Conductor makes a mixtape

Conductor makes a mixtape

News

norman lebrecht

July 04, 2023

More from the BBC:

This week at Maida Vale studios, conductor Dalia Stasevska will record her debut album for Platoon – entitled Dalia’s Mixtape. The recording, featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra, concerns the future of music – the way it sounds, the way we listen to it and the way we access it. The ten tracks of Dalia’s Mixtape will present some of the freshest sounds in contemporary music and will be released one month at a time.

‘This is a fantastic time for classical music lovers,’ says the Finnish conductor. ‘The doors have been opened and new voices are pouring in. While we still have some way to go, classical music has never been broader or more diverse. Contemporary scenery has been flooded with influences from other genres.’

With Dalia’s Mixtape, Stasevska makes a clean break with tradition. ‘I notice myself that I’m listening to music in a completely new way,’ she says. ‘I’ve been inspired by different mixtapes and playlists and wanted to create music tailored to the way people listen to music now.’

The featured works of Dalia’s Mixtape include music by genre-bending composers Anna Meredith and Caroline Shaw, mesmerizing orchestral tapestries by Andrea Tarrodi and Noriko Koide, and a miniature masterpiece by Judith Weir. Each track opens up its own world. Taken together, the music will lead the listener on an unparalleled journey in orchestral sound. ‘Music is adventure and there are no rules that must be followed,’ says Stasevska. ‘Why stick only to what we’ve been doing for decades? It is also important to explore – and see where the journey takes us.’

Comments

  • Dargomyzhsky says:

    I’m delighted that we have so many women as conductors now. Most of them are pretty hopeless, but the proportion of hopelessness is certainly no higher than among the men!

  • Overwoods says:

    “The recording, featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra, concerns the future of music – the way it sounds, the way we listen to it and the way we access it. (…) With Dalia’s Mixtape, Stasevska makes a clean break with tradition (…) an unparallelled journey in orchestral sound”.

    Some questions:
    What revolutionary is there about a disc featuring ten orchestral miniatures by these five composers? Why should that constitute a new way of listening?
    Why should this constitute a break with tradition? With what tradition?
    Under which premises have that selection been made? What makes it (what a claim) “an unparallelled journey in orchestral sound”?
    What does the title mean? In the digital era, everyone is potentially a creator of mixtapes. So why should we be more curious about “Dalia’s mixtape” than that by conductor XYZ or a user named Scott, Vicky, Mahmud, or Laila?
    Why should this compilation – I beg your pardon, mixtape – even be named after a conductor?

    More questions:
    In our times, is it high-octane gestures, ultra-rapid tempi, glaring fortissimos, flamboyant concert dresses, media presence, and lofty statements that define first-class conductors? Or does exemplary conducting continue to require technical prowess, intellectual depth, care for detail, and thorough dedication to the orchestras one leads as Principal Conductor?
    One usually cannot have it all. Ms. Stasevska must decide whether to attempt to become a pop phenomenon or develop as a conductor.

    • Red Roram says:

      She’s perfectly developed as a conductor. Source: BBC Symphony musicians love her.

      Get out of your bedroom, ya nerd.

    • Bone says:

      Guessing from the fawning bbc that she’d take pop princess as soon as it is offered.

  • Violinist says:

    Too bad that none of today’s “contemporary” music is actually music, it’s hard to listen to bunch of noises organized in some scientific formulas that only the composer is convinced are beautiful. Perhaps if composers went back to writing music with melodies, harmonies, something that we players might enjoy working on and performing, there would be lot more interest in modern music.

    • trumpetherald says:

      What a bunch of nonsense…..Today´s music is much less formulaic, and more tonality centered than 50 years ago,when you didn´t get performed when you didn´t follow academic rules…..About 30% i listen is music of today…and i love to play Ades,Saariaho,Lindberg,Salonen,Thorvaldsdottir,John Adams,Colin Matthews,Widmann,and many more far more than a stale Puccini opera,or worse,verismo…..Could you name a few compositions? Albeit it wouldn´t help.Your musical knowledge and appreciation level wouldn´t lead to an interesting discussion….”We,the players”…..A ridiculous statement…Playing in top orchestras for 44 years,i can assure you,this is rubbish….Perhaps in some provincial spa bands,yes.

      • Violinist says:

        Yes, let’s resort to insults because someone else has a different opinion. I’ve noticed that happens to be your usual behavior on this site. For your information in the last 18 years I’ve been a member of two different big fives, but I’ll gladly inform my current and ex colleagues that we are provincial spa bands. And since my knowledge is non-existent, here’s one for you, Puccini IS verismo (though I still don’t know what that had to do with my previous comment)

  • Squagmogleur says:

    Sometimes listening to musicians talking about their profession is as bad as listening to actors talking about theirs . This is one of those times. Ms.Stasveska would be well advised to stick to what she does best, if that happens to be conducting.

    • Tribonian says:

      I heard her conduct a programme including Lutoslawski and Bruckner before she joined the BBC SO. She was actually quite good. She might still become a decent conductor if she actually worked on interpretations of serious works.

      This recording seems to be a tedious woke marketing project.

      • Red Roram says:

        How many more “interpretations of serious works” does the world need? Really? Another Beethoven cycle? Who cares? At least Dalia is conducting something rarely performed.

  • trumpetherald says:

    I am curious to hear the album….Unlike many SD “commentators”,who put in their two cents without have listened( yes, listened fully concentrated,without doing dishes or texting messages at the same time) to the product…To the entire album. In order to pass a judgment on something,you must know it thoroughly.That´s what i was taught by my parents,and my teachers….A judgment based on less is irrelevant.

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