“The completely qualified critic does not, cannot exist … If he knew all there is to know about music, that would be but a beginning. If he knew everything about literature, about painting, about sculpture, about the dance and about the theater, he would be a superman among his fellows, but there would be much more for him to learn.”
Oscar Thompson, Practical Musical Criticism
We know that newborn infants are sensitive to a variety of sounds. But what do they factually hear? Can they make sense of the musical world around them? Do they have a sense of rhythm, arguably one of the fundaments of music? Researchers from the Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Amsterdam are studying the question.
Twenty-six Opus Prizes were awarded by the Conseil québécois de la musique yesterday in Montreal at Salle Claude-Champagne. In the category “Concert of the Year - Montreal”, three of the five nominees were Analekta artists: Ensemble Caprice for its concert “Vivaldi and the gypsies”, Les Idées heureuses for its “Promenade in Munich, Music at Albrecht V court” and baritone Jean-François Lapointe for “Paul Verlaine” (also nominated in the category “Concert of the Year - Classical, romantic, postromantic and impressionist repertoire”). Lapointe was awarded the prize in the “Concert of the Year - Montreal” category.
An Homage Prize was awarded to organist Bernard Lagacé, without a doubt one of the most important organists on the international scene today. Many of his legendary performances were recorded on the Analekta label, including Bach’s complete works for keyboard, launched in 2000. The boxset is still a reference today. To listen to one or the other of those works, you may click here.
The complete list of winners can be accessed here.
Most people may remember Aretha Franklin’s electrifying rendering of America - and her extravagant hat! - but, yes, classical music was heard at Barack Obama’s inauguration yesterday. Contemporary music, to be precise, written just for the occasion by John Williams. Indeed, despite the instrumentation of the work (violin, cello, clarinet and piano), it wasn’t Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, a choice that may have been a tad over the top for the occasion. Nevertheless, despite its more accessible exterior, Air and Simple Gifts had several qualities, not to be dismissed. The ending was sweet and quiet, after a raucous section that recaptured Obama’s victory speech in November. The title and the use of the folk song Simple Gifts was a nice homage toward Aaron Copland - who wrote Lincoln Portrait, among other truly American sounding music, let’s not forget. Most importantly perhaps was the look of sheer delight on the face of the president while he was listening to Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Antony McGill
Alex Ross, from the New Yorker, comments more extensively on the matter here…
Anne Midgette from the Washington Post is less tender. To read…
To listen to the work, you may do so here…
From January 5 to16, CBC Radio 2 invited Canadians to help select the top “49 songs from north of the 49th parallel” that would best define our country to the incoming U.S. President Barack Obama. Quite a few nominations were submitted, including quite a few Classical pieces. A first vote was held and the list was sized down to 100 titles, list that included 3 classical selections, including Glenn Gould’s everfamous recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
Listeners voted again for the top 49 songs that they felt represented Canada the best. Gould made it to the top as well as Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman singing Goin’ Up a Yonder and heldentenor Ben Heppner singing We’ll Gather Lilacs.