WOSU Public Media - Classical

There have been several studies recently on the affect of music on the psyche, particularly in regard to warding off depression or chasing away the blues. (Depression is of course much worse than “the blues”  and music’s healing powers go back to scripture). Close to home, exceptional work on this has been done by OSU’s own David Huron, including his latest book, Sweet Anticipation (MIT Press) of which more anon.

I asked people what music they use to cheer themselves up. This writer included votes for pizza and chocolate (looking at me, you’d think I was chronically depressed-not so) and here are some responses. It ain’t zoloft and it ain’t food, except for the soul.

Christopher: Monteverdi Vespro della beate virgine (1610)

Linda: Anything by John Rutter (healing), and Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations (inspiring)…and lots by Rachmaninoff, Mozart Gershwin and Sondheim…and even some McCartney!

Rutter: Praise Ye the Lord (Turtle Creek Chorale/Timothy Seelig)

Elgar: Enigma Variations-Nimrod (Montreal Sym/Dutoit)

Mark: Robert Schumann’s Carnaval, op. 9

R. Schumann: Carnaval: Pierrot, Arlequin (Evgeny Kissin)

Akira: Zerbinetta’s aria from R. Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos in the original version sung by Edita Gruberova

Gerald: Some good piano and violin concertos. Also Beethoven and Brahms symphonies

Christine: Beethoven piano concertos…Bach…Oh, and I like the way Dawn Upshaw sings Gorecki

Gorecki: Symphony  3 I. exc. (Dawn Upshaw, London Sinf/Zinman)

Betsy: Bach’s b minor mass, for starters

William: Birgit Nilsson’s Songs of Scandanavia album

Debra: Chris, I know you think I’d rather go shopping at Saks to chase away my blues, but I’d rather play Chopin!

Jeff: The opening movement of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony; From the trio to the end of Der Rosenkavalier; and Dame Joan Sutherland singing My Hero from The Chocolate Soldier

Prokofiev: Symphony 1 “Classical” I. Allegro (Montreal Sym/Dutoit)

Tim: Strauss-Feierlicher Einzug…What a Feeling from Footloose

Amy: For me, it’s still that (presumably hot) record album I bought at Blakey’s circa 1970, Taj Mahal’s Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home…from the world of bel canto, it’s Monterrat Caballe’s Casta Diva

Bellini: Norma-Casta diva (Montserrat Caballe)

Jay: Gilbert and Sullivan

G&S: HMS Pinafore, Never mind the why and wherefore (Jean Hindmarsh, John Reed, Jeffrey Skitch;  D’Oyly Carte Opera Co./Nash)

Jeanne: A good dose of Vivaldi, just about anything usually helps; also a California guitarist Nocy.  Am listening also to an Icelandic guy named Jonsi, weird and kinda wonderful! And I just woke up to the fact one of the arrangers on the Jonsi CD is Nico Muhly!

Christopher: Brahms Haydn Variaitons

Brahms: Haydn Variations I. St. Antoni Chorale (Cincinatti Sym/Lopez-Cobos)

Christopher: (again,  but it’s my show,  what the hell) R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier, opening of Act II

Let’s keep updating this so let us know what works for you!

–Christopher Purdy

PS

Because I can’t bear to leave off  Der Rosenkavalier, here is the exquisite Presentation of the Rose scene from ActII.  Enjoy.

I don’t really know Lotfi Mansouri personally. We had a few joint appearances on the lamented Texaco-Opera Quiz back in the day, but I was a lowly student and he was running the San Francisco Opera. Born in Iran, Mansouri settled in California as a young man and began a career in opera as a stage director, impresario, producer, teacher and now author. His memoir Lotfi Mansouri, An Operatic Journey is new from Northeastern University Press. Lotfi spent years working with Dr. Herbert Graf in Zurich and Geneva and served as General Director of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto before going to San Francisco. The book is a lively read about a life in opera, complete with the Shah and Carol Burnett.

Lotfi and I caught up recently on the phone from his home in California.

Remembering Sir Charles Mackerras, and early days with two great

Lotfi Mansouri and Carol Burnett

colleagues, Lotte Lehmann…and Carol Burnett!

Here’s the great Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) She was a profound influence on Lotfi Mansouri and on generations of artists.

It was hard to leave Iran as a very young man. It was harder to leave Iran when you are a successful professional who returned at the behest of the Shah, back in 1971

Lotfi Mansouri was a prime mover behind the development of opera Titles (surtitles, subtitles, cap titles, what  ever you want to call them).  He talks about this development and the controversy around really making opera accessible, plus his years in Toronto and San Francisco

Then for fun, I asked Lotfi to “free associate” with some famous names: Sutherland, Pavarotti, von Stade….

Lotfi Mansouri with Dame Joan Sutherland 'The Merry Widow'

Don’t miss Lotfi Mansouri, An Operatic Journey, new from Northeastern University Press. Lotfi takes numbers and names names but makes clear his love for opera and its people.

Thanks for the chat,Lotfi. It was great to catch up!

–Christopher Purdy

Heralded as one of the world’s greatest living classical artists, Domingo returned to the UK last weekend to revive his role in Simon Bocconegra at the BBC Proms season. You can read more about Domingo from the Observer interview here.

This is turning out to be a good year for new books on a music. Here are a few that have come across my desk recently. I’ll be coming back with interviews with Norman Lebrecht and Lotfi Mansouri-and all of these books will be discussed in more detail.  Read on, look for these, and enjoy!

Why Mahler Matters: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed Our World by Norman Lebrecht-October 5 publication date

Reading Lebrecht’s latest book on Mahler-preceded by Mahler Remembered is a terrific complement to letting this music seep into your life.  Lebrecht’s writing style puts the reader firmly into Mahler’s Vienna, New York, Hamburg, Dresden or Bohemia, and gives a vivid portrait of a brief life of struggle, the highest of highs and the most miserable of sorrows. To me an indication of a book’s success is whether or not I’m compelled to go out and listen, really listen to the music being discussed. Lebrecht had me reaching for the Mahler symphonies and songs anew with each chapter. The book contains a biographical sketch interspersed with conversations and observations from the present day. (The author’s upstairs neighbor in London was a guest at Mahler’s weeding in 1902!) Vivid descriptions of Mahler’s rather grimy birthplace give way to an author’s visit 150 years later.  Lebrecht’s gift for combining a modern sensibility with music written 100 years ago will, I assure you, at least interrupt your life long enough to be buried in this music. Go ahead, wallow. Weep, laugh, rage and wallow.

P.S. Lebrecht particularly admires Klaus Tennstedt’s performances of Mahler’s music:

Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey (Northeastern University Press) Iran born Lotfi Mansouri came to Southern California-Carol Burnett was a class mate and show-buddy- and went on to direct both the Canadian Opera Comp[any in Toronto and the San Francisco Opera.  He is an unashamed populist. None of the deconstruction  regie-theater here. Mansouri shows what can be done on the operatic stage when the score is respected, and when opera is staged to tell the story. The book is filled with witty and endearing reminiscences of Sutherland, Pavarotti, Scotto, and a host of greats, almost greats and would rather forget ‘ems. I’ve seen a lot of Mansouri’s productions and I can tell you what nobody ever went away bored.  Nor will you with this richly entertaining book about an art form, and a number of people dearly loved by the author.

The Genius of Valhalla, The Life of Reginald Goodall by John Lucas (Boydell PRess)

This is a reprint of a 1993 biography called Reggie: The Life of Reginald Goodall. I write about Goodall elsewhere on this blog. My buddy, the late soprano Rita Hunter had the triumphs of her career as his Brunhilde in the Ring in London and they fell out, one swearing to having nothing ever again to do with the other. This seemed to be a pattern. Goodall (1902-1990) was born in England and raised in Canada and Springfield Massachusetts. He conducted the first performances of Britten’s Peter Grimes and The Rape of Lucretia. The ‘Valhalla’ of Mr. Lucas’s title represents less Wagner deities than the attic lavatory in the Royal Opera House where Goodall meticulously rehearsed his singers. He had rather lowly positions at Covent Garden for many years. His performances of the Ring with the Sadler’s Wells Opera (now the English National Opera) in the mid 1970s made Goodall world famous. This production was issued on CD as were later performances of The Mastersingers, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal. Goodall was magnificent at the architecture of Wagner, spinning out the long, unbroken lines at slow tempi that threatened to sag and disintegrate but never did.  Listening to a Goodall performance is like watching a treacherous high wire act-with Wagner’s music at its most magnificent.  For all that, Goodall could be a nasty, moody man.  He admired Sir Oswald Mosley and was rumored to have embraced anti -semitism.  I’ll bet it was difficult to be his friend,  much less an artist in his charge. But with other artists and conductors of the time, at least in Wagner, Goodall had many colleagues, but few peers.

Franco Alfano: Transcending Turandot by Konrad Dryden (Scarecrow Press)

Musicologist Dryden has already written biographies of Riccardo Zandonai and Ruggero Leoncavallo. To these he adds a study of Italian composer Franco Alfano (1875-1954) Alfano gets a bad rap. He deserves a lot more acclaim than the grudging footnotes he earned for completing  Turandot after Puccini’s death in 1924. Depending on who you ask,  Alfano was either begged or threatened to complete Turandot, after which re received lttle praise. It was further claimed he was Puccini’s pupil when in fact Alfano was a fifty year old man and well regarded composer in his own right.  His career never really recovered fromTurnadot. European audiences did embrace his operas Cyrano de Bergerac (a recent vehicle for Placido Domingo) and Resurrection, based on Tolstoy’s novel which became a late career triumph for Mary Garden and an early outing for the astonishing Magda Olivero. As he did with Leoncavallo and Zandonai, two other fine composers whose achievements were eaten up by the huge successes of Puccini, Konrad Dryden gives Alfano new stature and new respect.

Terrence McNally’s play Master Class tells the story of Maria Callas’s

Maria Callas (1923-1977)

public classes given at the Julliard School in New York in 1971 and 1972. After several workshops, the play opened on Broadway in 1995 starring the great Australian actress Zoe Caldwell.  Hers was a powerhouse performance- a lady who played Euripides should find Callas a breeze. To this day, Master Class has proven irresistible to fifty-ish actresses who can be stylish, direct and sexy. Caldwell was succeeded on Broadway by two similar powerhouses, the late Dixie Carter, and Patti Lupone. This TV clip from New York 1 in 1996 gives a taste of Lupone’s performance. She went from Eva Peron  (Evita) to Maria Callas to Mama Rose (Gypsy). Withal, I imagine La Callas was more daunting:

Your humble servant damned near got bounced out of Lexington (MA)

High School in February 1972 for running off to New York on the 6 a.m. Greyhound out of Park Square to see two of these classes. I paid my $5 (a fortune!) and went in. I didn’t know one did not approach icons for autographs.  Callas was surrounded by maids, cops and poodles but I marched right up and said hello, and she gave me a signed picture that is on my office wall as I type these words. The classes I saw would never have made a full length play. They were classes. Callas was coaching the 20 somethings Julliard singers. She only got testy if people were unprepared. When applause broke out she would say, “Well, we’re all wonderful, but no applause, okay?” What I noticed and what Patti Lupone catches perfectly was the New York of Callas. This was a dame from a tough neighborhood in Washington Heights, who could greet DeGaulle backstage at the Paris Opera as he bent to kiss her hand, and yell “Lay off, willya!?!” to pesky reporters.

Faye Dunaway came through Columbus a few years ago with

Master Class. People flocked in because she was Faye Dunaway. Fair enough. It was worth it to see Bonnie Parker and Mommy Dearest-but of opera and vocal terms used in the play Dunaway knew little. She was playing dress up with Maria Callas. Rumor had it Dunaway owned the film rights, but so far, no film.  Rumor also has it that these rights have passed on to Sohpia Loren and now to Cher.  Well, why the hell not? If she could endure Sonny for all those years…..

The most recent production of Master Class I know about was a few months ago at the Kennedy Center in Washington, with Tyne Daly. Here’s a segment from the Kennedy Center production introduced by playwright Terence McNally:

Rita Moreno too has done the part but everyone who saw her claimed

Dixie Carter WAS Callas.

The play is a fun read, and is clearly not meant to be a recreation of months of master classes. Again, those would hardly make a play.  Terence McNally and I were guests together a number of times for Texaco Opera Quiz-. He wrote this play with superb dramatic skill and love for the art form. And listen, if Cher does the movie,  good on her!

Let’s give Maria Callas the final words and notes.  No doubt this is how she would want to be remembered.   Norma, Act 1, Paris 1964. Maria Callas died in 1977.

–Christopher Purdy

Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg

As Independence Day celebrations continue across America, it seemed fitting to re-publish a blog from Memorial Day 2009.  I was watching the Boston Pops July 4th concert on the Esplanade on the St. Charles River when I began to realize what I was witnessing.  From the city that played such a huge role in our nation’s history came the Boston Pops playing for an audience of about 900,000 people.  The host was Craig Ferguson, a Scottish-born immigrant who became an American citizen less than a year ago. Ferguson, who is quite outspoken about his pride in becoming an American citizen, (see his book American on Purpose), sings the songs we have heard from childhood and too often take for granted with gusto and conviction.  There was a huge number of youngsters who knew the words to those same songs.  People of all nationalities and all walks of life had gathered to celebrate the birth of this nation.  Soldiers and veterans from all branches of the military sang along with country singer Toby Keith as he performed American Soldier…a song which has become almost an anthem for the military.  Here are some of the lyrics.

I will always do my duty no matter what the price
I’ve counted up the cost, I know the sacrifice
And I don’t want to die for you, but if dyin’s asked of me
I’ll bear that cross with honor, cause freedom don’t come free.

I’m an American Soldier an American
Beside my brothers and my sisters, I will proudly take a stand
When liberty’s in jeopardy, I will always do what’s right

I’m out here on the front lines, sleep in peace tonight
American Soldier, I’m an American, Soldier.

No matter your politics or position on the wars we’re fighting, I challenge you to not have tears come to your eyes when you see members of our Armed Forces singing these words.  As the celebration of our nation’s birth draws to a close, may we all remember that we each have a role in what this country is and what it becomes.  I invite you to read, once again, how those who work to preserve the history of the founding of our nation honor those who have sacrificed themselves for the principles upon which this country was founded. — Boyce Lancaster

Memorial Day dawned cloudy and muggy in eastern Virginia.  Yet a good-sized crowd assembled mid-morning for a Memorial Day ceremony with the Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg.  As the crowd milled about near the Governor’s Palace, members of the Militia queued up to our left, while the Fife and Drum Corps assembled at the far end of Governor’s Green.  The service, to honor military veterans who died while serving their country, began with the Fifes and Drums of Colonial Williamsburg.

What followed was simple, moving, and a fitting way for us to begin our Memorial Day.  Three musket volleys were fired as the Fifes and Drums played “Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past,” and again after the placing of the first commemorative wreath at Bruton Parish Church, along with a wreath  placed at the French Grave site, to honor those interred in or near those sites from the American Revolution and the War Between the States.

As you enjoy your holiday and the summer ahead, please take a moment to remember those who serve(d).  - Boyce Lancaster and Beverley Ervine

Serenata presents an all Brahms tribute to Maureen Forrester, Saturday July 3 at 1 PM

The wonderful Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester died on June 16th,

Maureen Forrester (1930-2010)

just a few weeks short of her 80th birthdays. She had been in declining health for several years.

Now, about the term ‘contralto’. Maureen Forrester was not a mezzo soprano. She did not have the edge or bite to her sound to excel at the great mezzo heroines of Verdi.  I suspect too, that her ebullient personality would have made them a tough sell for her. The contralto is the lowest female voice. Forrester’s was rich and gorgeous without being ponderous. These tend to be ’slow’ voices. Think melted chocolate rather than champagne. Here’s Maureen Forrester singing Mahler’s Urlicht (Primal Light)

Hear that? It’s a voice that wraps around you. You can’t fake a sound like that.  In my opinion, its God’s gift.

I used to think of Forrester as a very serious lady. Think again

She sang everything. Bruno Walter made her his protege in the 1950s and with him she became the world’s preeminent Mahler singer.  She recorded Handel operas when no one else was. She commissioned a lot of fine new music from Canadian composers. She sang Bach and Vivaldi. Her recording of the Verdi Requiem with Ormandy is a winner. She raised five children. Her 1986 memoir Out of Character is written with humor and insight and details what became a messy private life. It’s a great read, especially for a young artist. It shows that the life of an artist costs.

Think of Maureen Forrester when you want to remember an artist at home with Monteverdi,  Mahler and Rogers and Hammerstein-I’m told her Bloody Mary in South Pacific was a honey of a performance. I remember her as the sinister old Countess in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades.  She was too intelligent to play an old harridan. Forrester reminded us that this ancient character was once called “The Venus of Moscow”

Her later years were not easy. Her decline was long and terrible. Happily, there’s a wonderful legacy of recordings and videos. Wrap that voice around you the next time you think your life is going down the tubes. Up you’ll come!

–Christopher Purdy

James Galway is known for his golden flute, while Carol Wincenc has instruments made from varying metals, including platinum, depending upon what and where she’s playing. The best clarinets are made from grenadilla, more commonly known as ebony.  Bassoons are crafted from maple, mahogany, and other woods. In most cases, improved manufacturing techniques and materials have resulted in better instruments.

The most-prized violins, however, are centuries old and cost millions.  They also are, thus far, impossible to duplicate.  You’ve most likely heard of Andrea Amati, who built the world’s first four-string violin, and Giuseppe Guarneri.  Both were talented instrument makers.

To this day, however, it is the instruments built by Antonio Stradivari scientists and instrument makers continue to try to replicate.   Stradivari’s violins are carried onto stages around the globe by the world’s finest musicians, who have either managed to earn the cash it takes to purchase one, which runs into the millions, or are playing instruments loaned to them by various collectors or organizations.  Either way, only about 650 of the instruments he made are known to exist.

Over the years, this has driven many to try  to discover the “Stradivarius secret.”  One of the most recent is Bruno Frohlich, a research anthropologist with the National Museum of Natural History.  Frohlich is in his dream job.  Since his childhood days in Denmark, he has been curious about why instruments do what they do.  His latest quest: what makes a Strad a Strad?  Below, you can go “inside” a Strad with Dr. Frohlich. — Boyce Lancaster

Internationally-renowned conductor Valery Gergiev has been named one of TIME Magazine’s 2010 Most Influential People. This annual list singles out the 100 people that have the most powerful affect on our world today. As director of the Mariinsky Orchestra, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor at The Metropolitan Opera, Gergiev’s influence is widely felt, not only throughout music community but around the world. Read the full story at TIME.

The Marine Band will perform at 9 a.m., Monday, April 5 at the White House Easter Egg Roll. Tickets were distributed through an online lottery system, allowing guests from across the United States to participate in a tradition that dates back to 1878.

In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison invited John Philip Sousa and the Marine Band to perform during the celebration. In 1928, Sousa wrote a special piece in honor of the annual occasion titled “Easter Monday on the White House Lawn.”

“It’s a lot of fun seeing the schoolchildren enjoying the camaraderie and games as they experience the day in such a historic setting,” said clarinetist Master Gunnery Sergeant Charles Willett. “I always look forward to when we play Irving Berlin’s ‘Easter Parade,’ signaling the arrival of the President and First Lady. That’s a very exciting moment for all in attendance.”

My thanks to the Marine Band for sending me this information in their weekly e-mail. I’ve included two videos which help capture the tradition.  – Beverley Ervine