Thursday, February 26, 2015

Play it again, ASAP


An object lesson in how to introduce an audience to new music – play it, talk a bit about it, then play it again – as the Jack Quartet gives the first US performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ Quartet No. 8. A review by The New York Times’ Zachary Woolfe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/arts/music/review-the-jack-and-the-calder-quartet-in-concert.html?ref=music

In 1904, Gustav Mahler was invited to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam in his new Fourth Symphony. He did so twice in one concert, which turned out to be one of the most warmly received performances of his music in his lifetime.