The following quiz is one from Matthew Guerrieri's blog and I've decided that this quiz is NOT a waste of time given the depth and musicological nature of the questions. If you aren't familiar with Matthew's blog, I say, "check it out!" Go to Soho the Dog!
1. Name an opera you love for the libretto, even though you don't particularly like the music.
Unfortunately, if the music didn't do it for me, I probably short-changed the libretto. Can't answer this one.
2. Name a piece you wish Glenn Gould had played.
Every piece he didn't? Well, if we can include the impossible, I'd love to hear Gould play Ligeti's Musica ricercata.
3. If you had to choose: Charles Ives or Carl Ruggles?
Unfair choice since I'm more familiar with Charles Ives. I'll go with Ives, but make a note to get my hands on some Ruggles.
4. Name a piece you're glad Glenn Gould never played.
I could dig into the list of piano pieces I don't like, but doing the research as to whether or not Gould played them seems like too arduous a task for this evening. What I love about Gould is that I'm glad for EVERY piece he ever played...even if it isn't my favorite performance, I always hear Gould in it (and I'm not talking about the muttering). I'm drawn to performers who have something individual to say.
5. What's your favorite unlikely solo passage in the repertoire?
Gould's repertoire? Opera repertoire? Piano repertoire?
6. What's a Euro-trash high-concept opera production you'd love to see? (No Mortier-haters get to duck this one, either—be creative.)
Peter Sellars doing Copland's The Tender Land. Only he could Euro-trashify that particular opera (and I mean that as a compliment, actually).
7. Name an instance of non-standard concert dress you wish you hadn't seen.
Flourescent pink dress with fru-fru bow for a performance of a Haydn mass at a little Pfarrkirche in Burgenland. I might mention it was part of a Mass service. Nothing says solemnity like day-glo.
8. What aging rock-and-roll star do you wish had tried composing large-scale chorus and orchestra works instead of Paul McCartney?
Eddie Van Halen. Does he qualify as "aging?"
9. If you had to choose: Carl Nielsen or Jean Sibelius?
How about throwing myself in the River Guden or Torne (respectively) instead?
10. If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?
Damage is in the eye of the beholder? Answer is probably yes. Definitely yes if it was Mahler.
1 comment:
Eddie Van Halen. Does he qualify as "aging?"
Oh my, yes.
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