The Final Program- Gotterdammerung

Every concert has its drama. Not long ago, the drama was a plague of flies, which, last I heard, were still annoying the citizens of swish Altrincham. As I drove into Pendleton yesterday, I was struck by the vast devastation of the outer reaches of the city. The whole...

The Final Program- Why Mozart 31?

Mozart’s Paris Symphony was the first  work I conducted with the Oregon East Symphony. Here is a somewhat pained description of the difficulties of rehearsing what I had thought was a relatively straightforward classical work- “I was exceedingly anxious at rehearsal,...

Urtext Myths 2- Lean and mean? Says who?

“I like/dislike the leaner textures  of the new Urtext edition of the Beethoven Symphonies by Jonathan Del Mar, and loathe/prefer the more robust sound of the old Breitkopf edition…” This quote is typical of many reviews I’ve come across recently, both favorable and...

Urtext Myths Part 1

 “The New Bärenreiter Urtext Edition is audibly different and leads to a new way of hearing and understanding the Symphonies.” From the Barenreiter website For some time now, I’ve been meaning to write a little something on the myths and misunderstandings surrounding...