Archive for the ‘Albert Babbling On’ Category

“ENGLISH MUSIC IS WHITE, IT EVADES EVERYTHING” Elgar Part Three

Sunday, January 12th, 2014

  by Albert Innaurato Elgar (the quote above is his) chats with George Bernard Shaw. Sir Edward owed Shaw 1000 pounds! Lady Elgar died in 1921, Elgar was devastated. Whatever their amorous intimacy, Alice had been everything else to Elgar. Her passionate belief was more crucial after WW 1 than it had been since the […]

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“GOSH MAN I’VE GOT A TUNE IN MY HEAD”. ELGAR PART TWO

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014

By Albert Innaurato That is Sir Edward Elgar playing possum. He arranged this photograph of himself “dead”. The flowers are a nice touch, don’t you think? The quote is from a note Elgar got up from composing the “trio” section of his first Pomp and Circumstance March to send to a friend. He was right, […]

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DOWNTON ABBEY AND ELGAR, 5O SHADES OF VAUGHAN WILLIAMS AND YES, BENJAMIN BRITTEN!

Monday, January 6th, 2014

BY Albert Innaurato In John Elliot Gardiner’s Bach — Music in the Castle of Heaven there are some penetrating remarks about Henry Purcell. Ralph Vaughan Williams is buried right next to Purcell in Westminster Abby. Vaughan Williams and Sir Edward Elgar had ended the idea that Purcell was the final great English composer. And then, Benjamin Britten had donned […]

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THE CALLAS CLICHE

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

By Albert Innaurato. December the second was the 90th birthday of poor Maria Callas. The encomiums of hysterics appeared on the opera lists; there was even a doodle on Google. Isn’t that a thrill? Like Placido Domingo, who lately cracked on a high note while trying to sing the Verdi baritone role of The Count […]

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CLONE CHRISTINE GOERKE!

Sunday, November 24th, 2013

by Albert Innaurato (Christine Goerke congratulated by Birgit Nilsson after winning her competition) Buttons that should be made from the Met’s Die Frau ohne Schatten: CLONE Christine Goerke. ANNE SCHWANEWILMS FOR ACT THREE. FIRE VLADIMIR JUROWSKI. I thought he rushed through in a business like if technically able way, missing the high romanticism, the “nuss”, which is […]

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ON UNSELFCONSCIOUS STUPIDITY, LOVING MUSIC BY HATING IT

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

by Albert Innaurato On Saturday evening, YannickNezet-Seguin conducted The Philadelphia Orchestra in a stunning, almost unbelievably thrilling account of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, written for the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1941. It seemed the most modern and challenging work on a program containing two world premieres.  Yannick (as he introduces himself to audiences) had an amazing grasp […]

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TO DIE FOR: THE MUSIC ONE CHOOSES AS THE LIGHT GOES OUT

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

by Albert Innaurato I visited my doctor yesterday. He looks like Santa Claus. He eyed me and said, “Yo!” (he’s from South Philly), “No trick or treats. You’re a fatty.” I thought of Luke 4:23, where The Nazarene is mocked, “Physician, heal thyself” (Cura te ipsum as the nuns used to scream at us after […]

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NORMA ABNORMAL

Monday, October 21st, 2013

by Albert Innaurato I went to Bellini’s Norma at the Met on Friday. I was late to the party, Sondra Radvanovsky’s Norma has been praised as a throwback to greatness by many of the easily enraged hard core  — and some of these people have been seeing international performers of this huge role for 60 and more years! But just […]

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Who Am I? Is This the Asylum?

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

by Albert Innaurato Well, Alberto (that’s me) does babble on a lot. And that reminded me of a little known Rossini Opera, Ciro in Babilonia. Poor Ciro does have his problems, though talking too much isn’t one of them (on the other hand, in my case, …). It’s one of the happy/sad realities of a troubled time […]

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