Since time began, the freshness of the new if not the usefulness of the improved has usually banished the old. Mozart, and if I add the desk, your carriage will no longer be in its original condition. “I’m sorry,” Norm says, shaking his head. Or let’s imagine Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart bringing his horse-drawn carriage into an eighteenth-century Norm’s place to have an added writing desk installed for his composing. Is my imagination getting the better of me or has no other age besides ours placed so much importance on preserving things in their prized original condition? Just picture a caveman rejecting a stick tied to a rock with animal skin (the early hammer?) because his rock would no longer be in its original condition. This “historically informed” performance was intended in essence to turn the clock back more than two hundred and fifty years in order to recreate how music of Bach’s time would have sounded-in other words, to present the Brandenburg Concerto in its original condition. The performers used vibrato sparingly and played with a lighter, more transparent sound. ![]() The concert was billed as “historically informed and played on period instruments.” “Period instruments” in this case meant a wooden recorder rather than a metal flute, harpsichord instead of piano, and string instruments with lower bridges, shorter necks, gut strings, and Baroque-style bows. I attended a performance of Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto. The reason, the real estate agent said, was that the house had been kept in its original condition. When Mom, then a widow, finally decided to sell the house, the eventual buyer paid slightly more than the house’s market value. ![]() I guess my parents thought there was nothing wrong with their sweet little three-bedroom home just as it was. What they didn’t do was renovate, expand, or change anything-something others might have reasonably considered for a house built in the 1920s. ![]() They had the roof fixed if it leaked, called the plumber if the toilet backed up, and checked for termites regularly. Mom and Dad took reasonable care of the place. My parents lived in the same house for almost forty years. Steinhardt, and if I move those strips, the Mustang will no longer be in its original condition. “I’m sorry,” Norm said, shaking his head. When I pointed this out to Norm and asked that the errant strips be aligned more pleasingly, he took out his Ford manual and showed me that they were placed exactly according to specifications. The first of three decorative chrome strips along each side of the car didn’t line up with the other two. Once all the details had been discussed with the shop owner (let’s call him Norm), I remembered something that had always bothered me. Now, he says he wants to inspire other young people.My old Ford Mustang convertible needed a paint job several years ago so I took it to the local body shop in upstate New York where I live. Regardless of where the music takes him, Prior says he has no regrets about all the work he's crammed into his short life. Though they tried to expose him to a variety of things, he chose classical music. Shortly thereafter, Prior and his mother moved to Russia so he could continue his studies at the St. Obviously, I had no technique, but the orchestra could see I was 11." "I was, what, 11 or 12? And I didn't have a stick, so I just took a pencil. Several years ago in Moscow, the conductor for the orchestra recording one of Prior's symphonic poems showed up drunk, and Prior had to fill in. Symphonies have their pick among hundreds of conductors, and some think Prior is too young to have what it takes. "That he was chosen to work with us was a great thing." ![]() "It's a piece of so many transitions," Sabee says. 4 many times, and he's been with the orchestra longer than Prior has been alive. It was just a rehearsal, but Prior clearly takes it seriously.Ĭellist David Sabee has played Symphony No. He got off to a rocky start, but the tension dissipated as soon as the orchestra began playing Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. Recently, the symphony gave donors the opportunity to see what Prior could do.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |