So...Why Mozart?

Superconductor grapples with the nature of genius and the legacy of Austria's greatest export.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mozart Writing the Requiem, Paitted in 1854 by William James Grant.
Property of the Royal College of Music, London.

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I write a lot of words, words, words about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Sure, Superconductor covers the annual Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, performances of his solo, chamber and orchestral works, and the frequent programming of the composer’s seven major operas (he actually wrote twenty-two) at the Metropolitan Opera. So this afternoon, as I was listening to a new recording of La Clemenza di Tito, it suddenly seemed a good idea to write a post asking that vital question....

What’s so great about Mozart?

"So This Is How You Spend Eternity"

Time, Groundhog Day and Wagner's Parsifal.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Two fools a minute: Bill Murray and Richard Wagner.
Photo of Bill Murray from promotional art for Groundhog Day © 1993 Columbia/Tri-Star Pictures.

It's Groundhog Day...again, and this morning's entertainment was a rewatch of the 1993 Bill Murray comedy. If you've never seen it, Groundhog Day is the Harold Ramis film about a Pennsylvania weatherman who travels to sleepy Punxsatawney, PA only to find himself trapped in a (seemingly) infinite time loop where it is always February 2nd. In this essay, we will explore how Phil's plight mirrors the plot of Wagner's final (and most mysterious) opera, Parsifal.

Essay: The Critical Ear

What do reviewers listen for at a classical music concert?
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The protest against silence from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
Art by Jules Feiffer © 1961 Random House LLC.

You see us at the Philharmonic, at Carnegie Hall, at chamber music performances, and at the opera. We sit there sometimes scribbling in ugly notebooks, sometimes perusing progam notes or musical scores, sometimes with eyes closed, heads bowed in some sort of deep communion with the spirits of the creators of the music being performed.