Author Archives: Scott Foglesong

I displayed restraint, really I did: I waited a whole 48 hours before giving in to the raging torrent of “must have” demands surging through my little self. More than 48 hours, actually — more like 56. But there was … Continue reading →

I got home last night after giving my final pre-concert lecture at the SF Symphony for the season, poured myself a glass of wine (Heitz Cellars cabernet), got the dinner into the oven, and decided that my best course of … Continue reading →

Of late I’ve been exploring a few silent movies from the ‘teens and the ‘twenties, not out of any particular interest in the things, but in the process of researching the oh-so-minor screen star Mabel Van Buren. Mabel Van Buren? … Continue reading →

Although I’ve been known to inveigh against fiction from time to time, I’d be the last person to deny that fictional works exist that break out of the confines of mere storytelling and playacting. I watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A … Continue reading →

Write a birthday greeting to a computer operating system? What an odd thing to do. What a hopelessly geeky thing to do. What a nonsensically sentimental, rabidly fan-ish, depressingly don’t-you-have-anything-better-to-do thing to do. It’s worth celebrating anyway, since without OS … Continue reading →

I never have any trouble figuring out when I’m on vacation. I can tell because I start thinking about stuff other than music or technology. During the school year/symphony season, I’m just too immersed in taking care of my students, … Continue reading →

We all know the situation: too tired to do anything challenging or engaging, but not quite ready to toddle off to bed. That was me last night. I solved the problem the usual way, by flipping through the TV channels … Continue reading →

An article by a fine music commentator recently included a gripe that a number of visiting orchestras weren’t being innovative in their programming, given that they weren’t including any music written after 1945. I was taken aback by that remark … Continue reading →

I’m often taken aback by how little of the standard repertory your typical music student knows, so I decided to throw caution to the winds and write up a guide to basic musical literature, a list of the pieces every … Continue reading →

As part of my current study of the Shostakovich Eighth Symphony, I’ve been delving into those pivotal years 1936 – 1945, the time of some of Shostakovich’s greatest triumphs (5th and 7th Symphonies) as well as some of his most … Continue reading →