George Thomson's "Suffering as a Prerequisite to Joy" on www.sfcv.org.

Check also, on the main page, Bob Commanday's essay on Lorraine Hunt
Lieberson.  For fun, read Stephanie Friedman's review of Lorraine's
Berkeley concert and see how one mezzo can entirely miss the point about
another mezzo's unique, inimitable art.

It's thrilling, on the other hand, that Thompson, Kent Nagano's assistant
conductor, is able (and willing) to write thusly about St.  Messiaen of
the Blessed NY Times:

   It is the 40-minute-long sixth Tableau - the much-vaunted sermon
   to the birds - that most tries the patience.  Here Messiaen is
   at his most self-indulgent, the more so for crafting his libretto
   so as to make the enumeration of all sorts of exotic birds a
   theological necessity.  He was just a bit nutty about the bird
   thing.  The sympathetic listener will regard this trait with the
   tolerance and affection one might bestow on a relative just a
   bit too interested in Civil War memorabilia, as he shows you
   videos of the most recent re-enactment he attended.  As the scene
   progressed, and the series of exchanges between Francis and Frere
   Massee ("what bird is that one?" "The Wren" - but expanded to
   several phrases) continued, the audience started to calculate
   the number of birds contained in the Sibley guide, multiplying
   by a few minutes per bird, subtracting the number of minutes
   since their last cup of coffee, et cetera.

Janos Gereben/SF
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