by Kenneth Woods | Jan 20, 2012 | A view from the podium, Lists
C major. The white keys on the piano. The Symphony has been good to C major, and C major has been good to the symphony, even though there are no Brahms, Mahler or Bruckner symphonies officially in C. Brahms 1 ends in C major (as does Beethoven 5 and Bruckner’s...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 19, 2011 | Music and Media, Nuts and bolts, Performing Life
Reformist musicologists with a politically-correct worldview might find themselves raising an eyebrow at this week’s Surrey Mozart Players concert, where, with blatant disregard for all the latest scholarship, the orchestra and I will be playing Johannes Brahms’...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 16, 2010 | Music and Media
A few months back, I was asked by a music writer for an e-interview on “music I couldn’t live without.” I thought it turned out pretty well, but never got published, so here it is…. What are the pieces you couldn’t do without? It depends a lot on how you...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 23, 2010 | Performing Life
I had a nice moment in rehearsal tonight. I first met Mozart 34 in a pretty good chamber orchestra with a pretty bad conductor. It wasn’t an auspicious first date, but in spite of the noisy circumstances, we had chemistry. It probably helped that my stand partner for...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 9, 2010 | Mahler, Mahler- Performer's Perspective
Many, many years ago, as a young teenager, I became completely obsessed with Mahler’s music. Back then, living in the Midwest, there was far less material on Mahler about- I ended up scouring libraries and compulsively hunting through record stores, trying bit by bit...
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