2007_08_01_archive

Not So Fast.

A.C. Douglas has some comments on Christian Thielemann and this year's

Bayreuth Ring. I heard parts of Das Rheingold and Siegfried, and hope

to catch most of the rest on rebroadcast. Still, I have to comment on

a couple of ACD's remarks:

...Christian Thielemann is, hands down and far and away, the best

Wagner conductor working today, and can be counted among and is the

equal of the greatest Wagner conductors of whom we have recorded

record.....His Wagner readings recall the Wagner readings of the

Wagner Gene possessors of times past -- Furtw�ngler,

Knappertsbusch, Krauss, and Solti -- with an added touch of that

elegant sense of orchestral color and ensemble that was von

Karajan's..

First, off, before naming anyone the best Wagner conductor working

today, I'd suggest experiencing in person the genius of Donald

Runnicles at his best. His Tristan last year was overwhelming;

magnificently proportioned, and gorgeously played and conducted, with

astonishingly beautiful orchestral balances.

More seriously, I just can't put Solti in the same class as

Furtw�ngler or Knappertsbusch. His Ring is certainly exciting and

colorful, but he falls down when the score is contemplative or

intimate rather than exciting. Compare, for example, his conducting of

the passage starting "O ihr, der Eide, ewige Huetter" in the

Immolation, with how almost anyone else handles it, from Toscanini

with Traubel to Furtw�ngler with anyone to Goodall with Hunter. It's

as though Solti goes to sleep whenever the music gets quiet and

introspective. The Walkuere is seriously studio-bound, as well,

compared to the other three recordings. His Ring is about the last one

I put on, although there are reasons other than the conducting for

that. As far as Solti's other Wagner recordings go, well....the

Tristan is undistinguished, for the reason I detail above: there's too

much intimate give-and-take for Solti's conducting style, which is

best in highly theatrical music such as Goetterdaemmerung.

I have a caveat to this, as well:

All that's needed now is the surfacing of another Flagstad or

Nilsson, another Melchior, and another Hotter, and we'd be all set

to record for posterity a Ring for the ages.

Alas, not going to happen.

You need to hear Christine Brewer, an Isolde for the ages who will

soon be a Bruennhilde for the ages.

Posted by Lisa Hirsch at 4:23 PM 0 comments

A Heck of a Job

Geoff Edgers reports that Josiah Spaulding, Jr., President and CEO of

Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center, made $409,000 and received a

$1.2 million bonus in the 2006 fiscal year despite five years of

deficits at the Center. The Center's entire annual budget for fiscal