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MUSICAL EVENTS
- GenresMusic
524 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Andrew Porter
62 books4 followersAndrew Porter (born 26 August 1928), is a British music critic, scholar, organist, and opera director.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
This is the profile for the music critic.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
This is the profile for the music critic.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 13, 2018
The last and least of Porter's collections of reviews. There are fewer of the fascinating, ruminative studies of musical and performance history found in the earlier books; this is much more of a catalogue of concerts and events, and an unfortunate tendency to overstatement creeps into Porter's writing.
Ever the champion of "new music", he now lapses into hyperbole: ". . . a genius—a Mozart, a Beethoven, an Elliott Carter. . ." (elsewhere he likens Roger Sessions to Haydn, Mahler, and Ives(!)); "[Bernstein's] double bill of Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place can be likened to an American Ring . . . "; the book is full of lines like these, which should have made their writer blush.
Porter's belief in the dramatic power of Handel's operas is now expressed with an evangelical zeal which resists qualification. His antipathy to tight, propulsive, sharply dramatic conducting appears to have intensified, leading him to pan some very exciting Verdi productions under the baton of James Levine. Saddest of all, his usual commitment to operatic staging which accords with the demands of composer and librettist falters a little, and we find him embracing Syberberg's Parsifal and a Eurotrashy Rusalka, although his loathing for Jean-Pierre Ponnelle remains intact.
There are good moments here and there, but these mostly rehearse ideas and information available in the earlier books. This one can be passed on without grievous loss.
Ever the champion of "new music", he now lapses into hyperbole: ". . . a genius—a Mozart, a Beethoven, an Elliott Carter. . ." (elsewhere he likens Roger Sessions to Haydn, Mahler, and Ives(!)); "[Bernstein's] double bill of Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place can be likened to an American Ring . . . "; the book is full of lines like these, which should have made their writer blush.
Porter's belief in the dramatic power of Handel's operas is now expressed with an evangelical zeal which resists qualification. His antipathy to tight, propulsive, sharply dramatic conducting appears to have intensified, leading him to pan some very exciting Verdi productions under the baton of James Levine. Saddest of all, his usual commitment to operatic staging which accords with the demands of composer and librettist falters a little, and we find him embracing Syberberg's Parsifal and a Eurotrashy Rusalka, although his loathing for Jean-Pierre Ponnelle remains intact.
There are good moments here and there, but these mostly rehearse ideas and information available in the earlier books. This one can be passed on without grievous loss.
Displaying 1 of 1 review