Keeping Score, Michael Tilson Thomas with the San Francisco Symphony

  • Daniel Barolsky Beloit College

Abstract

The San Franciso Symphony’s Keeping Score video series presents performances of a featured work (Beethoven’s Eroica, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring) under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas followed by the story of the music with Thomas’s own analysis and interpretation. The performances are powerful and offer revelatory perspectives on these standard works. As tools for teaching music history, however, the DVDs are limited because the singular dramatic narrative of Thomas’s analysis does not offer the complexity, tension, and more nuanced perspectives that provide students with the necessary skills for thinking critically about the musical past. The DVDs work best for viewers already interested in classical music who prefer a single narrative explanation of the works.


Author Biography

Daniel Barolsky, Beloit College
Daniel Barolsky is an Assistant Professor of Music at Beloit College where he teaches music history and theory. He has presented at numerous conferences including the Society for Music Theory, the annual symposium for the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM), and recently at the College Music Society where he explored the tension between performers and the 20th-century musical canon. His primary research demonstrates how musical recordings have enabled performers and their interpretations to shape the musical perception, aesthetics, analysis, and conceptions of the musical work, and he has published articles for Music Theory Online, Music Performance Research, and European Meetings in Ethnomusicology.
Published
2011-08-20
Section
Reviews