To quote Jim Morrison – “This is the end.” Sticks&Drones is shutting down, its authors moving on to greener pastures (I’m writing a book and Ron’s running for congress), and the readership gets to focus on the new Star Wars movies without any distraction. I had meant for this post to be something of a retrospective on the gritty life and times of S&D, but true to form the business has dialed up one more travesty that cannot be ignored. So, one more rant before S&D goes out in a blaze of glory. Let’s talk about legacy, history, and pigheadedness.
Uncategorized
ürtext – The Singular Lens
What are the tools that can be used to make a great performance? Imagination, technique, consistency… depending on your definition of ‘great’ it can be many different ones. Why Ürtext, then? An article by Stuart Isacoff in the WSJ today wants to make the case against the ürtext editions many of us use and love. What is strange about his argument is that it starts with a rather spot-on critique of the state of piano performance today. I quite agree with him that recordings have made much pianism rather, well, bland. Micro-editing has been a detriment … Continue Reading
Guest Blog: Viswa and The San Diego Opera
It has been a few days now and yet I still don’t understand this decision on the part of the San Diego Opera board. But what do I know? I don’t spend every waking moment dreaming about opera, producing opera, conducting opera, etc., so I’ve turned to someone who does.
Centenary
‘Twas a hundred years ago today, Sgt. Igor taught the world to play. OK, maybe I shouldn’t quite my day job.
Mirror, Mirror…
“What if instead…” scenarios are always wishful thinking, at least until someone actually builds a fully functional TARDIS so that we can go back in time and change some small detail that leads to an alternate reality. But here’s mine.
The Nuclear Option
Did you notice? Did anybody notice? Really? Look again….
Through the Looking Glass
The Year of Living Dangerously in the classical orchestral world continues. This time we get an interesting twist on the standard with the West Coast edition. After a while it’s hard not to get desensitized to all the bad news out there. Then I ran into a civilian.
Thanks for the Memories – the Musical Cliff
I would hate to start 2013 off on a contrarian note, but since that’s the way I ended 2012 why change now? Matter of fact, why not up the ante? Start the year on a high note? So my first target of 2013 is……. the New York Times. No, seriously, I don’t really have a beef with the NYT, although I did just hear that the Culture Editor is stepping down, and that makes me a little nervous. However, there has been one article that has made the rounds the last few … Continue Reading