Comments on: Finding the Right Gimmick http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=4184 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 04:48:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.6 By: Dr Charles Barber http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=4184&cpage=1#comment-184110 Dr Charles Barber Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:38:05 +0000 http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=4184#comment-184110 Dear Mr Clark: Many thanks for your kind mention of my book about Carlos. I knew and studied with him from 1989 to the end. It began when I was still a grad student in conducting at Stanford, and wrote a letter asking if he would take me on. He replied, and so it went for 15 years. This was the most amazing musiker I have ever encountered. He worked as perfectionist, and as Ecstatic. And he was a very private man who appeared, occasionally, in a very public profession. Such are the contradictions. A final word, and another duality. I am often asked about his first name. It means much more than is usually understood, and illustrates the very special DNA of his work. He was born in Berlin, and raised in Buenos Aires. This matters a very great deal, I believe. “Uniquely, Carlos Kleiber combined the rigors of German analysis, form, and discipline with the expressive vitality of Latin dance, pulse, and joy. For nearly twenty years at the formative outset, a conductor baptized Karl gradually became Carlos. He never turned his back on that fascinating cultural biochemistry. It would shape everything he did.” Again, thank you for the note. PS: Alison told me a very funny story about her encounter with CK. It's in the book, and involves Bernstein and cigarettes, unsurprisingly. Dear Mr Clark: Many thanks for your kind mention of my book about Carlos. I knew and studied with him from 1989 to the end. It began when I was still a grad student in conducting at Stanford, and wrote a letter asking if he would take me on. He replied, and so it went for 15 years.

This was the most amazing musiker I have ever encountered. He worked as perfectionist, and as Ecstatic. And he was a very private man who appeared, occasionally, in a very public profession. Such are the contradictions.

A final word, and another duality. I am often asked about his first name. It means much more than is usually understood, and illustrates the very special DNA of his work. He was born in Berlin, and raised in Buenos Aires. This matters a very great deal, I believe.

“Uniquely, Carlos Kleiber combined the rigors of German analysis, form, and discipline with the expressive vitality of Latin dance, pulse, and joy. For nearly twenty years at the formative outset, a conductor baptized Karl gradually became Carlos. He never turned his back on that fascinating cultural biochemistry. It would shape everything he did.”

Again, thank you for the note.

PS: Alison told me a very funny story about her encounter with CK. It’s in the book, and involves Bernstein and cigarettes, unsurprisingly.

]]> By: Kurt-Alexander Zeller http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=4184&cpage=1#comment-183802 Kurt-Alexander Zeller Fri, 16 Mar 2012 22:03:29 +0000 http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=4184#comment-183802 I heard the Hartmann concerto played by a regional orchestra some years ago and was completely transported by the utterly, but beautifully, bleak work. I had gone that evening to hear a particular soprano I had never had the chance to hear "live" in the Beethoven Ninth. As it happened, she was announced indisposed and was replaced by someone else, so I didn't hear her--but I went home absolutely un-disappointed. In my interest in the singer, I had paid no attention whatsoever to what would be opening the program when I bought my ticket, but it turned out to be this concerto, of which I had never heard. I found it exquisitely moving, even revelatory, and gladly would have heard it twice and dispensed with the familiar Beethoven altogether that evening--though I will admit that the elderly gentleman to my immediate right was of a very different opinion. I am glad to know that another American orchestra will be presenting the work. I heard the Hartmann concerto played by a regional orchestra some years ago and was completely transported by the utterly, but beautifully, bleak work. I had gone that evening to hear a particular soprano I had never had the chance to hear “live” in the Beethoven Ninth. As it happened, she was announced indisposed and was replaced by someone else, so I didn’t hear her–but I went home absolutely un-disappointed. In my interest in the singer, I had paid no attention whatsoever to what would be opening the program when I bought my ticket, but it turned out to be this concerto, of which I had never heard. I found it exquisitely moving, even revelatory, and gladly would have heard it twice and dispensed with the familiar Beethoven altogether that evening–though I will admit that the elderly gentleman to my immediate right was of a very different opinion. I am glad to know that another American orchestra will be presenting the work.

]]>