by Kenneth Woods | Sep 10, 2006 | A view from the podium, Mahler
I’m afraid I was otherwise occupied with KCYO when Tim Magnan wrote this piece on the art of conducting. Highly recommended. He’s quite right about the importance of the DVD revolution in helping us to better understand the working habits of many historically...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 8, 2006 | A view from the podium
Busy day here at View From the Podium international headquarters. First, I must thank A.C. Douglas at Sounds and Fury for picking up my Mahler and Sibelius thread. Much appreciated! Second, I was delighted to see that the great Terry Teachout, arts critic of the...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 8, 2006 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
You’ll want to have a score of the piece handy while working through this essay. Here is a copy. It is well known that Sibelius’ approach to symphonic composition was intensely organic- in his mature music everything in a given piece grows from the same little...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 7, 2006 | A view from the podium
I’ve tried to simplify the system for commenting on this blog. Previously, readers have had to register as users to comment, now anyone can comment as long as they provide a name and email address. However, your first comment is still held in a queue for approval....
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 7, 2006 | A view from the podium, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
Being a one himself, Mahler knew better than to trust conductors to know his intentions. Sibelius, on the other hand, famously said that if a performer needed to ask too many questions, they probably shouldn’t play his music. Think for a moment of Mahler’s “versions”...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 5, 2006 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
Studying a Mahler score is great conducting lesson. Studying a Sibelius score is a great composition...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 4, 2006 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
Rather than offering a blow-by-blow account of the last 24 hours of the KCYO summer course, now that I’m happily back at home and enjoying my recovery from a busy week, I thought I would offer a few thoughts on the week and on the show. First, because life is about...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 4, 2006 | A view from the podium
An important news update. It’s official. “Kenneth Woods- A view from the podium” is the number one Google search result for “podium sex” as of today. We’ve moved from the twentieth page of results to the top of page one. We still don’t know why someone...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 3, 2006 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
Any evening called “Music at Night,” presented by a leading music trust and held at a posh private school in the rolling hills of rural Kent sounds like a very sophisticated and dignified affair. And how better to begin an evening of music with emerging young artists,...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 1, 2006 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
End of Day 5 at Kent County Youth Orchestra. Good news- Wasp sting is in retreat!!!!!!!! Other good news- Band sounds good!! Last night was Curry Night. If you haven’t seen it, you cannot imagine what happens in a quite village curry house when 70 musicians between...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 30, 2006 | A view from the podium
The software that runs this whole blog/website business allows me to find out what search engines people used to reach my site, and what their search phrases were. Not surprisingly, most searches are things like “Kenneth Woods, conductor” or “conductor blog woods.” ...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 30, 2006 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
Day three of KCYO, and I’m well knackered. At this point, I can report the orchestra is getting better, even getting fantastic in places. I can also report my wasp sting seems to be getting worse- the giant red welt that I didn’t get on Monday has appeared today, and...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 29, 2006 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
This is my second visit to the Kent County Youth Orchestra. I was here in the spring of 2005 and did a huge program with them- Shostakovich Tenth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini and the Liadov Eight Russian Folks Songs. I’ve been looking forward to seeing...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 27, 2006 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
Here’s an important piece from Steven Isserlis on the ever-worsening travel situation for musicians in and out of Britain. Let me state this clearly- these new rules have nothing to do with safety. I’ve been through several worst case scenarios with...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 26, 2006 | A view from the podium
A new review of the recently-release chamber music CD “Fortune Has Turned,” which is a collection of chamber works by American composer Chris Lastovica. We recorded my parts in one night about 5 years ago in Cincinnati- my contribution was really...
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