Musicians 65+

[gurnemanz]

I noticed this article prompted by the octogenarian Leonard Cohen's new album. (I love Johnny Cash's very late albums.) Having turned 65 this year myself, a mere youth compared to Mr Cohen, I started thinking about some great oldie compositions: Strauss Vier letzte Lieder, Janáček Intimate Letters, Verdi Otello, Shostakovich 15th Symphony (just scrapes in), Rossini Petite Messe. There must be many more .... even with a lot of greats ruling themselves out by dying too soon.

[Nick Armstrong]

It would appear appropriate for Elliott Carter to make an early (late ) appearance in this thread!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I shall not reply for another 3 months as I'm only 64 and three quarters.

[Petrushka]

There are any number of conductors active well into their 80s and I've said before on here that this is surely worthy of close study by the medical profession as problems such as dementia are remarkably absent.

Vaughan Williams was still composing at 85 (his 9th symphony dates from 1958 the year of his death) but Sibelius rather lets the side down by living until he was 91 but composing nothing for the last 30 years of his life.

Havergal Brian composed 14 symphonies while in his 80s and 7 while in his 90s!

[cloughie]

There are any number of conductors active well into their 80s and I've said before on here that this is surely worthy of close study by the medical profession as problems such as dementia are remarkably absent.

Vaughan Williams was still composing at 85 (his 9th symphony dates from 1958 the year of his death) but Sibelius rather lets the side down by living until he was 91 but composing nothing for the last 30 years of his life.

Havergal Brian composed 14 symphonies while in his 80s and 7 while in his 90s!

Tony Bennett appears in good voice at 87, Nev Marriner at 90 and how old is Uncle Bernie. John Mayall still breaking the blues at 81, and Ornette Coleman still blowing at 84?

[Petrushka]

Tony Bennett appears in good voice at 87, Nev Marriner at 90 and how old is Uncle Bernie. John Mayall still breaking the blues at 81, and Ornette Coleman still blowing at 84?

Bernard Hsitink is 85. Most conductors are just about reaching their peak by the age of 65 but none, so far as I know, have conducted their own centenary concert though I think I read somewhere that Leopold Stokowski had decided on the programme.

[Serial_Apologist]

It would appear appropriate for Elliott Carter to make an early (late ) appearance in this thread!

Elliott Carter was probably a rare example of a composer who remained radical in his thinking right to the end; Beethoven, Varese, Cage, Webern and Brian are others who come immediately to my mind.

[cloughie]

I noticed this article prompted by the octogenarian Leonard Cohen's new album. (I love Johnny Cash's very late albums.) Having turned 65 this year myself, a mere youth compared to Mr Cohen, I started thinking about some great oldie compositions: Strauss Vier letzte Lieder, Janáček Intimate Letters, Verdi Otello, Shostakovich 15th Symphony (just scrapes in), Rossini Petite Messe. There must be many more .... even with a lot of greats ruling themselves out by dying too soon.

Although he was not especially young - early 30s when he released his first album - which to this day I still love - his more mature bass-baritone cf with his earlier baritenor, actually adds gravitas to those early songs. However much Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright's renditions of Hallelujah are praised by the many, the original Len has not been bettered.

[kea]

There seem to be two kinds of composers—those who start composing at age five, have brilliant careers and burn out by age thirty (often dying shortly thereafter); and those who start composing at age five, have long and undistinguished careers and eventually develop a highly distilled, personal musical language appealing mostly to connoisseurs. It seemed to be a consensus until recently that if you hadn't written an acknowledged masterpiece by age thirty you'd never be better than second-rate, but nowadays we have 50 year old composers being referred to as "young" so who knows.

(Of course there are also composers like Beethoven and Stravinsky who managed to renew themselves after burning out, and those like Wagner whose brilliant career came much later in life after he'd already distilled his style to a high level, etc. So that classification isn't especially useful.)

Most of Franck and Bruckner's great works date from their sixties and later. Vaughan Williams's last five symphonies were written after the age of seventy, and the late works of Gerhard, Petrassi and Wellesz are for me more interesting than their earlier ones.