by Kenneth Woods | Sep 20, 2011 | A view from the podium
The home video revolution, in particular the advent of the DVD and YouTube, have fundamentally changed our understanding of the art of conducting, in ways both good and bad (more on the bad part in another post). Things really began to change for the good when the two...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 8, 2011 | A view from the podium
The excerpt above is the beginning of the 3rd movement of Shostkovich’s 10th Symphony, a work I conducted last week with the Kent County Youth Orchestra. Shostakovich 10 is a serious piece, and a seriously difficult piece. When news gets out that I’m...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 7, 2011 | A view from the podium, Lists
This is a list I’ve been thinking about ever since I first conducted the Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto with Daniel de Borah. I was amused at the thought of just how far down the list of the greatest piano concerti of the 20th c. I would go before I got to a piece not...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 6, 2011 | A view from the podium, Lists
This is a list I’ve been thinking about ever since I first conducted the Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto with Daniel de Borah about five years ago. I was amused at the thought of just how far down the list of the greatest piano concerti of the 20th c. I would go before I...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 25, 2011 | A view from the podium
Peter Davison, artistic consultant of the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and artistic director of the Two Rivers Music Festival takes a clear-eyed look at how the music business finds and overlooks talent, and the disconnect that can happen between ability and...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 18, 2011 | A view from the podium
I think it is as close to a truism of writing about music as you will get: The better you know a piece, the more you understand it. The more you understand it, the more you value it. The more you value it, the better you write about it. In converse is also true- bad...
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