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One tiny step for mankind: I finally finished the program for NYFOS’s Tchaikovsky concert next January. It had been about 82% done for several months, and I kept swearing I just needed a weekend to polish it off. But the longer I looked at the playlist, and the more I...
At the Thursday performance of Rodgers, Rodgers, and Guettel I met a man I had only heard about: pianist, composer, and thererminist Rob Schwimmer. Rob is a close musical associate of Adam Guettel’s, and a friend of Michael Barrett’s. He was very warm to me after the...
Notes on the Program by Steven Blier for Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel November 1 & 3, 2016 at Merkin Concert Hall There are two histories of the Rodgers family that run parallel to one another. The first celebrates the dazzling musical gifts that propelled three...
Richard Strauss has written some of the most satisfying, sensual music I know, as well as some of the most irritating. He has two entries on my “Operas I Won’t Ever Go To Again” list—no, I am not saying which ones—but how could anyone live without the “Four Last...
Today is definitively the first day of autumn. I cannot ignore the fact that the days are shorter, that deadlines are growing tighter, and that I never seem to have enough time to get everything done. My mood must have something to do with this endless election, which...
My teaching week has mixed coaching sessions with auditions for the January NYFOS@Juilliard show: an all-British program called “From Lute Song to the Beatles.” I had asked the students to bring in English song, suggesting they they might offer one art song in tandem...