Blog Interrupted

A Brief Reflection on the Newtown Murders.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Hi readers,

I am sitting here in the David Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. It is about 2pm on Friday, Dec. 14.

I just attended the New York Philharmonic's 11am concert, and was looking forward to a pleasant afternoon writing a review of that and of last night's American Symphony Orchestra concert featuring the music of John Cage.

But first, I need to use this space (and it is mine, after all) to talk about what happened this morning in Newtown, CT. According to police reports, 18 children and 9 adults were murdered by an unidentified male this morning in what media outlets are calling a massacre. Among the reported victims are kindergarten children, and their teacher.

I am not going to use this forum for a rant on gun control (which I believe in) or the wide availability of auto-loading pistols and rifles to the people of this country on both sides of the law (which I'm against.) This isn't about politics, Democrat vs. Republican or the Obama presidency.

I just want you to read this and think.

Sit there and breathe. Or like me, feel your breath stop and a cold stone form in your chest.

Think of those small bodies. And think about the adult-sized ones too.

Think about the terror in their eyes, and the moment when their eyes no longer saw anything.

Think about the music they'll never hear, the songs they will never sing, and the cold silence in their parents' homes.

And think about what might be done to prevent the next massacre. The next Columbine. Aurora. Newtown. The next murder of a John Lennon, Darrell Abbott, John F. Kennedy.

Think of what might be done and said by our elected representatives in the next few days, which might make all the difference for a nation shell-shocked by too many shells fired.

Normal service will be resumed eventually. But in the light of what's just happened, your author begs your indulgence.

Yours in grief,

Paul Pelkonen
Editor, Superconductor

Opinion Piece THE RANT: Death by Shrinkage

So I'm in the Virgin Megastore last night in Times Square, perusing the classical department--or what is left of it. When this store opened, the classical music section took up nearly two rooms. Now, it's two racks and a wall display. Still well-stocked, but small--and I couldn't find the Brahms serenades I wanted.

Daniel Barenboim

In the last ten years, the classical music recording industry underwent a rapid downsizing. Long gone are the good old days when operas would be recorded simply to satisfy a singer's ego (Pavarotti's disastrous Otello comes to mind) or a conductor's. Sometimes the latter projects would move forward even if the singers weren't available--does anyone remember the aborted Decca Ring Cycle that they couldn't find a qualified Siegfried for?

Now granted, the last ten years haven't been a total disaster--there are still good, important opera recordings being made and the market is flooded by a lot less crap. Better digital remastering processes have resurrected many classic recordings, at lower prices, that sounded thin and gritty in their initial CD releases. And improvements in CD packaging (mostly the elimination of the jewel case in large box sets, e.g. the DGG Collector's Edition) have gone from door-stops to pocket size, making room for more good music on the shelf.

But it's still not a perfect world. The death of Tower Records and the downsizing of large retail chains has hurt the sense of community among listeners--to put it simply there are fewer places to hang out and geek about the music we are all so passionate about. Maybe some enterprising individual should start "listening clubs" or "music lounges"--but then if we were all there and plugged into headphones there wouldn't be any dialogue either.

On a more cheerful note, I picked up a couple of interesting box sets--including a compilation of Daniel Barenboim's '70s recordings of Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Liszt, including some rare Wagner transcriptions that I'd never heard before--and a Beethoven cycle by Emil Gilels, left unfinished due to the death of this great pianist.

Photo © Monika Rittershaus, for Teldec International