March 30, 2004
Delos Diary
Delos Insider"The more I studied both music and cooking, I began to realize how alike they are" … a quote from famous chef Emeril Lagasse, reported recently in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. It seems that a "Family Concert" to be given by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and guest conductor Alistair Willis will feature chef Lagasse "preparing food on stage while the symphony orchestra is performing." This statement produced an immediate flight of fancy. Who gets to eat the food being prepared… the orchestra or the audience? Will the completion of the cooking be timed to coincide with the finish of the music? … or will Emeril have to present his culinary masterpiece to an empty house?
Why not save money by choosing a conductor with cooking as well as conducting skills? Place a range in front of the podium, give him a chef's toque and apron and let him loose. He could prepare a slow-cooked casserole during a Bruckner symphony or a quick and airy soufflé while tossing off a bit of Poulenc or Offenbach.
The low carb crowd might enjoy something meaty while listening to a Brahms symphony while on another night the vegans in the audience could spice up their wan fare savoring music by Delius or late Stravinsky.
Consider three Delos recordings to be played while cooking at home: Respighi's Rome (DE 3287) DePreist/Oregon Symphony — great with pasta; Vodka & Caviar (DE 3288) Orbelian/Philharmonia of Russia — the name tells you all you need to know; and Baby needs Mozart (DE 1605) — play it while steeling yourself to mix a Gerber's concoction for the little one wailing nearby.
March 17, 2004
Delos Diary
Delos InsiderTrust our music-loving Japanese friends to come up with something new to revitalize the classical music scene. Sony has developed a 23-inch robot named QRIO (pronounced "curio"), capable of being pre-programmed to conduct a symphony orchestra. So far the new gadget has only mastered the first few bars of Beethoven's 5th, but knowing how technology advances in leaps and bounds, QRIO may be giving us its version of the Bruckner 7th within a few years.
What a boon for symphony managements… no more exorbitant fees for celebrity conductors! Slip a new disc into your very own QRIO and you may be able to hear and see an exact replica of a Bernstein, Reiner or Karajan performance. This was almost achieved, in a simpler way, generations ago, when music lovers were able to hear Rachmaninoff play courtesy a perforated roll slipped into their player piano.
One fly in the ointment! Classically trained musicians in major symphony orchestras are a temperamental lot. How much respect will these musical prima-donnas give to an all metal or plastic creation waving its mechanical arms in front of them?
Look for many a wayward interpretation.
March 10, 2004
Delos Diary
Delos InsiderIn a serious world, a bit of press trivia is always refreshing.
Yesterday's paper posted an item from London… FLASH!
Deborah Voigt, great soprano star of the Met, has had her appearances with London's Royal Opera cancelled because she is too fat — 200 pounds plus — to sustain the illusion the director of a new production of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos envisaged.
Obviously his concept of a svelte model-slender Ariadne is at odds with Voight's ample persona. Strangely enough, nobody at the Met seems to mind. In fact this very role has been one of her greatest successes in N.Y. Perhaps Met subscribers simply close their eyes and listen.
We are proud to announce that here at Delos we have no "fat" singers on the roster. Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Marina Domashenko, and Olga Guryakova all boast well-maintained, reasonably slender bodies. Even the great Ewa Podles', while not exactly thin, presents a very attractive figure onstage.
Buying Delos vocal recordings, therefore, means that you are not only getting great music and great singing, but also encouraging good hygiene. That's just about enough frivolity for the day.
March 09, 2004
Delos Diary
Delos InsiderA few months ago we published a tongue-in-cheek rewrite of Verdi's Traviata libretto. In our version, the elder, Giorgio Germont, is picked by the fragile but practical Violetta as a choice target after she loses hope that the young but callow Alfredo Germont will ever amount to much.
This bit of fancy was intended as a tribute to the Metropolitan Opera revival of the opera in which Renée Fleming's nenesis was none other than Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the unrivalled Russian baritone, whose beautiful voice is almost equalled by his impressive physical presence. He also happens to have several recordings on Delos.
Last Saturday afternoon, the Met reassembled its stellar cast for the live broadcast of the opera. It truly lived up to its earlier reviews. Fleming was stunning, Hvorostovsky sang magnificently and, to his credit, Ramon Vargas, the Alfredo, sounded not callow but young and vulnerable. His tenor voice is one of the most beautiful around.
At the conclusion, all choked up with tears barely held back, we decided to give Alfredo another chance. In all of Paris there must be another Violetta Valery to capture his youthful roving eye… and heart.
Meanwhile père Giorgio Germont (Dmitri Hvorostovsky) must get back to the family estate and perhaps change the somber black suit he's forced to wear through the entire opera, while all around him others have multiple costume changes.
Delos will soon release a new CD showing another facet of Dmitri Hvorostovsky's formidable vocal talent, a collection of songs and romances by Russian composer Georgi Sviridov with words by Alexandr Blok and Alexandr Pushkin. The lead-off vocal poem, "Petersburg," nine songs to words by Blok, is a stunning tour-de-force of Russian drama. The other six entries, words by Pushkin, also explore a wide range of emotions and are fully realized by the ever-surprising Hvorostovsky, whose breadth of repertoire never ceases to amaze.
March 08, 2004
Delos Diary
Delos InsiderTime marches on! Late last week a bulky brochure arrived in the mail detailing all scheduled concerts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2nd season at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The first season still has 3 months to go, but with current competition for every entertainment dollar, sooner is probably better than later.
The big news is the inauguration of Disney Hall's long-awaited new pipe organ. The celebration will include programming a number of symphonic works which need a real pipe organ to achieve their full impact, plus a series of stand-alone organ recitals by distinguished artists to explore the organ's diversity as a solo instrument.
Happily for us, two of the featured organists have recordings on the Delos label. Wayne Marshall, wildly popular in Great Britain and abroad, is our soloist on A Copland Profile (DE 3221) with the Dallas Symphony conducted by Andrew Litton. His collaboration in the Copland Symphony with Organ shows his special affinity with contemporary music. His other CD, Organ Improvisations (DE 3228) was recorded on the Dallas Lay Family Concert Organ and succeeds in showing the full range of this awe-inspiring instrument, and Wayne Marshall's imaginative improvisations on classic popular songs by Gershwin, Bernstein, Strayhorn, Styne, and Youmans.
Todd Wilson has been featured on five Delos releases: as soloist on the 2-disc set In a Quiet Cathedral (DE 3145), on Great French Virtuosic Organ Music (DE 3123), and Maurice Duruflé's Organ Music - Complete (DE 3047); as a featured artist on the Delos organ sampler King of Instruments (DE 3503); and finally Double Forte (DE 3175), where he teams up with another great American compatriot, David Higgs, to demonstrate the duo-organs of the National City Christian Church in Washington, DC.
Why not preview these great artists on any or all of these Delos CDs and then hear them in person next October at Disney Hall?
March 05, 2004
Delos Diary
Delos InsiderAttendance at a live concert the other night reinforced my long-held opinion that no recording can quite duplicate the impact of a 100-piece orchestra in full cry, but it also underlined the less than ideal distractions one has to put up with at many performances.
Forget the ubiquitous cellphone going off during the adagio. Other annoyances that have been around for generations are alive and well: people are still unwrapping candy and cough drops; women are still unzipping handbags and noisily opening and closing eyeglass cases; amorous couples are still wrapping arms around the backs of their seats and snuggling heads together, obliterating the sightlines of those seated behind them. Then there's the person one seat over who flips page by page through the program, studying every advertisement in the semi-darkness while the orchestra is pouring its heart out in a Mahler symphony.
The temptation to speak out angrily can become overwhelming, but it's probably best to suffer silently. The worst thing is to obsess on the distraction going on next door. You no longer hear the music and simply sit there seething with resentment.
So, chalk up one big advantage for recorded music. You can create your own silent surroundings or listen amidst a joyous chaos of your own choosing. Any number of recent Delos CDs will work one way or the other. Certainly the Shanghai Quartet's new Beethoven Quartets, Op. 59, Nos. 2 & 3 (DE 3320) demands complete concentration with a minimum of extraneous sound, whereas the first recording of the Organ of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles (DE 3331) is so powerful and, in places, plain "loud" that you would hardly hear an ambulance or firetruck roaring past.
Take your choice. There's room for alternate visions.