The only thing wrong, in fact, was the English translation, which was extremely wrong. And so the subtle glints of Georges Bernanos French words were turned lumpy and percussive in the thudding of Machlis consonants, and by that margin of error it would have been better if USC s efforts simply hadn t taken place. Late last month, yet another student ensemble from USC, led by the fearless Donald Crockett, had taken over one of the Philharmonic s Green Umbrella concerts, in a program of important and difficult music by Louis Andriessen and Morton Feldman. Both the Times Mark Swed and I praised the enterprise but suggested each of us in a single, somewhat wistful sentence that the young performing forces may have been in over their collective heads. A week later the Times published a fulminating response to Swed s review by Stephen Hartke, a composer on the USC faculty who has also worked for the Philharmonic as a pre-concert lecturer and program annotator, and who had at this very concert taken credit for its planning.
Criticism is forever earthbound, mired in the banal necessity of making the nonverbal verbal.
Swed s single sentence becomes a copious flow of venom, directed at a rare and stunning performance that a large and diverse audience had responded to with prolonged enthusiasm. Aside from several layers of conflict of interest involved Hartke does, after all, glean a few bucks from the Philharmonic in the banal process of making the nonverbal verbal he glides rather glibly over the fact that, sure, the cheers rang out in Zipper Hall that night, from a clearly partisan audience of USC classmates. The Los Angeles area is one of the most active new-music venues in the country, and every event should ideally nourish and stimulate the entire community. Actions like Stephen Hartke s preposterous letter can only slow the process. And by the way, I make the necessity of making the nonverbal verbal my most rewarding challenge and not a bit banal.