OvergrownPath.com: 'In search of the lost audience'

[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]

Bob Shingleton sends this post today on Dean Dixon as a conductor:

Monday, October 10, 2011

“In search of the lost audience

'Dean Dixon used to do little music quizzes from time to time when he was at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Sheets would be handed out to us and we would try to answer the questions about the music Dixon was about to play..eg when was the first key change in the work, where did the development start etc. We used to compare notes in the interval and then Dixon would replay the piece and indicate where the answer were and explain how the relevant section started and why it had been composed that way. I thought it was a great idea and learned a considerable amount about the "nuts and bolts" of the music. Now, I have just been to the Boulez weekend at Festival Hall here in London, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard (seen above) gave a talk with some examples before each of the 3 recitals of the piano music, which helped a lot with my understanding of this pretty formidable music. Talk with music examples can work in the right circumstances in my view.' That email from a reader in response to a recent post points down an interesting path."

'On An Overgrown Path' Posts Link to Fred Onovwerosuoke's Account of Herbert von Karajan

[Dr. Fred Onovwerosuoke, Founder and President of African Musical Arts, Inc.]

Bob Shingleton, aka Pliable, writes one of the world's leading classical music blogs in English, On An Overgrown Path. On Sept. 30, 2008 he posted the text of an interview on Herbert von Karajan from a 1963 issue of Stereo Review. The same day, AfriClassical posted a link to the interview, under the heading “Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) on Rhythm and Race, in 1963 'Stereo Review' Interview”. Dr. Fred Onovwerosuoke, Founder/Director of the St. Louis African Chorus, just renamed African Music Arts, told us of his admiration for the conductor, who passed away on July 16, 1989, and whose life he commemorated in a poem. He also described a chance meeting backstage in London, during which Fred's astute questioning of similar recordings led the Maestro to tell the young student he should be a conductor. Consequently, we posted “A Young Nigerian's Homage To Herbert von Karajan in 1990”. On An Overgrown Path subsequently published a tribute to the great conductor, so we forwarded the link to Fred's account, as well as the link to a post on the Festival of African and African-American Music (FESAAM 2009), which Dr. Onovwerosuoke is directing in St. Louis, Feb. 12-15, 2009. Both links have now appeared on the major classical music blog On An Overgrown Path, with this introduction from Pliable: “Bill Zick over on AfriClassical gives us these interesting Karajan links” -

http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2008/10/young-nigerians-homage-to-herbert-von.html 

http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2008/11/updates-on-fesaam-2009-african-chorus.html

AfriClassical very much appreciates the attention Pliable's posting of the links has brought to Fred's personal account of encountering and memorializing Herbert von Karajan, and to the major music festival he will direct next month.