composer's notebook

If you’re like me (Lordy I hope not) you turn through the Sunday Arts & Leisure section with a pace that slows significantly as you move toward classical (reading a physical paper, you’ll find it after theater, film, television, and sometimes dance–but always before architecture). The dread has a lot of sources, but mostly it’s just because I expect to see either a fawning publicist-written puff piece about an upcoming event that rates as cool/interesting (but not too cool/interesting–just cool/interesting enough to keep everyone comfortable), or a profile on someone I vaguely know. The latter usually sending me into a career-questioning emotional tailspin.

But this week I found two pieces which not only did I read all the way through without stomach pain, but really quite dug: Allan Kozinn’s excellent essay on performer interpretation vs. composer intent in contemporary music, and Matthew Gurewitsch’s piece on the following page on (interesting!) opera productions made for Swiss television.

Enjoy with coffee (no spit-takes necessary).