21st century music on local orchestral programming (or at least the lack of the 20th and 21st century music that I think is important), but, if you’re living within driving distance of Western Massachusetts this summer, there are several quite excellent programs upcoming at both Tanglewood and MASS MoCA this month and next that shouldn’t be missed (including music by composers ranging from Stravinsky and Ives to Magnus Lindberg, Leonard Bernstein, and Steve Reich). Check out my picks for July here (published in the Arts Fuse).
Speaking of the Arts Fuse, we are celebrating its fifth birthday this summer; you can read more about that here. As part of the birthday celebration and to support the work that we writers at the Fuse do, we are also holding a fundraiser through the latter part of August. There are various levels for donations and perks provided which you can read more about here; please consider giving whatever you might be able to provide – it will be put to great use, I can promise you, and will be much appreciated.
Next year will, of course, be a big anniversary year for 19th and 20th century music (Wagner and Verdi celebrate bicentennaries; Britten, Lutoslawski, and The Rite of Spring, 100-year birthdays), but 2012 is no slouch: in honor of the centennial of the premiere of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Grammophone has an interesting, Berlin Philharmonic-centric list of recordings of the piece to check out in honor of the event. Curiously, Leonard Bernstein’s much-praised (and only) BPO appearance from 1979 doesn’t make the cut (but maybe that’s a mercy in disguise, as it’s one of his sloppiest performances on record). Personally, I’ve never really warmed to Herbert von Karajan’s Mahler – especially his takes on the Sixth and Ninth Symphonies: he seems (oddly) totally adrift in Mahler’s idiom – but this essay gives at least some food for thought when it comes to his Mahler discography.
Wednesday is the Fourth of July. Between 2001 and 2006, I spent three memorable Fourths overseas (South Africa in 2001, Fontainebleau in 2005, and Prague in 2006), while, since 2007, I’ve passed every subsequent National Birthday somewhere in Massachusetts. Maybe next year I’ll be abroad again (one can always hope!), but, at any rate, to help ease into the celebrations this year, below is a particularly delightful rendition of an all-American classic, from that long-ago bicentennial summer of ’76. Enjoy!
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