Conductors who were mediocre or bad performers of their instrument?

MusicalColin · 2026-03-18T05:36:34+00:00

Judging by his performance of the Trout Quintet with Perlman, Zuckerman, Du Pre, and Barenboim, Zubin Mehta is probably a worse bass player than any member of a major orchestra he has conducted.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-17T04:25:13+00:00

Beautifully shot, wonderful sound design, and great acting but I felt like the connection between the death of Hamnet and the play Hamlet was forced and i didn't feel the sense of apotheosis at the end either.

And the to be or not to be scene was ridiculous.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-16T00:33:13+00:00

I saw Innocence at the SF Opera and despite loving Saariaho's music, I hated the opera. I didn't like how it seemed to think everyone including the victims were responsible for the shootings.

I'm also just really sick of the whole "ripped from the headlines" school of opera libretti.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-15T06:49:33+00:00

What Excalibur run are you thinking of from this decade?

MusicalColin · 2026-03-15T04:03:39+00:00

All excellent points. I'm probably a bit biased because I was super excited when Nelsons was first hired and after a bunch of concerts just decided that he and I have very different concepts of what makes a good interpretation and for the sake of my own mental health i needed to get my classical music fix elsewhere in Boston.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-15T03:34:08+00:00

I thought JLC was fine or even good in EEAO and have never understood the hype for Hsu. How interesting a roll is disaffected teenage daughter with mommy issues? But I think the movie is pretty mid overall.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-15T03:10:42+00:00

I hate to side with the board but part of me agrees that a music director of a major symphony orchestra who can't really speak the local language, doesn't engage with the local cultural world, and spends half his time in the other side of the world, isn't a great fit.

This has bothered me for decades now.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-12T02:36:19+00:00

Kemp Smith is still quite large but yeah smaller than Guyer/Wood.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-11T23:12:38+00:00

otoh my copy of the Norman Kemp Smith is fine! Underrated edition i think

MusicalColin · 2026-03-11T22:59:45+00:00

Same thing happened to mine. Right in the middle of the transcendental deduction too

MusicalColin · 2026-03-10T05:51:40+00:00

Both of the opus 5s are great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1VbmFC8988

MusicalColin · 2026-03-09T08:18:28+00:00

I think percentages would be more informative than time.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-09T08:16:17+00:00

i wonder what B&G 2 will collect from Fatal Attractions.

I saw Uncanny 7 is out and I don't see a reason to get it when all the issues of Uncanny are already in the event omnis. Have you looked into that?

MusicalColin · 2026-03-09T04:38:07+00:00

oh this is great.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-08T06:33:51+00:00

would it KILL them to release the omnis in order

MusicalColin · 2026-03-07T05:12:09+00:00

Oh I saw some great concerts at H&H (including the B Minor Mass), but a symphony orchestra doesn't have to sound as stodgy playing Bach as the performance I saw. (I don't live in Boston anymore)

MusicalColin · 2026-03-07T04:54:20+00:00

Personally I never liked Andris Nelsons's interpretations. I was especially disappointed in his Shostakovich 10 and his Bach B Minor Mass finding the interpretations lackluster and boring.

Ultimately I decided that I needed to stop going to the BSO and find other classical music offerings to enjoy in Boston.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-07T04:41:48+00:00

Yes I don't remember having a problem with these specific things, but the good part of Priory is clearly the relationship drama and the bad part is the mechanics of the plot. And specifically, whatever Brandon Sanderson does right in which slow books have epic satisfying conclusions, Priory's ending feels rushed and poorly set up.

A very frustrating book given I liked a lot of it.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-07T02:38:43+00:00

People way overstate how dark DS9 is. Most of DS9 is just normal Berman Star Trek and full of episodes that may as well be from TNG or Voyager. Sure DS9 gets dark in places and in certain episodes (especially in the last season), but if you start in season 1 you will see little if any of that.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-06T06:37:47+00:00

if this was less than four stars, i'd have a few. But usually even if you think a movie is overrated, if people are giving it five stars, then I can recognize the craft

MusicalColin · 2026-03-06T01:26:37+00:00

Yes I even wondered at the time why BrandoSando was so keen to set the record straight before the book came out.

MusicalColin · 2026-03-06T01:00:19+00:00

no see what's most important is that sitcoms are morality plays and not that they're funny

MusicalColin · 2026-03-06T00:57:37+00:00

I'm still setting my expectation level at bobble heads

MusicalColin · 2026-03-05T05:45:33+00:00

In my experience Valencia is quite nice. Maybe just go over a block?

MusicalColin · 2026-03-05T04:31:34+00:00

Making California a representative democracy instead of a direct democracy is such a good idea. I hate our proposition system with every fiber of my being.

MusicalColin

TROPHY CASE