Sometimes avant-garde worksa remain avant-garde indefinitely. If the masterpieces of Stravinsky have indeed made the transition from riotous to repertoire — as maestro Valery Gergiev asserts in this issue’s interview (page 42) — they also appear to be timelessly contemporary. Such a condition could be affixed to French cineaste René Clair’s Entr’acte, a surrealist film conceived as its eponymous function for the 1924 Francis Picabia ballet Relâche and set to Eric Satie’s Cinéma. I had the opportunity to view the Clair film in April at Carnegie Hall, where Satie’s curious music was deftly performed by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of David Robertson. Despite its primeval technology, Entr’acte — with cameos from Man Ray, Duchamp, Picabia and Satie — remains a cutting-edge film with a surprising capacity to delight and to move, while Satie’s hypnotic yet subtly varied Cinéma at times seems to out-Glass Glass.
In a present-day surrealist ballet, online danced with offline when the YouTube Symphony Orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall on April 15. The orchestra was assembled on the internet, whittled down from three thousand YouTube auditions to ninety-six musicians from thirty countries. They gathered in New York on a Monday for three furious days of rehearsal and performed on Wednesday night. Having read my review of the concert in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bill DeFilippis from New York City — now a Listen subscriber — e-mailed with his thoughts:
Thank you for understanding the idea of the YouTube Symphony (note that I am in no way, shape or form involved with it): that it wasn’t supposed to prove that you could put together a world-class orchestra in a couple of days (you can’t), but that there is a world of possibilities for enjoying the music. The key, as you wrote, was that the concert was impassioned and inspiring, and that is the point that more than a few classical music snobs cannot understand — that the medium can be the message, and that the excitement and interest this generated could bring more people to the music.
The second issue of Listen explores the medium and the message with help from maestros Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev and Alan Gilbert, musicians Hilary Hahn, Daniel Hope, Anne Akiko Meyers, David Russell, Arnold Steinhardt and Diane Walsh, and writer James B. Stewart.
We also explore the contributions of Joesph Haydn, the composer who changed the game; sit in the studio with Anonymous 4; offer recommendations of new releases on record and in print; and remember pianist Arthur Rubinstein, whose image graces our cover.
I would like to thank those of you who provided feedback to our premiere (March/April) issue. You may be certain, dear readers, that even if we are unable to respond to every comment and suggestion personally, your thoughts are valued and we are listening.
Best,
Ben Finane
Editor in Chief
editor@listenmusicmag.com
