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Date: | Sun, 21 Feb 1999 16:30:37 -0600 |
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Janos Gereben writes:
>There seems to be no middle ground in the `Moses & Aron' controversy (love
>it or hate it), but I am staking out an agnostic position. I just don't
>know if it's `good' or `bad.'
>
>I know only that I doesn't speak to me, and that it's entirely possible
>that those who champion it (including those poor musicians) know something
>I don't know.
Moses und Aron has never been my cup of tea either, and I say this as, in
general, a Schoenberg admirer. I think it a hokey cross between Philosophy
101, the Romantic lament of "nobody loves me because I'm so wonderful," and
a De Mille epic. I don't find the music compelling at all.
Having said that, I must also admit that I've heard only two performances:
the film (so inept that the audience began laughing) and the first CBS
recording (dull). I would be interested to know what so sharp a musician
as Gielen would make of it. In general, I don't think Schoenberg a
dramatic composer, but rather a lyric one. One really has very little
stake in the characters or the story.
Steve Schwartz
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