A new exhibit will open on February 22 at Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, centered around Debussy, whose 150th birthday will be celebrated throughout 2012. The exhibit is “a mix of works Debussy admired and those he could have seen”, according to the team behind this all, Xavier Rey of the Musée d’Orsay,  Guy Cogeval, the director of the Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie (formerly head of the Montreal Fine Arts Museum) and musicologist Jean-Michel Nectoux. Pieces once owned by his brothers-in-law—the painter Henry Lerolle, the composer Ernest Chausson and Arthur Fontaine — are mostly featured.  If you plan a trip abroad, you won’t want to miss it. Concerts and conferences will also be presented until June 11.

Details can be found here…

Everyone loves to hate them, but critics remain an essential part of the music world. Alex Ross from The New Yorker, author of The Rest is Noise, was in Oberlin recently for the inaugural edition of the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism.

Part symposium for present and former critics, part workshop for ten young writers from the Oberlin community, the event also offered concerts for the student critics to judge (and seasoned journalists to discuss, no doubt), including performances by the Cleveland Orchestra. In his address to students, Ross quoted E. M. Forster: “The critic ought to combine Mephistopheles with the archangels, experience with innocence. He ought to know everything inside out, and yet be surprised.”

The post can be read here…

I finally saw The King’s Speech last week. Yes, I know, everyone has seen it several times, got a copy of the DVD for Christmas, critics have hailed the film, and why would I wait so long to see it? I must admit, when everyone seems enthusiastic about something, I’m generally more cautious about attending. Well, in this case, I was more than pleased with the film, led by two remarkable actors, Colin Firth and Goeffrey Rush, and supported by some very beautiful photography.

It was also most interesting to examine how classical music was woven into the narrative structure. Mozart’s overture to Nozze di Figaro is used as background -  or rather drowning – music when Bertie, not yet king, records a monologue from Hamlet for Lionel  and excerpts from the sublime Clarinet Concerto accompany the speech therapy montage. Beethoven shows up twice as well, with excerpts from the slow movement of the “Emperor” Concerto but especially with the Allegretto of this Seventh Symphony, used when King George makes his first wartime speech, adding density and emotion to the moment. I must admit that the night after I saw the film, that particular music haunted me several times…

Here is the scene, for your enjoyment.

Of course, you know and love Beethoven’s Ninth (who doesn’t?) You may want to listen to it as performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal when they inaugurated the Maison symphonique de Montréal in September or could try something a little different, for example the project 9 Beet Stretch, the brainchild of artistLeif Inge. Here, a recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth doesn’t last a little over an hour but 24 hours, without pitch distortion. It gives the work a somewhat eerie quality at first but then a profond sensation of calmness emerges.

Click on Ludwig’s face to start your podcast of this new reading of the work.

Christmas is around the corner and you are wondering what you could give to that special person on your list who listens to music constantly but are afraid he may have that CD you really liked? Here are a few book suggestions for you…

This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science Of A Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levithin. In this captivating book, the author explores the connection between music (whether making it, writing it or just listening to it) and the human brain. Among others, he answers the question: “How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world?”

Another classic take on the matter is Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia: Tales Of Music And The Brain. What is it about music, what gives it such peculiar power over us, mostly positive? This book explores how diverse our experience of and with music can be.

And, last but not least, hot from the shelf, A Natural History Of The Piano: The Instrument, The Music, The Musicians–from Mozart To Modern Jazz And Everything In Between by Stuart Isacoff. If I had encountered this beautifully illustrated celebration of the piano before today, I certainly would have put it on my wish list. The author is also a pianist, a critic and a teacher. In this latest book, he celebrates the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, and Debussy, analyzes the techniques of Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Arthur Rubinstein and Van Cliburn, lets Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler and Vladimir Horowitz discuss their approaches. He also talks about jazz through Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor, and Bill Charlap. A definite keeper!