Gustavo Dudamel may be the most famous conductor alive, but the second coming of Leonard Bernstein he is not. Such was the import of an ominously neutral, nondescript performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony which Dudamel elicited from the New York Philharmonic on May 20th. Any conductor with glimmerings of charisma is automatically likened to Bernstein, who embodied classical music for several generations of listeners. Although the comparison never does anyone favors, in this case there is no avoiding it. In February, it was announced that Dudamel, who currently leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will become the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026, inheriting a mantle that Bernstein once wore with immense élan. Others who held the post are Toscanini, Boulez, and Mahler himself.
The Ninth triggered several of Bernstein’s most soul-shuddering interpretations. There are recordings of him conducting the piece with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and with the Philharmonics of New York, Vienna, Berlin, and Israel. Histrionics aside, these documents shed valuable light on the score itself, since Bernstein paid scrupulous attention to its minutest markings. Consider how he builds the huge opening paragraph of the first movement, in which a gently swaying theme is unfurled, enriched, darkened, magnified, and left hanging. Each time through, he makes sure that the players observe the accents and phrasings that delineate this evolution. When the harmony sinks from D major to D minor, the melody takes on a more jagged, unsettled character. The ensuing restatement of the theme, in full-throated cry, is like an overcoming of crisis—and Mahler’s journey into the abyss is only just beginning.
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Denne historien er fra June 05, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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The Football Bro - Pat McAfee brings a casual new style to ESPN.
If, on a cool weekend morning in autumn, you happen to be watching “College GameDay,” on ESPN, don’t worry about figuring out which of the broadcasters behind the improbably long desk is Pat McAfee. He’s the one with the roast-pork tan, his hair cut high and tight, likely tieless among his more businesslike colleagues. The rest of the onair crew—Lee Corso, Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and, newly, the former University of Alabama coach Nick Saban—tend to look and dress and talk like participants in an old-school Republican-primary debate. McAfee, though, favors windowpane checks on his jackets and a slip of chest poking out from behind his two or three open buttons. If the others are politicians, he’s the cool-coded megachurch pastor who sometimes acts as their spiritual adviser.
The Dark Time. - On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging.
On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging. The point of contact between NATO and Russia's nuclear stronghold is the small town of Kirkenes. For years, Russia has treated the area as a laboratory, testing intelligence and influence operations before replicating them across Europe.
MIRROR IMAGES
‘A Different Man” and The Substance.”
OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY
Proximity to wealth proves perilous in Rumaan Alam’ novel Entitlement.”
EYES WIDE SHUT
How Monet shared a private world.
WITH THE MOSTEST
The very rich hours of Pamela Harriman.
HUGO HAMILTON AUTOBAHN
On the Autobahn outside Frankfurt. November. The fields were covered in a thin sheet of snow.
TRY IT ON
How Law Roach reimagined red-carpet style.
SORRY I'M NOT YOUR CLOWN TODAY
Bowen Yang's trip to Oz, by way of conversion therapy and S..N.L.”
SNIFF TEST
A maverick perfumer tries to make his mark on a storied fashion house.
