Great Barrington — If you want to start a fiery argument, just walk into any classical music conservatory and announce that Anthony Newman is the “high priest” of the harpsichord. Once the heat has died down, go learn for yourself why Time Magazine gave him that title in 1971, by listening to Newman’s performance of Bach’s “Italian Concerto” and other Baroque works at St. James Place on Saturday, November 5, at 3 p.m.
Anthony Newman first inspired widespread controversy when he made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 26 with performances of Bach organ pieces on pedal harpsichord. The New York Times wrote about the way Newman’s “driving rhythms and formidable technical mastery” had elicited “the kind of clamor that is stirred by extraordinary artistry.”
That was all Clive Davis needed to hear. Having never seen Newman perform, the Columbia Records executive known for discovering people like Bruce Sprinsteen and Whitney Houston signed Mr. Newman on the spot. It didn’t hurt that Newman sported wire-rimmed spectacles, kept his hair long, and practiced Zen meditation. It was the “Summer of Love,” 1967.
Columbia positioned Newman in the marketplace as a hip, classical music version of rock keyboard virtuosos like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. The young hippie harpsichordist from Los Angeles, Davis thought, would deliver comeuppance to stuffy, geriatric classical music snobs (and, commercially at least, Newman got the job done).
Even Rolling Stone Magazine joined the Newman bandwagon, writing, “The music’s a trip. Like it pulls strands of your mind out of their corners and ties them in loops and bows.” And Newman was well fêted in the pop-oriented Keyboard Magazine (twice named Harpsichordist of the Year and once Classical Keyboardist of the Year).
And he sold a lot of records.
Traditionalists have been less pleased with Newman. His detractors say he takes too many liberties with tempo, rhythm, and ornamentation. But it’s essential to keep in mind that Newman’s sins against tradition are committed on your behalf. He suffers the classical music intelligencia’s disapproval to save you, the listener, from what one critic called “the tedium of misguided respect.” He wants you to have as much fun listening as he has performing.
No doubt you have found yourself listening to a classical music piece and at some point said to yourself, “Where am I? Is this the whatchamacallit section?” This makes you a member of Anthony Newman’s target audience. That’s because he aims not only to please you with inherently entertaining Baroque music but also deliver periodic clues about the structure of a given piece. (Over and over, I find critics using language that, essentially, describes Newman’s penchant for elucidating structure.) He wants you to know where you are.
The Dallas Morning News called Newman’s performances “novel and exciting.” Gazeta Krakowska called them “ravishing.” The Washington Post said Newman has a “distinctive and mildly iconoclastic personality.” But more traditional Baroque specialists say, essentially, that one man’s excitement is another’s panic attack. Newman’s chief critic, Frederick Neumann, warns that Newman shows signs of “eccentricity.”
On November 5, you will have the last word on all of this.
As you can imagine, Newman has accumulated quite a few musician friends in half a century of performing, composing, conducting, and teaching. And he’s bringing four of them with him to St. James Place on Saturday. They are:
You’ll be well rewarded by reading their bios. Ms. Reardon is a member of the famed Borromeo Quartet. The other three players are represented by Young Concert Artists, and when you hear them play, you will agree that they are all rising stars.
Here is Saturday’s program:
- Bach Italian Concerto (Anthony Newman)
- Mozart Hoffmeister Quartet in D Major K 499 (the quartet)
- Haydn Emperor Variations Opus 76, number 3 (the quartet)
- Haydn Harpsichord Concerto in D Major-Hoboken 18:11 (the quartet with Anthony Newman)
Whenever we speak of “historically informed” performance practice, it’s always good to ask, “Whose version of history?” That seems to be the question Anthony Newman has been asking all his life.
See Baroque specialist Anthony Newman and friends at St. James Place on Saturday, November 5, at 3 p.m. Ticket information here.
