by Kenneth Woods | Aug 31, 2009 | A view from the podium
Hello Readers! Greetings from Vftp Int’l Headquarters, where the 2009-10 season is officially underway. I have a few rehearsals to contend with in the coming week, but I’ll be spending the bulk of my week preparing for next week’s recording sessions with Northern...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 30, 2009 | A view from the podium, Haydn
I was pleased and optimistic when I heared Alan Gilbert had been appointed MD of the NY Phil. I’d covered for Alan at the Cincinnati Symphony (my colleague refused to watch rehearsals of anyone his own age), where I thought he got some great results, and had...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 15, 2009 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
From Cigol Reviews- 4th July 2009 – 7:30pm – Helix Ensemble – Kenneth Woods All Saints with Holy Trinity Church, Loughborough, Leicester Roger Swann The highlight of this concert was a chance to hear only the second UK performance of Philip...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 11, 2009 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
As I look out from my palatial office towards the busy inner corridors of VFTP International Headquarters and our crack team of Harvard-educated interns working as fact checkers and web technicians, I am reminded of the sacred mission of this august institution- to...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 10, 2009 | A view from the podium, Haydn
There’s a nice story in The Oregonian today from senior music critic David Stabler on Haydn and the never-ending Haydn/Mozart rivalry. In spite of the fact that David quotes from me extensively, it is a very good piece. Audiences love Mozart, but Haydn’s...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 7, 2009 | A view from the podium
Conductor and Kansas City Examiner music writer Erik Klackner takes the Haydn ball and runs with it. The most ruthless among us will stab a person in the back. The most cold and calculated among us will stab a person in the front. But it takes the most creative...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 2, 2009 | A view from the podium, Haydn
Solomon Volkov, best known for his role in assembling Shostakovich’s memoirs, Testimony, once described him as the second (Mussorgsky being the first) great “yurodivy” composer. Volkov defines the yurodivy as follows- “The yurodivy is a Russian religious phenomenon,...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 1, 2009 | A view from the podium
I just want to take a moment to reassure readers that this blog is still in business, despite a recent absence of posts. This year it simply proved impossible to find time to blog during the course of the Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, and since...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 19, 2009 | A view from the podium
Madison, Wisconsin based readers will surely agree with me that in its heydey, there was no classical CD shop on earth quite like The Exclusive Co. on State Street. The culmination of the long career of Charles Lunde, who spent 60 years in the classical record...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 19, 2009 | A view from the podium
Over at the invaluable All The Conducting Masterclasses blog, it has proved popular and useful to list, where available, the participants in various conducting masterclasses. Here’s the RCICW class of 2009- we’ve got some very exciting emerging conductors...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 19, 2009 | A view from the podium
I’m sitting in seat 4B (that’s a very nice one, as the result of a much-appreciated upgrade- I’ve decided to publicly praise the airlines any time they treat me well in hopes they’ll see the value in doing it more often. This is a very musical flight- at least one...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 19, 2009 | A view from the podium
Listed below are all the day-by-day blog posts reflecting my thoughts and reactions during the Rose City International Conductor’s Wokrshop since 2006. We’ll endeavor to keep this up to date as new posts are added this year. If alumni have their own...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 18, 2009 | A view from the podium
Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92. He was preceded in death by journalism. c. 2009 Kenneth...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 17, 2009 | A view from the podium, Haydn
There are some things I just don’t like to see in print. In the realm of music, I do not like to see a reference to Haydn which includes any of the following terms- “charming” or “delightful” or “innocent” or “jolly” case study follows- I...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 16, 2009 | A view from the podium
More much-needed coverage of the Bloch anniversary from Oregon Public Broadcasting. It’s good to see Bloch’s adopted home stepping up to the plate. Not so at many other music festivals. I’m tempted to name and shame, but I want to continue to work....
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