Bait and switch

A nice article on Henry Purcell reminded me of a concert experience I had with Mr Charm.

We had signed up for a series of concerts called something like "Three evenings with Purcell," or "Music of Purcell and his contemporaries." It was a lousy night to make the trip from New Jersey to New York, but Mr C and I both love the music of Purcell and his contemporaries as well. So we dragged our sorry selves into the city.

Imagine our surprise when the concert began and a chap called Wuorinen took the stage and proceeded to bore everyone in the audience silly with his pedantic remarks and ugly, non-harmonious songs. It seemed he thought his music bore a strong resemblance to that of Purcell.

Well, I'm here to tell you he was wrong. We kept waiting for the Purcell part of the evening to start. It never did.

At the intermission, nine-tenths of the audience rose to their feet and headed for the egress. Once we reached the lobby, there was a lot of loud bitching from the dissatisfied music lovers.

On the way home we hit a pothole which blew out one of our tires, which Mr Charm had to change in the sleet and snow. He did not do so silently.

I am reminded of this stellar evening by reading the proposed program for Tanglewood, posted on the web. One of the concerts features Wuorinen. I can't believe it.

Since then I have made it a fixed rule never to listen to music by living composers, and I've never regretted it. Needless to say, I am going to give the Wuorenen concert the miss in balk.

For those who want to sample the music of this ass***, I am supplying a link.