185: Thrice Denied

Peter Gelb gets read for filth

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune is a Maestro Will Special. This is a tough one, by a composer who’s not exactly a household name. The basic style and texture of the music will lead you to the period, but the meter will reveal a distinctive musical mind at work.

As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at toneprose@substack.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing.

Last Week’s Results
Tone Prose 184
Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht

Many people knew this one immediately: first me, then Listeners Michael, Gregor, Virginia, and Kevin — who even identified the recording as being that of the Hollywood String Quartet (plus guests).

Of course, as impressive as it is to identify a piece from a clip, it’s much more interesting to see the guesses of those who can’t rely on immediate recognition, and in that spirit, I applaud Listener Eric for stepping up to the plate, with guesses of Franck, Saint-Saëns, and Dukas.

Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!

Head to our Google Form to submit a YouTube link OR upload your own 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.

Thrice Denied

I’m in the middle of an exceptionally busy two-week period, so this week’s edition is wholly devoted to pointing you all towards an epic take-down of the Met’s General Manager, Peter Gelb, by an enigmatic blogger named David McKee.

Anyone in Gelb’s position is going to come in for their fair share of criticism, and anyone with Gelb’s poor decision-making skills is going to get excoriated every now and again. But I’ve never seen anyone delve in with such surgical precision.

Here’s the opening gambit, but I really recommend reading the whole thing:

In the March 8 New York Times a sentence appeared that ought to have struck profound alarm in the minds of all serious-minded operagoers. “What we really need,” declared Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, “is one of these triple-digit billionaires to give us a billion dollars.”

It is impossible to overstate the level of denialism, desperation and sheer wish-casting in that statement. The man responsible for the world’s biggest-budgeted opera company sounded more like a degenerate gambler declaring that his strategy for wiping out his losses at blackjack would be to win the lottery.

I know a few things about gambling. I’ve covered it for 30-plus years. I make my living writing about the ups and downs of business. And, from a business standpoint, the Met’s predicament is beyond alarming. It is potentially fatal. The opera company is all but locked in free-fall and Gelb is in charge of the keys. When one is reduced to begging that notorious philistine Elon Musk for a few philanthropic crumbs, how much more desperate can you get?

And if you want to dig into the source reading, this article was an analysis of an article from the New York Times, which you can read here.

Tone Praise

Carlos Garcia, Violin Concerto

I’m so proud of my friend Carlos for writing this gorgeous cinematic work for violin and orchestra, premiered by the Harmonia Orchestra just a few weeks back. Carlos is a native of Washington state who now lives in L.A., working in the music department of various projects for Marvel, Disney, etc. This is the third piece he’s composed for Harmonia, and his most significant accomplishment as a concert composer.

And if you have never heard Rachel Lee Priday, the violin soloist for whom the piece was written, you really need to get on the bandwagon, because she’s incredible!

Tone Prose is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)