Category Archives: General, classical

Christine Brewer with the SLSO tonight!

By Posted in Admirable Others, General, classical, Various Worthwhile Things Leave a comment

Sorry for the short notice, but in just under an hour (8:00 CT) anyone who isn’t fortunate enough to be at Powell Hall tonight can listen to the live broadcast of the world-renowned soprano Christine Brewer performing with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Here is a link about the program:

http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/post/christine-brewer-returns-home-perform-st-louis-symphony

Here is where you can tune in if you’re not within the broadcast range of KWMU 90.7, St. Louis Public Radio:

http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php

 

And here is a link to the program notes (not written by me):

Click to access 3527.pdf

Happy birthday, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Piano Man

By Posted in Admirable Others, General, classical, Various Worthwhile Things 2 Comments

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Happy birthday to Bartolomeo Cristofori, who invented the piano we know today,  more or less.

No one knows much about his early life, and no one knows how many pianos he built for his extremely wealthy and (I’m guessing) rather eccentric patrons. Only three of Cristofori’s original piano fortes survive today, all from the 1720s.

  • A 1720 instrument in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. This one was extensively altered by later builders. It’s still playable, but it probably sounds nothing like it did when new.
  • A 1722 instrument in the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome, ravaged by worms and no longer playable.
  • A 1726 instrument in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum of Leipzig University, no longer playable, although recordings of it exist.

All three of these instruments have the same Latin inscription:

BARTHOLOMAEVS DE CHRISTOPHORIS PATAVINUS INVENTOR FACIEBAT FLORENTIAE [date]

Translation: “Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, inventor, made [this] in Florence in [date].”

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1722 version (see above).

In your honor, Signore Cristofori (may I call you Bart?), I’m going to listen to lots and lots of piano music today: Bach, Beethoven, Ligeti, Schubert, Chopin, Franck, Brahms, Debussy, possibly Prokofiev. Maybe some Monk and some Vijay Ayer, too. Oh, and why not throw in some Nicky Taylor and Johnnie Johnson while I’m at it?

And I will dust my beautiful 1926 Knabe parlor grand and rue my faithlessness.

Today’s soundtrack

By Posted in Adventures in Copy Editing, General, classical, Various Worthwhile Things 2 Comments

The perfect soundtrack/antidote to a dreary, chilly day spent inside copy editing.Image

http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/ligeti-beethoven

I imagine that it would be a wonderful soundtrack for other purposes, too, but  that’s its purpose today, chez René.

I know I haven’t been updating the blog in a few days. Real life intrudes obnoxiously sometimes.

And speaking of female composers…

By Posted in Admirable Others, General, classical, Various Worthwhile Things 1 Comment

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My friend and fellow music addict Dean Minderman alerted me to this interesting story. Yet another reason to be proud of the St. Louis Symphony and our inestimable Maestro, David Robertson! I look forward to hearing Berg’s work premiered (no, not that Berg–I like him, too, of course).

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a/160907/mu-graduates-music-to-be-performed-by-st-louis-symphony/

 

Update: Here is a link to Ms. Berg’s web page if you want to read and hear more:
http://sjbvc7.wix.com/stephanieberg

My Two Favorite Living Music Writers

By Posted in Admirable Others, General, classical, Music Writing, Various Worthwhile Things Leave a comment

This essay, a discussion of female composers and their scandalous lack of representation in the concert repertory, is beautifully written and incredibly smart. Inevitably, whenever I read anything by Alex Ross, my favorite living music critic, I am dazzled and overwhelmed by his crazy talent. When I have a writing deadline looming, I can’t even read anything under his byline because he makes me feel like I, along with almost every other music writer working today, should just STFU.

I could pick any passage at random to support my case for his brilliance, but this sentence I loved particularly: “In the end, these works evoke a universal desire: to seek beauty in shards of a damaged world, or failing that, to take shelter in silence.”

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2013/04/29/130429crmu_music_ross

Here is a wonderful essay about piano lessons by my other favorite living music writer, the glamorous and hilarious concert pianist Jeremy Denk. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can read the whole thing if you don’t subscribe to The New Yorker. (You probably should subscribe, by the way.) In addition to being a great pianist, Denk is among the smartest, funniest, and most entertaining music writers alive. His talent is unfair and obscene. I highly recommend all his recordings. His CD of Bach partitas is astonishingly great, and I’m also very fond of the Charles Ives one and his collaboration with the violinist Joshua Bell, French Impressions. He has a brand-new CD for sale featuring works by Beethoven and Ligeti, but I haven’t bought that one yet. I’m sure I will love it, too.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/08/130408fa_fact_denk

I’m not an early riser. I just haven’t fallen asleep yet.

By Posted in Adventures in Copy Editing, General, classical, Music Writing, Program Notes, Rock & Roll and Other Forms of Popular Music, Uncategorized Leave a comment

For at least 10 years, well-meaning people have been telling me that I need a blog. For professional reasons. Seeing as how I call myself a freelance writer. Sometimes these well-meaning people even put me on the spot and ask me where they can read my so-called writing. I  just wave airily and say, “Oh, you could always google René Spencer Saller, and see what comes up.”

In truth, I mostly hate blogs, and it seemed very likely that I would hate my own, if I had one. But early this morning, plagued by insomnia, I thought, well, why not? It’s free, after all, and it’s easier if everything is organized in one place.

So far all I’ve done is upload a bunch of links. They’re all on the Links to Published Writing page above, haphazardly organized. Click at your peril.

I am also a freelance editor, but that’s far too boring to write about. I’m fairly good at it, and I’ve been doing it professionally for more than 20 years now.