Ever wonder if your dog stays adorable when you’re away? They do. We got regular updates from our friend Sarah who stayed with Lucy while we were in the Bahamas.

Okay, not really. Among the giant stack I took with us for 12 days, none of them were actually Bahamian, but they were books I read in the Bahamas and about four of them that I finished got left behind on Harbour Island. Not only has it been quite a while since I blogged, but it has been even longer since I actually wrote about books I’ve read.

My stack. I read five and a half of them. I’ll let you do the process of elimination to see which ones I didn’t get to.

The Last Days of America by Paul Erdman

This is a book I picked up at the Book Thing in Baltimore where all the books are free. I tend to find lots of Helen MacInnes and other spy/political thrillers there. I didn’t know anything about Paul Erdman but since they are free, I could afford to make a mistake. I was not disappointed. I think the author had a weird political axe to grind that I couldn’t entirely figure out. He seems to have disliked Reagan as much as he disliked Carter.

The action takes place in about 1985, but the book was published in 1981, so the geo-political and economic situation were different then reality, were sometimes wildy off, sometimes wildly prescient, and always entertaining. Predicting the dip in Apple’s fortunes after its initial success was prescient, but assuming its demise was the part was wildly off. Another bit that was disappointingly off was that he envisioned Reagan as a one-term president.

It is against this Reagan-less Cold War that Erdman weaves his tale of a missile manufacturer who tries to bribe NATO better than Boeing and General Dynamics but then ends up in a weird deal that has West Germany re-arming so they can be the dominant force in Europe. This in itself is prescient in a way, fears of a strong Germany played out when Thatcher and Mitterand opposed a reunified Germany in 89/90, but Erdman was wrong when he thought the reunification would a result in the entirety of Germany joining the Soviet-bloc. And the book kind of ends there, with the U.S. too weak to put any kind of effective political or military pressure to achieve a better outcome. If I had read this book prior to 2016, it would have seemed laughably impossible. Now, after four years of you know who, the reemergence of fascistic sympathies around the world, and Boris the idiot in charge of the UK, geopolitical chaos seems more likely than not.

I really enjoyed this book and plan to look out for more of his work.

Marion Fay by Anthony Trollope

Months ahead of this trip I was hankering for a chunky Trollope, but kept telling myself to wait for vacation. This is the story of a brother and sister each falling for lovers (in the Trollopian sense) well below their class. For anyone with working knowledge of Trollope you know the general back and forth that happens before this one wraps up. Although I enjoyed this fairly well, for those of you who haven’t read Trollope, I’m don’t think I would start here. Start with Rachel Ray or The Warden or The Eustace Diamonds. It may not have been my favorite Trollope, but it still did a great job scratching my Trollope itch.

Passport to Panic by Eric Ambler and Charles Rhodda

I recently read a memoir by Eric Ambler where he mentions how most of his collaborations with Charles Rhodda under the pen name Eliot Reed where much more Rhodda than Ambler. I don’t remember if this was one of those, but it does feel a bit like Ambler-lite. However, it is still a delight to read with all the things I like about a vintage political thriller–voyages, telegrams, newspapers, and very little violence. Man goes to South America to find out what’s up with his non-communicative brother only to find his brother in a coma with the situation being managed by his brother’s, hitherto unknown, supposed brother-in-law. Intrigue ensues.

A great vacation read. But, if you haven’t read Ambler, go for his named work before you start to look for these Eliot Reed titles. Save those for when you discover you love Ambler and are worried about running out of the real stuff.

Man Overboard by Monica Dickens

British naval officer in the 1950s finds himself forcibly retired as the Royal Navy continues its post-war force reductions. Although 35-year-old Charles was a captain, and is looking forward to having a shot at the private sector he soon realizes he isn’t trained to really do anything. He is also a widower with a, I want to say 11-year-old daughter. Early in the book, while still in the Navy, he starts dating a television star and one is led to believe that the whole book is going to be about him juggling his status with the vagaries of his diva girlfriend. But about halfway through the book Dickens seems to have decided that that wasn’t as interesting as Charles himself. This is where I think things became more like the kind of book I wanted to read. I enjoyed the ladies at an employment agency who kind of adopt him. I loved his mother-in-law and his daughter. I really liked how a decades-old fascination with a house and family he sees from the train window turns into reality. And I was really excited when he becomes bursar at a boys school and really starts to stir things up.

Ultimately enjoyable, but there are better Monica Dickens novels out there.

Temporary by Hilary Leichter

This is the “half book” of the six and half that I read on vacation. I still haven’t finished it and vacation ends today. However, I will indeed finish it. So far I am loving it. The main character is a temporary employee and everything kind of hangs off the notion of temporary. There is some really brilliant writing in this and it gives me a similar vibe as The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker and Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris–two books I absolutely love.

So far I love this book. An absolute delight.

Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay

Focused on a young violinist, I was really looking forward to this one. But alas, it was not to be. I realized I was in for a formulaic rollercoaster ride by an MFA-author. You know the type. I left it behind in the resort library without reading beyond page 40.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

If you haven’t read Lonesome Dove, forget what you think you know about these 858 pages and give it a go. If you’re like me, you’re no fan of Westerns, but you can suspend your general disinterest when something good comes along (like John Williams’s brilliant book Butcher’s Crossing). And this is good. Very good.

It is an epic tale of two former Texas Rangers who lead a group of cowboys, gamblers, hands, a prostitute, a cookie, two pigs, and about 3,000 head of cattle on a drive from the Texas borderlands up to Montana. Among the very harsh physical realities and stunted intellectual development of most of the characters, there is so much pain and beauty.

Once you get into the swing of this one, it is hard to put down. On one day of vacation I read over 400 pages and couldn’t wait until the next day when I could pick it up again. There is much that is problematic for our 2022 sensibilities, and I can see it pushing buttons, it pushed some of mine, but if you accept it for what it is, it’s worth the trip.

As semi-lockdown, not quite normal, is still the way of the world, it can sometimes escape me that working from home (staying safe and employed) can be damn stressful. Yes, I am lucky to have that kind of stress. I am very aware of those who have been impacted by Covid in much more pressing ways. But all experience is relative, and sometimes I don’t know how stressed out I am.

It was against this backdrop that we recently had friends in town to stay for a long weekend. They are friends of mine from grad school who have, happily, also become good friends with John over the past 19 years. There was a time when they lived here in DC, about six blocks from us, and we would get together one or two times a week for dinner. Having them here for three days was like Christmas in November. All of the day-to-day crud just sloughed off my body. I could literally feel my blood pressure diminish.

So what did we do? We did go out and about on Saturday, but then on Sunday, rather than head off to the National Gallery like planned. We stayed home and did nothing. Well, not really nothing. We did taste tests. What? you say. Yes, we did taste tests. At some point as she emerged from lockdown, Jennifer decided she liked doing taste tests. And who are we to say no to something that includes food?

And then three hours later I was making tuna puttanesca over pasta. Fabulous way to spend a Sunday.

As regular readers of Hoggletstock know, I can get pretty excited about a book challenge. Being an adult, I also love the fact that I can drop out of said challenge whenever I feel like it. But the other night, I was lazing about in my library poking about in my non-fiction section. So many things I never make time for because fiction is much more my bag. And then I thought, why not? Let’s give it a go. I can always drop out whenever I feel like it.

I tried to pull books that were varied enough to capture my mood at any given time. And I also tried to make sure that I had enough on the pile that aren’t too academic. (Although, I must say, almost none of my non-fiction collection could be classified as academic.) So this is what I came up with.

We’ll see how all of this goes. I think I’ve chosen enough that I consider truly fun reads, so I shouldn’t find it too problematic. But the second something is expected of me (even by myself) I tend to rebel.

Because our 17-day road trip was cut down to eight, I didn’t do as much book browsing as I anticipated doing. I was particularly looking forward to going to used book stores and just having a good rummage around. Prior to hitting the road, I think I had only been in two used bookstores since March 2020. Buying used books online is even less satisfying as buying new books online. Plus the I was hoping to come across some of the dusty old forgotten authors that aren’t desired enough for someone to put them for sale online. I was looking forward to the hunt.

As you may already have seen in an earlier post, I did have a good hour at the Book Barn of the Finger Lakes, but its so over filled that it was somewhat challenging.

Looking through my photos, I realize that I didn’t document things very well. It was nice to forget about the phone in my pocket, so I guess that was a good thing.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, with lots of mid-week closures throughout western MA we had a day to kill and weren’t quite sure how we were going to do it. Doing my research the night before really narrowed down the choices. It seems like the only thing open on this particular day was The Springfield Museums in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s a series of four buildings, one for science, one for history, and two for art. In the end we only had time for the art buildings.

It’s always nice to be on vacation for your birthday, but that doesn’t always guarantee a great time. Since we had exhausted most of what we wanted to do in the lower Berkshires–I might have just made that up, I guess we would probably say the southern Berkshires here in the US, but ‘the lower Berkshires’ makes it sound like I’m in rural England–anyhoo, since we had kind of run out of things to do and so many shops are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we decided we needed to go further afield for our day’s adventures.

One of the beauties of a road trip is you can be spontaneous. The night before my birthday, I looked at a map and decided we could drive north with Bennington, VT as our main destination with the idea of being in Troy, NY for my birthday meal. In doing so I broke the the cardinal rule of any good trip–Always do your research. But more on that later in this post.

On the drive up to Bennington, which I quickly realized we had started on too early in the morning, we came to Williamstown, MA the home of both Williams College and the Clark Art Institute. We hadn’t intended on going to the Clark because we had been there on our previous trip to the Berkshires and I knew that they had implemented timed entry tickets due to Covid, and we didn’t have a timed ticket. But since we had plenty of time we decided to take a chance on being able to get in. I’m so glad we did. Having expanded since 2008, the Clark is even more amazing than before and it provided a really nice way to spend a couple of hours.

After the Clark we continued our path north by zigging over to North Adams the home of MassMOCA, another art museum we had been to in 2008. I opted out of going there this time because the art tends to be room-size conceptual kind of stuff, or other things that are somewhat lost on me. I mean how long can you stare at a Dan Flavin. (Look it up, not long.) And because we had Bennington to look forward to, we didn’t bother to poke around the former mill town.

Now, when I picked Bennington as our destination, I had visions in my head of another serendipitous stop we had made in Vermont on our previous road trip in 2008 in which we stayed the night in the very charming town of Woodstock where there was one of my favorite used bookstores of all time (and the place where I first discovered the work of May Sarton).

But Bennington is no Woodstock. While the town has some very nice architectural bones, there was a lot of empty retail space that appears to have been vacant prior to Covid. Half of the shops that were closed that day and not very interesting to start with. This town could use about 100 LGBTQ families to fill up the great old buildings with shops you actually want to visit.

There are a couple of museums that we might have enjoyed in town, but as I mentioned, I hadn’t done my research, and I didn’t know they existed.

And I hate to say it, but the indie bookstore that was there had recently moved locations and was not even remotely conducive to browsing. I’m sure my mood had something to do with it, but the store felt very suburban and not at all cozy. I literally spent less than a minute inside and turned around and left without even touching a book. Back out on the street I saw one of those “open” flags that seem to be all over the place in vacationland to draw attention to shops that visitors might be interested in. We crossed the street and walked a bit to go see what we could see only to find a vape shop. Time to leave Bennington.

Although my birthday felt like a bust at times because of Bennington, if we had only planned to go to the Clark, Famous Lunch, and the DQ, I would have considered it a fantastic day. I guess it is all about setting expectations.

The last time I was at an orchestra concert was in Bologna in February 2020 just as Covid-19 was taking hold in Italy. A few weeks later I saw my last opera just days before Washington locked down. We planned to make the Berkshires in western Massachusetts a stop on our trip, but then I discovered that the Tanglewood Festival was actually and the two days I had planned expanded to four.

Tanglewood

Tanglewood wasn’t the only reason we wanted to go to the Berkshires (more on that in the next installment), but once I realized I could hear three orchestra concerts and two chamber concerts in a three-day span, it did become a bit of an organizing framework for everything else. For those who may not know, the Tanglewood Festival has its roots in a series of concerts the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave in the Berkshire in August 1936. Not long after, they built the “Shed” that is still used today. And not long after that, the Tanglewood Music Center was created to offer advanced musical study to young musicians, composers, and conductors. Essentially a summer camp for musicians.

Having played such a central role in the lives and careers of so many musicians in the U.S., I’ve read about Tanglewood since I was 18 and plowing my way through musical biographies. The idea of a bunch of musicians hanging out in the idyllic Berkshire Hills with Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland was always very compelling for me. And having once sung in the chorus of an outdoor performance Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, I knew there was something magical about classical music outdoors on a warm summer evening.

We heard two concerts by the BSO and one by the orchestra of TMC Fellows. The first and last concert consisted of a fantastic mix of repertoire including newer pieces by women and composer of color as well as the dead white guys. And then there was one intensely boring all-Brahms concert which solidified my dislike for single-composer concerts as well as a growing disinterest in the orchestral music of Brahms. I should note that the Brahms concert certainly had the crowd excited. As soon as the applause started we headed out and the crowd went crazy the whole time we walked to our car. (For those who care, I will list out the programs we attended at the end of this post.)

It is hard to put in to words why Tanglewood was so special. Certainly, some of it had to do with getting to hear live music for the first time in 16 months. But there is something about having crickets accompany the music and the summer air, and the sense of something out of the ordinary that also makes it magical.

For my own satisfaction, I doubt I will ever be a lawn person. Too far removed from the music surrounded by folks that might be more interested in a picnic than the music. (I know that is an overgeneralization, but true enough that it would annoy me.) Even within the Shed, I now know to keep my seat choice in the first two sections. The back section of the Shed was too far removed–the music just sounds too far away.

Concert One

Saturday 8:00 p.m.
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Anna Rakitina, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Elena LANGER – Figaro Gets a Divorce, Orchestral Suite
Maurice RAVEL – Piano Concerto in G
Edward ELGAR – Variations on an Original Theme, Enigma

Everything about this concert was a delight. The weather was breezy and cool, it was great to see a female conductor, and the program was great. The Langer piece was fantastic, kind of Bernsteinesque and with a great part for accordion. It’s so nice to hear ‘new’ music that is consonant. I wasn’t a fan of the Ravel previously, but I am now. I’ve heard the Elgar a million times on CD and three times now in concert. I think it gets better every time I hear it.

Concert Two

Sunday 10 a.m.
Tanglewood Music Center Fellows

Benjamin BRITTEN – Russian Funeral Music
Paul TERRACINI – Gegensätze
Max BRUCH – Octet for Strings in B-flat
Johannes BRAHMS – Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor

As I mentioned earlier, this was a really special experience. I would love to hear more of these chamber concerts. The first two pieces were for brass ensemble. There aren’t that many opportunities to hear this kind of rep, so it was quite nice. I loved the Britten, but I loved the Terracini even more. So much so that I found the need to listen to it a few more times later that day and wrote the Australian composer a fan email. He wrote me back with a link to really great performance of the piece by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. I was surprised how much I liked the Bruch. Normally I find his stuff a bit too virtuosic just for the sake of it. This however, was lovely.

Concert Three

Sunday 2:30 p.m.
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Leonidas Kvakos, violin

Johannes BRAHMS – Violin Concerto in D
Johannes BRAHMS – Symphony No. 4 in E minor

This just wasn’t for me. Too much of one thing, not the biggest fan of Brahms orchestral output, and we were just one click too far back in the Shed. Oh, we also fought sleep like crazy at this time of day. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it more if I had been wider awake, but I sure wanted a hammock during this one. The audience gave a rapturous ovation. Probably because it was Blomstedt and because it was Brahms. Meh.

Concert Four

Monday 8:00 p.m.
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Stefan Asbury, conductor (Dvořák)
TMC Fellow Kevin Fitzgerald (Nabors, Smetana)
TMC Fellow Adam Hickox (Vaughn Williams)

Brian Raphael NABORS – lubilo
Bedřich SMETANA – The High Castle from Má vlast 
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Antonín DVOŘÁK – Symphony No. 7 in D minor

After the Brahms bust the day before, it was nice to get back to a program with more variety. And what a delight it was. Except for three BSO musicians and three “guest” musicians, the TMC orchestra is made up of TMC fellows studying for the summer. The quality of their playing was fantastic. Everything on this program was interesting, it’s hard to pick a favorite. I had a really hard time walking away from this concert. Not only was it our final concert at Tanglewood this season, but it was also the final festival concert at Tanglewood this season. And seeing classical music concerts three days in a row, I had some serious withdrawal in the days that followed. Now that I have finally been to Tanglewood, I will definitely be going back in the future.

I can’t remember why we opted for a domestic trip for our summer vacation…oh that’s right, Covid. And because we spent 16 months in splendid isolation with the cutest dog on the planet, we decided that maybe we didn’t need two weeks in splendid isolation with Lucy in Maine this summer. Instead we opted for a Northeast road trip like one we took back in 2008 before we were dog parents. After all that time at home shopping online and not really interacting with humans, we thought that something that gave us the chance to be out and about and go antiquing and used bookstore hopping, and restaurant eating, and museum gazing, seemed like just the ticket.

I had meticulously planned and replanned our itinerary until I had something that ticked a lot of boxes.

Washington, DC to Ithaca, NY

When we go on a road trip I can never wait until Saturday morning to pack the car and get going. Originally we were going to head out on Friday after work and spend the night in Harrisburg, PA just so we could be that much closer to our vacation when we woke up on Saturday morning. But then the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced they were going to actually have a Tanglewood season this summer, and I realized we needed to get out butts up to the Berkshires sooner than I had planned. So instead of leaving DC after work on Friday we left at 9:39 AM so we could comfortably drive up to Ithaca to see friends for dinner and stay the night.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Next Stop: The Berkshires and Tanglewood

I love classical music and I love a good spreadsheet. And I can’t wait to hear live music next season. Perhaps not surprisingly, I’ve discovered that most orchestras stuck pretty close to the tried and true for the upcoming season. Instead of leveraging pent up demand and slipping in more new or diverse works, they seem to be dying to trot out the old warhorses after the year without music. But, since I don’t have historical data, I don’t know if that is really the case. What I do know is that the data sure seems to indicate that they are playing it safer than they need to.

The following data is based on published seasons for 19 major U.S. orchestras. If you want to know more about that, click here. Keep in mind that when I talk about a “work”, I’m not talking about a unique work. When it shows below that Beethoven has 77 works programmed, that’s not 77 different works. If you want to read more about the data, click here.

Warhorses Dominate the Top 42

Since there was an 11-way tie for number 17, I couldn’t cut the list off at 20. And because there was a 15-way tie for number 28, I couldn’t stop at 30, and because there was a 44-way tie for 43, couldn’t stop at 50. So, behold the top 42 works programmed next season. (The first number indicates the number of times programmed.)

Perhaps not surprisingly, but also surprisingly, Samuel Barber is the only American to make it into the top 42. In fact, the top 42 spots representing 233 concert slots are shared by only 18 composers. That’s 21% of 1,105 works. Even if you only wanted to stick to dead Europeans, surely there could be more diversity at the top? Wouldn’t it be more interesting?

If I had pulled the list down to three works programmed, that list of 44 at least gets us five composers who are still alive, not to mention some composers of color and some women. The living, composers of color, and women do fare much better in my break down of composers.

10 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5
08 – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
08 – BRAHMS Symphony No. 1
08 – SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5
08 – SIBELIUS Violin Concerto
07 – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
07 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5
07 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9
07 – DEBUSSY La mer
07 – PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 5
07 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6
06 – MAHLER Symphony No. 1
06 – RAVEL La valse
06 – RAVEL Piano Concerto in G major
06 – TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1
05 – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5
05 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
05 – BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
05 – BRAHMS Serenade No. 2
05 – DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
05 – Dvořák  Symphony No. 7
05 – Dvořák  Symphony No. 8
05 – Dvořák  Symphony No. 9
05 – NIELSEN Symphony No. 4
05 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3
05 – RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances
05 – RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
05 – SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 10
04 – BARBER Symphony No. 1
04 – BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3
04 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4
04 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
04 – BRAHMS Symphony No. 4
04 – Dvořák Symphony No. 6
04 – GRIEG Piano Concerto
04 – MAHLER Symphony No. 4
04 – MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
04 – PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet Suite
04 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2
04 – RAVEL Bolero
04 – SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 1
04 – STRAVINSKY Pulcinella Suite

If you want to succeed as a composer you need to be dead and European

As with the most programmed works, this list of most programmed composers is not too surprising. Our first American and first living composer clocks in at 14, and our first composers of color and women come in at 10. It is also kind of interesting that it takes until the nine spot for a British composer to appear.

77 – BEETHOVEN
48 – MOZART
44 – TCHAIKOVSKY
40 – BRAHMS
36 – STRAUSS, Richard
33 – RAVEL
32 – SIBELIUS
29 – Dvořák 
22 – SHOSTAKOVICH
21 – MAHLER
21 – RACHMANINOFF
20 – PROKOFIEV
17 – STRAVINSKY
16 – HAYDN
16 – MENDELSSOHN, Felix
15 – SCHUMANN, Robert
14 – ADAMS, John – first living, first American
14 – DEBUSSY
12 – Bartók 
10 – BARBER
10 – COPLAND
10 – ELLINGTON – first composer of color (tie)
10 – MONTGOMERY, Jessie – first woman (tie), first composer of color (tie)
10 – PRICE, Florence – first woman (tie), first composer of color (tie)
09 – ELGAR – first British
09 – SCHUBERT
09 – STILL, William Grant
09 – WALKER, George
08 – TOWER, Joan

07 – 7 composers
06 – 8 composers
05 – 6 composers
04 – 12 composers
03 – 24 composers
02 – 44 composers
01 – 150 composers

Composers I’m surprised only have one work programmed

Bernstein, Bizet, Holst, Janáček, Kodály, and Martinů.

Are there only two French composers?

Out of 81 works by French composers programmed, 33 are by Ravel, and 14 are by Debussy. The remaining 34 are shared by 20 others.

Works by composers born after 1960 that are getting the most play

Some of these composers are getting more play than what you see below. These are just the works that are programmed multiple times.

3 – Wynton MARSALIS, Fanfare
3 – Missy MAZZOLI, Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
3 – Jessie, MONTGOMERY, Banner
3 – Jessie, MONTGOMERY, Strum
3 – Carlos SIMON, Fate Now Conquers
3 – Joel THOMPSON, New Work (assuming these are all the same)
2 – Thomas ADES, Piano Concerto
2 – Kishi BASHI, Improvisations on EO9066 (being improv, not sure if this counts)
2 – Unsuk CHIN, Frontispiece
2 – Unsuk CHIN, Subito con Forza
2 – Anna CLYNE, Sound and Fury
2 – Valerie COLEMAN, Phenomenal Women
2 – Bryce DESSNER, Concerto for Two Pianos
2 – Missy MAZZOLI, Violin Concerto
2 – Brian NABORS, Pulse
2 – Nokuthula NGWENYAMA, Primal Message
2 – Kevin PUTS, The Brightness of Light

Famous Fives

Tchaikovsky x 10
Sibelius x 8
Beethoven x 7
Prokofiev x 7
Shostakovish x 3
Schubert x 2
Dvořák x 1
Mahler x 1
Mendelssohn x 1

Can I see all Mahler symphonies next year?

No. But close.

1 – Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, San Francisco
2 – National
3 – Atlanta
4 – Cincinnati, Los Angeles, National, Philadelphia
5 – San Francisco
6 – Seattle
7 – Los Angeles
8 – Minnesota
9 – Minnesota

Das Land ohne Musik?

Out of 51 works (only 4.6% of all works), the list of British composers is dominated by Elgar with nine works, followed by Britten, Anna Clyne, and Coleridge-Taylor with seven works each. With four works Thomas Ades beats out Vaughan Williams who ties with Hannah Kendall with three works. Elgar’s numbers are helped by his two concertos–three cello and two violin. The remaining four pieces are one each of Enigma, Sea Pictures, Serenade, and Symphony No. 1. The tragedy of Vaughan Williams low numbers is made worse by the fact that none of his symphonies are programmed just two Tallis Fantasia and one Lark. He needs a better publicist.

Sibelius gets a workout

Out of the 44 pieces by Finnish composers programmed, 32 of them (73%) are by Sibelius. This is helped out by the fact that the Minnesota Orchestra is having a bit of a Sibelius Festival in January and accounts for 13 of those 32. Saariaho makes a good showing at five works and Salonen comes in at two.

Opera without sets

I kind of like it when orchestras do concert versions of operas. I’m not a big fan of how orchestras sound in the pit. Then tend to come off as tinny. Maybe it’s the scaled down size that contributes to this. But up on stage with a full symphony orchestra? Better eat your Wheaties singers.

BEETHOVEN, Fidelio – Los Angeles Philharmonic
BERG, Wozzeck – Boston Symphony Orchestra
STRAVINSKY, Oedipus Rex – San Francisco Symphony
TCHAIKOVSKY, Eugene Onegin (complete) – Dallas Symphony Orchestra
VERDI, Aida (Act III) – Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
VERDI, Otello (complete) – Cleveland Orchestra
VERDI, Requiem – Seattle Symphony (I mean c’mon, how is it not an opera?)
WAGNER, Die Walküre (final scene) – Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Works I’m looking forward to most

These are the pieces that I am highly likely to hear next season that I am most excited about. In some cases it is purely about the work, in other cases it is the combo of the work and orchestra. (In alphabetical order by composer.)

Samuel BARBER, Toccata Festiva – Cleveland Orchestra
Ludwig von BEETHOVEN – Symphony No. 3 – Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Benjamin BRITTEN, Violin Concerto, National Symphony Orchestra
Anna CLYNE, Sound and Fury – San Francisco Symphony
Bryce DESSNER, Concerto for Two Pianos – National Symphony Orchestra
Charles IVES, From the Steeples and the Mountains – Cleveland Orchestra
Wynton MARSALIS, Violin Concerto – Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Jessie MONTGOMERY, Shift, Change, Turn and Variations – Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Arvo PART, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten – National Symphony Orchestra
Charles RUGGLES, Angels – National Symphony Orchestra
Dimitri SHOSTAKOVICH – Symphony No. 15 – Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Gabriela SMITH, Organ Concerto – Los Angeles Philharmonic
William Grant STILL, Patterns – San Francisco Symphony
Richard STRAUSS – Also Sprach Zarathustra – Los Angeles Philharmonic
Joan TOWER – Cello Concerto – National Symphony Orchestra

These aren’t the only things I am hearing next season. Just the ones I am most looking forward to. If I made a wish list of concerts I would love to travel to but probably won’t be able to, that would be a whole ‘nother ballgame as they say.