by Kenneth Woods | Jun 24, 2007 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
1 AM. Bypassed immediate post-concert blog post in favor of a beer with the band. Back home at last, so just a few quick thoughts to end the day. Shostakovich- I think the message got through. No coughing at the end, instead complete silence as the orchestra really...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 9, 2007 | A view from the podium, Explore the Score
Dmitri Shostakovich- Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, op 35 In many ways, Shostakovich was a quintessentially Russian composer. As a symphonist one can certainly hear the influence of Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and even, to an extent,...
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 | 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...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 25, 2006 | A view from the podium, Favorite posts
I was almost content to let the 100th birthday of Shostakovich pass without comment. Just think, though…. Already, just a few years after his death, we’re beginning to see his body of work recognized as the single most important contribution to Russian culture and...
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