by Kenneth Woods | Mar 7, 2007 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts, Performing Life
So… My Chopin adventure for Discovering Music has come to an end.. I have to say, I was a little concerned when I was offered the gig, as it could easily have been a poisoned chalice. Great band and soloist, of course, but boring orchestra part to play, which can...
by Kenneth Woods | Feb 14, 2007 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
Real insights tend to be so simple and so blindingly obvious once they’re found…. Elgar Enigma Variations, Variation 2…. A nasty, highly chromatic little perpetual motion study. Hardest movement in the piece….. I’ve played it and conducted it many times, and covered...
by Kenneth Woods | Feb 8, 2007 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts, Study with Ken
I’m happy to let you know that we have finalized the arrangements for the 2007 Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, to be held from the 24th-27th of July, 2007, at Warner Pacific College in Portland Oregon. Faculty this year will again be Christopher...
by Kenneth Woods | Feb 2, 2007 | A view from the podium, Explore the Score, Favorite posts, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
It’s probably no coincidence that the two most popular composers of the 20th Century, Shostakovich and Mahler, are also the two whose autobiographies are most intimately associated with their work. However, although their musical work may have been shaped in part by...
by Kenneth Woods | Feb 2, 2007 | A view from the podium, Haydn, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
Any regular reader of this blog will have realized that I, like many people, like the music of Gustav Mahler. A lot…. It has occurred to me this week, however, that I could make the perverse case that, much as I am totally thrilled to be doing Das Lied von der...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 10, 2007 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts, Mahler, Nuts and bolts
Music, even vocal music, is ultimately an abstract art form. Musical ideas, even those attached to words, are inherently abstract. Nevertheless, we all find ourselves searching for the meaning of musical ideas. Wagner went so far as to assign meanings to themes...
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