Category Archives: Performers

by | August 21, 2013 · 1:00 am

The compleat mezzo

 

In a 2005 interview,  Dame Janet Baker explained some of her career choices.

“With the greatest respect to mainstream opera, a great many of the mezzo roles are not that interesting. You are either a nurse or a nanny or a companion or something…and I thought ‘My goodness me, I’m going to be bored witless!’”

“I wanted to do things that interested me from the theatrical point of view and from the musical point of view, which meant that I went down very lesser-known, interesting paths, because I was free from the repertory system. And I was glad about that.”

This from “The compleat mezzo´by David J. Baker (Opera news LXX/4 [October 2005] pp. 32–35).

Today is Dame Janet’s 80th birthday! Below, in recital with Schubert’s An die Musik.

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by | August 15, 2013 · 1:00 am

Mike Seeger, according to Bob Dylan

 

Although he was only eight years younger, Bob Dylan called Mike Seeger (1933–2009) a father figure, and considered him the ultimate embodiment of a folk-star persona. Recalling him in Chronicles. I (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), Dylan wrote:

“Mike was unprecedented. He was like a duke, the knight errant. As for being a folk musician, he was the supreme archetype. He could push a stake through Dracula’s black heart. He was the romantic, egalitarian, and revolutionary type all at once—had chivalry in his blood…”

“He played all the instruments, whatever the song called for—the banjo, the fiddle, mandolin, autoharp, the guitar, even harmonica in the rack….He played on all the various planes, the full index of old-time styles, played in all the genres and had the idioms mastered—Delta blues, ragtime, minstrel songs, buck-and-wing, dance reels, play party, hymns and gospel—being there and seeing him up close, something hit me. It’s not as if he just played everything well, he played these songs as good as it was possible to play them.” (pp. 69–71)

Today would have been Mike Seeger’s 80th birthday! Below, Seeger in 1976.

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by | February 21, 2013 · 1:00 am

Segovia’s gusto

segovia autograph 2

Writing for the centennial of Andrés Segovia’s birth, the guitarist and writer Alison Bert mused on a telling recollection.

“At the closing reception in the grassy courtyard, Segovia’s genteel aide stood at the refreshment table with its rich spread of chocolate candied pastries. As he placed one after another on his plate, he said ‘Not for me, not for me…’ When the dish was full, he said “These are all for the maestro—he loves this sort of thing.’

“At a nearby table, Andrés Segovia was enjoying his wine and refreshments surrounded by admirers on this breezy summer afternoon. I thought to myself, the man didn’t live this long eating bean sprouts and tofu. He lived with passion and he wasn’t afraid to break the rules. In life, too, Andrés Segovia was an artist.” (Guitar review 93 [spring 1993] p. 7)

Today is Segovia’s 120th birthday! Below, his celebrated arrangement of the chaconne from Bach’s partita in D minor, BWV 1004.

Related article: Schoenberg’s birthday bash

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