by Kenneth Woods | Jan 12, 2010 | Mahler, Mahler- Performer's Perspective, Nuts and bolts
“Is Mahler’s music more difficult to conduct than that of other composers?” When I was asked this question just the other day it was by no means for the first time. It is not hard to understand why a listener might suspect that Mahler’s music is harder to conduct than...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 6, 2010 | Mahler, Nuts and bolts
I had an email from a very gifted composer friend the other day which seemed fodder for a blog post…… Hey Ken, I recently turned on some Korean and Japanese composers to western dramatic music, and directed them specifically to Mahler. Interestingly, I told them to...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 28, 2009 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
I remember my first encounter with Elgar 1 very vividly. I’d only known Enigma, Falstaff and the Cello Concerto for many years when I learned he’d written two symphonies. Excited and curious, I went hunting recordings and found only two- one by Haitink (which I still...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 16, 2009 | Nuts and bolts
I’ve had so much to say about Elgar 1 lately in the run up to my recent performance of it with the UW Symphony that I haven’t been able to channel it all into readable form, especially while continuing to travel. Finally, with a slightly calmer schedule, I thought I...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 14, 2009 | Nuts and bolts
Not long ago, the IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) had to go offline under legal threat. For those of you not in the know, the IMSLP is a library of scanned music in the public domain, uploaded by volunteers and available for anyone to download and...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 4, 2009 | A view from the podium, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
Interestingly, what we know as the “Ruckert Lieder” by Mahler were conceived as individual songs, rather than as a cycle like the Kindertotenlieder or the Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen. Mahler orchestrated four out of the five songs, which he conducted once on a...
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