His 100th. Though he died in 1981, it’s good to see his centenary has sparked some renewed interest in his work, and perhaps a reevaluation. No longer is he seen by so many critics as behind the times. No longer is he seen as incapable of experimentation and modern innovations. Beyond the critical wars, staring down at us from within the notes of the music of the spheres, Barber can watch and listen with a wry smile, or stretch his heart to the breaking point with us while we listen to Adagio for Strings.
Which makes me think about all of the drama when it comes to discussing art. Once it’s all been categorized, compartmentalized, according to “schools”, the battle is lost and we all too easily lose the sense of the music itself. The battle becomes the battle over competing interpretations, instead of what art, music and literature are really meant to do:
Inspire us, lift us, provoke new worlds and new ways to look at old worlds and old ways forgotten that should be remembered again.
Cheryl Studer sings two songs by Samuel Barber
Love your blog Keep em coming I look forward to more!
A propos Barber celebrations and interest, I noted in a mailing received today that Thomas Hampson will be singing several songs by Barber with the New York Philharmonic in April.
Robert, if you go, please let us know about the performance. It’s also worth noting that Barber himself had an excellent voice, and liked to set songs to the works of writers like James Joyce and Kierkegaard. He was a master.
As it happens, ’twas also Ornette Coleman’s 80th. So it’s sax & violins …
Did not know that. Thanks, nnyhav.
To clarify, Thomas Hampson is performing, with piano accompaniment, Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” followed by Barber’s songs, Op. 10, settings to three poems from James Joyce’s “Chamber Music,” the three songs of Op. 45, which are settings of adaptations form one Polish and two German poets, one of which adaptations is by Joyce, and other songs. That’s on April 11 and on April 5, as Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the Philharmonic, Mr. Hampson is giving a talk on the German Romantic song tradition. All of which suggests a tie-in to Barber both as adhering to the features of that tradition in certain ways, and with the example of Joyce who, like Barber, was a first-rate singer, so accomplished in fact that he had to come to a decision, momentous for us, whether to pursue vocal performance or fiction writing.
I would like additionally to recommend the Barber Violin Concerto. The celebrated American — and Baltimorian — violinist, Hilary Hahn, chose this piece to complete her recording with Hugo Wolff and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The other performance on the recording is the world première of Edgar Meyer’s Violin Concerto. Both compositions lavish the hearer with simple, gorgeous sonorities.