The New York Philharmonic with Branford Marsalis at Avery Fisher Hall
The New York Times, February 19, 2011

I rarely receive feedback on my reviews from strangers, directly, but every time I do, I learn something valuable. After this review appeared in print this morning, I got an e-mail from someone who attended the matinee performance of the same program on Friday.

This reader described to me something shocking and unprecedented she'd witnessed: midway through the performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 60, "Il distratto," the violins played a shockingly discordant chord. Andrey Boreyko, the conductor, evidently perturbed by what he heard, cut off the performance and waited impatiently as the violinists retuned their instruments.

As it happened, everything the reader described was precisely what Haydn wrote into this most unusual piece, embellished with a bit of play-acting from Mr. Boreyko and the musicians. This particular symphony originated in Haydn's 1774 incidental music for a stage play, Le Distrait (in German, Der Zerstreute; English translation, "The Absent-Minded Man"). In fashioning the six-movement symphony, Haydn preserved many of the musical effects he'd packed into his clever, evocative stage score. In the review, I describe some of those effects like so:

…inattentive fritters and jolts in the opening Allegro; robust brass interruptions in the Andante; an awkward retuning by the violins in the Finale. Mr. Boreyko contributed to that last bit of shtick with stagy shrugs and gestures of impatience.

This, I reckoned, would be enough for anyone who had a working knowledge of the symphony or had scanned James Keller's program notes (PDF). But this reader's note was a timely and welcome reminder that not everyone comes to a performance armed with the same facts and experience. Part of my job, ideally, ought to be explaining things in a manner that leaves less room for confusion.

At the very least I might have mentioned that the music comes to a literally screeching halt, then resumes, chastened. Being reminded of points like that is precisely what's most valuable about getting feedback from readers, and why I'll always welcome it.

Playlist:

Lamb of God – Hourglass (Epic)

R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now (Warner Bros., out Mar. 8)

Donwill – Don Cusack in High Fidelity (Bandcamp download)

Motörhead – No Remorse (Sanctuary)

Jennifer Higdon – On a Wire; Michael Gandolfi – Q.E.D.: Engaging Richard Feynman – eighth blackbird, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Robert Spano (ASO Media, out Feb. 22)

Marillion – Front Row Club 019 Wolverhampton November 4, 1998 (Racket download)

Zach Miskin – For Your Safety (Naïve)

Arnold Schoenberg – String Quartet No. 2; Anton Webern – Six Bagatelles, Op. 9; Alban Berg – Lyric Suite – Sandrine Piau, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Quatuor Diotima (Naïve)

Rick Ross – Teflon Don (Island Def Jam)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphonies Nos. 38-41 – Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Charles Mackerras (Linn)

Cradle of Filth – Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa (Nuclear Blast)

Peter Brötzmann/Fred Van Hove/Han Bennink – Balls (FMP/Atavistic UMS)

Radiohead – The King of Limbs (Waste)

Todd Reynolds – Outerborough (Innova)

Dmitri Shostakovich – Violin Concerto No. 1; Lyrical Waltz; Giya Kancheli – V & V; Arvo Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel; Sergei Rachmaninoff – Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 – Lisa Batiashvili, Hélène Grimaud, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen (Deutsche Grammophon)

John Adams – City Noir – Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel (Deutsche Grammophon download)

Aribert Reimann – Medea – Marlis Petersen, Michael Selinger, Elisabeth Kulman, Michael Roider, Adrian Eröd, Max Emanuel Cencic, Vienna State Opera/Marco Arturo Marelli (Arthaus Musik)