Musical Events: A Chronicle, 1983-1986

This fifth collection of Porter's New Yorker reviews, covering three additional seasons, reflects what was going on musically in America and elsewhere, from Wagner's Ring at Bayreuth in August 1983 to the festivals of Cabrillo, Carmel and Tanglewood in the summer of 1986, and features both new productions of older works (from the Middle Ages to Alban Berg) and first performances by composers ranging from Babbitt and Boulez to Tippett and Wuorinen. As his readers have come to expect, Porter tends to be more curious than censorious, enthusiastic whenever he can be, and generous toward honest endeavor even while impatient of pretentions. Nevertheless, when Rutland Boughton's The Immortal Hour was revived in 1985 the critic reported that ``The music has a faint, wispy, not irresistible charm'' but that ``perhaps it had simply not occurred'' to the cast ``to sing gently, with refinement.'' A treasure house for music lovers. (Sept.)