The genius of Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Malcolm Arnold: The Dancing Master (Resonus)
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O compositor mais popular e prolífico de seu tempo, Malcolm Arnold, foi evitado pelo establishment musical britânico por ser, principalmente, muito popular e prolífico e, portanto, uma ameaça potente para os “joão ninguém” que não o eram. Arnold (1921-2006) carregava outras manchas no seu nome. Ele era um ex-músico de orquestra (ou seja, da classe trabalhadora), um vencedor do Oscar (um fato considerado vergonhoso), um sinfonista tonal (algo inaceitável na BBC), um alcoólatra e um filantropo que sofreu repetidas crises mentais. Em resumo, ele era tudo o que os engravatados odiavam.
A prova de seu poder é atestada por esta ópera de um ato escrita em 1952, rejeitada por um painel de executivos da BBC que a haviam encomendado para o novo serviço de televisão e nunca encenada. Não é sério o suficiente, disseram eles, e um pouco indecente. O compositor lembrou-lhes que eles haviam pedido uma comédia, o que, claro, foi uma inútil argumentação.
Conhecia Malcolm um pouco, tive contato com ele em seus últimos anos. Ele era uma figura inclinada e trágica sob medicação pesada. Suas nove sinfonias nunca foram programadas como um ciclo, uma omissão importante por parte dos burocratas da BBC e suas orquestras subempregadas.
The Dancing Master (O Mestre de Dança), no que parece ser sua primeira gravação, tem música melhor do que a comédia da aldeia de Britten, Albert Herring, e piadas muito melhores. Para citar uma das primeiras linhas: “Huh! Casa da gula, casa da putaria! Licença! Deboche! Luxúria! Devassidão! Feche a janela! Feche a janela! Aqui não teremos cheiro de pecado!” Não dá vontade de ver a ópera assim que ela for encenada?
Eleanor Dennis canta Miranda (o interesse romântico), Catherine Carby é a Prue ardilosa e Ed Lyon é uma pretendente que entra em seus aposentos com o disfarce de professora de dança. John Andrews inspira uma animada interpretação da BBC Concert Orchestra. Me trouxe um pouco de luz solar para uma semana nublada de Covid. Vou, agora, em busca de um pouco de putaria segura.
The Lebrecht Album of the Week has a premiere recording of an opera by Malcolm Arnold:
The most popular and prolific composer of his time, Malcolm Arnold was shunned by the British music establishment for being, mostly, too popular and prolific, and therefore a potent threat to the nonentities who were not. Arnold (1921-2006) had other crosses against his name. He was a former orchestral player (working class), an Oscar winner (disgraceful), a tonal symphonist (non-BBC-pc), an alcoholic and a philanderer who suffered repeated bouts of mental illness. In short, he was everything the suits hated….
Read on here.
And here.
In The Critic here.
In Spanish here.
In Portuguese here.
In Czech here.
In French here.
From the Azeri tenor Yusif Eyvazov:
My dear compatriots! My dear Azerbaijani people! For past several days our Motherland has been living under war conditions and of course we are all waiting for this to end, so the justice will prevail and Our lands will be returned! However, this post is not about that … this post is about YOU, MY DEAR AZERBAIJANIS, CITIZENS OF AZERBAIJAN, AND ALL WHO LIVE BOTH IN AZERBAIJAN AND BEYOND ITS BORDER …
I admire your unity, culture, thinking, and I am extremely happy that in such a difficult time we all UNITED, that we support each other and we are close to each other as never before … The words are not enough to express my endless gratitude to you all, for being Azerbaijanis, for same blood running in our veins, for you being so brave and truthful, being honest and generous … I know that everything will be fine, and I really look forward to meeting each of you, who expresses their views on my Instagram page, in order to thank and hug each of you, and to see face to face these Great Citizens of the Great Country Azerbaijan, these Representatives of GreatAzerbaijani 🇦🇿Nation! Love you all❤️
We hear that Azerbaijain troops, with Turkey’s support, have bombed a concert hall in the town of Shushi, which is in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is nowhere near the front line of the present conflict.
The Azeris are apparently trying to make it uninhabitable for Armenians in an onslaught of ethnic cleansing.
They have ground support from the Turks and a green light from the Russians.
The ever-fascinating Maynard Solomon, author of the first psychoanalytical study of Beethoven and the first biography to suggest that Schubert was an active homosexual, died on September 28 at the age of 90.
Together with his brother Seymour, Maynard founded the Vanguard record label in 1950, launching the folk revolution with Joan Baez, Odetta, Phil Ochs and the Weavers are their early stars.
The Daily Mail has found some to interview:
As soon as lockdown was announced and my concerts cancelled, I looked up driving jobs.
They appealed because of the flexibility and I was offered a job with Hermes that day.
I lost around £2,500 of musician income in the first couple of months of lockdown, but now I’m earning between £1,000 and £1,500 a month working four-hour shifts, five days a week.
The money’s not as good as musician work, but the pay is more regular, and although I deliver up to 150 parcels a day, it’s up to me what time I start and finish…
Read on here.
Our Kensington mole tells us that plans are afoot at the RAH for audiences of up to 3,000 at some of the Christmas spectaculars.
This Covid-era record will be achieved by a novel method of measuring a 1.5 metres distance between people not from their outer extremities but from the centre of each person’s head, thereby saving up to half a metre.
The method has yet to receive Government approval.
A brutal review in Munich’s Abendzeitung of a Gergiev Mozart performance:
… the absence of any form of musical dialogue and rhetorical shape was disturbing. Everything looked zombie-like, routine and maximally inanimate…. Gergiev treats Schubert, like Mozart, as a plaster bust… Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn would possibly agree quite quickly if they were consulted on an entry ban for the conductor as demanded by the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny.
The popular British conductor has stepped down as artistic director of Calgary Opera.
Tovey, 67, is undergoing a further round of cancer treatment.
