Nico vs. fucking Brits
Brit crit calls Nico Muhly’s work “slow, painful death”; Nico calls Brit crit “cunty” and makes fun of the funny way they spell stuff. Which means that the 2011 premiere of Two Boys at ENO should be great fun for all us sport fans. [The Guardian]
Well, Nico Muhly’s music does indeed suck, in that minimalist “Right, got it, you’ve repeated that idea for 3 minutes, let’s move on” way; he’s an orchestrator, not an interesting composer, let alone someone I would consider in the classical tradition (Downtown, yes) and the Brits love to give “flavours of the moment” a good kicking, so I look forward to updates about this vital matter from La Cieca.
Squirrel, at #6: God that pisses me off. He looks like a chicken before you cook it.
Alexia Cousin was pushed far too far, far to fast, far too early. Casting Directors participated in a collective madness that led to there being only one victim. It was rather shameful in my opinion…
To suggest that Nico Muhly is the saviour of classical music is just too much. This is very ordinary. Not poor, just ordinary, and I wonder how much attention he would have got if he hadn’t been PR friendly…
speaking of alexia cousins, didn’t something similar happen to alexandra von der weth? she sang a fabulous daphne in london in 2002 and soon after she cancelled everything she was supposed to do here (lucia, donna anna…). apparently she sang norma and that wrecked her voice!
though she is still singing i heard, but has changed her repertoire drastically…
She still sings for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Was scheduled for Donna Anna, Lucia and Aspasia at Covent Garden when it all unravelled. As I understand it, it was an emotional problem, not a vocal one. But artists shoved forward too quickly can suffer in either way…
With a legion of mediocre crossover minimalist arrangers pretending to be composers swarming around Hoxton there is absolutely no need to import another. This kid’s opus is dead in the water. Already.
re: Cousin and von der Weth, its easy to suggest a singer is having vocal problems when you dont see them on the scene anymore. Its a difficult and lonely life, and if you dont have a partner to keep you sane, grounded, as well as entertained it can be a bit depressing. Especially early on. No one tells you in conservatoire that being in a new city each month, not knowing where to call home, and not having anyone to go ‘home’ to, will make the fees and the adulation of an audience not worth it sometimes. Enough of that.
re: these fucking brits – they praise George Benjamin and Thomas Ades and they shun the talents of John Adams and Elliot Carter. No matter what an American composer does, they will never be as good or better than their holy grails of Britten and Elgar. Good on Nico, the music isnt bad. I personally cant hear his ‘voice’. His music doesnt have its own life just yet, to my ears. But it’s getting better. He is young, not many have it all figured out at 28.
“shun the talents of John Adams and Elliot Carter”
Nope. Adams just concluded a successful 3 year Composer residence with the BBC Symphony; UK Channel 4 was lead producer for the Klinghoffer film; The London Sinfonietta is a leading Carter commissioner and Oliver Knussen’s one of his best interpreters.
Try to get something right before you post.
shorttop, I don’t know your personal tastes but Britten and Elgar are truly a pretty tough act to follow. If young, developing composers are being compared with them, it is grossly unfair to be sure. Even Ades is well established now with at least two celebrated opera scores, so even he isn’t a fair stick to beat Muhly and others with.
I don’t know Muhly’s music but the proper comparison would be to some young Brit into electronics and pop crossover, genres that may or may not produce anything interesting.