Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise

Wagner-Cosmos Dortmund

I am taking part in Theater Dortmund's third Wagner-Cosmos festival, which examines links between Wagner and French culture. The program for the weekend includes Spontini's Fernand Cortez, a work that had a considerable impact on the young Wagner; Ernest Guiraud's final opera Frédégonde, a fruit of musical Wagnérisme (video on demand at Takt1); and Die Walküre, the first installment of a new Ring production by the formidable German director Peter Konwitschny. I spoke yesterday on Baudelaire and the origins of French Wagnerism; I also heard fascinating talks by Klaus Pietschmann, Anno Mungen, Arnold Jacobshagen, and Inga Mai Groote.

A Pascal Bentoiu moment

Dozens of attempts have been made at setting Hamlet to music; few have been deemed successful. One that deserves a second look is a 1974 adaptation by the Romanian composer Pascal Bentoiu. I found myself mesmerized by his approach, though I umderstood not a word. The second act can also be found on YouTube, courtesy of Thorsten Gubatz.

For Alexander Toradze

Alexander Toradze, one of the most formidable and passionate exponents of the music of Sergei Prokofiev, died on May 11 at the age of sixty-nine. I knew Lexo from several interviews over the years, and was charmed, as so many others were, by his amiable, boisterous personality. I last saw him in 2014, when he played Prokofiev's Third Concerto at one of Iván Fischer's midnight concerts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. His recording of the Prokofiev cycle, with Gergiev conducting, is the one to which I usually turn.

More: A lovely remembrance by Joe Horowitz.

The South Dakota Symphony

Basin and Range. The New Yorker, May 23, 2022.

A G.F. Haas moment

A Pulitzer for Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon's Voiceless Mass, an immensely haunting piece for organ and ensemble, has won this year's Pulitzer Prize for music. Above is a video of the premiere, performed by members of Present Music, in Milwaukee. The other finalists were Andy Akiho, for his large-scale percussion score Seven Pillars, and Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, for her string-orchestra work with eyes the color of time. I had the honor of serving on the jury this year, alongside John Luther Adams, Tania León, Du Yun, and Patrice Rushen. Several of Chacon's sound-art pieces can be seen in the current Whitney Biennial and also at the Vincent Price Art Museum, in East Los Angeles.

Let your fingers do the walking

A Guillermo Galindo moment

In 2012, as part of the John Cage centennial celebrations in San Francisco, the Mexican composer Guillermo Galindo collaborated with Mariachi Nueva Generación to produce a mariachi rendition of Cage's Variations II. The performance caused the audience some anxiety. I found the video at Sonic Terrains in Latinx Art, a fascinating exhibition at the Vincent Price Art Museum, in East Los Angeles.

Sioux Falls by night

A Raven Chacon moment