Date: |
Sun, 23 Jan 2000 14:07:01 -0600 |
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Robert Clements replies (sort of) to me:
>... Harrison Birtwhistle is a profoundly unpopular composer who has
>remained on the British concert schedule because of a small group of
>supporters in the local critical & performance industry. Unlike Wagner,
>there's no groundswell of opinion waiting for Der Meister's new utterance:
>but plenty of critical hype instead.
Granted. But I can't think of a really popular living classical composer.
Can you? Even John Adams, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, fellows who
actually make a living from their concert work (as opposed to John
Williams, who makes his living from his movie work), aren't terrifically
popular, even among classical aficionados.
>His selection as an ideal subject for student performance has more to
>do with funding quotas being tied to specific kinds of projects than
>any intelligent assessment of musical needs: you have to run student
>performances & Flash Harry is a critical darling deemed worthy of
>sponsored performed; so: voila!....
What a cynic. It could very well be that the story and the goings-on
on stage might have been enough to carry it through, just as "advanced"
music has proven very effective in horror movies. I don't think it's a
non-starter of an idea. The kids could very well have a harder time with
Cosi or Fidelio. And how many times can you resort to Hansel and Gretel?
Steve Schwartz, who has never heard Gawain
|
|
|