Wednesday, April 30, 2003; 2 p.m. ET
Tim Page is the chief classical music critic for The Washington Post and the author or editor of a dozen books, including "Dawn Powell: A Biography," "The Glenn Gould Reader," "The Unknown Sigrid Undset," "William Kapell: A Documentary Life History of the American Pianist" and the forthcoming "Tim Page on Music" (Amadeus Press). He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1997 for his writings about music for The Post.
He has also worked as an artistic adviser (the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra), a radio host (WNYC-FM in New York), a record producer (BMG Catalyst) and, in his younger days, a rock musician and cocktail pianist. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives in Washington with his wife, Julieta Stack.
A transcript follows.
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Tim Page: Good afternoon -- and a lovely afternoon it is here in Washington.
Some promising concerts coming up in the next few days. I'm going to hear the all-Revueltas program presented by the Post-Classical Ensemble at Lisner Auditorium tomorrow night. Revueltas seems to me the finest composer to emerge from Mexico. More to the point -- his music is truly Mexican in color and spirit. This is an important distinction: one might call V.S. Naipaul the finest novelist to come from Trinidad or Noel Coward the best songwriter to work out of Jamaica but both statements, while probably true, are beside the point, because the essence of Naipaul and Coward is English, while Revueltas was a Mexican who wrote modernist Mexican music.
I'm also looking forward to hearing Yevgeny Kissin at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Saturday afternoon -- the glorious Schubert Sonata in B-flat, D. 960, and some Liszt. And then on Sunday, I'm going to catch a late performance of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" up at the Clarice Smith Center.
Quite a week -- and much livelier than Washington used to be even five years ago once May rolled around.
Please feel free to submit your thoughts during the next hour. I have a few questions in the bank already but could take some more. And don't worry that your question is too small or too obscure -- if I don't have an answer for you, I'll let it pass or, perhaps, ask our fellow readers for some help.
Silver Spring, Md.:
What do you do about those people who seem to think that your legroom is their legroom? I went to the NSO last Friday and kept getting bumped (both shoulder and leg, actually) during the Schubert Ninth by some dude readjusting himself in his seat next to me. It was extremely distracting, obviously, but I didn't want to say anything during the performance and disturb those around me. Any nonverbal communication methods you can recommend?
Tim Page: I don't really know what to tell you. Sometimes a glance -- or, if things really get out of hand, a glare -- will do the trick. A polite word between movements might help, too. Chances are the offender isn't even aware that he is intruding and will sit still as a stone if the bumping is called to his attention. Be as kind as you can be -- no need to embarrass him -- but make it clear that he is, quite by accident of course, distracting you.
Any other thoughts from our readers?
Springfield, Va.:
Have any famous composers come from Scotland?
Tim Page: It depends on what you mean by "famous." There are some fine contemporary composers who come from Scotland -- Judith Weir, Thea Musgrave and James McMillan, among others -- and Peter Maxwell Davies lives on the Orkney Islands most of the year. Aside from that, Robert Burns collected (and sometimes amended) some celebrated songs, and there is a wealth of folk music, but not much in the way of concert music.
Springfield, Va.:
In your opinion, which DC area classical station is the best?
Tim Page: I don't have time to listen to classical music radio -- too many recordings and concerts to keep track of. Do our readers have any suggestions?
Schwerin/Germany:
Hello,
I just read you are looking forward to hear Evgeny Kissin playing his Schubert/Liszt recital. I hope you can make it and please write on it. Good quality reviews are so rare these days especially on artists like Kissin. Reviewers (and interviewers) like to write about the wunderkind, how strange he behaves, how special he is, almost otherworldly, and forget his playing over it (if it can`t be summed up as a display of pyrotechnics). Well, if being polite, unspoiled and not a bit shallow or artificial, answearing questions honestly and keeping quiet about private things is so exceptional these days, it's not his fault. It seems that lots of people in the media are not used to such unpolished and real persons and don't take it easily when they refuse to play by the rules. I went to his concert in Berlin in february and loved his interpretation of the Schubert sonata; the second part and the encores were just brilliant (I΄ll leave a detailed description to a professional). He even gave authographs afterwards listening and replying to questions and wishes. Perhaps he is "special": his playing and presens made people so happy - a devoted musician, warm, sincere and friendly person. He deserves that people see him how he is and most of all listen !!! to him and that reviews on his concerts concentrate on music and its interpretation. I hope we'll learn what you think of it. Bye
Tim Page: Thanks so much for your comment. I agree with you that Kissin is an extraordinary artist and I hope I don't disappoint you with my review. I can promise you that I will concentrate on the music and the performance and not on any perceived "strangeness" in his stage manner. That just isn't the point.
Washington, DC:
Hi Tim,
I'm submitting early because I have a commitment during your chat, but I definitely hope you'll still consider my question!
Here goes: I'm considering moving for a job in St Louis. How is the symphony there these days? Do you know how the classical music scene there is otherwise?
Many thanks.
Tim Page: I loved many things about St. Louis. The orchestra, even with its current afflictions, is a wonderful one and, once the deficit problem is solved and a worthy music director is chosen, I think it has a great future. Opera Theater of St. Louis, in tandem with the orchestra, presents some fine productions every year, and there are some good concerts at the Sheldon Theater and on the campuses.
A few words of advice:
1) If you don't plan to send children to public school, live in the Central West End -- a sumptuous Bohemian enclave that has magnificent homes, the city's best night life, and virtually its only street life. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods anywhere.
2) Try to get out in the summer -- August in St. Louis makes Washington seem cool and clement by comparison. And start your allergy shots now -- the pollen and mold counts are off the charts and people live on Claritin for much of the year.
3) Don't eat the pizza.
Washington, D.C.:
Tim, what late performance of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito", by the University of Maryland Opera Studio, are you attending this Sunday? We're attending this Sunday at 3 PM! Don't miss the show! (Other performances are listed on the Web site astomorrow, Friday, and next Tuesday, all at at 7:30 PM).
Tim Page: I'll be there.
Cambridge, MA:
I hear so much about Richter but have a hard time finding his recordings. How would you describe his piano style? And what composers did he play best?
Tim Page: It has sometimes been said that great geniuses are just like everybody else, only more so. Such a definition applies to Richter.
Everything about Richter's playing seemed larger than life -- the massive sound he summoned from his instrument, the brooding and distinctly individual personality that informed his performances, the staggering velocity
with which he threw off the most difficult virtuoso passages.
One did not need to "like" everything Richter did to recognize his greatness. I found some of his performances literally heavy-handed; moreover, there was a certain "bigness" in his playing that tended to overwhelm works that needed no such outsized emotion. Had he grown up in the West, rather than in Stalinist Moscow, I suspect Richter might have added two elements to his playing that were usually wanting -- charm and worldly grace. If a literary reference will be helpful, think of Richter as a haunted, self-doubting character out of Dostoyevsky, rather than one of the lighter, better-humored Russians from the pen of the cosmopolitan Turgenev. But then, he lived in
Dostoyevskian times.
Whatever a listener may have thought of this or that recording, there could never be any doubt of Richter's mastery. Fortunately, he left many recordings -- an idiosyncratic and introspective rendition of Bach's "Well
Tempered Clavier," heroic performances of the great Beethoven sonatas (including an "Appassionata" that comes terrifyingly close to derailing in the finale, and is all the more magnificent for its daring flirtation with the
edge), rapturously poetic interpretations of Chopin, Schumann, Schubert and Brahms. Among 20th century composers, Richter recorded music by Berg, Britten,
Stravinsky, Hindemith and Webern. And then, of course, there were the Russians -- Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Glazonov, Rachmaninoff, Miaskovsky and Kabalevsky,
among many others.
You ought to be able to find a lot of these recordings on-line, if not at your record store. There have been a lot of Richter reissues in the past two or three years.
Bethesda, MD:
Over more than 40 years of listening to classical music, I have found that music from some periods, music by some composers, or music performed by certain instruments come and go as my listening favorites. Tell me of those periods, composers, and instruments that remain for you a constant, unchanging anchor in the world of music. For me, I find it impossible to select just one or two favorites. However, I will confess to an overwhelming fondness for Brahms in all his manifestations.
Tim Page: I'm not going to surprise you here -- the masters are the masters are the masters. Bach, Handel, Rameau, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Richard Strauss, Sibelius and some others wrote what seems to me permanent music, of which I rarely tire. I have my quirks -- I seem to like Busoni's music rather better than I am "supposed" to and the late symphonies of Gustav Mahler rather less -- but any list of this sort is bound to be subjective. And I am capable of ecstatic response to contemporary composers ranging from Elliott Carter to Philip Glass to Brian Wilson.
New York, NY:
Why do you keep avoiding answering the question about violinists Janet Martin, and Maxim Vengerov? Do you not know who they are? Do you not like the way they play?
Do you censor your questions? If so, just say so.
Tim Page: Didn't know there were any questions about Janet Martin and Maxim Vengerov. A little clarity would be welcome.
Bethesda, MD:
Can you recommend an information resource for locating music instruction for beginners over the age of 50?
Tim Page: Readers?
Potomac:
Hi Tim -- I too thought Mr. Slatkin's performance of Franz Schubert Symphony No. 9 with the NSO was spectacular! What a difference a few weeks make in their performance.
Glad to see you've once again back on board with the greatness of what's going on at the Kennedy Center!
Tim Page: It was a terrific performance, wasn't it? These are good times for music in Washington.
Bethesda, MD:
Congratulations on your contribution to the reissue of both of Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations recordings in a single CD set.
I had become quite used to the earlier performance, but now find myself equally attracted to the later one.
Your interview with Mr. Gould adds a great deal to my enjoyment and appreciation of this most unique and talented man.
One thing I would ask of you: tell me of Mr. Gould's recording with Leonard Bernstein of the Brahms 2nd. Listening to it now I cannot find very much that makes it so revolutionary a performance, at least in terms of tempo. It does sound as though the orchestra has been made to play at a volume much closer to that of the piano at times, but was that so much of a change as to require a disclaimer at the outset by the conductor?
Tim Page: Thanks very much -- Glenn was very kind to me when I was just getting started and I revere his memory.
In general, interpretations of the classics are getting slower (I except the "historically authentic" performances by such artists as Christopher Hogwood, John Eliot Gardiner and Roger Norrington which seem to be getting faster). When Glenn and Leonard Bernstein teamed up to make that record, their tempos seemed unusually broad. Still, Bernstein went on to re-record the concerto with Krystian Zimerman some 20 years later -- and it was even slower than the performance with Gould! Times change -- and our understanding with them.
Lansdale, PA:
What are your opinions of the various completions of Mahler's 10th symphony or in general such completions of composers' unfinished works? After hearing several versions of the Mahler, I was fairly convinced that there was enough echt Mahler in there to justify the performance. Not the same with the Elgar 3rd, which seemed more conjectural and harder to justify given Elgar's own compositional block of more than a decade at the end of his life.
Tim Page: I like to hear the "Adagio" from the Mahler 10 played by itself -- it is one of my favorites among the composer's works and none of the other movements come close to it. I've never been satisfied by any of the various completions. Some works of art do very well in partial form -- the "Canterbury Tales" comes to mind immediately as does the Bruckner Ninth.
The Elgar Third was very conjectural indeed, but also, to my memory, a fairly successful piece in its own way.
MD 20615:
What area choral group to you think takes the most chances?
If I see another Verdi's Requiem or Carmina Burana on the schedule, I think I'll croak. (Not that there is anything wrong with another VR or CB...we always can use quality classical choral music, even if we've heard it 10 times before), BUT, I am looking for MORE VARIETY!
Tim Page: Well, we've come to the end of another on-line discussion of classical music. Thanks very much for joining me today -- and I'll look forward to our next session.
washingtonpost.com:
That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the
discussion.
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