Berkeley Akademie will feature the final performance of its season tomorrow night with Bach’s Italian Concerto (in a modern arrangement for chamber orchestra by Joachim F. W. Schneider); Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 3 (“Camp-Meeting”) and Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major, Opus 20. It will be Kent Nagano’s final performance as music director of Berkeley Symphony, though he’ll continue to lead the Akademie.

Read the details in this Berkeley Daily Planet‘s article.

In the late 18th-century, there was nothing condescending in the idea of being an amateur. Amateurs were, quite simply put and true to the first sense of the word, people who loved music. They could be patrons, quite obviously, but also performers and even composers. Prince Louis Ferdinand, a contemporary of Beethoven, was after all himself a composer. It is amateurs, not professionals, who founded the mythical Musikverein in Vienna and, one stops to think of it, Schubert was possibly the biggest amateur of them all, most his works being premiered in informal gatherings, the Schubertiades.

Anne Midgette, critic at the Washington Post, has dedicated two posts of her blog to the matter this week. The first, a general presentation, can be read here. The second talks about the difficult role of the music critic, a person that loves music but cannot give unfounded praise. But what exactly does it mean for a critic to love music? Read her answer there.

American soprano Angela Meade has won the 2009 edition of the Montreal International Musical Competition last night, a prize worth $30 000, doubled with an Analekta recording. Her powerful voice, her superb technical control and her true professionalism – it’s not every young singer who can say that she stepped in to replace an indisposed Sondra Radvanovsky at the Met! – wowed the audience. She concluded her program with “Casta Diva” from Norma, a rather gutsy choice, considering the number of legendary performances of the aria and a remarkably powerful “Pace, pace” from La forza del destino that brought the crowd to its feet for the only stand-up ovation of the evening. No one will be surprised if (when) she wins the Audience Prize tomorrow night, at the official ceremony held before the gala concert.

Canadian soprano Yannick-Muriel Noah took second place ($15 000) and American baritone Andrew Garland third ($10 000). Both will also sing tomorrow night, as well as two prizewinners from previous editions, Joseph Kaiser and Julie Bouliane.

Saturday, May 30 at 1 p.m. on CBC Radio 2 (including on the Web), Saturday Afternoon at the Opera will feature a 4-hour special programme of MIMC Voice 2009 highlights.

The Final round will be available online starting May 29. The video concerts of the Semi-Finals will also be posted for one year on Espace classique.

Ideal critics should have all the important works of at least one hundred composers and the representative works of many others at their fingertips. They should also know how to play an instrument (or more than one), in order to understand the challenges of interpretation every musician faces, and, why not, be able to master the subtleties of conducting an orchestra.  Their knowledge of musical theory, analysis, composition and the history of music ought to be encyclopaedic. Foreign languages constitute an essential basis to appreciate a singer’s articulation, and determine how a text is appropriated. An exemplary curiosity is necessary to follow interesting performers and to grasp the connections that link a musical work to other artistic forms, be they literature, the theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, architecture or film. Naturally, all that knowledge must be expressed eloquently.

Since there is no such thing as perfection, let us now revise our criteria. What essential functions do critics, whether they are professional (and write for a daily paper or specialized publication) or simply amateurs, serve? (You have to admit that a complimentary comment on a work or performance on the part of a friend will be as persuasive, if not more so, than a long complicated speech). We could define some of the general directions critics should follow, but basically they ought to facilitate the artistic and emotional connections of the listeners to a musical work and kindle their enthusiasm. To do so, critics must stimulate and guide without letting their own perceptions squash those of the audiences they are addressing, and also, if possible, widen their field of interest.

Never would it enter our minds to impose an immutable point of view or critical approach. Rather, we’d like to recommend a few ways to hone your perception and especially increase your enjoyment.  Are you ready to take on this new challenge?
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The key of C minor, not often used at that time, gives the work a feeling of drama and tragedy. The well-known rhythmic motif of the first movement, which everyone immediately recognizes, and which was meant to stand for “fate knocking at the door”, according to Beethoven (a claim musicologists now generally discredit), became the Allies’ rallying cry during the Second World War  – in Morse code the letter V of “victory” is three short taps followed by a longer one. It serves as the basic material not only for the movement but also for the whole symphony.

The movement follows the sonata form, favoured by many composers of the Classical era. This form implies a structure in three sections (exposition, development and recapitulation) and the use of two principal themes, of contrasting character and complementary tonalities. The two themes are presented in the exposition, then developed more or less freely in the central section before being heard again, lightly modified, in the recapitulation. Beethoven also includes a particularly elaborate coda (from the Italian “tail”).

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