Isabel Leonard News
American operatic mezzo-soprano
- mezzo-soprano
- opera
- United States of America
- opera singer
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2024-04-21
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2024-04-08 03:30:00
A Jazz Musician on Classical Music and Jazz
[…] were so upset about my piece! It just shows how I'm right. While foaming at the mouth, my critics don't see the obvious piece that's missing with rhythm, blues and frankly, black music. FR: It’s surprising that people became that upset. I mean, the title is well chosen, it’s a bit provocative, but I didn’t read the article as a diss on Rhapsody in Blue. Rather, it felt representative of how many people have perceived that piece, from Leonard Bernstein and onwards. EI: I had thought of that phrase, “the worst masterpiece,” when practicing Rhapsody in Blue in order to perform it in concert. One day I said to myself, somewhat in despair, “God, this is the worst masterpiece.” Aha! That’s a good title, I've got to use it…Unfortunately, many read the title and did not consider the essay. If I had the chance to publish again, would I change the title? I don't know. FR: How did your jazz […]
2024-03-14 03:30:00
Recent Releases No. 72 (CD Reviews)
[…] play will pass, but what they write will stand.’ Soon, Bruckner was called to Vianna as court organist and also began to teach at the conservatory. (Of note, amongst his most famous pupils was none other than Gustav Mahler.) It is from this point forward that Bruckner turned almost exclusively to the symphonic form.” Austrian-born Manfred Honeck (b. 1958) opens his extensive booklet essay with an excerpt from a speech delivered by the late American Maestro Leonard Bernstein: “Perhaps, after all, it is only the artist who can reconcile the mystic with the rational, and who can continue to reveal the presence of God in the minds of men.” He then goes on to reflect: “Long after I was fortunate enough to play Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, this quote by Bernstein himself fell into my hands. I immediately and instinctively connected it with the music as […]
2024-02-26 04:30:00
Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa (Book Review)
[…] talk about it. Murakami was an interested layman. His principal musical passion is jazz, but as he writes, “I have also been listening to classical music with no less enjoyment, collecting classical records since I was in high school, and going to concerts as often as time would permit.” During one of Ozawa’s visits to Murakami’s home, the conductor began telling an interesting story about the famous concert in New York where Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein had a severe disagreement over tempi for the Brahms Piano Concerto No.1. Murakami thought it would be a good idea to get this story recorded. Ozawa agreed, and thus began the series of conversations that eventually led to the book.The book’s contents include: Introduction: “My Afternoon with Seiji Ozawa” First Conversation: “Mostly on the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto” Interlude 1: “On Manic Record Collectors” Second Conversation: “Brahms at Carnegie Hall” Interlude 2: “The Relationship of Writing to Music” Third Conversation: “What […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2024-02-17 13:50:36
[…] a Friday morning class to get in line for 90-cent rush seats (second balcony center). In 1957 I heard the Boston premiere of Stravinsky’s Agon, which used up so much rehearsal time that Bruckner’s Seventh, which rounded out the program, suffered in accuracy. I wonder if Munch really loved Bruckner, in any case. In the summer of 1959 I was a junior student at the Berkshire Music Center studying composition with Lukas Foss [more HERE]. Leonard Bernstein normally administered the conducting program at Tanglewood, but he was somewhere else that summer, and Eleazar de Carvalho had taken charge. A handful of “active conductors” got extensive directing time with the BMC orchestra; Charles Dutoit was one of these, as were Harold Farberman of the BSO’s percussion section (30 years later I had very good lessons from him at the Conductors Institute in South Carolina), and a very able Norwegian, Sverre Bruland; […]
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