Schubert

I just finished an article for the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra's newletter about musical entrepreneurship.  I soon found myself being reminded of how we musicians "do it" to make a living.

 “Who's riding so late through th' endless wild?” The first line of the best way to scare yourself on Halloween: Franz Schubert’s setting of Goethe’s “The Erlking.”

“She sang equally well lying on her back or kneeling atop her lover. This technique reduced Masetto to an obedient puppy – and probably many Eastman Theatre patrons as well.”
- the D & C’s Stuart Low, writing about Mercury Opera’s recent production of Don Giovanni

What do you want to read about in a review? Background info on the musicians? What about the hall, the crowds, or the color of the conductor’s hair? Critics debate about this stuff all the time. Some say they should stick to the music and only the music. Others want to capture the flavors, sights, and smells of the hall.