LAST YEAR’S Tár centered its monster-artist story around a formidable female conductor (Cate Blanchett) drunk on power; seemingly in response, this year’s Maestro answers with a corrective, addressing problems unique to its historical subject, composer-conductor (and Lydia Tár’s “real-life” mentor) Leonard Bernstein. Musicians regard Bernstein’s career with exasperation. On the one hand, he taught a new generation of listeners how to hear the classical canon, danced between platforms high and low, and left a recorded legacy with the New York Philharmonic that, while uneven, still delivers a midcentury glow (chiefly with the symphonies of Joseph Haydn and Gustav Mahler).
But Bernstein lived an exhibitionist’s life and would have been canceled in our own time for flagrant sexual predation that often included his Tanglewood students. By his death at age 72 in 1990, he had given himself over to such hard-living debauchery and misjudged his own talent so profoundly that he wound up struggling to salvage his reputation with European orchestras. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth there with an awesome hubris—even for him…
2023 LISTS: POP/ROCK
Remember, we all started out in awe of Rihanna’s Super Bowl gig (February 12), which threw disdainful shade on that racist, homophonic, misogynist event as only a pregnant Barbados deity might. The other diva concert films screened inside her context, and Swift sits on a volatile NFL volcano. Tick-BOOMs be TICKING.
PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying
Vagabon, Sorry I Haven’t Called
Yo La Tengo, This Stupid World
Morgan Wade, Psychopath
Marnie Stern, The Comeback Kid
boygenius, the record
Teddy Thompson, My Love of Country; and with Jenni Muldaur, Sing the Great Country Duets
Blondshell, Blondshell
Jenny Lewis, Joy’All
Kelsea Ballerini, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat (For Good)
SZA, SOS
Margaret Glaspy, Echo the Diamond
Iris Dement, Workin’ on a World
Janelle Monae, The Age of Pleasure
The Pretenders, Relentless
Corinne Bailey Rae, Black Rainbows
Kara Jackson, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
Rickie Lee Jones, Pieces of Treasure
Public Image Ltd, End of World
Aoife O'Donovan, Nebraska
Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price & the Cherokee Cowboys (see also Albert Lee and Vince Gill with Aussie Friends, LIVE at the Prince of Wales Hotel, 1988)
Gorillaz, Cracker Island
Willie Nelson, Bluegrass, also Songs of Harlan Howard
The Feelies, Some Kinda Love (Velvet Underground tribute set)
POP/ROCK REISSUES/SINGLES/ETC
The Who, Who’s Next/Lifehouse super deluxe
Replacements, Tim: Let It Bleed Edition
Kirsty MacColl, Real, and Live at the Jazz Café, London, 12 October 1999
Prince, Diamonds and Pearls
Bruce Springsteen, The Live Series: Songs on Keys
The Spinners, Ain't No Price on Happiness: The Thom Bell Studio Recordings 1972-1979
Dionne Warwick, The Complete Scepter Singles 1962-1973
Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)
Sonic Youth, Live in Brooklyn 2011
Little Richard, Complete Atlantic/Reprise Singles
The Kinks, Journey Part 2
Jerry Garcia, Garcia (Remixed)
Sonic Youth, Brooklyn, NY
Various, Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
STRAY TRACKS
Nikki Lane, “When My Morning Comes Around”
Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?”
Jimmy Ruffin and David Ruffin, “Lo and Behold,” from I Am My Brother’s Keeper (1970)
Brad Mehldau, “I Am the Walrus,” from Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles
Juliana Hatfield can do cover albums of anybody and everybody, even that Grease vixen, and we’ll listen. But we’re swerving hard around ELO.
Two releases nobody knew what to do with: André 3000 (New Blue Sun), and Lil’ Yachty (Let’s Start Here), softcore moves from hardcore Atlanta icons, almost as if they had gone through a global pandemic with the rest of us. The only solution: cue up an old movie to help these prog-rock moves find their inner absurdity, the way we once did in olden times with Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz. Here, the pairing screams itself into new voids: start watching The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson and cue up Yachty. Ya burned.
STILL TRYING
Admirable acts whose new music didn’t thrill: Rhiannon Giddens, Jon Batiste, Old Crow Medicine Show, DJ Shadow
CLASSICAL
Inon Barnatan, Rachmaninoff Reflections
Sergei Babayan, Rachmaninoff: Préludes; Études-Tableaux; Moments musicaux
Cuarteto Casals, Bach Art of Fugue
Ébène Quartet, Mozart Quintets
Quatuor Van Kuijk, Mendelssohn Quartets Vol. 2
Lars Vogt, Mozart 9 & 24, Orchestre de chambre de Paris
Angela Hewitt, Mozart Sonatas K310-K311, K330-K333
Keith Jarrett, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Lars Vogt, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Mozart Concerti 9 & 24
Ewa Poblocka, Bach Preludes and Fugues, Book 2 (follows Book 1, 2018)
Andris Nelsons, BSO, Shostakovich 2, 3, 12 & 13
Christian Tetzlaff / Tanja Tetzlaff / Paavo Järvi / Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Brahms Double, Dvorak
Igor Levit, Mendelssohn Songs Without Words
Rafał Blechacz, Chopin Sonatas, Barcarolle
Kopatchinskaja, Fazil Say, Janacek, Brahms, Bartok
Hilary Hahn, Eugène Ysaÿe, Six Sontatas for Solo Violin Opus 27
María Dueñas, Beethoven and Beyond
STILL TRYING
András Schiff, Bach on Clavichord
CRITICISM
Even in 2023, public discussion about the romantic entanglements of Ms. Swift, 34, presumes that the right man will “finally” mean the end of her persistent husbandlessness and childlessness. Whatever you make of Ms. Swift’s extracurricular activities involving a certain football star (romance for the ages? strategic brand partnership? performance art for entertainment’s sake?), the public’s obsession with the relationship has been attention-grabbing, if not lucrative, for all parties, while reinforcing a story that America has long loved to tell about Ms. Swift, and by extension, itself…
from “Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do,” by Anna Marks in The New York Times
As Succession’s Logan Roy proclaimed, "money wins." Greg Tate (RIP) wrote that story on hip hop's 30th birthday. In December of 2004, Tate assured that "twenty years from now we'll be able to tell our grandchildren and great-grandchildren how we witnessed cultural genocide: the systematic destruction of a people's folkways." Back then Tate laughed at the people who gathered for a birthday party when, in his view, they were really presiding over a funeral. Hip hop had died, the moment it fully married into global hyper-capitalism.
from 50 Years Later, Is There Anything Left Of Hip Hop? by Jason England in The Defector
I played a solo on something, and the producer came on the talkback and goes, “Man, that was impressive. Can I ask you to try it one more time? This time, just play me half of what you know.” Neither is wrong. And neither is right. It’s all a matter of what somebody is drawn to — some people love to hear shredders, they just love all that stuff. I never did. My way’s not right, it’s just my way…
from Vince Gill on the Best and Toughest Music of His Career, by Natalie Weiner in Vulture
Turner’s eyes were described as “flashing,” yet she often performed behind sunglasses. From within whirls of fringe and sequin, Turner looked to be dancing on hot coals. She sang ferociously, as if for her freedom…
from Tina Turner, by Danyel Smith in The New York Times
GOOD NEIGHBORS: In his Mahler 9 issue of Classical Guy, John Buxton sorts through a series of fine releases that starts with Karajan. I’m always impressed when I sample Herr K, but he counts as canceled in my pantheon. Herbert Blomdsted goes unmentioned here, but picked up on in the comments. Another recent issue chases down the teeming spigot of Bach Goldberg Variations (give me Schiff live on ECM, Simone Dinnerstein, and Maria Yudina).
And Ray Padgett has just started a detailed 50th anniversary trek through Dylan’s 1974 tour with the Band on Flagging Down the Double E. (See “One Gig Is Worth 10 Rehearsals,” in LARB.) That’s a bootleg series entry more deserving than most. Why do you think I called it “Hero Blues”?
more lists
Albumoftheyear.org
Aquarium Drunkard
Coversongs.com: Best Cover Songs of 2023
Furia (wayback machine)
Genius: the 50th
The Quietus
Tom Hull
riley on costello
Dangerous Amusements: Riley Playlist
incoming
There I Ruin’d It interview
Provocative review of 'Maestro' and consideration of Bernstein legacy.
thanks so much for mentioning the Turner essay. labor of love.