Alex Ross is one of those New Yorker writers I read and first feel a thrill by the astuteness, clarity, and boldness of his prose; and then I hate the guy because he’s so bloody good. He has his own blog, www.therestisnoise.com, where you can find his not-so-idle thoughts documented, his columns from The New Yorker, and an excerpt from his work-in-progress – a cultural history of 20th-century music. He is not only good, he is ambitious. And not yet 40.
You can imagine that I am emitting a large sigh here.
His essay that begins “I hate ‘classical music’” is a must read. I say so and David Robertson says so.
I also suggest his recent column in which he visits the Minnesota Orchestra. Although Minneapolis is cold, their music director, Osmo Vänskä, is quite hot. Ross finds much to praise in the ensemble up north. He also adds this provocative comment about the industry as a whole: “The future of music is local, not global. Every ensemble must justify itself to its community, because the global economy has no use for a symphony orchestra playing Beethoven or Aho or anything else.”
That one's been spinning in my head for a while.
