[Article Discussion] Why classical programmes need to be more readable

[mahler10th]

Do the performers themselves ever write the notes? I realise that they would be busy rehearsing, but wouldn't it be nice if you, the listener, were able to know what the soloist/ensemble/conductor has in store beforehand?

Don't know what other Orchestras do, but an hour before curtains up Stéphane Denève [or other luminary] and the RSNO have a half hour or so walkthrough of the piece they're going to play - and indeed, so do the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.  It's a great idea, wish other orchestras would so the same.  But maybe they do.
Oh I'm so provincial.

[Kuhlau]

That's a shame about Hewitt's WTC liner notes - yet totally understandable, too. Why would she write otherwise?

Having said that, I understand Stephen Hough writes very well and can gear his writing towards a non-technical audience. He wrote something which was rather engaging for BBC Music magazine a while back.

FK

[Brian]

I know performers sometimes write their own CD liner notes.

FK

Yevgeny Sudbin's notes for his Scriabin CD are not just a model for great notes, but an example of a composer's style infecting the writing of the performer - Sudbin's trippy imagery in describing the music goes right over the top, Scriabin-style!

[karlhenning]

I remember ghastly notes that Nigel Kennedy wrote for the original release of his recording of Sibelius & Tchaikovsky.

[Kuhlau]

Yes, Kennedy needs to be restrained whenever he's near to a keyboard (the letter-faced type, and probably also the 88-keyed type).

FK

[karlhenning]

I don't literally remember them, but I have a yet-powerful memory of their ghastliness.