…why is it so difficult to “praise interestingly”? Despite our native savagery, surely there is nothing quite so pleasing as a balanced, sensitive and generous review that manages to capture the spirit of a beloved book? Maybe the problem is that the texts that really touch us engage our emotions and our passions, so that in describing them we must also reveal something of ourselves, whereas a clever slating distances us through self-consciously crafted irony and wit.

And the language of praise is more difficult to wield; bile flows more easily than the milk of kindness. Admiring adjectives often seem too gushing, too pretentious or too fey; difficult to deploy without sounding like an Amazon spammer or a school book report. The vocabulary of cruelty is, on the other hand, deliciously diverse.

Very often when I hear a fantastic concert, I find myself without the words with which to describe it. This is problematic when you’re under contract to come up with 600 in very short order. All the adjectives, metaphors and analogies that come to mind don’t even begin to capture the feeling and are systematically rejected on the grounds that they are reductive, lazy tropes full of the clichés and PR-speak that make my skin crawl. Eventually some words are set to paper but the results are often not wholly satisfactory.

Resorting to snark when a more considered response is appropriate is infinitely more lazy but also more fun. On occasion, the allure of the witty one-liner or the clever zing! is too much to resist. Basking in my own cleverness is a factor, but mostly these little nuggets really do capture my thoughts on the matter at hand.

There is never an excuse for cruelty and genuine mean-spiritedness does no one any favours. That being said, the goalposts in this game change with every match, as does the line between a good bit of fun and meanness. The closer you cut, the bigger the payoff, but also the bigger the fallout if you misjudge. At the moment, it seems that all I can hope for is that getting it wrong happens less often than getting it right.

Like this? Why not try:

• Suffering For Your Art
• Bye Bye Bernie
• ‘The Mind Of A Critic’

Here are today’s clues:
1) The composer has an enthusiastic champion in classical music blog community
2) ‘Robin Hood’ saved his life.
3) The year in which the song set was composed was also the year Howard Hughes set a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

The OM Inbox awaits your reply.

Like this? Why not try:

• Quiz #17
• Quiz #16: Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Champion Is….
• Quiz #16 Clue Two

from Der Speigel:

The fire was reported shortly after 2 p.m. and 21 fire engines and 110 firefighters immediately rushed to the building, which is located next to Berlin’s central Tiergarten park. Visitors who had been attending a lunchtime concert were evacuated from the building, and musicians could be seen rushing from the building with their instruments.

At first firefighters had difficulties entering the building and were attempting to extinguish the fire from the outside. Police say the blaze appears to have started in the attic, though they do not yet know the cause. “We don’t believe anyone is in danger, as the fire appears to be contained in the roof,” Marco Trenn, spokesman for the firefighters, told the Associated Press.

Fire officers are now trying to make sure the priceless instruments stored in the Philharmonic are saved from smoke, flames and water.

The world-famous yellow building, designed by Hans Scharoun, is widely regarded as having some of the best acoustics of any concert hall in the world. The Philharmonic opened in 1963 with a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, conducted by Herbert von Karajan..

Thankfully, it appears at this point that the damage is minor….relatively-speaking, at least.
Further information at Die Welt (auf Deutsche) and IHT (English)

Like this? Why not try:

• Can You Hear Me Now?
• Wolfgang Rihm: Deus Passus Resources
• Wolfgang Rihm: Deus Passus

Fozie Majd “Dreamland” (world premiere)
Milton Babbitt Quartet No. 4
Giuseppe Verdi String Quartet in e 

Cyrus Beroukhim, violin; Aaron Boyd, violin; Maurycy Banaszek, viola; Alberto Parrini, violoncello 

Dreamland by Iranian composer Fozie Majd was composed in 1997 and is influenced by devotional singing and the Dastgah system of traditional Persian music. Born in 1938 in Berlin, Fozie Majd studied at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She also studies musicology at the Sorbonne. Ms. Majd stopped composing during the devastating years of Iran-Iraq war and returned to composing in 1988 when the war ended.

Milton Babbitt was born in Philadelphia in 1916 and studied composition with Roger Sessions. Known for his use of serial technique and electronic music, Mr. Babbitt is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. His Quartet No. 4 is influenced by jazz and employs the dodecaphonic system. 

Friday, June 6, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Christ and St. Stephen’s Church
120 West 69 Street
Tickets: $15 ($10 for seniors and students)
Tickets can be purchased at the door the night of the concert 

Ned Rorem Night Music (excerpts)
Witold Lutosławski Subito
Béla Bartók Rhapsody No. 1
Antonín Dvořák Romance
Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata, Op. 30, No. 1 

Cyrus Beroukhim, Violin; Carol Wong, piano 

Praised for his expressive tone and virtuosity, violinist Cyrus Beroukhim has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the US and in Germany, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Taiwan, including solo appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Barbad Chamber Orchestra. 

Ned Rorem’s Night Music (a 1972 composition) received its world premiere at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 1973. Composed in 1992, Subito, a virtuosic piece by Lutosławski, was commissioned for the 1994 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. It is one of Lutosławski last works. 

Known for its distinctive programming, the Barbad has brought New York audiences a wide variety of music from the 17th century to the present. The Barbad regularly performs works by living composers from around the world, as well as rarely performed works by composers from the past.

The afternoon will include performances of music by Saul Cosentino, Francisco De Caro, Carlos Gardel, Astor Piazzola, and Oswaldo Pugliese, as well as abstract and improvisational deconstructions of Argentinian folk melodies.

International Street Cannibals member performers will be Dan Barrett, cello, Arthur Kampela, guitar and vocals, Julian Kampela, djembe, and Dave Taylor, bass trombone. The performers of Cuartetango are ensemble director Leonardo Suarez Paz, 1st violin and vocals, Alejandro Drago, 2nd violin, Ron Lawrence, viola and Daniel Miller, cello. The afternoon’s guest artists will be Hector Del Curto, bandoneon and Oscar Feldman, saxophone.

The “From the Holding Tank” series offers a wide range of traditional and non traditional chamber works by great European masters, contemporary American composers and satirists. Improvisatory and semi-staged works are also presented in ways that expand and de-contextualize the boundaries of the concert hall, and exploit in novel ways the spatial qualities of the venue.

Tickets for the May 25 event are $25 and are available by calling 212-961-0357 or 212-663-8826, or at the door on the day of the performance. For more information, please contact The International Street Cannibals at 212-961-0357 or 212-663-8826.

Visit Cuartetango at http://www.lindseyartists.com/resources/Cuartetango_String_Quartet.htm.

Much more about the International Street Cannibals at http://streetcannibals.com/.