This continues a significant “Ring des Nibelungen” project with DSO. After a long hiatus, I will conduct my third complete “Ring” production (semi-staged) in Dallas. If we consider the “Ring des Nibelungen” to be a giant symphony (“Rheingold” being the introduction, “Walküre” the first movement, and “Götterdämmerung” the final apotheosis), “Siegfried” is undoubtedly in form and character the “scherzo”.

This is the perfect summer read. It is a beautiful novel. Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery? All of these. Entertaining and suspenseful.

It is unbelievable that I have not conducted Ravel’s arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition before (I only conducted the Stokowski version). It is coming to NHKSO soon.

It is high time to think about this term and not be dazzled—and deceived—by cheap opinions, mere visibility, or, even worse, political correctness.

Ho iniziato questo libro e non ho potuto chiuderlo, tanto è contagioso l’entusiasmo con il quale Vittorio Sgarbi ci parla di grandi artisti che per un motivo o per l’altro (come anche spiega Pierluigi Battista nella dotta prefazione, parlando della “damnatio memoriae”) sono stati messi da parte od addirittura dimenticati dopo la caduta del regime fascista perché appartenenti all'”Arte Fascista”. Sgarbi, giustamente, privilegia la figura dell’artista per se, togliendolo dall’equazione “arte – potere” ed esaltandone la qualità artistica indipendente ed assoluta. Un libro importante non solo perché fa nomi di grandi artisti trascurati dal post-fascismo (Sironi, Depero, ecc.) ma anche perché ci fa riflettere su certe prese di posizione su artisti, ed anche musicisti, di oggi.

Die Liebe der Danae, “The Last Opera” by Richard Strauss, is a Greek mythology opera with comedic aspects and great music that demonstrates the composer’s late period.

Everybody knows Einstein, but John von Neumann has been equally important—if not even more critical—in understanding, eighty years ago, in which direction humanity was moving. Computer architecture, IA, and game theory, in brief, the tools of the future, of his future, which is the time we are living in now. An unknown genius and a bon vivant. This book is a journey through his life and, at the same moment, a history of the major physics and quantum physics discoveries in the first four decades of the 20th century. It is very clearly written and has a lot of humor, but beware: also a lot of mathematics (most of which I had—to my shame—to skip).

We continue the Scriabin project for Deutsche Grammophon with DNSO.

Taylor Swift. Ero particolarmente curioso di ascoltare qualcosa di questa cantante, di cui tutti parlano e che ha un seguito che tutti noi artisti classici messi insieme possiamo solo invidiare (va bene, non è questo il punto, lo so). Inizio dall’Album “Taylor Swift” del 2006 e finisco con l’ultimo “The tortured Poets Department” (c’è un interessante articolo sul NYT su una possibile apostrofo mancante). Si inzia quindi da un puro Folk e si termina (al momento) con un linguaggio musicale maturo, la voce che si è abbassata di una terza, ma soprattutto testi sofisticati, sentiti e vissuti. Mi sono sentito un ex-teenager. Taylor Swift mi piace.

Taylor Swift. I was curious to hear something from this singer. Everybody is talking about her, and she has a terrific number of followers, a thing we classical artists could only dream of (I know, this is not the point). I started with the album “Taylor Swift” from 2006 and stopped with the last one, “The Tortured Poets Department” (there is an interesting article in the NYT about the supposed necessity of an apostrophe). We begin with pure folk music and end (so far, at least) with a mature musical language, the voice down one third, but, above all, sophisticated lyrics, authentic and even, at times, profound. I felt like an ex-teenager. I like Taylor Swift.

Federico Rampini is an experienced observer of the geopolitical global scene. His insights about the Middle East are impartial (and therefore, not everybody will like them) and pointed—even sharp, at times. This is a great book for understanding balance and development in this important region of the world.