Daniel Bashir

my favorite essays/writing about classical music

I haven’t found a great compendium of pieces/writing about classical music, so I thought I’d put one together so I at least have this to refer to later. I also probably haven’t looked hard enough, so if you’re reading this and I’ve totally missed something I shouldn’t have missed, send me a note. Also: this is short! I’ll add to it in time!

  1. “The Monster Concerto” — this piece and my first listen to Kirill Gerstein’s excellent recording made me obsessed with the Busoni Piano Concerto. Busoni’s Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music is also a fascinating read, for its discussion of the arts in general, for bangers like: “The greater part of modern theatre music suffers from the mistake of seeking to repeat the scenes passing on the stage, instead of fulfilling its own proper mission of interpreting the soul-states of the persons represented.” Embedded is another performance by Marc-André Hamelin:

  2. “Apparition in the Woods” — the Sibelius Violin Concerto is one of my favorite pieces of all time. This recording of Hilary Hahn performing it with the Filharmonica Georges Enescu caused me to freeze when I first heard it because of how indignant and impassioned it felt compared to her other performances.

  3. “Augustin Hadelich’s Bold Violin Explorations” — again Alexis Ross in The New Yorker, sorry. Agustin Hadelich is lovely.
  4. “The Concerto Challenge” — apologized for that once, not doing it again.

  5. (not writing) TwoSet Talks — I love their comedy, I also particularly loved their interviews with James Ehnes (who is incredible, like, watch his thumb in this) and Agustin Hadelich.

  6. Absolutely on Music — a series of conversations between writer Haruki Murakami and the late Seiji Ozawa. I feel like I picked up a lot about Ozawa’s understanding of his own conducting style here.
  7. A Very Private Sense of Fear: An interview with violinist James Ehnes — 
  8. “Do You Actually Know What Classical Music Is? Does Anyone?” — I really appreciate general audience writing on classical music. I wish more of my friends (and people in general) listened to it!
  9. “How Leonard Bernstein Changed the Canon”
  10. “Yuja Wang and the Art of Performance” — she’s so cool

  11. (not writing) Zlatomir Fung: “I don’t want to be known for winning the Tchaikovsky” — this interview made me a huge fan, and is really just an excellent, thoughtful conversation. I wrote a little about it here!

  12. “Yo-Yo Ma’s Musical Mind” — I mean.