Bartok and Schoenberg

You could tell that the students who performed the Bartok String Quartets 1, 2, 5 and Schoenberg "Transfigured Night" all new their pieces inside and out. They probably spent the whole semester looking at those works and were coached by (I'd really love to know how) the members of the Borromeo String Quartet. Perhaps one of the best concerts I've been to this year.

I couldn't help but think of the great divide between musicology and the actual making of music. These kids studied the heck out of these works and at the end of the semester presented us with an unforgetable concert (accompanied by solid program notes.) That is, I think, an example of a genuine and sincere form of schoarlship that is undervalued. Sadly, AMS would never accept that concert as a form of scholarship. They're missing out.