Harold Charles Schonberg (November 29, 1915 – July 26, 2003) was an American music critic and journalist, most notably for The New York Times. In 1971, he became the first music critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In addition, Schonberg reviewed mysteries and thrillers for The New York Times under the name Newgate Callender for nearly a quarter of a century. He also wrote a number of books on music, and one on chess.

Life and career as music critic

Schonberg was born in New York City to David and Minnie (Kirsch) Schonberg on November 29, 1915. He had a brother (Stanley) and a sister (Edith). His aunt, Alice Frisca, was a former concert pianist, and would become his first music teacher.^[1] Schonberg graduated from Brooklyn College in 1937, and undertook graduate studies at New York University. In 1939, he became a record critic for American Music Lover Magazine (later renamed the American Record Guide).

During World War II, Schonberg was a first lieutenant in the United States Army Airborne Signal Corps. He had hoped to enlist as a pilot, but was declared pastel-blind (he could distinguish colors but not shadings and subtleties) and was sent to London, where he was a code breaker and later a parachutist. He broke his leg on a training jump before D-Day and could not participate in the Normandy invasion; every member of his platoon who jumped into France was ultimately killed. He remained in the Army until 1946.

Schonberg joined The New York Times in 1950. He rose to the post of senior music critic for the Times a decade later. In this capacity he published daily reviews and longer features on operas and classical music on Sundays. He also worked effectively behind the scenes to increase music coverage in the Times and develop its first-rate music staff. Upon his retirement as senior music critic in 1980 he became cultural correspondent for the Times.

Schonberg also wrote articles for Harper’s and High Fidelity magazine, among others.

Schonberg was an extremely influential music writer. Aside from his contributions to music journalism, he published 13 books, most of them on music, including The Great Pianists: From Mozart to the Present (1963, revised 1987)—pianists were a specialty of Schonberg—and The Lives of the Great Composers (1970; revised 1981, 1997) which traced the lives of major composers from Monteverdi through to modern times.

Criticisms of Bernstein

Schonberg was highly critical of Leonard Bernstein during the composer-conductor’s eleven-year tenure (1958–69) as principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He accused Bernstein of showing off by using exaggerated gestures on the podium and of conducting a piece in a way that made its structure overly obvious to audiences (e.g., slowing down during the transition from one main theme to another).^[2]

One of Schonberg’s most famous criticisms of Bernstein was written after the famous April 6, 1962, performance before which Bernstein announced that he disagreed with pianist Glenn Gould‘s interpretation of Brahms‘ Piano Concerto No. 1 but was going to conduct it anyway because he found it fascinating. Schonberg chided Bernstein in print, suggesting that he should have either refrained from publicizing his disagreement, backed out of the concert, or imposed his own will on Gould; Schonberg called Bernstein “the Peter Pan of music”.^[3] In the chapter on Bernstein in his 1967 book The Great Conductors, Schonberg quotes the remark but neglects to mention that he was the critic who had made it.

After Bernstein’s regular tenure at the New York Philharmonic ended, however, Schonberg seemed to mellow in his attitude toward him and actually began to praise his conducting, stating in his book The Glorious Ones that “with age, came less of a need to prove something”, and that “there were moments of glory in his conceptions.”

Other interests

A devoted and skilled chess player, Schonberg covered the 1972 championship match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer held in Reykjavík, Iceland. One of Schonberg’s books not on music was Grandmasters of Chess. He also reviewed mysteries and thrillers for The New York Times under the pseudonym Newgate Callender from 1972-1995.^[4]

Schonberg was also an avid golfer, though a poor one by his own estimation. He co-authored the book How To Play Double Bogey Golf (1975) along with Hollis Alpert, founder of the National Society of Film Critics, and fellow author Ira Mothner. Schonberg, Mothner and Alpert frequently played golf together, according to the book.

Later life and death

In 1984, Schonberg taught music criticism at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

In 1987, it was announced that Schonberg was assisting Vladimir Horowitz in the preparation of the pianist’s memoirs. Although the project was never completed, Schonberg’s biography of Horowitz was published in 1992.

Schonberg died in New York City on July 26, 2003, at the age of 87. In his obituary notice in The New York Times the next day, Allan Kozinn wrote that “as a music critic Harold Schonberg set the standard for critical evaluation and journalistic thoroughness.”

Source: Harold C. Schonberg – Wikipedia

Boris Godunov (Russian: Борис Годунов, Borís Godunóv) is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky’s only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar (1598 to 1605) during the Time of Troubles, and his nemesis, the False Dmitriy (reigned 1605 to 1606). The Russian-language libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the drama Boris Godunov by Aleksandr Pushkin, and, in the Revised Version of 1872, on Nikolay Karamzin‘s History of the Russian State. Among major operas, Boris Godunov shares with Giuseppe Verdi‘s Don Carlos (1867) the distinction of having an extremely complex creative history, as well as a great wealth of alternative material. The composer created two versions—the Original Version of 1869, which was rejected for production by the Imperial Theatres, and the Revised Version of 1872, which received its first performance in 1874 in Saint Petersburg.

Boris Godunov has seldom been performed in either of the two forms left by the composer, frequently being subjected to cuts, recomposition, re-orchestration, transposition of scenes, or conflation of the original and revised versions.

Several composers, chief among them Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Dmitri Shostakovich, have created new editions of the opera to “correct” perceived technical weaknesses in the composer’s original scores. Although these versions held the stage for decades, Mussorgsky’s individual harmonic style and orchestration are now valued for their originality, and revisions by other hands have fallen out of fashion.

Boris Godunov comes closer to the status of a repertory piece than any other Russian opera, even Tchaikovsky‘s Eugene Onegin, and is the most recorded Russian opera.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Godunov_(opera)

Der Freischütz, Op. 77, J. 277, (usually translated as The Marksman or The Freeshooter) is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first important German Romantic opera, especially in its national identity and stark emotionality.

The plot is based on the German folk legend of the Freischütz and many of its tunes were thought to be inspired by German folk music, but this is a common misconception. Its unearthly portrayal of the supernatural in the famous Wolf’s Glen scene has been described as “the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Freisch%C3%BCtz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_devin_du_village

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau

In classical music, arioso [aˈrjoːzo] (also aria parlante^[1] [ˈaːrja parˈlante]) is a type of solo vocal piece, usually occurring in an opera or oratorio, falling somewhere between recitative and aria in style. Literally, arioso means airy. The term arose in the 16th century along with the aforementioned styles and monody. It is commonly confused with recitativo accompagnato.

Arioso is similar to recitative due to its unrestrained structure and inflexions, close to those of speech. It differs, however, in its rhythm. Arioso is similar to aria in its melodic form, both being closer to singing than recitative; however, they differ in form, arioso generally not resorting to the process of repetition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arioso

Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (Italian pronunciation: [metaˈstaːzjo]; 3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Metastasio

Arias became classifed into standard types. There are many different types,
including the fve we will describe here. First, the aria cantabile showcases
all of the singer’s lyrical ability. The aria di portamento is a dignifed aria
designed to show off the singer’s breath and tone control. The aria di mezzo
caratere is a compromise between the aria cantabile and the aria di bravura.
The aria parlante (patter aria) demonstrates the singer’s agility, and the aria
di bravura (or aria d’agilità) is highly forid and designed to show off the
singer’s agility and extraordinary vocal compass.

La serva padrona (The Servant Turned Mistress) is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) to a libretto by Gennaro Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera. (The same libretto was set by Giovanni Paisiello in 1781.)

Source: La serva padrona – Wikipedia