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Classical Music
I like alternative rock. I like classical music. Mutually exclusive? Yeah, I don’t think so.After an earth-shattering violin concert (at which Liszt’s Third Consolation in D Flat Major was played – gorgeous), my friend and I got to chatting. The to... 
I like alternative rock. I like classical music. Mutually exclusive? Yeah, I don’t think so.After an earth-shattering violin concert (at which Liszt’s Third Consolation in D Flat Major was played – gorgeous), my friend and I got to chatting. The topic of oldies came up, and she said oldies stations are so popular because they only play the good music from the past – all the crap has been weeded out over the years. (This is definitely not the case with Top 40 music stations today: Ashlee Simpson - America, I ask you, why?).The same is true for classical music – the only difference is that a lot of classical music has had two or three hundred years to age, like a fine wine. In some ways, you can say that classical music is the tried - and the true.And yeah, I know – you feel like a pretentious jerk listening to classical. But seriously, what’s more kick-ass than listening to Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in your car - the bass makes your windows vibrate! And next time you feel like putting on the Sarah McLachlan and having a pint or four of Ben & Jerry’s, reconsider and throw on Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor. (Keep the Ben & Jerry’s.) And Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor? As has been said by friends of mine, that piece takes mad skillz, yo.My point? Live like a rock star; listen to classical.Don’t believe me? Check out the feeds below, and you’ll realize classical music is something else. From the music critic at the New Yorker to a symphony oboeist, with professional classical music writers galore, these people know what they're talking about. And hey, soon you will too.Rock on, my classical buddies.Related Top 10 Sources: Cinema | Fine Art | Opera | Jazz 
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Hilary Hahn, violinistAs arguably the most outstanding American violinist of her young generation -- with Julia Fischer holding the European title -- Hilary Hahn’s Thursday evening performance with the National Symphony Orchestra exemplified her unparalleled standards of perfection in performance. Verdi’s Overture to I...
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I've seen somewhere between eight and twelve Berkeley Opera productions over the last decade plus. The best have been superb, including the marvelous Legend of the Ring, Falstaff, a Magic Flute directed by Barbara Heroux, and David Scott Marley's hilarious adaptations Bat Out of Hell and Riot Grrl on Mars. Others have been...
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"I have four razors and a dictaphone." — Andrey Tarkovsky, 1979 Many thanks to all who have visited the blog over the past four years — 3.3 million page views.
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Argh: a press release from San Francisco Opera announces that Ewa Podleś has withdrawn from the upcoming Ariodante, to be replaced by Italian contralto Sonia Prina.
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Handel, Saul, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner
(remastered August 14, 2007)
Philips 475 8256With Saul, David, and Jonathan on my mind recently, it seems a good time to revisit this recently remastered recording of a classic musical setting of the Biblical story, Handel's oratorio Saul. The...
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Apropos of nothing, really. "With the Governor unavilable, I sat down in New Orleans to await his return and meanwhile try to build up a frame of reference, as the boys in the quarterly magazines would say. Politics is to...
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If you're in Scotland, don't miss the Opera Circus tour this month of Differences in Demolitions, the chamber opera by Nigel Osborne and poet-librettist Goran Simic, which grew out of the soundworld of Bosnian sevdah. I went to see it in Mostar last year - see Independent feature here - and am thrilled that they're doing it...
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Anne-Sophie Mutter, violinistWashington Performing Arts Society has released its schedule for the next season, and the choices may be somewhat predictable but with most of those reliable choices, how could one mind? Anne-Sophie Mutter will be back, for the Season Opening Celebration (October 11) with the Camerata Salzburg....
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Stravinsky once spoke of the "violent Russian spring that seemed to begin in an hour and was like the whole earth cracking." The composer John Luther Adams, whom I profile in this week's New Yorker, quoted that line to me...
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The Chicago Symphony has chosen Riccardo Muti as its next music director — or, it might be better to say, Muti has chosen it. Reports from Andrew Patner and John von Rhein suggest that the maestro forged an unusually strong...