Tim Page Post Classical Music Critic Wednesday, June 25, 2003; 2:00 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. Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
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Tim Page: Good afternoon. It seems as though summer is finally here -- along with a heat wave, massive amounts of pollen and more mosquitoes than I've ever seen. I attended the performance of "L'Histoire du Soldat" last night at Hillwood -- a beautiful evening and a strong performance, but my son and I left just as the mosquitoes started to settle in and it was a close call. I'll come better prepared next time.
I recommend the performance, though, and it will be repeated tonight. Call Hillwood to make reservations on 202-686-5807. This was the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post -- a huge supporter of the National Symphony Orchestra -- and it is quite a stunning place. Right now Hillwood is offering a "White Nights Festival" of Russian art, which continues through Saturday: my son even managed to make a picture frame in the style of Faberge.
Even with all the heat, there is something to be said for Washington in the summer -- and at least we don't get the terrible pollution that I used to hate so much in New York at this time of year.
I suspect this may be a slow afternoon, so if you've tried to ask a question here before and I haven't gotten to it, you may have better luck today. I try to answer as many questions as I can.
Let's see what we have today.
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Washington, DC:
Hi Tim,
Can you recommend a recording of the Carmina Burana to me? Thanks much!
Tim Page: I'm going to assume you mean the Carl Orff secular cantata based on the medieval collection of poems and songs. Right? The original manuscript entitled "Carmina Burana" has some music of its own and there are a couple of recordings of that available.
The Orff cantata based on the "Carmina Burana" manuscript is a phenomenon -- virtually the only piece by this composer that is played with any regularity and almost certainly the most popular classical piece of the century. I find it a powerful and original work, and wish that we heard more of Orff's music -- his operas and music dramas are radical and often harrowing, while the best of his music for children has a serene sweetness that I find deeply affecting.
As for a performance of the "Carmina," I think I'd stick with the classic rendition by Eugen Jochum, with solo singing by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gundula Janowitz and the late Gerhard Stolze. This may be a sentimental choice on my part -- it was through this disc that I came to know the score -- but I've never heard a better performance.
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Rockville,MD: I just started listening to classical music after one of my friends was playing it in her car. Please suggest some CDs for me to buy since I am a "beginner".
Tim Page: Hi. There should be a link to a "beginner guide" I wrote last summer toward the top of the page. This was a set of 25 classical records that I thought would both engage a new listener and give him or her a sense of what was out there.
I'm already working on a new list of 25 Opera Recordings that will be published in August.
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Washington DC: Tim,
I have had the good fortune to live in two towns with great symphony orchestras (DC and Chicago). I have always enjoyed these concerts on a very basic level. What CDs/books would you suggest for someone looking to become more familiar with both classical and contemporary full symphony orchestra music?
Tim Page: Yes, you have been blessed in your listening. Were you in Chicago during the Solti era? The last time I heard him, he did a fine "Die Meistersinger" in concert.
I've always admired Harold C. Schonberg's "The Lives of the Great Composers," which provides historical and biographical information, some simple but astute musical analysis, an agreeable prose style, and opinions that are distinctly personal, yet not so wildly idiosyncratic that you will spend years "unlearning" from the book.
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Glenmont, MD: Is there a book or other source you can recommend that gives a comprehensive accounting of bird calls and songs and the classical music works incorporating them or inspired by them? Thanks.
Tim Page: I don't know of any such book, but it is possible one of our readers will. Can anybody help?
Olivier Messiaen wrote an entire piano cycle -- some three hours of it -- entitled "A Catalogue of Birds." A sort of "Theme and Variations" on the cries of different birds, it is quite wonderfully mad, almost impossible to take at one sitting, but exhaustive and brilliant. And don't forget Einojuhani Rautavaara's "Cantus Arcticus," a concerto for orchestra and taped bird songs.
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Silver Spring MD: My wife sings in a small, but well-regarded choral group (Thomas Circle Singers), but they rarely seem to get the coverage they deserve. I know this is complaint that any number of groups can make, but what gives? How do you choose what is worthy of your attention or what is not? Is there anything these smaller groups can do to enhance their chances of getting a big-time review? I realize you don't drive, but most of their concerts are in DC--close to Metro.
Tim Page: I've been told many good things about the Thomas Circle Singers and we always try to get to their concerts when we can. Speaking generally, our problem at the Post is that we are only allotted a certain number of concerts per weekend to cover. During the height of the season, we have to miss a lot -- and it drives me crazy. Is it unfair that visiting groups often get the nod on those occasions over worthy local ensembles? Yes, probably -- but our hope is always that we will catch up with the folks who perform regularly here, and we often have only one shot at the visitors.
I wish there were more concerts in July and August. Right now, almost everything that takes place in the general area is set for coverage.
As for my own presence at concerts, I'm trying to get to hear every orchestra and ensemble that plays regularly in Washington. With the schedule the way it is, this hasn't happened yet, but I'm still working on it.
Always make sure we know about concerts as early as possible -- at least a month in advance. Let my assistant, Beth Buchanan, c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., know as much as you can -- not only the who-what-when-where-why of it all, but also phone numbers to give to the public and any information about the specific event (is there a premiere? a guest artist? and so on).
We're doing our best. I hope to get to a Thomas Circle Singers event next year.
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Fairfax, VA:
Do you have any favorite summer Classical music festivals, especially ones that take place outside major cities? Perhaps the Santa Fe opera?
BTW, I believe the people who put together the Peterson field guides to birds, trees, etc. also produce CD's containing recordings of hundreds of bird calls along with the name of bird (spoken). But, of course, no cross reference to any possible uses in music. Wild Bird Centers and One Good Tern would carry these.
Tim Page: The Style department has all but eliminated travel for anything that doesn't have to do with politics, fashion, pop culture or a news story. The thought that I would be sent to a summer festival, when I wasn't sent along with the National Symphony Orchestra on its first European tour since 1997, is pretty far-fetched.
That said, if I had the opportunity to travel more often, I would visit Spoleto in South Carolina, the Opera Theater of St. Louis, the Santa Fe Opera, the Seattle Opera, festivals in Salzburg, Norway, Finland, and Great Britain, and maybe a few others.
I did get to see "Saint Francois d'Assise" in San Francisco last year, which was terrific. In general, however, these are hard times for newspapers and we are cutting back everywhere.
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another local music group: Hi, when I read about the Thomas Circle Singers, I couldn't resist and write in about the Friday Morning Music Club Chorale. I believe we've had a Post review or two in the past, which we appreciate! Like many local groups, we would love to have another! Our 2003-2004 season schedule isn't posted yet on www.fmmc.org/chorale, but we'll be doing Haydn's Creation in January. Maybe this will get on your list of to-see's. Thanks!
Tim Page: Thanks for the good words. I hope this information will be helpful to some of our readers.
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Washington, DC: If your reader knows some French she/he should consult the following link Réveil des Oiseaux -http://perso.wanadoo.fr/p.dubois/oiseaux/] which has the songs of all the birds featured in Olivier Messiaen's composition of that name; as well as additional information about bird songs in classical music.
Tim Page: This is great.
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Birds: The first bird sounds I heard in a classical piece were the nightingale sounds used in the Respighi Pines of Rome.
Tim Page: Yes, and that is almost always performed using a recording the composer himself made, all those years ago. There is something quite haunting about it.
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Herndon, Va.: Thank you for pointing out the Top 25 albums for a novice link. That's very helpful. I find myself in the same situation as the person who wrote to you earlier in this discussion. I like classical music very much but I'm a music illiterate and I'd love to know more. Any other suggestions?
Tim Page: I'm glad if I could help. There are a lot of different books on classical records out now -- from Gramophone, the BBC, NPR and elsewhere. The Schonberg book is helpful; Grout's History of Western Music has a lot of information but it is expressed with all the passion and persuasion of a phone book -- name after name after name. There are some good collections of criticisms -- Virgil Thomson, Robert Craft, Ned Rorem, Charles Rosen, Joseph Horowitz. Michael Steinberg's books on symphonies and concertos are marvelously written and filled with insight. You can always try to find some of Donald Francis Tovey's analyses of the classical repertory.
My advice would be to go to a library and browse for a couple of hours. You'll find what you are looking for.
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Washington D.C.: Luciano Berio . . . what to make of him now that he's gone? Do composers approach the voice as an "instrument" any differently owing to Berio? Will he be a one-hit-wonder for his Sinfonia?
Tim Page: I would think Berio was more than a one hit wonder. "Coro" is as accomplished as "Sinfonia," if not so immediately likeable. And the virtuoso pieces he wrote for solo instruments, each one called a "Sequenza," were terrifically imaginative and influential. I also much admired his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, which was brilliantly performed by the Labeque sisters with the NSO under Slatkin a few years ago.
"Sinfonia" may well be Berio's most popular piece -- his "Carmina Burana," as it were. But, as in the case of Orff, there is a lot more to him than just his "greatest hit."
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Nani/Texas: You once mentioned that you don't particularly care for "show tunes". Not even Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue? The late (great) Mr. Nani Texas and I fell in love during the musical An American in Paris and named our first daughter after Leslie Caron.
Tim Page: I hope I wasn't so blunt as to say that I didn't care for all "show tunes." I like a lot of them -- especially those by Noel Coward and Cole Porter, which have a certain edgy quality. I'm also a great admirer of Stephen Sondheim, and would count "Sweeney Todd" as one of the best American operas. Spare me "A Chorus Line," though -- and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The tunes are the thing in Gershwin. "Rhapsody in Blue" is a sort of "string of pearls" -- one great melody after another. I don't think it is a particularly well unifed piece. But neither are the overtures to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, which operate along the same principal. Sometimes a "string of pearls" is enough.
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Washington D.C.:
I have had the classical piano training for
many years now, and I'm interested in finding
a bar/lounge in the area to play, just parttime, maybe once a week for the summer. How does one get a job as a cocktail pianist?
Tim Page: I don't know what to tell you. I've heard some excellent pianists in Washington -- Burnett Thompson, for one, and Dennis at the Bombay Club. But I don't know many bars that have pianists anymore. Come to think of it, I don't know many bars. You'd probably do best just stopping in and talking to the management at a place you like that might take on a musician.
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Tim Page: Well, that would seem to wrap it up for today. Thanks to everybody who sent in questions -- I think we got to all of them this afternoon. I look forward to speaking with you in another two weeks -- and hope we can find a happy medium between heatwave and cold and gloom.
Till then...
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washingtonpost.com:
That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.
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