oboeinsight

Once in a while life hands you a moment that you know will never come again; it is a moment one savors for as long as one is allowed to hold such moments.

Opera is one of the finest moments for me. I wish I could tell you why. I remember the first opera I heard: “Marriage of Figaro.” It opened with a man, down on one knee, measuring the length of his marriage bed. There is a moment when the house lights go down and the stage lights come up that is absolutely captivating.

It is like the land between wake and sleep, when the lethargic, slumbering mind takes account of itself and the day ahead. Not exactly a no-man’s land, but a space in which it is possible to confuse dream and reality.

That is the moment in opera or theater that I am talking about.

-Rae Sedgwick

I found it here.

In about 20 years, we will rarely hear Brahms in the concert hall; we will mostly hear contemporary music.

and …

I don’t see myself as a revolutionary person in any way,” says a slightly bemused Salonen. “I think it’s a perfectly normal approach to the idea of what classical music should be doing. What is astonishing is that it’s not being done more elsewhere.

and …

I have performed music that I really believe in,” he explains, “and I am operating under the assumption that I am not vastly different from other people. So if there is music that excites me, or moves me, or thrills me, I have a good reason to believe that it would have the same effect on others. That has been the programming principle. It’s not ideologically based; more pleasure-based.

-Esa-Pekka Salonen

I read them here.