HAS IT BEEN RELEASED?

Why is it that the best performances always seem to end up as premiums for orchestral fund raisers?

A few nights I ago I heard the best version of the Bruckner SYMPHONY NUMBER 6 In A MAJOR. It was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Rafael Kubelik, and surprise, surprise, it wasn't a commercial recording. Rather, it was a premium for those who had donated X number of dollars to for the Chicago Symphony Orchestrta.

It isn't that I'm against premiums, but I really wish that some of these recordings would be released to the general public. This was not a second rate performance. This was the Chicago Symphony at its absolute best, and yet it remains virtually unkown outside certain circles.

What would it take for the corporate powers that be to get their acts together and arrange for a public release of this and similar recordings which are currently buried in vaults and private collections?

Who Would You Invite?

Assuming you have the required supernatural powers and the financial resources to pull it off, what five composers would you most like to invite to your house for a semi-formal meal and an afternoon of stimulating conversation.

Mine are as follows:

1. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: My absolute idol. Not only would I ask him about composition and his feelings about the bloody, hypocritical Napoleon; I would also ask him just who in the hell the Immortal Beloved really was. And while we're at it--would he please be so kind as to improvise for us?

2. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: An afternoon with a musical genius. Could it get any better than that? Not only would be be the life of the party. this would be a fine opportunity for him to offer a few opinions as to how HE would have finished the Requiem.

3. RICHARD WAGNER: I would love nothing more than to watch Beethoven and Wagner go at it. I'd like to ask Herr Wagner where his ideas about the Jews, the French, and the Jesuits came from. And while I'm at it, I'd like to know what he would have thought of the Hitler regime. Would he want his name associated with the Nazis or not?

4. PETER I TCHAIKOVSKY: This might be a risk, but could a man as moody as Tchaikovsky be boring? Probably not. More importantly I'd like to ask the all important question: DID YOU REALLY COMMIT SUICIDE? OR WAS IT AN ACCIDENT?

5. GUSTAV MAHLER: I'd like to pick his brain on on the finer points of orchestration. I might ask him why he re-orchestrated the Schumann Symphonies and the Beethoven 9th. And since he was both, a composer and an opera conductor, he and Wagner might have some INTERESTING conversations. Wagner might not appreciate his Jewish heritage, but he (Wagner) can learn to love it.



Any suggestions? Daniel