4/7/10

Wherein A Grand Metaphor Is Inferred

Anne Midgette didn't really care for the program that MTT and the San Francisco Symphony...

Figure 1: You down with MTT? Yeah, you know me.

brought to D.C. a couple of weeks ago.

("San Francisco Symphony at the Kennedy Center, "Washington Post, 3/26/2010)

In particular, she had some harsh words about the Lizst tone poem Tasso. This I read as a metaphor, a sort of grand critical summary of our entire communal endeavor--this thing we call "classical" music.

Liszt's "Tasso: Lament and Triumph"...was less bad-boy than simply bad,

Yikes.

...a big, sprawling, self-important piece of pseudonarrative...

Hey! That's just like the entire Western canon!

with some wonderful playing from the orchestra...

Yup, that's the one.

...but not much, at the end, to show for it.

Bam!

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