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tutuandscoot · 1 year

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One thing I don’t think I’ve seen you speak about is (what I would consider to be beautiful improvement in) Tessa’s arm and hand extension between 2010 and 2018. I think that when she was younger she extended well but at times could be rigid in her hands from the wrist (actually I think you talked about that re Scott and the move to Montreal - we do read your long posts!). By the time 2018 came around, the fluidity was just gorgeous. I always think about the moment right before the Carmen lift in the Moulin Rouge Olympics IE dance, when she rounds the curve of the boards and her left arm is in a beautiful position right before she launches into the backflip (sort of third position with her other arm holding Scott). Anyways I think you’ll know the moment. It’s not to say that her hands weren’t beautiful before, just I thought better over time. What do you think? Happy weekend :)

Medium-length Post:

Omg yes this is something I need to talk about!!

I totally agree with the first bit you said about the stiffness in her hands as opposed to later on. I see people say when they’ve first watched them ‘oh she has beautiful arms and hands’ and I think yes she does but there were small things earlier on I can nit pick while she just improved them so much throughout their career- and when you are watching them in 2010 and saying her arms are stunning- then looking at 8 years worth of work and growth it’s mind blowing how much better she got!

So this rigidness I think is most obvious in their 2010 oly programs, In their CD and Mahler: I’m really not sure why this is and tbh it was the most significant in these programs that the olys. She hadn’t done this really before in other tango programs- not this much at least with her fingers straight together and yeah kinda stiff at the wrist, same in moments in Mahler, but like with the first gif then into these beautiful 5th positions with her hands held beautifully.. I’m not sure whether it was nerves kicking in and she was holding tension.. it’s a bit odd..

Ironically, in examining Valse Triste and Umbrellas, you can see a quite stark quality difference in both their upper body/arm carriage.

Valse triste they both had quite exquisite pure classical lines, hand extension (for their young age their relative maturity of movement is quite impressive).

Then in Umbrellas.. yes this kind of can be categorised as a ‘lyrical’ routine but I wouldn’t really describe it as that.. it’s really just a ‘free dance’ in literal definition. It’s just dancing as humans- not even ‘trained dancers’. So in this I feel they loose a bit of that pure classical quality, not in a bad way, but in comparing the precision to VT, you see the difference. Lines don’t quite get finished in the same way, not passing through foundational positions (1st, 5th, 3rd, etc).

It was a lot better in The Seasons- much more fluidity in her hands- at times almost becoming a little ‘fluffy’ but perfectly appropriate to the style, character, etc.

Another great moment to compare is her free arm in the rhumba pattern between 2012/2018. Throughout the season she would normally put her hand on top of his on her hip in the Choctaw but I just saw here at worlds she kept it extended similar to how she did in SFTD- so better to compare (even though the camera angle isn’t great for it). In 2018 there is just so much flow and confidence/ease in it, like she really, truly isn’t thinking about it in SFTD. The coordination is perfect. There’s maturity and sensuality in it, she’s just totally owning it right to her fingertips, she’s feeling herself in that moment, that chore, style, costume, all of it. 2012 she was doing the chore extremely well, but not feeling it to the fullest extent.

And yes as you said that moment in MR before the lift is stunning. The arm position, hand positions- EMOTION in it. And really throughout this performance, I know I banged on about Scott’s extension in this but hers as well- they were S T U N N I N G.

Another thing; This doesn’t have everything to do with but also kind of, so I’ll just mention it briefly: her costumes (the long sleeve ones) in 17/18 did WONDERS for her- this was really a fantastic dress design for her especially in how it accentuates her arms. TESSA IS B E A U T I F UL.. she’s athletic- she’s not this tiny little weak, &norXić thing that can’t hold herself, she is muscular, strong, powerful, terrifying. She’s also very pale- like the angel she is that was born to dance on ice. While those things make her exquisitely beautiful, they also contribute to her limbs sometimes not looking the most slim and toned (speaking for myself bc I have the same pale skin tone and muscular build), so she has to work extra hard at toning her arms and even then, a more tan colour just highlights that definition more.. especially on ice her pale skin against white can get lost. SO the long sleeve mesh was a god send for her because the way mesh stretches and interacts with movement/light highlights all her beautiful muscles, shoulders, and even.. not at all in a negative way against her natural beauty, slimmed her muscular back and torso down, just brought it down a bit and for the character of MR, in those moments where she had to be fragile but also incredibly sensual in others, just in the slightest way in working with her natural physique, slimmed her down and getting back to the topic of her arms, accentuated her already gorgeous lines. (She also physically slimmed down/lost some weight for the olys but that’s for another post).

The one program I’ve left out of this is Latch (and I’m sorry I have no gif room left to include a clip 😑) even the change/improvement between latch and MR.. where as in MR I talked about that slimming factor the dresses gave her, the Latch costume had the opposite effect but in a way that was very well suited to the movement/style and story. It was more athletic in a grounded way. Contemporary movement isn’t always ‘pretty’ and ‘balletic’. She expressed the movement incredibly well and they both showed again how they can adapt to any style- they aren’t simply the ‘lyrical’ skaters they were pigeoned holed as. Most certainly there are photos of them in Latch where her arm positions aren’t the prettiest- elbows rotated/ hyper extended, spiky fingers in moments, etc, but that happens to everyone.. and it doesn’t take away from the experience I have watching them. Latch like Umbrellas I feel, while in a different way is similarly a very human dance- not a obvious study in a particular movement style.. the way they move is just a vehicle to express the story, so i can forgive the movement not being picture perfect in every still image because it is about the emotion and interaction between them.

So while her arms were beautiful.. there is something I need to pick on.

Here when her arms are extended.. her elbows are kinda rotated the wrong way (but not by much). The inside of the elbows should be rotated down and upper arms rotated forward.

(Hopefully my lil scribbles make sense)

Ballet arm positions are very hard to perfect.. essentially every part of the arm has to be rotated the opposite way- like a Chinese burn (can u still call it that??) motion. It’s only subtle but the first time I recall watching Mahler I thought about this- that she’s beautiful, a true dancer, clearly has ballet training, but there’s that small detail with her arms that’s not quite ‘correct’.

A lot of it comes with maturity as well- not just training. Maturity of movement, expression. You are always rediscovering how your body moves within the parameters of the art form and how to best suit it to your body. This particular detail improved a lot- like I said essentially I didn’t really see in VT, it came after that and was quite obvious in 2010, along with the kind of rigid hands, the hand thing kinda went away after that.. it was really only Mahler I noticed it in, then yeah her arm positions (shape) improved heaps through to 2014, latch had its own thing going on in relation to the movement (change in personal movement expression/physique which I’ll talk about another time) then MR was just stunning- again both of them finding that together.

(Ballerina is Marianela Nunez of The Royal Ballet- Tessa in ballerina form essentially. Photos by Mariah Elena Buckley)

Why you don’t really notice this.. or people are able to watch her and say her arms are beautiful, is because she has such stunning posture and works her arms from her back. she never has any stiffness in her neck, her presence- the way she uses her eyeline, her twinkling eyes and smile, how she relates to Scott, projects to the back row of the audience, that freedom of movement is stunning. While the exact precise technique wasn’t always perfect, she always created beautiful lines. She had great body awareness- the shapes they created together were always complementary- they were very aware of how they looked physically together from the outside (again that improved massively as they got older as well). You can tell there is ballet training there with her, a lot of other girls there isn’t this quality- they don’t move like dancers. They don’t feel their bodies like dancers.

It’s so cool you’ve picked up on this anon bc I don’t know how many would.. it’s perfectly reasonable and I think it’s good to constructively criticise them, even 5 years post- competitive career, because they are wonderful, spectacular, by far the best there have ever been not just for their athleticism but their mental fortitude and example of teamwork and compassion. Of course they aren’t perfect, of course they didn’t arrive on the senior circuit perfect, they got better and better every year, while navigating ups and downs, and no doubt there would been more potential to explore post-2018, but as is life they had to move on.

#ask #love these kinds of discussions #also thank you 🙏 for reading my long posts that makes me so happy 🥰🥰#so many late nights my thumbs going a thousand miles an hour on my phone 😰

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twittercomfrnklin2001-blog · 1 year

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Tar

Is Cate Blanchette’s stardom predicated upon watching one of the most put-together of all actors fall apart? That’s where Todd Field’s TAR (2022, Peacock) derives a lot of its appeal. She stars as a highly accomplished symphonic conductor, and through a series of scenes early on we get a sense that she’s something of a con artist. She’s constantly playing roles with those around her, from solicitous, charming friend to the wealthy amateur conductor (Mark Strong) who runs her foundation to the tough act she adopts to dispense with a girl bullying her daughter at school. Even the warmth in her relationship with her wife (the very fine Nina Hoss) seems a mask. Blanchett plays those roles impeccably, as ever, but the real joy is watching her transported, whether by the beauty of the music she’s conducting, principally Mahler’s 5th Symphony, or her breakdown as she starts to lose everything over charges of sexual exploitation. In one scene she takes out her frustrations by wailing away on an accordion and screaming a song to upset some insensitive neighbors. Field’s script hits a lot of the right notes in dealing with the difficulty in separating an artist from their work and the potential for sexual exploitation by people in power. And he leaves questions unanswered rather than hammer home some easy theme. Early on, Blanchett harangues a conducting class at Juilliard when a student professes disinterest in cis male white composers because he finds their culture oppressive. Is she attacking his position because of her love of their music or because she is an oppressor herself? For all the good in the film, I couldn’t help wishing Field had structured it more classically. It takes over an hour to get the dramatic action going. Blanchett is always worth watching, but there’s a point at which you may start wondering why we’re experiencing so many details of her day-to-day existence for so long. I’ve heard some people were confused by the final scenes, but I found them a witty comment on what the character’s actions have led her to. And they too leave the audience with a question to ponder: how can you continue to enjoy the gifts of a Lydia Tar without putting her in a position to harm others? Is this ending the only answer?

#cate blanchett #classical music #mahler

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ousooo · 2 years

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out now: NOÉMI BÜCHI - MATTER

Release: November 25, 2022 Format: vinyl LP + digital Buy on Bandcamp / Kudos Stream via Spotify / Apple Music

«Music gives us the illusion that time is not time, but space. It is then that the music transforms from process to object, which I find a very interesting thought; a materialisation of the sound process. Sound is matter.» - Noémi Büchi

Noémi Büchi’s debut album ‘Matter’ captures the tension between growth and decay, consonance and dissonance, mirroring Büchi’s own catharsis through music. Her most personal material to date, ‘Matter’ is an opus of refined, sculpted beauty, one that aims to blur the distinction between ephemerality and physicality. Inspired by late romantic classical music and early 20th century contemporary music, ‘Matter’ is driven by the compositional methodologies of Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Skrjabin, Gustav Mahler and György Ligeti to modern sound forms, adapting and expanding upon their ideas in an awe-inspiring exploration of cutting-edge potency and tactility.

Büchi structures the electronic works that constitute ‘Matter’ in movements, stratifying myriad instrumental parts like the constituent sections of an orchestra. During her work on the album, Büchi engaged in extensive research, obsessively studying specific chords and progressions, and searching for transcendent intonations with resonant properties; complexions of sound with the ability to connect with the listener’s body. Transforming our inner worlds into zones of suspension and levitation, Büchi exposes the listener to intoxicating slipstreams of sound. Prominent voices ascend, tectonic disturbances threaten the foundations, perception and sensation becomes subject to elemental countercurrents and inversions. ‘Matter’ illustrates the fraught pursuit of momentary equilibrium, and makes the fragility of euphoria tangible. Composer & sound artist Noémi Büchi creates electronic, symphonic maximalism. Her music is defined by delicate electronic-orchestral forms and textural rhythms. She strives for a combination of harmonic and dissonant sonorities, to evoke both intellectual and emotional euphoria. Büchi has appeared on the Light of Other Days and Visible Dinner labels, and is now an affiliate of -OUS, releasing ‘Hyle’ her debut EP on the label in spring 2022. As well as her solo output, Noémi Büchi is currently working with Feldermelder on their collaborative project Musique Infinie. Their debut album will also be released via -OUS in the near future.

___Tracklist

01 - Elemental Fear - 3:43 02 - Screaming At Brutism - 2:38 03 - Causes Of Forgetfulness - 3:06 04 - Measuring All Possibilities - 3:49 05 - Uncertainty Of An Undefined Interdependence - 4:44 06 - Memorizing By Heart - 3:37 07 - Taking The Train With Mr. Shark - 3:53 08 - Prelude For Rational Freshness - 5:12

___Release

Release date: November 25, 2022 Format: 2xLP + digital

___Credits

Written and produced by Noémi Büchi Mixed and Mastered by Manuel Oberholzer VFBM Photography by Jean-Marc Avila Photography / 3D reworked by Mirko Eremita Encor Studio Graphic design by Alfio Mazzei

___Shops

Bandcamp / Kudos / Boomkat / Bleep / Juno / HHV.de / Deejay.de / Beatport / Spotify / Apple Music

#ous041 #noémibüchi #releases

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klavierpanda · 2 years

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top 10 favorite songs?

Sibelius' 7th Symphony

4th movement of Mahler's 9th Symphony

I'm Not Okay by MCR

4th movement of Mahler's 5th Symphony

Foundations of Decay by MCR

United States of Eurasia by Muse

Tod und Verklärung by R.Strauss

GOLDENVENGEANCE from the Omori ost

Sugar Star Planetarium from the Omori ost

Your best nightmare from the Undertale ost

Once we get past like the top three the order gets sorta hazy. Thank you for the ask though!

#ask panda #ask game #anon

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divajc · 1 month

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Tune in at 4 p.m. EST

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lesser-known-composers · 8 months

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Bruno Walter (1876-1962)

#Bruno Walter

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openingnightposts · 8 months

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#BigBand #Birdland #EdwardAKliszus #Jazz #NewYorkNightLife #TheaterDistrict #TimesSquare

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eventsnearme · 8 months

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San Francisco Symphony: A Cultural Beacon Rising from the Ashes

In the aftermath of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire that shook the foundations of San Francisco, the city found solace and inspiration in the form of the San Francisco Symphony. This renowned orchestra has since become a cultural cornerstone, enriching the city's vibrant cultural life. From September through June, the San Francisco Symphony graces the stage with its seasonal program, offering music enthusiasts a chance to immerse themselves in a world of harmonious sounds. In July, the music doesn't stop as the orchestra extends its reach with summer concerts. The musical tapestry of San Francisco is further enriched through performances by the San Francisco Youth Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, which add depth and variety to the orchestra's repertoire.

#San Francisco Symphony

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werewolvesandaccordions · 1 year

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Sibelius – Symphony no. 2 in D Major (1902) Of all the major composers I post and talk about, Sibelius is probably at the bottom of the list. And that, I admit, is because it took me a long time to appreciate him. Even this symphony, which was praised by audiences but panned by critics for being too bombastic, “vulgar”, and “self-indulgent”, came off as dull to my ears. But that was years ago. I recently decided to give Sibelius another shot and I’m starting to understand him better. In 1907, he met Mahler and the two of them had a conversation about the symphony genre. Sibelius said that he loved it for its “severe” style and the logical consistency of connecting multiple movements together via the motifs. Mahler shook his head and said “No, the symphony must be like the world; it should contain everything” and that quote is immortalized by Mahler’s fans and used to explain why his works are so great. But Sibelius’ comparative conservatism doesn’t produce old-fashioned symphonies. This symphony is unusual in the way that probably made me think of this one as boring so many years ago; it’s 45 minutes long but nothing actually “happens” until the last movement. Ironic considering how I’m a Bruckner fan and he is often criticized for filling his symphonic beasts with a whole lotta nothing. So I fundamentally missed the point of what Sibelius was trying to do with this work. He described it himself as “it is as if the Almighty had thrown down the pieces of a mosaic for heaven’s floor and asked me to put them together”. And so the first movement does act like a mosaic being crafted, or a puzzle being put together; it opens with the strings only, playing a pretty and simple chord progression, a three note melody from which the rest of the work springs, before the winds and brass come in with comments. It is the beginning of the sonata movement, but musicologists disagree on when the “second theme” comes in. Is it the long melody played by solo violins? No that comes too soon…is it the awkward modulating pizzicato? Is it the more energetic rush that comes right after that? In the repeat of the three note theme, the orchestra is more flushed out and decorated, like another layer of bricks over the foundation. In the middle, we get fugal-like passage that acts to heighten the drama. It takes us toward the last section, where the music is more flushed out and lyrical, building up again to a brass chorale over shimmering strings, until all of these little ideas come fully together into a shining coda, only to drift off into silence. The next movement opens with a timpani roll, and then a long ostinato on plucked bass. A melody crawls out of the bassoon, one that Sibelius wrote nearby, “Don Juan. I was sitting in the dark in my castle when a stranger entered. I asked who he could be again and again — but there was no answer. I tried to make him laugh but he remained silent. At last the stranger began to sing — then Don Juan knew who it was. It was death”. While this movement is more lyrical than the first, it is not as Romantically sentimental as you would expect. It is interjected with scherzo like string work and mildly dissonant brass. It ends up being an overall heavy movement, with some moments of optimism in what feels like a Beethovenian funeral march. The scherzo is upbeat with a capricious use of the strings. But in the middle of it we get a slow wind passage, which is a tombeau to Sibelius’ sister-in-law who committed suicide. Despite the tragedy, the music seems to stop, and take a new turn toward a budding triumph. The fourth movement bursts through with golden brass, and we get the sense of completion, that this is the moment the work was building up to. Here the music is allowed to raise and be fully expressive, overlaying of a powerful scale motif that drives it forward, and acting as the symphonic mosaic that Sibelius alluded to. He also said that this work is “a confession of the soul”. Movements: 1. Allegretto 2. Tempo andante 3. Vivacissimo 4. Finale: Allegro moderato

mikrokosmos: Sibelius – Symphony no. 2 in D Major (1902) Of all the major composers I post and talk about, Sibelius is probably at the bottom of the list. And that, I admit, is because it took me a long time to appreciate him. Even this symphony, which was praised by audiences but panned by…

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tinas-art · 1 year

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dariaandjanelanefanboy · 1 year

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hushilda · 1 year

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nwdsc · 2 years

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(▶︎ Meeting with a Judas Tree | Duval Timothyから)

Meeting with a Judas Tree by Duval Timothy

Recorded 2019 - 2022 Primarily recorded at my home studio in South London, Carrying Colour studio in Freetown, my old studio in Rotherhithe Old Police Station, and Casa Mahler in Spoleto. Recorded on different pianos, including an upright in Freetown that had lost the felt of its hammers due to the humidity creating a harpsichord-like sound as the raw wood struck the strings. Other prominent instruments featured are Moog Grandmother, double bass, electric guitar and Juno-G. Part of the piano recordings on 'Up' and 'Drift' were composed and recorded through April 2021, whilst I was an artist in residence at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Spoleto, for the 'Mahler, The Song of the Earth' project in partnership with Mahler Foundation. During the residency, I was studying and creating work in response to the life and work of Gustav Mahler, in particular 'Das Lied Von Der Erde' (The Song of the Earth) — a vast song cycle engaging with nature, forgiveness, friendship, and mortality themes. While making this record, I wanted to explore what the natural environment means personally. I went on many trips into nature to engage with plant life and natural materials. These included everyday strolls around South London, walks with my mum in the hills surrounding Bath (Up), hikes through Freetown, the hills of Spoleto, up line in Ghana and nature sanctuaries in Sierra Leone (Wood). I found incredible examples of nature in all of these contexts, which I felt personally close to. I made field recordings with my phone or Zoom recorder, documenting various birds, insects, monkeys, bats, plants, trees, stones and so on, which are all on the record. クレジット2022年11月11日リリース All music by Duval Timothy Produced by Duval Timothy Additional piano & synth on Wood ft. Yu Su by Yu Su Additional guitar by on Wood by Kiran Kai Co-writing on Wood by Yu Su and Thunder by Fauzia Additional production on Up by Vegyn with voice field recording by Erica Timothy Live effects on Thunder ft. FAUZIA by FAUZIA Additional production on Drift ft. Lamin Fofana by Lamin Fofana Mixed by Philip Weinrobe at Sugar Mountain Mixed for Dolby Atmos by Brian Bender at The Motherbrain Mastered by Josh Bonati Carrying Colour Records 2022 Published by Decca Publishing, a division of Universal Music Group Ltd.

#2211 #RC #****

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michael-weinstein · 4 years

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Leave me alone!

WARNING: This post is a venting-out of boiling anger, which can amount to mental illness. Maybe not for those weak of heart, but for sure for those who caused me so much anxiety, and contrarily, those who want to help me out of this. As for everyone else, read and suffer.

Well, corona, the world is practically on fire, and what else... Oh yes. Things in the relatively more intimate world (that is, for me) - namely, school, my followings on Instagram, YouTube and email subscriptions - keep bothering me to an incredible extent. I was wanting to write this blog post since March honestly, but I didn't find the time and the need to vent everything out. Now, though, that I am really mad, I'm somewhat thankful for the opportunity, because I'm making my opinions known, and merely hoping that they get more circulation than before.

My main classical music following had been Deutsche Grammophon and Decca (through email and Instagram, and - in the case of the latter - 2 YouTube channel subscriptions), the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras (Instagram), Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc (email) and the ClassicsToday.com editor David Hurwitz (YouTube viewing). All of the following had, to a certain extent, drive me insane in the past few months, in ways that I can't describe (one time with Hurwitz, it was so much so I needed to vent my anger in this very outlet). To a certain extent, for those who remember, the same happened with the Mahler Foundation in May, but since writing that post, I've come to realize that not only this is pretty much not important (at least much less than it seemed at the time), there are far worse issues that I'll need to address (I won't yet, perhaps to get more reading and get the image fixed, but I'm hoping I will address this important issue relatively soon). My great bane with the BPO and VPO, but especially with DG, came around the time of the Salzburg Festival in August, which was itself a bane all by itself, but by having these 3 leading musical institutions being an important part of the Festival just made me go bonkers. I don't really had a problem with the Festival being held at the time, when corona cases where relatively low, as long as the Festival was being sensitive, and did things on a much smaller scale as they had said at the beginning that they would. But the moment that they do Elektra and Mahler's 6th, whatever social distancing there would occur in the audience, with so many people onstage and/or in the pit, they're just calling for trouble. It is indeed something of a miracle that there were no casualties during the Festival, but I really think it would have been smarter not to take the risk, whatever the need for culture (besides, probably only those who would attend are those who are "jet-set" and are in Salzburg every year for the wrong reasons, but I will maybe discuss that sometime). The Vienna Philharmonic were therefore one of the major partners in the crime, more so than their Berliner counterparts. But, and this is the important part, I would very much in my hoped-for career as probable pianist and maybe composer, but most as conductor, want to collaborate with the Berliners and the Viennese. They are orchestras that I maybe don't need, but I do want to make music with. The same thing can't really be said for Decca and, more importantly, DG. Interestingly, Decca almost seems dead in the way that they rarely post on Instagram, sent a newsletter or upload on YouTube, while DG is excessive beyond normal human standards. I think they post on Instagram averagely 3 times a day, upload on YouTube twice, and send a newsletter each weekend. How the hell can you bear such a thing?! There are more adventurous labels with pretty "big names" (Alpha, Chandos and Hyperion, to name just three), that I would feel more comfortable to record with, than DG, Decca and probably also Warner (I don't follow them anywhere, which is probably just as good, considering the pervious sentences).

In addition, throughout the Festival the Karajan institue also helped to bring in their own click-baiting and "martyring" of their namesake. My attitude to Karajan as man and conductor is more mixed than it was in the past (most of which can be attributed to Lebrecht), but ever since then they made me emotionally sick with statements to the effect that Karajan was the greatest conductor ever. I have to admit that I'm much more of a Bernstein fan, and that I had barely listened to Karajan recently, but the Bernstein Offices never, apart from the centenary, did interviews of the Karajan kind, and even I'm going to admit that some Bernstein interpretations are less well than some others, maybe even than Karajan's!

So now with the Salzburg band-wagoning out of the way, there are two other culprits: Hurwitz and Lebrecht. I've encountered Hurwitz fairly recently, and I should add, that I have rather mixed relations towards him. One day in the morning, I see a video he uploaded and it makes me absolutely mad (see the link above), and then in the evening he uploads a humorous roast with which I completely agree. But generally, I'm just mixed with him. My relation to Lebrecht is also mixed, though generally positive. He has just finished a survey of most of Beethoven's output. However, his behavior regarding the "Schenker storms" is either complete misunderstanding or just outright conservative foolery.

There are 2 other "classical music" personalities which I have to mention. My relation with Mark Berry is very mixed, but he hasn't bothered me as much since March, as the main activity on his blog Boulezian (shows pretty much where he is heading) is concert and opera reviews, and he didn't have much of a chance to that, so I'm thankful for that. I will give him credit though that he is actually one of 2 people whose blogs gave me the impetus to start mine.

The other one is the other "classical music" personality I want to talk about briefly, Kenneth Woods. He is music director of the Colorado MahlerFest, the English Symphony Orchestra, and writer for his blog View from the Podium. I like him very much, as I share a lot of his musical affinities - Mahler and Shostakovich, to begin with - as well as professional insights into music of (among many others) Strauss and - perhaps more importantly from an interpetive point of view these days - Beethoven. I kind of just happen to agree with many of his opinions, and even those which I didn't think of before, I agree with them because they make sense to me. I think that the reason he appeals to me, is because he's a conductor and a cellist (also used to be a guitarist, and does it in his free time!). With the exception of Hurwitz, who was a percussionist in local orchestras, everyone else I mentioned above are scholar-critics. Woods appeals to me because he's a practical musician (and he keeps a rule not to talk about any living conductors, or at least not mentioning them by name). He was an orchestral cellist, as well as a soloist and chamber music partner as well, so he experiences the actual music world of making music from both sides, as cellist and conductor. Hurwitz, Lebrecht and Berry all might have interesting observations, but their ultimate test is in the performance lab, and that is why I like Woods so much.

So far, I've dealt with classical music's personalities and industry. Now I have to deal with my friends and other Instagram followings. It's more irritating, because even though they are dishonest like the "establishment-industry", they are closer in my world in a sense. Yom Kippur was recently, and I can still remember everyone around just going "I'm sorry, God" and all the other standard things one says before Yom Kippur. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU KIDDING!!! Everyone, especially yourselves, know that we promise never to do these things again, and barely an hour has passed since Yom Kippur is out, and we come back to do those things again. Every year it happens. Everyone knows it, it is simply an open secret that nobody either needs or wants to say. I say the same on myself, by the way. Yom Kippur is a complete lie for us, because neither me, you, and even the most just and Mitzvah-keeping person on Earth, are able to keep the promises that we will get better than this. It never happens. Why do we get flodded with this? It's absolutely no worth. You say that you're "sorry about the way I insulted you"? Complete rubbish. Unless you found out that the entire situation was so stupid you can laugh about it, nobody is sorry about anything they said. The king is naked, and as the meme says, "always has been".

My classmates start growing on my nerves sometimes. The way people just ask for answers so immediately and lazily, without having tried to answer things themselves just makes me go mad. I don't have a problem if they try to do it, or if they're in a rush at the last moment, and ask some guys for answers. But when as soon as the assignment is sent, they ask for someone to do the job for practically 10 other classmates (if not more!), that's too annoying.

My teachers, however, go on a different way of making my life difficult. They don't really annoy me by poking their selfish faces at me as much as expecting me to do everything perfectly. Even those who are kinder (in a sense, since I'm one of the good boys, so kinder practically means that they teach better or are more interesting) make me mad. There are only 2 teachers (another comes close) in the entire school I'm able not only to appreciate, but also to love learning with them. Fortunately, one of them is my homeroom teacher. Without these few teachers, I wouldn't care about school at all. It could just go to hell. We currently have a shutdown, but I still remember a few weeks ago that during a math class, I needed to read my score of Shostakovich's 4th just to keep myself from making my mental health even worse than it was (and probably still is). And even during shutdown, things are not improving. Zoom calls were to be a complete waste of time, were it not for my piano lessons and (sometimes) therapist sessions. History class is especially badly taught. The teacher of that class is of the kind of "the smaller the group - the better", because when I was with her in smaller groups she truly was better. Mind you, I'm the nerd guy who loves history (though I'm probably not the only one in our class), and she managed to make history boring. That's a complete failure. Sports class is a complete waste of time in ways I can't really describe. You can only feel it.

I have though been somewhat fortunate since May and June. Because of my critique of the Mahler Foundation and its online Festival, I've got in touch with a 8th-grader (they/them) from Canada, an a college sophomore in English literature from Florida. We three formed an online gang of just us, getting together on the basis of our love for Mahler and Shostakovich. With their advice, having understood that I will need some really fitting music to get me through the year, I've decided that I will listen on my way to and back from school, as well as during breaks, to listen to nothing but Shostakovich. That plan sort of fell through pretty quickly (by which I mean, only 3 days), but Shostakovich was a great part of my phone repertoire in these first 3 weeks of the school-year. In the last week, however, Henze's Fantasia for Strings took over, and it was somewhat fitting, given that the music began its life as Henze's score for Young Törless, an adaptation of the novel by the fairly similar name of Robert Musil, by Volker Schlöndorff (his directorial debut). These two, the 8th-grader and the sophomore, are practically my main lights these times, when we sometimes meet for a call on Discord at night.

However, these few lights are still engulfed by the complete darkness and hypocrisy that surrounds me now. I've had enough! My complaints go out now especially to the education system in this country which is just reacting horribly to the situation! I can simply go crazy from that! All the Instagram personalities, do me a favor, and please do consider those who are probably less well mentally than you are, and stop showing the way you're enjoying yourselves in pools and parties. And cut the "no filter" crap! If something would have really been with no filter, it would be ordinary and dull. To quote Alex Ross, who in turn paraphrases Nietzsche, I'm done with "the lie of the grand style". Less Wagner (in his conservative bits) and his idiotic imitators, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and all those who thought that music stopped with Beethoven, more Mussorgsky, Scriabin, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Satie, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich, Weill, Hindemith, Weinberg, Bernstein, Britten, Nono, Berio, Henze, Messiaen, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Penderecki, Schnittke, even Boulez and Cage. And please do more meaningful Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Ravel and Sibelius.

(Quick sidenote: I have to admit, that this post was written in turns, I wasn't commited to write it. Sometimes I got super angry and vented.)

A few days ago, my sophomore friend sent me a link to a Discord server, where she, the 8th-grader and a couple other friends were part of, and asked me if I would join in. I said I would join gladly. This is my first Discord server, and therefore I've got 4 other friends. This is where I feel at home, where I belong (not in terms of family, thank God, but in terms of friends). I really do prefer being with them than with my classmates.

Our educational system is either a joke, or a gulag. What is the point to have being taught the material on Zoom, for averagely 6 and a half hours a day, 5 days a week, and putting even more workload on us than we had been in school physically, and even more than when we studied online from March to June! And then they expect us to ace through the final exams that we have in the next 2 years! Once in the past few months, I've once wondered about a question: would I prefer to ace my exams, but thereafter being so mentally and emotionally shocked that I will need psychaitric treatment? Or should I not do them at all, but still being able to do what I love doing and be happy with myself? After thinking about it for several seconds, I answered that I would prefer the latter, and ever since then I've been saying this to certain people around me unhesitatingly.

Leave me alone! I'm not able to cope with all of this! I'm feeling so empty, I don't even want to eat a whole ton, sleep a lot, or even die! I'm just empty! I'm barely able to play the piano (that is mentally), I just get tired of it almost immediately! I don't want this to happen! Everything loses its appeal to me!

Over the past few weeks, I've come to know Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet, one of the most autobiographical and depressive pieces ever written. It was composed in 1960, when he had just returned from bombed-out Dresden, where there was a movie filmed about the last days of World War II to which Shostakovich composed the music, but more importantly, it was not long after he had suddenly joined the Soviet Communist Party (probably forced to). These 20 minutes of the quartet feature throughout a musical motif - the pitches D, E-flat, C, B-natural. In German notation they are D, S (in German it's actually Es, but the pronounciation is the same), C, H (B is used in German for B-flat). The composer's name, as rendered in German is: Dmitri Schostakowitsch. This is not the first time he has been consciously using this motif (he had already been doing so for nearly a decade), but this is the most extensive use he has ever made of it. It's as if he is obsessed with himself. Shostakovich, as a result of joining the party, was obsessed with suicide, and most of his works from there on consider death, in a way he rarely did previously, death for completely fatalistic reasons, nothing to do with the authorities. The 15th String Quartet, his last, is even bleaker.

The basic point is that ever since I came to know this piece and the school year started, I've used the slogan DSCH as a symbol of protest. I can still remember having half-done math homework, and before scanning them and sending, I scribbled DSCH clearly and furiously across the top of the first page.

The last movement of Shostakovich's 8th String Quartet, a slow fugue on a theme beginning with the DSCH motif, is the movement in which Shostakovich seems to obsessed with this motif the most. And all I can say is that for the past two months, if not even more, I've been wanting to just say "Leave me alone!" for eternity, like DSCH in that movement. Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone....leave me alone...leave me alone....leave me alone....leave me alone.....leave me alone..... leave me alone..... leave me alone..... leave me alone....... leave........... me.......... alone......... leave......... me........ alone....... leave....... me....... alone............ leave............ me............. alone................ leave.............................. me.............................. alone..............................

leave me alone

#vent #salzburg festival #david hurwitz #classicstoday #norman lebrecht #slippeddisc #mark berry #boulezian #kenneth woods #mahler foundation #henze #shostakovich string quartet 8 #dsch #coronatime #corona time #gustav mahler #dmitri shostakovich

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