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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: I hate, hate, hate, hate Boston Symphony!
Post Subject: Fashion du jourPosted by steverino on: 10/1/2013
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"Their review of the M2 was however the most frivolous piece of writing about serious music I've read since, oh, 1958.
The
performance came across on the radio much better than it did evidently
in the hall. It did evince a good deal of restraint and, for lack of a
better word, tastefulness, but the mezzo was terrific (vibrato aside,
but what can you do?) and the percussion battery at the very end was
quite the best I've ever heard. I'll listen again."
The comments about this perf (leaving aside the reviewer's blather) sound identical to my perceptions of Mahler 2nd I heard from Chailly and the Concertgebouw about 10 years ago. This is what Dohnanyi, Chailly, Salonen, Dutoit, Rattle, Young etc etc produce. You either like it or not. It is music to enjoy after a lawn croquet game. Many people apparently enjoy tidy restrained performances of the 19th century orchestral works whether Mahler and Bruckner or Schubert's 2nd. As with CJ the only area where I find some verve is left is in the formerly benighted percussion section.
However, there is another more serious underlying issue. Audiences in the past were listening to a large slice of contemporary works. Now the orchestra and soloists are playing the same works over and over. Technically it's usually quite good but mostly sounds like highly processed food tastes. So the emphasis at least with soloists is more eye candy than ear candy.
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