by Barry Lenson | Aug 19, 2014 | Uncategorized
I grew up listening to recordings of Toscanini performances on LP. Mostly, I played a boxed set of Wagner orchestral excerpts so often that the LPs were practically playing both sides at once. I also spent a lot of time listening to the 1947 Toscanini recording of...
by Barry Lenson | Aug 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Over the years, the question of how to play Chopin “correctly” has become a riddle wrapped within an enigma. The usual charge leveled at pianists who play it “wrong” is that they are playing too sentimentally, wallowing in ritardandos and bending rhythms in...
by Barry Lenson | Jul 28, 2014 | Uncategorized
Carlo Bergonzi, one of the greatest Italian tenors of the last 100 years, just died at age 90. There are a lot of obituaries for him all over the Internet today. If you want to know the story of his extraordinary life, I’d encourage you to read a few of them.On my...
by Barry Lenson | Jul 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
“Afternoon at Cape Cod” by my father Michael Lenson (1903-1971)Note the influence – not dominance- of cubism and abstractionI love artists who are a little behind the times. Perhaps that is because my father Michael Lenson was one of them. He was a...
by Barry Lenson | Jul 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
A few months ago my wife and I went to hear a lecture given by Prof. Carol J. Oja about her upcoming book, Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War. Because the lecture was sponsored by the New York Philharmonic, I expected one more evening of...
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