Fran Magazine: Issue #100!!!!!!!!!

Let's not kid ourselves: it's back to talking about classical music

Mar 27, 2024

📝 Thanks for reading Fran Magazine, a biweekly blog by Fran Hoepfner (me). The way this works is that Wednesday (regular) issues are free for all and Sunday (dispatch) and reread diary issues are for paid subscribers only. Consider subscribing or upgrading your subscription for access to more Fran Magazine, and feel free to follow me on Instagram or Letterboxd.

100 years of Fran

Everyone has been asking me all week: “What are you going to do for the 100th issue of Fran Magazine?” Well, I have no idea; I didn’t think about it that hard; beyond that, it’s not REALLY the 100th issue, given all the bits and bobs and special issues throughout the past three years. This is actually the 163rd issue, but I do think we should celebrate this one regardless.

thank you BEN // what does commenting on fran magazine make YOU feel like? sound off in the comments

I’m very grateful to all readers — subscribed, not subscribed, paying, nonpaying — alike, and I’m appreciative that anyone gives this not quite side, not quite main hustle the time of day. I really do love doing it, even though every other day I google “how to become career in finance.” Just kidding! One of these days I will figure out the exact kind of offensive, bad-faith opinion I can peddle here in order to amass the type of subscribership that many other Substack writers that I don’t respect appear to have. It’s my goal to keep doing this for as long as any of you will put up with me or until I sell out completely, and it’s exciting to see which of those might happen first.

Next season

I was looking back at Fran Magazines from last year — remember last year? — and discovered the somewhat monumental Issue #56 in which two Fran Magazine now-traditions were born:

the announcement of Middlemarch May
I tell you what to see at the symphony next year

The [TO BE DETERMINED BOOK] May book will be announced next week (this is a promise), but this week I want to take your through the upcoming New York Philharmonic season and give locals (or travelers) some recommendations for upcoming concerts and why they might be interesting or fun to attend, especially if you are relatively new at going to see classical music.

This special part of last year’s issue was paywalled, but if you reply with your local symphony in the comments section, I will make recommendations for your specific orchestra’s forthcoming season as well! It’s not all about New York — and we at Fran Magazine understand that.

My recommendations usually come with the caveat that I am thinking about someone who has been to see a philharmonic orchestra less than five times in their life, who is interested but apprehensive, maybe, and who is looking for something that won’t, dare I say, “confuse” them. Back when I had my classical music column at The Awl, I used to say all the time that this is a type of music that wants to be heard. It’s not seeking any kind of arch reverence outside of the fact that the whole genre of music comes out of wanting to be close to God. There’s little more limiting in the world than “I don’t/didn’t get it,” which puts up a stopgap on your attempt to make peace with something outside of your comfort zone. I tell everyone that basically any type of reaction to seeing an orchestra is [Love Lies Bleeding voice] “valid,” or worthwhile. You like this piece? You don’t like this piece? Why? Why not? It’s fine to be bored, it’s fine to fall asleep, but it’s also fine to let go of your thoughts and your consciousness about where you are and what you’re doing and just let history wash over you.

On with the show…

Emanuel Ax & Michael Tilson Thomas, Sept. 12-15

Every Michael Tilson Thomas performance is a gift — the longtime conductor was diagnosed was brain cancer three years ago. Not unlike my beloved Herbert Blomstedt, every time you see him it’s a reckoning with the past and the future. But let’s not get morbid! I’m not saying you should seek out Michael Tilson Thomas because it could be your last chance. I’m saying you should seek out MTT because they’re doing Mahler 5. Mahler 5 — known crudely as “the Mahler from TÁR” — is a piece of epic proportion. I was lucky enough to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform it back in 2016 or 2017, and it completely reframed the way I understood Mahler’s music and totally blew my mind.

Allow me to briefly go off on Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, Sept. 19 & 21

This concert features a number of cool pieces curated by the New York Philharmonic musicians themselves1, but the highlight on the program is Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, a piece I haven’t stopped listening to since I saw it was on the program. The piece’s full title is “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber,” and it’s an exploration of, well, the themes of Carl Maria von Weber, a German composer — like Hindemith himself. But none of that describes the truly epic and bizarre nature of the piece.

Not to be like one of those people who writes “tk esoteric thing SLAPS!!” but there is a thrill to a piece like Symphonic Metamorphosis, totally unpredictable to a first-time listener. It’s cinematic, daring, and weird. The second movement (linked above) has a timpani melody line — like how often does that happen? The piece is only about twenty minutes in length, and I recommend you listen to it in full to know if it’s the type of thing that might appeal to you, but if you love feeling upended and thrilled… this could be your way into the symphony this fall. A quick glance at the symphony’s back catalog suggests that Symphonic Metamorphosis only gets played once every fifteen years, so run, don’t walk!

Beethoven’s Seventh and Víkingur Ólafsson, Oct. 6-8

I saw the New York Philharmonic do Beethoven’s 7th Symphony a few years ago while seated in the second row and it was so completely beautiful and cool. Every year, this particular symphony seems to jostle with Dvorak’s From the New World and Beethoven 5 and 9 in the annual WQXR rankings. Is Beethoven’s 7th so good that I plan to see it again this fall? No, but if you never have, this is a great Beethoven. Plus Víkingur Ólafsson is literally hot?

Anthony McGill, Mozart & the Pathétique, Oct. 23-25

Most of the time, the New York Philharmonic brings in an outside soloist for their concerts; this time, they’ve got one of their own. Anthony McGill is the lead clarinetist for the orchestra, and people love him. I love him! He always gets a ton of applause, and let’s face it, clarinet is a hard instrument that doesn’t naturally lend itself to celebrity. McGill’s moment in the sun in tandem with Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique (“the pathetic” — Ken Russell) will make for a fascinating night of music.

Double Shostakovich, Dec. 5-7

I love Festive Overture, and I actually saw Shostakovich’s 10th the other year… but this time they’re putting it up against a stop-motion film? I have no idea if this will be good or bad, which is kind of the “Shostakovich promise.”

Nathalie Stutzmann doing wordless Ring cycle, Jan. 16-19

I have been on a huge Wagner trip lately, but I don’t have the funds or access to seeing all four nights of his Ring cycle. This arrangement of the music distills Wagner’s epic down to a breezy 75 minutes, the same length as Free Time, now playing at Quad Cinemas. I also saw Stutzmann last season conducting Dvorak’s From the New World — a favorite of mine that is also extremely overplayed. What felt thrilling about seeing her conduct was that for the first time in my memory of seeing the symphony performed live, she did something different with it. She could do that for Wagner too!

Yuja Wang is coming three whole times

I’m seeing Wang do Rhapsody in Blue, but you have a few different opportunities to catch her playing various other Gershwin in early 2025. Not familiar with Yuja Wang? Well, have I got the Janet Malcolm article and TikTok for you…

Nico Muhly & Firebird Suite, Mar. 6-8

The great Marin Alsop swings by to conduct a new piece by Nico Muhly — one of my favorite modern composers; he did the score for the BBC Howards End — and Firebird Suite which is one of those where, well, you just have to see it at some point in your life, why not now?

Okay — those are my main recommendations for now, but there’s a ton of good stuff next season! More Shostakovich! More Mahler! Bruckner 6! Also Sprach Zarathustra! It’s the kind of NY Philharmonic season I would have liked to see this past year, and I really liked this past year too. Anyway, tell me what’s playing by you, and I will point you in the most engaging and entertaining direction I can must.

Fran Magazine