Classical Music

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    About.com: Classical Music

  • "Sempre Libera" Lyrics and Text Translation

    15 Nov 2009 | 3:32 pm
    Since it is National Opera Week, after all, I've posted the Italian lyrics and English translation of Violetta's aria "Sempre Libera" from Verdi's opera, La Traviata. I first heard this aria about twelve years ago, sung non other by the great Dame Joan Sutherland. Do you remember the first time you heard "Sempre Libera"? "Sempre Libera" Lyrics and Text Translation originally appeared on About.com Classical Music on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 23:32:28.Permalink | Comment | Email this

  • Free Met Player

    15 Nov 2009 | 3:19 pm
    The Metropolitan Opera is showing free selections on Met Player, its online service that streams over 250 opera performances on demand, in celebration of National Opera Week. The Met Player will show three new selections every day until November 22. Next three performances on schedule for Monday, Nov. 16: "Orrida e questa notte" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, "Father, can this be the Shadow," from Tan Dun's The First Emperor, and "Per pieta, ben mio, perdona" from Mozart's Cossi fan tutti. Learn more about Met Player and the free selections for National Opera Week.Free Met Player…

  • National Opera Week

    13 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm
    November 13 through November 22 is National Opera Week. Throughout the week long celebration of operatic arts in the United States, opera houses across the US will host free events and activities to opera lovers and newcomers alike to raise awareness and public interest. If you're interested in celebrating National Opera Week, check with your local (or nearest) opera company! Happy Opera Week, everyone!National Opera Week originally appeared on About.com Classical Music on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 22:53:59.Permalink | Comment | Email this

  • "Les Oiseaux dans la charmille" Lyrics and Translation

    7 Nov 2009 | 5:56 pm
    I've been listening to soprano Natalie Dessay lately, in particular, "Les Oiseaux dans la charmille" from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann (one of my favorites). I've been humming along with it for the past few years, but recently decided it was time to finally learn the French lyrics. So now, even though I still only hum the song, I know what she is singing! And because I'm so nice, I want to share both the French lyrics and English translation with you. Learn "Les Oiseaux dans la charmille." "Les Oiseaux dans la charmille" Lyrics and Translation originally appeared on About.com Classical…

  • The Met: Live in HD, Season 4

    1 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm
    Now in it's fourth season, The Met: Live in HD has been broadcasting live performances in high definition to theaters around the world since 2006. This Saturday, November 7th, the Met will present its third Live in HD broadcast of the season, Puccini's Turandot. Saturday's performance will star Maria Guleghina as the Chinese princess, Turandot, and Marcello Giordani as Calàf, the prince whose solos include the famous "Nessun dorma." I'm looking forward to viewing this production, as the last Turandot I saw at the Met was lackluster and pathetic. This year's production, directed by Franco…
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    NPR: Classical

  • The Past (And Future) Of Online Music

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:39 am
    Back in 2001, I sat in a San Francisco federal courtroom and watched a judge order Napster to shut down. The record companies won their battle against the world's first peer-to-peer file sharing service. But, as everyone now knows, it was a Pyrrhic victory; to reference another Greek myth, Napster turned out to be a Hydra.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • These People Recorded A Song In A Weekend: Part Three

    19 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pm
    By Frannie Kelley The writing's on the wall . . . (c r i s/flickr) OK! Here you will find more songs recorded last weekend, in accordance with a very strict set of rules, namely, that each song must include one of these ...» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Maya Shankar: A Violinist Lost And Found

    18 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pm
    Years after suffering a debilitating hand injury, young violinist Maya Shankar recently made a joyful return to music. Here, she returns to From the Top, the classical kids program that celebrates its 10-year anniversary by checking back with some of its alumni.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • These People Recorded A Song In A Weekend: Part One

    17 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    We asked, you answered. We'll reveal the songs people recorded every day for the rest of the week.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Wagner's Overtures In Full-Spectrum Sound

    17 Nov 2009 | 9:45 am
    The German composer utilizes powerful orchestral sounds, as well as silence, to elicit a psychological and emotional response from the listener. Who better than conductor Daniel Barenboim, a veteran of the opera pit, to pull it all off?» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us
 
 
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    Artsjournal.com: Greg Sandow

  • Left behind (2)

    Sandow
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am
    Continuing what I started in my last post. 3, Recent history, art and music. Music. Atonal composers started dominating composition -- in prestige, grant-worthiness, faculty hiring, and, retrospectively, in the way classical music history has been written -- sometime in the 1950s. (Though we know they didn't dominate --- outside the new music ghetto -- in the number of performances they got, or didn't get.) (I'd also say that this is a US-centric description. The atonal composers seemed also to lead in prestige in Europe, but I don't know whether they lead in getting grants or in getting…

  • Left behind

    Sandow
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:28 pm
    I'm going to write again about new music and orchestras, because -- in the present state of these discussions -- it's easy for me to be misunderstood. This isn't my fault, or the fault of the people who misunderstand me. It's more, I think, because the discussion is very new, and the context I mean to put it in is (naturally!) more familiar to me than to others. So no blame to anyone here. I'll try to explain why (at least as I see it) I'm not simply voicing a personal preference when I say that orchestras should do much more alt-classical new music, and why I'm also not saying (when I note…

  • Third book riff

    Sandow
    16 Nov 2009 | 12:12 pm
    This one, you'll see, is a little different from the last two. I expand into some writing that has, maybe, the length and detail l'll have in the finished book. And no, this isn't the actual book text. Still just a riff, but partly expanded. You'll see that I'm asking you if my plunge into a new subject -- the classical music tradition, and what's not just good, but profoundly wonderful about it -- makes sense, at this early stage of the book. Remember that I'm riffing my way through the first chapter. The plan: maybe one more first chapter riff, and then I move onto chapter two -- while…

  • Long overdue

    Sandow
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:39 am
    No, not my next book riff, though that's coming very soon. What's long overdue are two things -- first, major classical music institutions seriously acknowledging alt-classical composers, and, second, a little celebration, here in my blog, for the Chicago Symphony doing just that. A month ago! I should have posted this much sooner.So what happened? The Chicago Symphony appointed Mason Bates and Anna Clyne as its two composers in residence next season. Here's their press release. In it, they say:Both Mason Bates and Anna Clyne are artists who write from the heart, who defy categorization and…

  • Terrific idea

    Sandow
    11 Nov 2009 | 8:40 pm
    Janis, who comments often on my posts (and who wants to be known here just by her first name), e-mailed me with a fabulous idea. In a moment, I'm going to turn this post over to her, and simply show you what she e-mailed. (Abridged a little, but I didn't leave out anything crucial. And of course i'm doing this with her permission.) But before I give her center stage, I want to say that I went to the Star Wars Uncut website she mentions, and believe me -- it's everything she says it is, and more. Such an outpouring of fun and creativity, from so many people, something which we haven't yet…
 
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    ArtsJournal.com: On the Record

  • Farewell

    on the record
    30 Oct 2009 | 7:51 am
    I remember a moment during the summer of 2002, when I looked at my wife and told her that I needed to make a change in my professional life. I had been managing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for seventeen years--a dream job, to be sure--but there comes a time when one realizes that one needs a change, and probably the organization you are leading realizes that as well.  So it is with blogging. I have enjoyed writing this blog for the past few years, and have had the wonderful opportunity to write about those aspects of the music world--particularly the world of symphony orchestras--that…

  • Declining Arts Participation: A Topic for Broad-Based National Dialogue

    on the record
    23 Oct 2009 | 7:12 am
    Earlier this year the National Endowment for the Arts released its 2008 Arts Participation Survey, and the picture it paints is worrisome. The study was done in May, 2008, six months into the recession, and certainly we can draw a conclusion that some of what it tells us was probably affected by the economy. But I think we would be hiding our heads in the sand if we argued that the economy was the sole cause of what looks like a continuing and increasing decline in attendance at all arts events, particularly classical music, in this country. For example, in the area called "classical…

  • The Case for Subsidizing Ticket Prices

    on the record
    16 Oct 2009 | 7:32 am
    If you go to symphony concerts in Europe or South America, you see audiences that tend to be more diverse than ours in the United States--more young people, more ethnic diversity, more apparent diversity of economic and demographic background. Since the criticism often leveled at American orchestras is their lack of such diversity, one certainly starts wondering just why it is different here. I was most strongly struck by this in São Paulo, where the São Paulo Symphony plays to almost sold-out audiences night after night and there are enormous numbers of young people--as well as racial and…

  • Artistic Authority in Orchestras: A Tricky Balance

    on the record
    9 Oct 2009 | 10:38 am
    I appear to have caused some confusion in the past with my comments about orchestra board members who try to wield too much authority in programming decisions, and conversely about conductors who adopt an autocratic, almost dictatorial stance, saying, "I am in charge of all artistic matters--just leave me alone." In a private email I was recently asked, "Which is it, Mr. Fogel? Is the music director in charge? Or the board? Or, for that matter, the management?" To start with, if an orchestra has to answer that question, something is already wrong. In a healthy orchestral organization, large…

  • The Music Director Search: Integrity and Commitment

    on the record
    2 Oct 2009 | 9:34 am
    In last week's blog, I began a discussion of some of the questions I am most frequently asked by orchestras engaged in music director searches. This week, I am continuing that subject.What do we do when we start getting local pressure for a candidate? It is shocking to me how often this happens. Sometimes it's a relative, sometimes it's a close friend, sometimes it's a well-meaning person who just loves the work of one conductor and pushes that name over and over again. It is really up to the music director search committee to hold firm, to apply identical standards to all candidates being…
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    ArtsJournal: Slipped Disc

  • Last Composer Standing - the retro edition

    Slipped disc
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:31 am
    As debate continues in several languages over who will still be heard 50 years from now, several readers have asked how accurate our forecasting can be. Well, let's go back to 1959 and ask which living composers, in the view of listeners at that time, would be likely to endure. Shostakovich, for sure - he was the flagship musician of the Soviet Union, and everyone thought the USSR was forever. Stravinsky had just produced Threni. Britten was receiving more opera stagings than any of his contemporaries. Bernstein and Copland were universally renowned, if only for West Side…

  • Unsung premiere

    Slipped disc
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:08 am
    Simon Mawer's reflective novel The Glass Room, shortlisted for the Man Booker prize and one of my reads of the year, digresses midway into a sub-story about a shortlived composer. Vitezlava Kapralova, born in 1915 in Janacek's town, Brno, was a star pupil of the conductor Vaclav Talich and, in Paris, of the composer Bohuslav Martinu, whose lover she became (Martinu, though married, had two or three long-term liaisons, but that's another story). In 1937, Kapralova conducted the Czech Philharmonic and, a year later, the BBC Symphony Orchestra in her own Military Sinfonietta.

  • Last composer standing - the results

    Slipped disc
    17 Nov 2009 | 1:12 am
    Of 3,200 people who read or engaged with the debate here, on twitter and on facebook, as well as an uncounted readership on radio and newspaper sites, just over 100 eligible ballots were received. Some ticked one composer for posterity, others voted for the full ten options. The results of the poll are not in any way scientific or universal. There is a bias towards US and UK composers - understandable since the debate is conducted in English - as well as a slight tendency towards certain composers who have current or recent performances.

  • Last Composer Standing - the top three

    Slipped disc
    15 Nov 2009 | 4:18 am
    In light of technical and security difficulties - think Afghan election - polls for the most durable composer will remain open until 1800 EST (2300 GMT) Monday Nov 16. The response has been far heavier than expected and the spin-off discussions will run and run. Early returns show Pärt leading by a tiny margin from Reich and Adams, with Glass and Golijov strongly in pursuit. There is a heavy weighting towards US composers of a minimalist/anti-modernist tendency. It's not too late to change the result. I've been surprised by the absence of, for instance, Tan Dun, Magnus Lindberg (the New York…

  • Late contenders in the Last Composer Standing vote

    Slipped disc
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am
    We're getting a late surge, here and on Twitter, for Meredith Monk surviving the test of time. Now there's an interesting possibility. John Luther Adams, anyone? Could there be two Adamses in the final list? Tim Page likes Dusapin. I somehow forgot Henze: surely something from his vast output will be played. 7th symphony? Silvestrov (whom I like immensely), Beat Furrer (whom I don't). Get those votes in now. The numbers are seriously mounting.   
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    ArtsJournal.com: PostClassic

  • Kierkegaard, Strolling through Toronto

    PostClassic
    8 Nov 2009 | 6:51 pm
    Kierkegaard, Walking is one of my favorite of my works; I look through the score and get a smile from every measure. My former student Max Scheinin, a violinist, has arranged a performance of it for this Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 PM at St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto, 270 Gladstone Ave. The other performers are Jamie Thompson, flute; Camilo Davila, clarinet; and Lucas Tensen, cello. Other composers on the program include Bernstein, Bach, and Nils Vigeland, a superb composer who worked closely with Feldman as part of the Creative Associates in Buffalo, and with whom I haven't been…

  • Keeping Good Company

    PostClassic
    29 Oct 2009 | 6:06 pm
    I had expected to have two new CDs and a book out this fall, but two of them have been delayed until February. One of the CDs, however, has arrived, titled The Minimalists, by the Orkest de Volharding on Mode Records (Mode 214/5). It's a two-CD set, and the lineup consists of:Steve Reich: City LifeTerry Riley: In CLouis Andriessen: Worker's UnionKyle Gann: Sunken CityJohn (Coolidge) Adams: Short Ride in a Fast MachineDavid Lang: StreetSunken City, of course, is my piano concerto commemorating the disaster in New Orleans that attended hurricane Katrina; the august Geoffrey Douglas Madge…

  • Maryanne Amacher (1943-2009)

    PostClassic
    22 Oct 2009 | 7:11 pm
    [For emendation to the above dates, see updates below.] The music world lost one of its most bizarre characters today, and I say that with the utmost affection. Maryanne Amacher was an amazing composer of sound installations, who occasionally taught courses at Bard. I first encountered her in 1980 at New Music America in Minneapolis. She had, as was her wont, fitted an entire house with loudspeakers, and the staff was in a state of jitters because at opening time she was still obsessively running around and changing things. She was a tireless perfectionist. Years later I interviewed her for…

  • Total Heaviosity

    PostClassic
    17 Oct 2009 | 3:56 pm
    Liturgy opening the New Yorker Festival, October 16, 2009: Tyler Dusenbury, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Greg Fox, Bernard Gann. Listen here. The photo completely fails to convey the high-energy maelstrom of their strumming. 

  • Silence and Noise

    PostClassic
    14 Oct 2009 | 7:11 pm
    This Friday night, Oct. 16, my son's black metal band Liturgy plays at the New Yorker festival, at the Bell House in Brooklyn, 149 7th Street, 8 PM. The event is listed as already sold out, but I'm supposed to be on a guest list. I just heard the band play live on WFMU. Their new CD Renihilation is out on the 20 Buck Spin label. It's ecstatic, in a loud and rhythmically propulsive sort of way. Even my former newspaper seems to think they're a strange but inspired choice for the festival. Not sure what that means, except that maybe it took my son 16 months out of college to get more…
 
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    Chamber Music Today

  • Berliner Philharmoniker: Schoenberg’s ‘Accompaniment’, Op. 34

    DSM
    14 Nov 2009 | 1:52 am
    Schoenberg discursively plays ‘chamber pingpong’ in 1930H    ow words are understood is not told by words alone. How music is understood is not told by music alone. [How films are understood is not told by film alone.]”  —  Arnold Schoenberg quote.T    hough originality is inseparable from personality, there exists also a kind of originality which does not derive from profound personality. Products of such artists are often distinguished by uniqueness that resembles true originality… Certainly there was inventiveness at work when the striking…

  • Rational Exuberance: The Joyous Athleticism of St. Lawrence String Quartet

    DSM
    8 Nov 2009 | 4:57 am
    P    lay every concert like it’s your last; every phrase like it’s the most important thing you’ve ever said... Remember that the only reason you’re there is to make people cry and sweat and shiver, and give them that incredible sense of creation happening before your eyes [ears]. That’s the [only] reason to play. Otherwise there’s no point.”  —  Geoff Nuttall, violinist, SLSQ.T  he St Lawrence String Quartet performance in Kansas City’s Folly Theater last night, as part of the Friends of Chamber Music’s 2009-10 season, was superb.Haydn:…

  • Perfect Halloween Music: The Aesthetic Realism of Josquin Desprez’s ‘Mille regretz’

    DSM
    30 Oct 2009 | 2:20 am
    S ingers in brown or black, in an austere chamber, cold beyond the capacity of their clothing to keep them warm. F aded Renaissance landscape with fields now harvested and frost well on the pumpkin...    [50-sec clip, Paul Hillier & Hilliard Ensemble, Josquin Desprez, ‘Mille regretz’, 1.6MB MP3]T he singers’ gestures are Brueghel-like—some threading their way in the foreground and others in the distance. Denuded woods; hunting; dogs; countertenor; pensive magpies. V alley of ponds, river meandering through it abjectly. Steeply-roofed houses and…

  • Anonymous 4: Aural Ambitions of Medieval Worship, Modal Fictionalism

    DSM
    29 Oct 2009 | 2:06 am
    T he performance by Anonymous 4 last Saturday evening in the Friends of Chamber Music’s Early Music series was beautiful, without doubt.Marsha GenenskySusan HellauerJacqueline Horner-KwiatekRuth CunninghamT he program ‘Secret Voices: Music from Las Huelgas, ca. 1300 CE’ of pieces from the Codex Las Huelgas embodies both traditional and emerging aspects of the musical and religious practice of its time. There are motets that manifest secular or para-liturgical aspirations, but the music is also inherently liturgical and devotional.A s I listened, entranced by the singing,…

  • Akuma no ma: Nareh Arghamanyan, Romanticism and Nogaku-like Meter

    DSM
    3 Oct 2009 | 3:18 am
    P ianist Nareh Arghamanyan delivered a romantic tour de force last night, in her performance in the Friends of Chamber Music’s Master Pianists series.Mendelssohn: Variations Sérieuse, Op. 54Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110Chopin: Polanise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61Schumann: Humoreske in B-flat Major, Op. 20T he Humoreske’s radical changes in mood are humorous? Not so much. There is a ‘laughing-while-crying’ perplexity in there, which Nareh honors and turns round and round. The “innere Stimme” inner voices... the narrative that is not a…
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    Adaptistration

  • Charlotte Sometimes

    Drew McManus
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am
    No, not that one by The Cure but I’m off to Charlotte, NC today for business and while in town I’ll be attending tonight’s performance of the Charlotte Symphony featuring Inside The Arts’ own Lynn Harrell as he performs Beethoven’s Triple Concerto along with Helen Nightengale, violin and Joanne Pearce Martin, piano. This will be my first trip to the Charlotte area as well as the first time the orchestra live so if you plan on being at the concert and see me there, come up and say hello! Off to Charlotte

  • Damn You Alex Ross!

    Drew McManus
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am
    For years now, I’ve been enjoying the benefits of seatguru.com, which until it was picked up by TripAdvisor.com in 2007, was a fairly well kept secret. After that, the associated spike in traffic meant more travelers with inside info but for whatever reason, the handful of business colleagues I tipped off to seatguru had never heard of it before. Well, that’s all gone now since cultural uber-blogger Alex Ross posted a little something in praise of the service a few days ago at The Rest Is Noise… In all seriousness though, I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have a…

  • The Updated Naughty And Nice List For New Media PR

    Drew McManus
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am
    The always sharp Lisa Hirsh, author of the popular and long lived culture blog Iron Tongue of Midnight, recently updated her list of new media PR do’s and don’ts. In the new diminutive form, Lisa dishes out sound advice for PR professionals looking to make a meaningful connection with the proprietors of new media outlets. As before, one of my favorite pearls of wisdom is “DO make sure the press release is relevant to the people you’re emailing. I am happy to read press releases for events all over the world, but not everyone is. On the other hand, I rarely read pop…

  • Brouhaha Over Business Models

    Drew McManus
    17 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am
    The 11/9/2009 edition of the Huffington Post published an article by Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser that starts off with the question “Does the Symphonic Orchestra Model Work?” The piece has caused quite a stir within the orchestra business; dander is up, hackles raised, and righteous indignation abounds. Yet, regardless how many times I read the post, I don’t see what everyone is so upset about… The only component that could be interpreted in a negative context is when Kaiser engages in a little prognostication. “Somehow the cost structure for American…

  • The Untapped Revenue Beyond Required Registration

    Drew McManus
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am
    Since the onset of the Orchestra Website Reviews, the issue of requiring users to register in order to explore ticket information and/or make a purchase has generated a great deal of heated debate. Unfortunately, most positions boiled down to hunch rather than anything supported by quantifiable data but an article by Jared M. Spool published on 1/14/2009 titled The $300 Million Button that was originally published as part of Luke Wroblewski’s book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, provides some invaluable resource material for this issue… Back in 2004, the majority of…
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    Classical Convert

  • Fluted Vocals

    Me
    9 Nov 2009 | 8:15 pm
    Here’s what you do if your flute playing skills exceed your vocal ones: Click here to view the embedded video. (For those who don’t spend hours of their leisure time shifting around ones and zeros, this chick is supposed to be singing along to the music. The game processes the notes being sung and gives you points on how well you match the melody. However, the software doesn’t care about timbre or anything fancy, it’s just looking for pitch, so really you can use anything that can produce a tone. Like a flute.) I tried this once by whistling. It turns out I’m not…

  • CDs: in memoriam

    Me
    8 Nov 2009 | 6:51 pm
    There are a few things I miss about CDs. They started up straight away. Just push play. It was just one mechanical action between you and the music, nothing to boot up and double-click on. It was much less of a physical divide when there is only a split second action required between you thinking “I want to hear this music”, and that music actually starting. With MP3s it’s a much more elaborate protocol of clicks, responses, re-clicks and confirmations. Before you could just get it on with the music, now you have to take it out to a movie and dinner first. Of course, you now…

  • The oldest electronic drum machine

    Me
    29 Oct 2009 | 7:33 pm
    Here she blows: Click here to view the embedded video. Man, I love suff with cogs and pulleys and gears and stuff. It’s so fascinating watching little mechanical things moving sinusoidally. I used to be fascinated by street organs as a kid (and actually, I still would be if they ever existed on the street still). That’s why this is cool. It might be more efficient to pipe everything through CPUs and ICs and ETCs, but it isn’t as pleasing to the eye. I think we need to start incorporating analogue wheel and pulleys and stuff into digital electronics. Or at least have a few…

  • Please don’t turn off your cellphone

    Me
    25 Oct 2009 | 7:43 pm
    Ordinarily, cellphones get shut-up before a performance, but not here: Click here to view the embedded video. And here’s the making of: Click here to view the embedded video. Click here to view the embedded video. (via Gizmodo)

  • Suck juice from moose

    Me
    21 Oct 2009 | 10:14 am
    When I was about 8 years old my dad bought me a copy of Carmina Burana on cassette tape (remember them?). It turns out I didn’t really like anything except for O Fortuna!, that staple of medieval action movie trailers. I do remember being excited by the tightly compressed liner notes, which included both the Latin and English translation of the poems. “Velut Luna” has been what I’ve heard when it plays ever since. It might have been different if I had seen these lyrics first, instead: Click here to view the embedded video.
 
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  • In the long run,

    Steve Hicken
    15 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pm
    we're all dead. (John Maynard Keynes)But for some of us, our music will live on. Norman Lebrecht wants to know whose music (of composers living today) will be played 50 years from now. There have been responses at Mr. Lebreacht's blog and from other bloggers. If you are surprised that the leading vote getters are of a more-or-less minimalist/not-Modern bent, you haven't been reading about concert

  • Veteran's Day 2009

    Steve Hicken
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:19 am
    Last year's Veteran's Day post says what I want to say.

  • End of an Era

    Steve Hicken
    18 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pm
    In a way.The development of the concert music blogosphere can be dated from when Alex Ross began blogging at The Rest is Noise back before the internet cooled. Now Alex has effectively closed TRiN and opened a new blog, Unquiet Thoughts, under the auspices of The New Yorker, for which Alex is the concert music critic.I wish Alex well in his new corporate digs and I look forward to his blog posts,

  • Lindberg Live

    Steve Hicken
    16 Sep 2009 | 5:15 pm
    I don't know what it's like in the rest of the country, but the sound on the PBS broadcast of the New York Phil's opening concert here is awful--it's weak and full of pops.On first hearing, Magnus Lindberg's EXPO does what its composer says it's meant to do--shows off the orchestra and set the stage for the remainder of a concert and a season.

  • Hello, It's Me

    Steve Hicken
    8 Sep 2009 | 5:16 pm
    I've thought about us for a long, long time.I've not posted in a while because I've been immersed in my Percussion Concerto. More on that soon.Regular (or at least more regular) posting will begin again soon.
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    NewMusicBox

  • A Problematic Diagnosis

    17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Although a great deal of music being written right now is by no means unmelodic, there's still an assumption in certain quarters of the community that contemporary music equals gnarly music.

  • Sounds Heard: Bill Dixon—Tapestries for Small Orchestra

    17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    by Trevor Hunter The legendary trumpeter releases a two-disc set of new pieces on Firehouse 12. In short: this is one of the best CDs of the year.

  • Reaching Across the Aisle

    12 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    By Dan Visconti I am sure there are many people whose first encounters with contemporary music were not difficult at all, but I was not one of them; that kind of wonder and excitement of new sonic possibilities kicked in only gradually for me, and it was not until I was an older teen that I had really developed a taste for the music of our own time.

  • The 2009 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute Blog: Down to the Orchestral Wire

    12 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    By Spencer Topel Various fledgling composers will fantasize about the proverbial "break" that will propel their music, persona, and talents into the stratosphere; but the opportunities come few and far between.

  • Finding Yourself Elsewhere: An American Composer in Krakow

    11 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    While it is nothing new for an American composer to find himself living overseas, I've noticed that most composers (and Americans in general) have a very limited conception of "where the action is" in Europe.
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    Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise

  • In praise of SeatGuru

    Alex Ross
    12 Nov 2009 | 10:38 am
    Some time ago I stumbled across SeatGuru.com, and it has made me a happier traveler. It's a site that allows you to investigate the internal properties of various airplanes and locate more favorable seats. For example, with regard to the Boeing 767-200, one is told that seats 16K and 16L "have some extra legroom due to a cutout in the bulkhead," and that "many flyers enjoy the quiet and private feel of this mini-cabin," although "it can get very cold" and there is some danger of a baby situation. On my flight home from Spain, I had a lovely time in 16K,…

  • Spanish noise

    Alex Ross
    29 Oct 2009 | 2:29 pm
    I'm pleased and amazed that El ruido eterno, as The Rest Is Noise is known in Spain, is currently listed as the No. 1 non-fiction bestseller (castellano) by La Vanguardia. I will make a brief trip to Spain next week, appearing at the Spanish National Library in Madrid at 7 PM on Nov. 2; the International Institute in Madrid at 7 PM on Nov. 3; and Librería La Central in Barcelona at 1 PM on Nov. 4. I'm tremendously grateful to my Spanish publisher, Seix Barral, and also to the U.S. Embassy Madrid for helping to arrange this trip.

  • Audio guide reminder (EU edition)

    Alex Ross
    20 Oct 2009 | 3:41 am
    Audio-Samples zum Buch The Rest Is Noise: Das 20. Jahrhundert hören finden Sie hier. Para los ejemplos de audio relacionados con el libro El ruido eterno, vaya aquí. Per esempi musicali dal libro Il resto è rumore vai qui.
 
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    Sequenza21/

  • Let’s Ask Matt Davignon

    Polly Moller
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am
    Experimental music impresario Matt Davignon is known all over the San Francisco Bay Area for organizing unusual music performances.  In addition to being responsible for such events as the San Francisco Found Objects Festival, he’s a member of the Outsound Presents Board of Directors and the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival Steering Committee.  This Thursday evening, November 19, at 8:00 PM, Matt will present one of his DroneShift concerts at the Luggage Store Gallery, where he curates regularly.  The gallery is located at 1007 Market Street near 6th Street in San Francisco, near…

  • Last Night in L.A.: Preludes to a Festival

    JerryZ
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:44 pm
    This coming Saturday is the official opening concert of the L.A. Phil’s exciting new festival, West Coast, Left Coast, but performances introducing the concept have now begun. REDCAT showed a “re-interpretation” of a noted performance piece with music by Morton Subotnick and choreography by Anna Halprin, and Jacaranda Music had another full audience for its concert last night as a prelude to the festival itself. Parades & Changes, the Halprin-Subotnick performance collaboration from 1965 is coming to New York, and it provides a fascinating hour. The use of electronics in…

  • Truly Canadian

    Steve Layton
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:38 am
    Sunday, November 15th, the Esprit Orchestra and conductor Alex Pauk are giving what I think will be a really wonderful concert. It happens in Toronto, at 8PM in Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory (273 Bloor Street West, Toronto), with a 7:15Pm pre-concert chat with a composer and guest artists. That composer would be Alexina Louie, and my guess is the guest artists are Inuit throat singers Evie Mark and Akinisie Sivuarapik. First up on the bill is Louie’s work Take the Dog Sled, for two throat singers and ensemble. Throat singing is an ancient traditional musical form/contest where…

  • Wolfgang Digs Newport

    Jerry Bowles
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:08 pm
    Wolfgang Grajonca that is, who is better-known to us old hippies as Bill Graham, the late impressario of the Fillmores East and West and the man who brought the music to a thousand purple-hazed nights of our misspent youths. Graham taped and saved everything and you can stream hundreds of full concerts free (downloading costs a little money) at a site called Wolfgang’s Vault. Want to hear that dead band’s song before they were dead? You got it. Catch Steppenwolf doing “God Damn, the Pusher Man?” Stevie Ray demonstrating why no one else should ever be allowed to touch a…

  • Multiple goodness

    Steve Layton
    9 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm
    Just a few weeks ago over at our CD Review section, Jay Batzner wrote about the new Julia Wolfe Dark Full Ride CD: “Each piece transfixes me.  I am writing my own music differently because of this disc.  I am so glad that Julia Wolfe exists, is writing music, and that such talented performers play the hell out of her stuff.”  It’s a really interesting Ride, each piece intensely working over some greater or lesser multiple of the same instrument. If you’re a skeptical “show me” kind of person, free as a bird tomorrow (Nov. 10th) in NYC and maybe just a…
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    WGBH Classical Performance Podcast

  • Sergio Fiorentino plays Chopin

    WGBH Educational Foundation
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Legendary pianist Sergio Fiorentino was struck with an injury which kept him from performing for many years.  It was only late in his life that he was able to recover from it, and we were lucky enough to capture this performance a few months before he passed away in 1998. Chopin:  Ballade No. 4 in F minor Sergio Fiorentino, piano Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Studio One on April 14th, 1998. ©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation. http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org

  • Peggy Pearson and Katherine Chi play Haydn

    WGBH Educational Foundation
    6 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Oboist Peggy Pearson has a knack for bringing together some of the finest musicians for her Winsor Music Chamber Series, performing concerts in the Boston area.  Here she joins the Canadian virtuoso pianist Katherine Chi to play a Sonata in G by Haydn, an arrangement of his String Quartet, Op. 77 No. 1. Haydn:  Sonata in G Peggy Pearson, oboe; Katherine Chi, piano More information:  http://www.winsormusic.org/ Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 14th, 2009. ©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation. http://www.wgbh.org/classical email:…

  • Inna Faliks plays Beethoven and Pasternak

    WGBH Educational Foundation
    30 Oct 2009 | 10:00 pm
    Nobody really knows what Beethoven's improvisations sounded like, but this Fantasy gives a rare glimpse into the  inventive mind of the master, as he put music together on the spot, at the piano. Eventually this was written down as his Op. 77.  As bonus, Inna Faliks plays a couple of Preludes by the composer, poet and novelist, Boris Pasternak. Beethoven:  Fantasy, Op. 77.  Pasternak:  Two Preludes (1906) Inna Faliks, piano Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on October 29th, 2009. ©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.

  • Aldo Abreu plays Anonymous music from Mexico

    WGBH Educational Foundation
    23 Oct 2009 | 10:00 pm
    This anonymous composer wrote some beautiful tunes.  Too bad we have no idea who he or she was!  These pieces dating from around 1750 were discovered in the Mexico City Cathedral.  Aldo Abreu has arranged them for recorder and basso continuo. Anonymous (Mexico City Cathedral, 1750):  Sonatas; Salaverde:  Canzona Segunda. Aldo Abreu, recorders; Peter Sykes, harpsichord; Sarah Freiburg, cello More info:  http://www.hunsteinartists.com/artists/abreu.html Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on October 22nd, 2009. ©2009 WGBH…

  • Narek Hakhnazaryan plays Beethoven

    WGBH Educational Foundation
    16 Oct 2009 | 10:00 pm
    Beethoven's friend the Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein was the lucky dedicatee of this beautiful Sonata for cello and piano.  Beethoven must have had a lot of respect for the cello-playing Baron, because he gave him the first notes of the theme to play without any accompaniment! Beethoven:  Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3 in A major, Op. 69 Narek Hakhnazaryan, cello; Noreen Cassidy-Polera, piano. More info:  http://www.yca.org/hakhnazaryan.html Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 17th, 2009. ©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
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    PlaybillArts.com

  • Red Hot Holiday Stomp Celebration

    19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    As the holiday season rapidly approaches, Jazz at Lincoln Center gears up for its annual Red Hot Holiday Stomp, a New Orleans-style good ol' time in Rose Theater, Dec. 10–12.

  • The Three Faces of Patricia Racette

    17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The American diva tells Matt Dobkin why starring in all three operas of Puccini's Il Trittico (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi) is the ride of her life. The production opens at the Met Nov. 20.

  • Lindstrom, Diegel, Carfizzi, Petrova, Costanzo and More to Sing at Glimmerglass

    17 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm
    Glimmerglass Opera has announced principal casting for its 2010 summer season. The lineup includes Puccini's Tosca, Copland's The Tender Land, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and the U.S. pro stage premiere of Handel's Tolomeo

  • One on One: Cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton

    16 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    A conversation with French-American cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, who explores songs from Slavic lands with her recently released solo debut album for naïve, Chants d'est, and is set to perform at NY's Poisson Rouge Nov. 23.

  • Hui He is Met's Aida in Spring 2010

    14 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Hui He will sing the three remaining Met performances of Verdi's Aida in March and April, replacing Hasmik Papian. This marks the Shanghai-born soprano's company debut.
 
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    Jessica Duchen

  • Friday Historical: The Best Famous Belgian!

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am
    To celebrate with Mr Van R, here's the best thing that ever came out of Belgium that wasn't chocolate: http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2463

  • Opera & Ballet: The Odd Couple

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:05 am
    My piece in today's Indy about the rapprochement of these two arts...http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/ballet-and-opera--the-odd-couple-1823711.html

  • "Comply with compliance..."

    19 Nov 2009 | 1:24 am
    A few thoughts on this peculiar concept, plus a link to a very good article - and do you remember the time that someone said "f***" on R3?? http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2417

  • "Alt-Classical": is this the future?

    17 Nov 2009 | 2:42 am
    Thoughts on the direction of new music as reflected in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's new composers-in-residence, with thanks to Greg Sandow, James MacMillan and Norman Lebrecht, not to mention Riccardo Muti and Sakari Oramo... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2413

  • Last Composer Standing

    15 Nov 2009 | 5:33 am
    Norman Lebrecht is inviting votes for the living composers most likely still to be performed 50 years from now. Interesting stuff for a number of reasons...and I've added a rogue name to the roster: Kapustin. Read more... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2409
 
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    Dial

  • Philly AMS breakdown

    Phil Ford
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am
    So I'm back from the annual American Musicological Society meeting. As usual I feel like I lived about 3 weeks in 4 days, so where to begin? Maybe with a song. Jake Cohen, a musicology grad student and Dial M reader I got to talking with after the "American Recorded Repertories" session (a great panel BTW), sent me this link. The guy who made the vid, Kutiman, finds clips from Youtube and cuts them up, mixes them together, and makes new (extremely funky) creations out of them. If you follow the link to Youtube you can check out all the videos he used in this track. Note the…

  • Consciousness

    Phil Ford
    9 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am
    There was a young man who said "thoughit seems that I know that I know,  what I would like to see  is the I that knows me  when I know that I know that I know." --Alan Watts (I think) Today in my seminar we're talking about Kevin Korsyn's Decentering Music, many of whose arguments issue from a widespread assumption within cultural studies: that the notion of the centered self, the independent and self-willed self, is an illusion. Many of those arguments follow from psychoanalytic or semiotic arguments, some of them formidably abstract. As a grad…

  • The Dark Within The Dark

    Jonathan Bellman
    4 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm
    At the beginning of my final year—quarter, actually: fall 1979—enrolled at UCSB, there appeared a green, hyper, talkative violist and composer, an odd mix of self-confidence and neurotic insecurity named Gregory Michael Amov.  For reasons never became clear, Greg apparently decided I was someone to know and began to affect certain aspects of my manner: growing something vaguely beardlike, smoking black cigarettes (I smoked Shermans MCDs at the time), shadowing me.   Friends would badger me about it in a good-natured way—“Like father like son, eh, Jon?”—and I did…

  • Guidance, or Not

    Jonathan Bellman
    29 Oct 2009 | 11:47 am
    Phil forwards me a letter from someone who thinks he would like to be a musicologist, and who desires guidance along this rocky road.  Do I want to take a crack at this?  Sure.  For protection of those intimately involved, I will not mention any names.  Here’s the other thing: I apologize if I repeat sentiments offered in previous blog posts, and (contrariwise) I warn you in advance that I’m not going to be offering a bland YOU CAN DO IT message.  So: Dear Sir, You write as a dissatisfied 27-year-old, interested in musicology, who (initially) was not accepted…

  • Exercise no. 5: the second seminar game piece

    Phil Ford
    27 Oct 2009 | 9:20 am
    Two things. First of all, friend of the blog David Brent Johnson has done a new show for Night Lights on the 1957 film The Sweet Smell of Success. David interviewed me and James Naremore, whose book on film noir is a favorite of mine. Go check out of the show. You'll learn a lot about a great film and you'll also be impressed by David's editing skills, which were considerably taxed by my, uh, elliptical manner of speaking. Second, more about exercises. Are you getting tired of them? I'm not. Last week I devised a new one for my seminar. It was rather more complex…
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    Ionarts

  • Sonia Wieder-Atherton Sings of the East

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:47 am
    Chants d'Est, Sinfonia Varsovia, S. Wieder-Atherton(released on April 28, 2009)Naïve V 5178 | 61'37"Cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton has made a niche for herself by avoiding the well-trodden paths of celebrity cellists, although her credentials -- Russian conservatory studies, lessons with Mstislav Rostropovich, a Mention at the Third Rostropovich Competition in 1986 (the year that Gary Hoffman won

  • Reviewed, Not Necessarily Recommended: Symphonies by Rudolph Simonsen

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:12 am
    R.H.Simonsen, Symphonies 1 & 2, Overture in g,Israel Ynon / Sønderjylands SOcpo 777229 (70:52).com .co.uk .de .fr Rudolph Hermann Simonsen was born in Denmark on April 30th, 1889. After a career of composing and teaching—music history and piano at the Royal Danish Conservatory—he became the successor to Carl Nielsen as the Conservatory’s principal. He had an evangelical zeal for spreading

  • To Hear Tonight: Vogler Quartet

    18 Nov 2009 | 9:08 pm
    Zimro: A Broken Concert Tour, Vogler Quartet, C. Halevi, J. NemtsovBerlin's Vogler Quartet will perform some of the compositions revived for its Zimro Project in a concert this evening in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Zimro, a Hebrew word that means singing, is taken from the name of a St. Petersburg clarinet sextet, devoted to the performance of works by the New Jewish School in Russia,

  • Alfred Brendel Speaks

    18 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am
    This article is an Ionarts exclusive.Alfred Brendel, On Music: Collected EssaysBeethoven, Complete Piano Sonatas, A. BrendelAlfred Brendel: The Farewell ConcertsAustrian pianist Alfred Brendel may have retired from performing last year, but he continues to share his thoughts about music. Already known during his performing years as an intelligent commentator on music, Brendel has been touring the

  • Kennedy Center Chamber Players

    17 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am
    This review is an Ionarts exclusive.The Kennedy Center Chamber Players never disappoint, and Sunday afternoon in their first appearance this season at the Terrace Theater, they presented an exceedingly fine concert of music by Fauré and Tchaikovsky. The group strikes a balance between collective musical ownership and the guidance of a single leader -- the ever graceful, but strong Nurit Bar-Josef
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    The Rambler

  • More New Irish Music at King’s Place

    Tim Rutherford-Johnson
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am
    Tonight at King’s Place sees the second of two concerts of new Irish music for violin and piano. (For my review of the first concert, see here.) In Solos and Duos for Violin and Piano: 2, Ioana Petcu-Colan (violin) and Michael McHale (piano) explore the lyrical side of contemporary Irish music, taking as a starting point the individual sounds worlds of the violin and piano. Programme Ian Wilson drive and spilliaert’s beach (both available on this recommended CD) Philip Hammond midnight shadows and elegiac variation Ronan Guilfoyle the 2nd – mouth music – and 4th…

  • Dillon in the Times

    Tim Rutherford-Johnson
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am
    Incidentally, it’s obviously N*w C*mpl*x*ty week in the British press – here’s a very fine piece on James Dillon (whose music is also being performed in Huddersfield) in today’s Times. The complexity came about as a way of creating music that approximates to the complexity of being alive today, he says. Which is why he was never tempted by minimalism. “I’m not keen on hypnotics,” he explains. “It’s why I gave up acid. They render you mindless; you stop thinking. There’s something politically and ideologically dangerous about it.” But isn’t there a…

  • Can I iz writr now plz?

    Tim Rutherford-Johnson
    13 Nov 2009 | 1:24 am
    My first Guardian article came out today. I now feel a combination of great satisfaction, disappointment at the inaccurate headline, and terror that someone’s going to find tremendous fault with it. It’s a fairly puffy thing previewing Richard Barrett’s Opening of the Mouth at Huddersfield next weekend, but it got a few things in there that I’m quite pleased about. Some juicier stuff got cut for space; I may rework that up somewhere else yet. A disused railway foundry on the edge of the desert outside Perth, Western Australia, March 1997. Inside it is dark and airless,…

  • ELISION at King’s Place, reviewed

    Tim Rutherford-Johnson
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm
    Sum Over Histories Elliott Carter: Hiyoku Chris Dench: sum over histories Richard Barrett: Hypnerotomachia (wp) Aaron Cassidy: I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips Michael Finnissy: Marrngu Evan Johnson: Apostrophe 1 (all communicate is a form of complaint) (ukp) Members of ELISION: Richard Haynes, clarinets Carl Rosman, voice, clarinets King’s Place, 2 November 2009 As it turned out, Carter’s Hiyoku wasn’t an entirely representative prologue to this concert. True, there isn’t much contemporary repertoire for two clarinets, and suitable preludes must be even…

  • EXAUDI at the Warehouse, reviewed

    Tim Rutherford-Johnson
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:32 am
    My review of EXAUDI’s recent concert at the Warehouse is now online at Musical Pointers: Several of the pieces in this miscellany of special commissions and ‘must do’ rarities came across as surprisingly honest to certain choral traditions. No doubt that perception is a product of my upbringing, but that tradition and the resulting pieces sound interestingly and pleasingly English to me, right down to the strings of finger pops in Molitor’s Lorem ipsum, which recalled peals of change-ringing bells. But then EXAUDI and most of the composers they performed are products…
 
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    Soho the Dog

  • Blueprint machine

    18 Nov 2009 | 8:13 am
    Reviewing Katherine Chi and Aleksandar Madzar, playing Stockhausen's Mantra.Boston Globe, November 18, 2009.

  • Beguiled again

    17 Nov 2009 | 6:19 am
    Reviewing Boston Opera Collaborative's The Crucible.Boston Globe, November 17, 2009.The Globe copy desk is apparently not the Carolyn Leigh fan that I am—the last line of the first paragraph should be, of course, "What good would common sense for it do?"

  • Please stop

    13 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am
    I got a press-release e-mail this week with the subject line "Survey Reveals People Love Classical Music During Tough Economic Times". Curious? I was. (I mean, does that mean they hate classical music when the economy picks up again? Because that would be kind of weird.) Turns out, it's an online survey by the mp3-dealer Classical Archives. The question was this: "Why do you think you love classical music?" And, sure enough, 20.3% of the respondents clicked on "Relaxes me when life is stressing me out". Now, they didn't specify just what was stressing those respondents out specifically, but…

  • The Girl Can't Help It

    10 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pm
    Today's bit of tangential Beethoven history: the reason Franz Liszt wasn't invited back for the 1870 Beethoven centennial festivities in Beethoven's birthplace of Bonn. Back in the 1840s, when the city's plans for a Beethoven monument looked as if they might falter because of insufficient funds, Liszt stepped in, pledging his talents and enough of his then-considerable concert receipts to support the statue and the 1845 festival surrounding its unveiling. At a banquet following the festival's final concert, Liszt (speaking in German, not his most comfortable language) offered a toast to the…

  • Immortal hand or eye

    28 Oct 2009 | 8:19 am
    Reviewing the Boston Classical Orchestra.Boston Globe, October 29, 2009.
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    Wolf Trap Opera

  • The Tough Call

    Kim
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am
    A lunch hour post, for I'm feeling a bit guilty at my blogging track record this time around. Seems that I can either do things or write about them, but not both...We implemented a callback audition procedure a couple of years ago, and it has served us well. We only have one trip around the country to sort out all of our casting, for we have no other system that allows us to do preliminaries and finals. We can't stay out on the road any longer than we do, and I don't believe it would be fair to ask people in whom we are interested to pay for a special trip to Wolf Trap. That means that we…

  • Midwest Musings

    Kim
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:12 am
    This part of the tour is always too much of a whirlwind. Too many good singers, and too few hours in the day. It was a quick 8-hour turnaround from Wednesday night's arrival in Cincinnati to our morning departure from the hotel. And Thursday was dense, with only a half-hour for lunch, and a dash to the airport at the end of the day.So, befitting our scattered state of mind, some random observations:Chicken and EggI have a slight resistance to a certain Britten opera that shall remain nameless. (Normally I adore Britten, but I have a specific block about this one.) Anyway, an aria from said…

  • Chicago: The No Caffeine Zone

    Kim
    10 Nov 2009 | 3:32 pm
    We've settled into a new audition space in Chicago for 2 days. The management at Classical Symphony Hall is taking very good care of us, and we appreciate being able to listen to voices in a space that doesn't fight against us. The acoustic isn't luxuriously live, but the ceilings are high, and the sound is true. The singers don't seem to mind it, and it's easy to listen.The only problem is that there's absolutely no food or drink (except water) allowed in the space. And listening to 40 auditions a day (as we did today) without access to coffee is a bit of a stretch. Yes, I'm chemically…

  • Interlude: MONC Auditions

    Kim
    7 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pm
    I'm on a mid-audition-tour busman's holiday this weekend, judging the Metropolitan Opera National Council Western Region auditions in Los Angeles on the beautiful campus of USC. A high level of singing, enjoyable colleagues, and marvelously friendly and efficient MONC staff and volunteers make it a pleasure.Today we were in the Newman Recital Hall of the Thornton School of Music for preliminaries, and tomorrow the finals take place in Bovard Auditorium. I'm taking advantage of a night off tonight to catch the LA Phil in Verdi's Requiem. More tomorrow.

  • Technology in the Audition Room

    Kim
    6 Nov 2009 | 8:55 pm
    We kicked off the fall audition tour with a strong start in Los Angeles, and as I was emptying my portable office of its seemingly endless gear, I was reminded of this NY Times article from last summer. I bookmarked it with a reminder to revisit this topic during the audition tour, and this seems like a good time. Clearly, sending casting updates and audition comments via Twitter crosses a line. But the location of that line is much harder to see when you're near it.Full disclosure: this is how technology helps us in the audition room.ComputersYes, we use laptops. And no, we are not trying to…
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    Yankeediva

  • Shocking!!

    Yankeediva
    5 Nov 2009 | 9:28 am
    My senior year at Bishop Miege High School in suburban Kansas City, I was certain - and I mean CERTAIN! - that I would be a high school choral director, and so I searched for schools that had great music education degrees. After sorting through loads of brochures, I settled on The Wichita State University, known for it's wonderful teacher programs, and as it so happened, an outstanding opera

  • Climb every mountain - or at least one of them!

    Yankeediva
    2 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am
    Yesterday the NY Marathon took the Big Apple by storm. The women's race saw a heroic figure and favored winner fight a horrible leg injury and still cross the finish line, the men's race saw a great upset with the USA taking the win for the first time in ages, and I got to cheer on my very dear friend in his 6th race (despite the fact that while fighting the crowds to get to the finish line I

  • Meet Gabriel, the sweetest, scene-stealing Donkey you'll ever meet.

    Yankeediva
    29 Oct 2009 | 8:32 pm
    This is Gabriel, the adorable, mild-mannered Donkey that graces the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for our production of The Barber of Seville. He's only one element that makes this run so fun and refreshing and wonderful. We are actually rehearsing this week to add in 2 new cast members, which means those of us that have been performing these past weeks have to bring in the new colleagues and

  • Rest, Relaxtion, Restoration ... ah, Alaskaaaaaah

    Yankeediva
    24 Oct 2009 | 12:38 pm
    I had the extreme pleasure of singing on board the US AMSTERDAM recently on a 7-day cruise of Alaska for the Metropolitan Opera Guild. The brilliant Jake Heggie was my collaborative pianist, the dashing Michael Snider the organizer, and a number of enthusiastic opera lovers our audience and travel companions! The week could not have been more memorable, more relaxing, more breathtaking, or more

  • Good times!

    Yankeediva
    8 Oct 2009 | 11:51 am
    It feels WONDERFUL to be able to report that I believe a good time was had by ALL on Saturday night for the opening of "The Barber of Seville" here in NYC! I think the audience was happy to be given the chance to laugh out loud a bit, as laughter truly does tend to work magic, even on the most unsuspecting!Yesterday was a huge day, as I had a big brainstorming session with my recording team of
 
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    Opera Today

  • Lorin Maazel conducts Verdi and Puccini at La Scala

    mullini@earthlink.net
    17 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am
    In the mid-1980s (just before the Riccardo Muti era began), Lorin Maazel often ruled the conductor's roost at La Scala.

  • From the House of the Dead at the MET

    mullini@earthlink.net
    17 Nov 2009 | 10:05 am
    Leoš Janáček’s From the House of the Dead is a very odd duck to find on the stage of a grand opera house.

  • Die Rheinnixen by New Sussex Opera

    mullini@earthlink.net
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:11 pm
    London has long been spoiled in the operatic rarity department, thanks to companies like Opera Rara, Chelsea Opera Group and University College Opera populating various areas of the Venn diagram that is obscure repertoire.

  • John Adams is feeling festive

    mullini@earthlink.net
    15 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm
    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-john-adams15-2009nov15,0,224344.story

  • ROSSINI: Otello — Bad Wildbad 2008

    mullini@earthlink.net
    15 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pm
    Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia (‘Othello, or The Moor of Venice’): Dramma in three acts.
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    Opera Today News Headlines

  • John Adams is feeling festive

    Gary
    15 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm
    By Diane Haithman [LA Times, 15 November 2009] What does a renowned, Harvard-educated, Pulitzer Prize-winning classical music composer say just after the standing-ovation world premiere of his new symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of its wildly celebrated new music director, Gustavo Dudamel?

  • Two Debuts, Overdue and Overwhelming

    Gary
    14 Nov 2009 | 3:24 pm
    By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 14 November 2009] After the Metropolitan Opera opened its season in September with Luc Bondy’s convoluted new production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” widely deemed a dismal failure, Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, needed a comeback success.

  • You want to know what's wrong with the Met?

    Gary
    13 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm
    By Norman Lebrecht [La Scena Musicale, 13 November 2009] If ever you need to know what’s wrong with the Metropolitan Opera and its press puppet, the New York Times, look no further than the opening paragraph of last weekend’s puff piece for tonight’s production of Janacek’s From the House of the Dead.

  • City Opera's Comeback

    Gary
    11 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pm
    By HEIDI WALESON [WSJ, 11 November 2009] Beginning last Thursday, the New York City Opera staged its resurrection following a dark year, financial jeopardy and management disarray. With straitened means and only a few months to plan (George Steel, the company’s general manager and artistic director, started work last February), City Opera’s comeback season was pared to 30-odd performances of five operas, two this month and three in the spring. The company also hopes to get a lift from the acoustical and other improvements in its renamed David H. Koch Theater.

  • Baritone Nathan Gunn excels in American repertoire in Cleveland recital

    Gary
    11 Nov 2009 | 12:35 pm
    By Donald Rosenberg [The Plain Dealer, 11 November 2009] Art song recitals tend to be filled with pieces by the likes of Schubert, Brahms, Faure and other European masters. A vocal concert made up almost entirely of American music falls into the category of exception.
 
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    Aworks: New American Classical Music

  • Harry Partch (2009). Beck /demented mashup revue/

    Robert Gable
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:24 pm
    Beck via Wikipedia Beck has his tribute to Harry Partch up on his website. Even better, he has some streams of music by Harry Partch. I think this is great but maybe it's just a California thing...Lyrics:making up your orchestra out of the debris of the eveningfishing out from the gutter all your gold and grey graffiti  And stereogum describes the track:It sounds like a demented mashup revue of the last century's popular, classical and avant garde music forms, with a little outer space thrown in for good measure.Related articles by ZemantaNew Beck - "Harry Partch" (stereogum.com)

  • In a Landscape (1948). John Cage /via music technology/

    Robert Gable
    17 Nov 2009 | 7:22 pm
    Here's a gamelan version of In a Landscape: In A Landscape - Gamelan Pacif...It's hard to top the piano for this classic piece but this version is otherworldly enough to be of interest. Also, as we saw yesterday via Disquiet, Gamelan Pacifica has other tracks hosted on SoundCloud. That player allows time-based comments on the stream:What is a timed comment and how is it different to a regular comment? When you’re checking out a song on SoundCloud, you’ll have a visual representation of the music (a waveform). By placing a comment directly on the waveform, it allows you to say something…

  • aworks ordered list :: what i'm really listening to #2 /not your mother's music/

    Robert Gable
    16 Nov 2009 | 8:33 pm
    Image via Wikipedia Stronghold (2008). Julia Wolfe Virginia Trance (2001). Henry Flynt I Wish I Was in New Orleans (1990). Tom Waits Town with No Cheer (1983). Tom Waits On first listen, the eight double basses of Stronghold stunned me.Henry Flynt is a philosopher and avant-garde musician... Town with No Cheer is the cover version by actress Scarlett Johansson. I honestly like this; on the other hand, her version of I Wish I Was in New Orleans is bizarre...I listened to almost no Thelonious Monk today.:: what i am really listening ... Related articles by ZemantaListen: Scarlett Johansson…

  • aworks ordered list :: what i'm really listening to #1

    Robert Gable
    15 Nov 2009 | 5:47 pm
    Thelonious Monk via last.fmOn yet another trip to the San Francisco Palace of Recorded Arts, it occurred to me I buy lots of music and listen to lots of it. But most turns out to be ephemeral, uninteresting, unworthy of repeated listening, not really new etc. So now I'm going to see what happens when I log the music that really captures my attention: These Are My Twisted Words (2009). Radiohead The Little Match Girl Passion (2007). David Lang Utterance (2006-07). Yiheng Yvonne Wu My Very Empty Mouth (1999). David Lang Little Eye (1999). David Lang The Anvil Chorus (1991). David Lang The Cat…

  • aworks five-star links and tracks :: november 14th, 2009 /jazz and not jazz/

    Robert Gable
    14 Nov 2009 | 8:10 am
    Image via Wikipedia 100 best jazz albums of all time, including three from this century. (Martin Gayford/Telegraph) 100 from that list, a 2009 recording. Yawn. (lala)Chamber Music American to honor Chick Corea (NewMusicBox) Chick Corea's entry on the top 100 jazz list. (lala) Alvin Lucier says he wasn't good enough to play jazz so he studied classical instead. It occurs to me his music may be as far away as you can get from frenetic jazz improvisation. (Weslyan Argus via Avant Music News) Henry Cowell/Open Minds coverage in the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend…
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    Sounds & Fury

  • Featured Past Post #91 (Administrative Note)

    A.C. Douglas
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:32 am
    Some thoughts on Cagean (is there such a word?) and Cage-inspired New Music in a 2007 S&F post entitled, "On One-Sentence Dismissals", the link to...

  • The Adventures of John And Marcel

    A.C. Douglas
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am
    Composer John Adams (the California one, not the John Luther Adams Alaska one) has been running a series of riffs on his new blog, Hell...

  • The New QXR

    A.C. Douglas
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:06 am
    When The New York Times Company divested itself of its long-held classical music station WQXR by selling it to NPR's WNYC this past September, we...

  • Veritable Ambrosia

    A.C. Douglas
    14 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am
    Ahhh! The season's first bowl of McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal : slow-cooked with added (in the last five minutes of cooking) cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins...

  • Attention!, Serious Lovers Of Classical Music

    A.C. Douglas
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:14 am
    Alarmed, even appalled, at what he sees as a time "when music has become almost arbitrary and composers refuse to be bound by any rules...
 
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    Deceptively Simple

  • Unwritten Works We Wish Had Been Written

    admin
    3 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am
    The Ring Cycle as Imagined by Felix Mendelssohn: “My best thanks also for your last letter. Do you know, I think your suggestion as to the Nibelungen most luminous? It has been constantly in my head ever since, and I mean to employ my first leisure day in reading over the poem, for I have forgotten the details and can only recall the general colouring and outlines which seem to me gloriously dramatic. Will you kindly communicate to me your specific ideas on this subject? The poem is evidently more present to your memory than to mine. I scarcely remember what your allusion means as to…

  • Hello?

    admin
    15 Oct 2009 | 9:56 pm
    And….we’re back. Team DecSimp moved from the South Side to the Near Northwest Side, ran the Chicago Marathon, and is now engaged in keeping a classical record label moving forward, because, much in the manner of a shark, if it isn’t moving forward, it is dead and the carcass is spending money for no good reason. Riccardo Muti laid out The Plan (PDF) yesterday for when the new era commences next fall, with plans to bring music to juvenile offenders and at-risk youth, naming Mason Bates and Anna Clyne as the new CSO composers-in-residence, and creating the Sir Georg Solti…

  • De Niese de bees knees

    admin
    20 Sep 2009 | 7:53 pm
    Danielle de Niese’s new Mozart album is out now, and received a big plug from the New York Times Magazine today, and therefore needs no further boost from me. But, it’s a splendid album of opera and concert arias, and you get to hear her with Bryn Terfel and the authoritative Sir Charles Mackerras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. (Age of Enlightenment Orchestra? Enlightenment Orchestra? No, we need two prepositional clauses, surely.) An added bonus are the liner notes by Chicago Opera Theater general director Brian Dickie, who brought de Niese to COT and Chicago in…

  • Code name

    admin
    20 Sep 2009 | 7:00 pm
    Names exist, partially, to remove doubt. We put them on things to eliminate what they are not as much as to say what they are. “What is [this]?” “It is [that].” Names also create attachments between the person, or people, who did the naming and the thing that’s been named; if you find a stray animal, the last thing you should do if you have no intention of keeping it is to give it a name. A name is a tie that binds. Once that attachment is in place, and we agree on what a thing is named, the name begins to settle in and take root, becoming nice and comfortable…

  • Free and patriotic music

    admin
    11 Sep 2009 | 1:50 pm
    Nominally part of the Back the Bid program for Chicago 2016, the Chicago Symphony’s offer of three free downloads also makes for a thoughtful 9/11 memorial. From this page, you can download recordings of the CSO playing The Star-Spangled Banner and Stars & Stripes Forever, as well as the Olympic Anthem. The first two are led by Sir Georg Solti and pack a mighty, terrorist-and-Nazi-and-Commie-defying wallop; the third is from concerts led by Leonard Slatkin. The downloads will only be up through Sunday, so act now. And for those who care about such things, they’re at…
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    The Standing Room

  • Links for 2009-10-30 [del.icio.us]

    My Favorite Intermissions: Tosca II (Scarpia 0) maybe a prequel?

  • Links for 2009-10-27 [del.icio.us]

    On a Pacific Aisle: Half a Century INSANE BRAIN, OVER. Music review: 'Einstein' at the beach | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times "Jacaranda, the West Side’s new music series, concluded its first concert of the season at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica with excerpts from Philip Glass’ groundbreaking opera" Daniel Stephen Johnson: Combination Pizza Hut and Analytical Dressing-Down "I still can't help but think it must sting to get schooled in hip-hop and race by the 'Combination Pizza Hut' guys" Meredith Monk @ Next Wave Festival at 17 dots…

  • Links for 2009-10-08 [del.icio.us]

    Gustavo Dudamel | LA Phil | Game Baton Hero - "Can you achieve the level of super maestro?"

  • Links for 2009-10-02 [del.icio.us]

    YSaC, Vol. 442: Philip Glass sells a table. | You Suck at Craigslist i got a red table for sale! take it for free!

  • Links for 2009-10-01 [del.icio.us]

    Civic Center: Il Trittico at the San Francisco Opera once again, sfmike and i are basically completely aligned
 
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    grecchinois

  • Scene Stealers

    nick
    12 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm
    Here are two shots from one of our balance calls on the road. The first is of Nanetta - Elena Tsallagova - sitting at the bar that is the set for Act I, scene i - a part of the set we only get to enjoy at balance calls. She is not only intensely fun to perform with, but she inspires me with her singing at every performance.And here is one of the real scene-stealers of the show - he and his feline friends make appearances in each scene, disinterestedly observing all of our antics throughout the opera, seeming quite bored in that manner which only cats are capable of. This one watches as Dr.

  • The Most Striking Image I Saw Today

    nick
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pm
    At the Tate Britain as part of the Turner and Masters exhibit.An adventure with my good friend and flatmate-for-the-month, Susie. In the midst of a plethora of stunning landscapes, this one stopped us in our tracks.

  • Visitors

    nick
    1 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm
    After the shows opened, I was lucky enough to have some family visitors come visit to see a couple of the performances. One who has come many places to see me in the states made her first journey overseas to see a performance in Glyndebourne - my aunt. Recently retired, she has been able to take advantage of her new-found freedom to do what she loves best - explore the world. She's been all over the world, but has never been able to work it out before to come see me sing when I am abroad. It was nice to be able to be an excuse for her to be able to visit somewhere new. An added bonus of…

  • Stir Crazy

    nick
    26 Oct 2009 | 6:51 pm
    The other day, one of my colleagues called, begging me to go out with him to Brighton, which is not far from Glyndebourne. He said, "I have to get out of here – I going out of my mind. I mean, I love it here, but I'm just not used to having this much free time. It's driving me crazy – I need to be doing something!" He explained that, accustomed to normally working on a concert schedule, he wasn't used to having to waiting around for so long in between performances and devoting such an long time to just one thing. Instead of having an intense week of rehearsal and then a series of…

  • Gay Icons

    nick
    22 Oct 2009 | 3:10 pm
    Last weekend, I traipsed into London to catch the very last day of the Gay Icons exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. The Gallery had asked ten gay, public figures to choose six of their own icons – heroes or people, either straight or gay, who influenced or somehow had an impact on forming who they are in the present day. The selectors' choices were widely diverse, ranging from life-partners and family members to Virginia Woolf to The Village People. I gazed at portraits of people with life stories both familiar and completely unknown to me, moved by their tales of courage, strength,…
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    The Collaborative Piano Blog

  • The 2010 Tanglewood Season Listings

    Chris Foley
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm
    For the second year in a row, here is the complete schedule for the Tanglewood Festival, released one minute after the end of the press embargo. These listings are taken directly from the press release, with only some minor formatting changes made to the original text. The Mahler Symphonyies # 2 and 3 look to be season highlights, but I always have a soft spot for programs like Audra MacDonald's New American Songbook on July 18th, the Brahms/Schumann recital by Matthis Goerne and Andreas Haflinger on July 29th, and Bernarda Fink's August 5 song recital with Anthony Spiri. Be sure to check out…

  • Stefani Germanotta aka Lady Gaga Live at NYU in 2005

    Chris Foley
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:08 pm
    This footage just came out a few days ago - Lady Gaga in a 2005 live performance singing and playing piano (barefoot!) during her time at New York University:(Via Mary Lou)Previously on the Collaborative Piano Blog:Lady Gaga Sings and Plays PaparazziThe Extreme Piano Guide, or 30+1 Ways To Improve Your Practice TimeWolfgang Muhr's Nahandove Music Video

  • Quote of the Day

    Chris Foley
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm
    don't pity the accompanist too much... those dudes make serious cash!@neddaahmed, in response to @noelrk(if only it were true)

  • The Boston Trio Plays the Ravel Piano Trio 1st Movement

    Chris Foley
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:49 am
    I've already posted the second movement of the Boston Trio's recent performance of the Ravel Piano Trio in Boston's Jordan Hall. Here they are playing the first:

  • Yamaha Birmingham Accompanist of the Year Finals on November 22

    Chris Foley
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:41 pm
    The tenth running of the Yamaha Birmingham Accompanist of the Year competition is near an end, with the final round happening on Sunday, November 22nd at 2pm in Adrian Boult Hall in the Birmingham Conservatoire (tickets are £6/4). The four finalists are Nana Hizumi, Amy de Sybel, Yshani Perinpanayagam, and Jonathan Fisher. The judge for the final round will be none other than Roger Vignoles, pictured at left.From the competition's press release (which also has bios for the finalists):Whether setting a mood, negotiating incredibly difficult pianistic writing, or playing the part of an entire…
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    parterre box presents La Cieca

  • by acclamation

    squirrel
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:06 am
    The results of the Repertory Poll are in!  Squirrel asked which three Old Operas you would most like to see staged at the New New Met, and the people have spoken! Results after the jump. First, good news. Thought it wasn’t a top winner, a number of you asked for Maria Stuarda by Gaetano Donizetti. Well, your wish is coming true! Squirrel spoke last night via CNN Hologram™ with Met Boss Peter Gelb, and has arranged for this bel canto masterpiece to be staged in the 2012-2013 season, starring Joyce di Donato in a production by David McVicar! (All who voted for Maria Stuarda can thank…

  • Staffing up

    La Cieca
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am
    La Cieca welcomes to the editorial desk of parterre.com new correspondents squirrel and Ercole Farnese, who have already begun their blanket coverage of the New York City opera scene.  Congratulations as well to CruzSF! For his astute commentary in the Future Shock thread, he will receive the coveted autographed copy of Sacrificium. La Cieca is sure you will all join her in raising a celebratory Castratini to his victory. As for further additions to the parterre staff, La Cieca is still poring through the vast and dauntingly superb reviews that have gushed into our Sunnyside offices, which…

  • It’s Pat!

    La Cieca
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am
    Tonight’s Met season premiere of Il trittico features Patricia Racette’s first local whack at the three heroines, which means La Cieca expects the parterre posse to be out in force. Check back here at parterre.com beginning at 7:45 for a live chat coinciding with the Sirius/RealNetworks broadcast of the Puccini three-parter.

  • Bella

    La Cieca
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm
    Colombetta, Colombetta, Apri l’uscio, non farmi penar Del balcon solleva il velo Apri amor se no qui gelo Colombetta, Colombetta, Arlecchino gelando si sta. Colombetta Also: “S’amavan tanto! Anch’io così vorrei trovare un uomo, e certo l’amerei!” Fanciulla

  • tweet if you like opera

    squirrel
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am
    (No, not that again.) The San Diego Opera, boldly exploring cutting-edge trends in dramaturgy, is producing a Twitter version of the complete history of opera. Members of the San Diego Opera pray, "Dear Lord, please make Twitter go away."
 
 
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    Naxos: AudioBook New Releases

  • WENBORN, N.: French Revolution (The) - In a Nutshell (NA198612)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    The French Revolution marked the birth of modern Europe. From the storming of the Bastille to the horrors of the guillotine, the events of 1789 and after are among the most stirring—and most disturbing—in the continent’s history. But what really happened in France during those turbulent closing years of the 18th century? And what does it mean for us in the 21st? This audiobook tells the story of a nation’s traumatic journey from absolute monarchy through the shadow of Terror to military dictatorship. But it is also the story of a people’s heroic struggle for the…

  • McCARTHY, C.: No Country for Old Men (Abridged) (NA498012)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    An experienced hunter aims at an antelope half a mile across a plain—and misses. But the shot launches him unexpectedly into a tense and frightening chase in which he becomes the hunted, as drug dealers mercilessly pursue the money. The local upright sheriff struggles to contain the situation and has to face his own fears; the pitiless hitman Anton Chigurh, follows his target unceasingly, ruled by a cold, implacable logic; and chance plays its own part in deciding who lives and dies. Cormac McCarthy blends brutality and suspense with acute characterisation. With his mastery of words,…

  • WENBORN, N.: French Revolution (The) - In a Nutshell (NA198612)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    The French Revolution marked the birth of modern Europe. From the storming of the Bastille to the horrors of the guillotine, the events of 1789 and after are among the most stirring—and most disturbing—in the continent’s history. But what really happened in France during those turbulent closing years of the 18th century? And what does it mean for us in the 21st? This audiobook tells the story of a nation’s traumatic journey from absolute monarchy through the shadow of Terror to military dictatorship. But it is also the story of a people’s heroic struggle for the…

  • LAMPEDUSA, G.T. di: Leopard (The) (Unabridged) (NA799612)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Sicily, 1860. In the gracefully decaying estates of the ancient Corbera family, Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, is aware that great change is coming. It is not only in the form of the popular uprising towards Italian unification, but in the decline of the nobility and the rise of the middle class. Assailed by the critics on its publication, The Leopard was nevertheless hailed by the public and has since grown in worldwide popularity for the ironic elegance with which it spins a story of regret and rebirth, of change and stagnation, of the passing of the old ways and the inevitable triumph of…

  • LAMPEDUSA, G.T. di: Leopard (The) (Unabridged) (NA799612)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Sicily, 1860. In the gracefully decaying estates of the ancient Corbera family, Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, is aware that great change is coming. It is not only in the form of the popular uprising towards Italian unification, but in the decline of the nobility and the rise of the middle class. Assailed by the critics on its publication, The Leopard was nevertheless hailed by the public and has since grown in worldwide popularity for the ironic elegance with which it spins a story of regret and rebirth, of change and stagnation, of the passing of the old ways and the inevitable triumph of…
 
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    Naxos: Historical New Releases

  • WAGNER, R.: Opera excerpts / STRAUSS, R.: Till Eulenspiegel / BRAHMS, J.: Hungarian Dances Nos. 1, 10 (Furtwangler, Early Recordings, Vol. 4)(1930-36) (8.111005)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    This fourth volume of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s early recordings features music by composers who were closely associated with the renowned conductor. These distinguished recordings include seamless and intensely wrought interpretations of evergreen favourites from Wagner’s Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde and Götterdämmerung, the accomplishment of a musician who knew the music-dramas as a whole. The graphic and lovingly turned account of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks benefits from a remarkably vivid 1930 recording which belies its age.

  • MOZART, W.A.: Violin Concerto No. 3 / BRAHMS, J.: Violin Concerto (de Vito, Beecham, van Kempen) (1941, 1949) (8.111349)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Violinist Gioconda De Vito was a key figure in the renaissance of Italian string playing after 1945. With her broad phrasing, ample tone and generous vibrato, she excelled in performances of Brahms’s Violin Concerto using Joachim’s cadenza, as in this 1941 recording. The Manchester Guardian wrote of her 1949 recording of Mozart’s G major Concerto: ‘Every note was perfectly intoned and of individual life, yet as easefully and indivisibly belonging to the phrases of song as waves in a flowing sea…quite heavenly’.

  • WAGNER, R.: Opera excerpts / STRAUSS, R.: Till Eulenspiegel / BRAHMS, J.: Hungarian Dances Nos. 1, 10 (Furtwangler, Early Recordings, Vol. 4)(1930-36) (8.111005)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    This fourth volume of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s early recordings features music by composers who were closely associated with the renowned conductor. These distinguished recordings include seamless and intensely wrought interpretations of evergreen favourites from Wagner’s Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde and Götterdämmerung, the accomplishment of a musician who knew the music-dramas as a whole. The graphic and lovingly turned account of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks benefits from a remarkably vivid 1930 recording which belies its age.

  • MOZART, W.A.: Violin Concerto No. 3 / BRAHMS, J.: Violin Concerto (de Vito, Beecham, van Kempen) (1941, 1949) (8.111349)

    31 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Violinist Gioconda De Vito was a key figure in the renaissance of Italian string playing after 1945. With her broad phrasing, ample tone and generous vibrato, she excelled in performances of Brahms’s Violin Concerto using Joachim’s cadenza, as in this 1941 recording. The Manchester Guardian wrote of her 1949 recording of Mozart’s G major Concerto: ‘Every note was perfectly intoned and of individual life, yet as easefully and indivisibly belonging to the phrases of song as waves in a flowing sea…quite heavenly’.

  • BEETHOVEN, L. van: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 (Karajan) (1952-1953) (8.111339)

    30 Sep 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Herbert von Karajan established himself as one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors, both in live performances and on recordings. Taken from the first of Karajan’s four Beethoven symphony cycles, made in the splendid acoustic of London’s Kingsway Hall, these are beautifully polished readings that traverse the decades with ease. The Karajan trademarks of ‘perfection of balance and blend’ can be heard, for example, in the beautifully pointed woodwind chording and weight of the pizzicatos at the opening of Symphony No. 1. No less telling is the opening of…
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    Kenneth Woods: A View from the Podium

  • Terrorists

    Kenneth Woods
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am
    “The piccolo player seemed to be having a rough night. I might even go so far as to call her a terrorist.” With this remark from a colleague in one of my orchestras to a recording of one of our recent performances, a new term entered my musical lexicon. I’d never heard a player described as a terrorist before, but in a tragic way, the metaphor can work. In geopolitics, and terrorist is someone who, though individual action, is able to undermine the efforts of whole nations. In music, a terrorist is a musician who can undermine the efforts of entire orchestras. And lest you think I am…

  • Teach them to finger themselves

    Kenneth Woods
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am
    I’ve been delighted to see how many responses I’ve had to my last post on fingerings and bowings. By a complete coincidence, I found this morning I have another comrade in arms, Alban Gerhardt, who writes – I don’t know how it sounded out there in the hall – but at my seat in the (acoustically very dry) hall it was quite fulfilling, and Walter Weller, the conductor, couldn’t believe when I told him afterwards that this cello had just been varnished 10 days ago, he absolutely loved the sound of this modern instrument. Not only old Italian instruments can play… Thomas, the…

  • Harlech Orchestral Academy, August 7-14 2010

    Kenneth Woods
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:12 am
    One of the disappointments of the previous summer was the forced cancellation of my first summer as conductor of the Harlech Orchestral Academy in North Wales. Asbestos was discovered in the housing facilities of the campus, so everything had to be closed for cleanup. Fortunately, everything has been made safe, and we’re now able to announce dates for 2010- August 7-14. The repertoire for the 2010 course will be Arnold- The Inn of Sixth Happiness Janacek- Taras Bulba Mahler – Symphony No 5 Niccolai- Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor Prokofiev- Selections from Romeo and Juliet…

  • Stop the fingerings!

    Kenneth Woods
    15 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am
    I suppose on of the main perks of a blog, for some the raison d’etre, is having a forum in which to rant about one’s little pet peeves. Given this facility, it’s a small wonder that I have not yet had a good little rant about one of my pet hates- fingerings in music. I happen to be a cellist who writes almost nothing whatsoever in my music. If I do write things in, it is done to appease my chamber music colleagues, not for my own benefit. I find if a bowing works for me and fits the music, I will remember it, and if not, I’ll continue to change it. Sometimes, playing a new bowing and…

  • Ischia Festival 2010- dates announced

    Kenneth Woods
    14 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Chamber music played with passion, coached professionally, in a truly stunning Mediterranean setting May 8-15, 2010. The Location The fabled southern Italian isle of Ischia – dreaming with Capri in the timeless blue waters of the Bay of Naples, is home to the Covo dei Borboni, an elegant, white-washed villa surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens overlooking the sea, which will again be the exclusive venue for our chamber music workshop, that will be held from Saturday May 8th to Saturday May 15th. The Program Ischiafestival offers a unique week: playing, studying and enjoying…
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    Iron Tongue of Midnight

  • Publicity Basics Updated

    17 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm
    Earlier this year, I put up a couple of postings about publicity etiquette. Here's a consolidated, updated version:DO make the subject line something meaningful. I almost trashed email once that had the subject line "YOU GO GIRL!!" because it looked like spam to me. I stopped to take a look and found that it contained important news. "ICE Founder and Flutist Claire Chase Wins Important Competition" would have gotten my attention real fast.DO put the most critical information (dates, times, works, performers, ticket prices, venue) someplace easy to locate. Right at the top is good; if you send…

  • Fifty Years Hence

    15 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm
    Over at Slipped Disc, Norman Lebrecht has been taking a poll over the last few days about which composers who are alive today will be played fifty years from now. In essence, he's asking about repertory formation and about our powers of prediction. It'd be nice if he'd focus on particular genres. Do we mean composers of big orchestral works? of opera, which has special challenges? composers who focus on chamber music or choral music?It might be interesting to look at which composers were alive fifty years ago who are still played today. Let's start with the biggest gun of all, Igor…

  • The Next San Francisco Opera Tosca...

    14 Nov 2009 | 4:55 pm
    .....will be Patricia Racette. I'd call this rumor and gossip, but I feel safe in assuming that David Gockley knows what he's talking about.

  • Choral Car Pile-Up Time!

    11 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm
    It's that time of year, when every chorus in the world puts on their fall concerts. I hope to get to many of these, but there are only so many hours in a day:Chora Nova's Evening of Beethoven, featuring the Mass in C and "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage," First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley (not First Congo), 8 p.m., Saturday, November 21. $10-$20.California Bach Society, Advent in Dresden, Music for Vespers during Advent by Schein, Scheidt, Schütz, and Praetorius. December 4-6 in San Francisco (St. Mark's Lutheran, 8 p.m.), Palo Alto (All Saints' Episcopal, 8 p.m.), and Berkeley (St.

  • The NY Times on From the House of the Dead

    11 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am
    The Times has what amounts to an enormous, in-depth preview of Janacek's From the House of the Dead, which premieres at the Metropolitan Opera tomorrow. Anthony Tommasini and James Oesterreich (appearing as "Tony" and "Jim") discuss the music; Charles Isherwood discusses director Patrice Chereau's style; Dwight Garner talks about...some other stuff.Whether you read the previews or not, you should go see this production if you can. It's Janacek; can't enough of him. The cast and conductor are something: Esa-Pekka Salonen, in his Met debut; Stefan Margita (the magnificent Loge of the…
 
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    Musical Assumptions

  • Two Gnomes of (G)note

    19 Nov 2009 | 5:38 pm
    György Cziffra's performance of Liszt's Gnomenreigen is really sensational, but today, on a lark, I also shared this performance by the eight-year-old Umi Garrett (who has been playing the piano for four years) with my classes. Unlike many of the very young pianists I have heard play "big" repertoire, this one really has something far beyond precision and cuteness. It won't be long before she has the strength of Cziffra, and I intend to keep an eye (and an ear) on her. I thought I'd share this video here.You can see and hear more here.

  • Playing the Fool for Hundreds of Years

    19 Nov 2009 | 4:03 am
    La Folia, that is. This website gives information about every known setting of the famous tune, and even goes out on a limb to suggest that Beethoven stuck a Folia between measures 166 through 173 of the the second movement of his Fifth Symphony. The page is certainly worth exploring, particularly the nifty chronological map.

  • Sketching (or rather rambling on) the Trajectory of Classical Music

    18 Nov 2009 | 6:28 am
    There has been a lot of blog-talk on the internet concerning the ebbs and flows of what people call "classical music," which is really more a reflection of the business of classical music as reflected in ways of measuring its popularity in financial terms. Writers look at the musical world from where they sit, and watch it march by and change, while they, either seeking to participate in the moments of "upswing," or trying to make their case for viable alternatives to "tradition," attempt to find something that resembles temporary truth.The problem is that there are so many exceptions to all…

  • Felix Mendelssohn: his feelings of inadequacy aren't like your feelings of inadequacy

    15 Nov 2009 | 10:24 am
    I have been reading a bit about Felix Mendelssohn's inadequate feelings about his Fourth Symphony, and how they mystified critics, like Donald Francis Tovey, who considered it a most perfect piece of music. I think that the answer is that Mendelssohn's feelings of inadequacy are simply on a higher level than the feelings of inadequacy enjoyed by most composers and most critics (particularly people like Tovey who were both). It is a little bit like the charming intel commercial that has been circulating on line.Mendelssohn was a conductor who held Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven as his ideal…

  • Kitchen Girl, Restless Corpse

    14 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am
    This is from a concert that our son Ben and his friend Claire played last night. The first song is traditional, and the second is one that they wrote together around the time of Halloween, hence the name.
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    On a Pacific Aisle

  • Half a Century

    27 Oct 2009 | 8:31 am
    Quand j'étais petit, on me disait toujours, "Tu verras quand tu auras cinquante ans." Eh bien m'y voilà à cinquante ans. Et je n'ai rien vu. Rien. — Erik Satie

  • The Rest is Unquiet

    14 Oct 2009 | 3:59 pm
    Things have been a little quiet of late around Noiseville (not that I should talk), and now we know why. Alex Ross has moved his blogging emporium over to The New Yorker, under the rubric Unquiet Thoughts. Initial musings are on György Kurtág, Stile Antico, and more; update your records accordingly.

  • Now, That's Retro

    15 Sep 2009 | 2:21 pm
    A package from Sony waltzed across my desk this afternoon, bringing with it the new recital disc by the strange and wonderful German soprano Simone Kermes. (I haven't spun it yet, but it goes right to the top of the pile; although I haven't reached the levels of Kermesomania that some inhabit, anything she does is automatically of interest.) The package included a couple of CDs in the familiar jewel case, a robust press release, and something else. Something big, flat, and shrink-wrapped.Honest to God, I didn't know what it was.My first guess was a wall calendar, my second a video laserdisc.

  • Monopoly

    13 Sep 2009 | 4:01 pm
    I'm told that following Friday's season-opening Trovatore, the members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus have decreed that Sondra Radvanovsky should be the only singer ever again allowed to sing Verdi with the company. A little extreme, perhaps, but I take their point.

  • In Fond Memory

    11 Sep 2009 | 10:52 pm
    Kitty Carlisle Hart (1910-2007)Because I never hear Trovatore without thinking of my first, and for many years only, Leonora. Requiescat in pace.
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    Mostly Opera

  • Mojca Erdmann

    15 Nov 2009 | 12:29 pm
    Do you know German lyrical soprano Mojca Erdmann? If not, you will in a couple of years. Biography here.She just signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophone (first record out in 2010/11) - at next years Salzburg Festival she takes part in Rihm´s new opera Dionysus. Last summer she was the Forest Bird in Rattles Aix-en-Provence Siegfried.At The Metropolitan Opera she will make

  • Munich: New Don Giovanni with Mariusz Kwiecien

    15 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm
    New production of Don Giovanni just opened in Munich (October 2009). Production by Stephan Kimmig. Kent Nagano conducts. Mariusz Kwiecien is Don Giovanni. Maija Kovalevska and Ellie Dehn are the two ladies:

  • New Stefan Herheim Rosenkavalier in Stuttgart

    15 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pm
    New production of Rosenkavalier (October 2009-January 2010) by Stefan Herheim in Stuttgart. For non-German speakers, I may add that Stefan Herheim sees the opera as a tragedy. Among the cast is Mojca Erdmann (Sophie), who just signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

  • 1989 Boris Godunov film with Raimondi

    15 Nov 2009 | 11:48 am
    Andrzej Zhulavski´s 1989 film of Boris Godunov is now available full-lenght on YouTube. Ruggero Raimondi both sings and plays Boris. As of the rest, Galina Vishnevskaya and Nicolai Gedda provide vocal input only. Rostropovich conducts.The opening scene:By victorkiev on YouTube

  • Salzburg Festival 2010 programme out

    11 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am
    The programme for Salzburg 2010 is out.Edita Gruberova appears as Norma, Anna Netrebko as Juliette and Patricia Petibon as Lulu, but please take a look at that new Elektra production, which I simply cannot imagine being better cast..
 
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    thirteen ways

  • Most Audacious Itinerary Ever

    Michael
    14 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pm
    Keep us is your hearts and prayers… eighth blackbird Chamber Music Society of Louisville (Louisville KY) | 15 November 2009 SUN 15 Nov FLIGHT 8:03a Lv Chicago (ORD) – United 5992 10:20a Ar Louisville (SDF) TRANSFER You will be met by three drivers at the airport University of Louisville – School of Music Louisville, KY 40292 ~11:00a REHEARSAL Comstock Concert Hall (percussion will have been delivered and set up) 3:00p CONCERT Comstock Concert Hall Program Meanwhile: Mazzoli: Still Life with Avalanche Boulez: Derive I Mellits: Spam Turnage: Grazioso! ~ intermission ~ Perle: Critical…

  • 8bb Halloween Weekend Sale Challenge

    Tim
    30 Oct 2009 | 7:14 am
    Take a break from preparing your dapper Don Draper or sexy Sarah Palin costume and check out this great deal on eighth blackbird’s December 8th Harris Theater concert. From Friday through Sunday, all tickets for Pierrot lunaire are 30% off! On December 8, eighth blackbird presents Schoenberg’s dark, creepy masterpiece, a work that wouldn’t be out of place on Halloween night! Haunted by the death-sick moon, Pierrot is preyed upon by giant moths, steals from blood-drenched graveyards and smokes tobacco from a skull. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness eighth blackbird…

  • 8bb wins new Meadows Prize

    Tim
    15 Oct 2009 | 1:27 pm
    Okay, I’ll give in just this once to putting a press release on the blog, mostly because it has lots of information about this fabulous new prize that we are awfully chuffed to have won (ensemble members in the last few days have been randomly breaking into “it’s just so weird and cooooool!” and “that really is kinda amazing…”). You can also go here and here and here for other coverage of the announcement, made at a gala hosted by Bruce Willis. As a lanky, geeky, wimpy kid growing up in Brisbane, Australia, the Die Hard movies were my sort of…

  • US Standardized testing for music: I failed 4/4

    phot
    14 Oct 2009 | 4:34 pm
    I was checking out the NY Times and they had an article on sluggish math results and more indicators of the abysmal failure that is “No Child Left Behind.” I was curious to see what kind of questions the kids were being asked, and the article had a link to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which I dug around in for a bit, and finally came to a page where you can test yourself in several categories, including…music. Music? Go ahead and pop open another internet tab and check it out, I’ll wait. You might want to keep it open after you do it to refer back.

  • eighth blackbird, the torrent

    phot
    12 Oct 2009 | 4:05 pm
    Google alerts rock, for a huge variety of reasons. I only have a couple of them set up, and naturally “eighth blackbird” is one of them. And so what do I find in my email inbox just now? A google alert for a torrent link to download our Strange Imaginary Animals CD. Should I be upset? Maybe if the link had more than 0 seeders and 0 leechers, or if I thought somehow that illegal sharing of our CDs were somehow cutting into our revenue (which it’s REALLY not, trust me). Even then, I doubt I would be upset. Personally, I think one of the coolest things in the world (and one…
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    The Well Tempered Blog

  • Old School

    15 Nov 2009 | 10:19 pm

  • Tuesday Tubes

    16 Sep 2009 | 7:03 am
    From Albeniz's opera "Merlin"

  • Surf's Up

    16 Sep 2009 | 7:02 am
    Some recent additions to WTB's list of favorites. Each of them offers music lovers loads of good things: Svensk Musik / Swedish Music Information Centre A special shout out for ICSM's "World New Muisc Day". Three Swedish cities 2009's World Music Days "an international festival focusing on contemporary music and sound art." The theme for this year is “Listen to the world”. Extra points for

  • Test

    15 Sep 2009 | 8:24 pm
    test Update:  testing a new blogging tool (a java based client). You can try it for yourself, if that sort of thing suits your inner geek, via Google's "Summer of Code ". Link

  • And Back Again

    15 Sep 2009 | 6:31 am
    Another summer holiday comes to an end. Regular blogging to resume. stay tuned.
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    An Unamplified Voice

  • From the House...

    JSU
    13 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am
    From the House of the Dead -- Metropolitan Opera, 11/12/09Margita, Streit, Hoare, Mattei, White / SalonenMuch-lauded director Patrice Chéreau has never before done a show at the Met, and on the evidence of this Janacek premiere one suspects he's never seen a show there either. Perhaps at the previous stops of this touring production his step of putting supertitles onstage (projected on the dull grey walls) in the general vicinity of the characters seemed brilliant, but it's no accident that this house uses individual subtitle screens instead. Not the least reason is that there's no spot…

  • Unamplified again

    JSU
    23 Oct 2009 | 5:37 am
    The news that City Opera's home will now be free of artificial sonic sweetener (that is, miking, as indirect as it may have been) is both surprising and welcome. Anthony Tommasini, take a bow!: as I noted years ago, getting rid of this "enhancement" has been a persistent crusade of his since it was first introduced to the State Theater a decade ago.Now, to see if the company can find enough money to survive for another decade...

  • Marie Theres'

    JSU
    19 Oct 2009 | 7:28 pm
    Der Rosenkavalier -- Metropolitan Opera, 10/16/09Graham, Fleming, Sigmundsson, Persson, Vargas / de WaartStrauss and Hofmannsthal's Marschallin is essentially -- she's not the Empress Maria Theresa, but as a namesake she stands in for her -- at the apex of her social universe, at a time and place in which that was incalculably important. She bears her husband's title of "Field Marshal", but he is far off and in any case seemingly more engaged in hunting than actual warfare. While he is gone the world is hers, and it's a world where "soft" power reigns to an extent hardly imaginable after the…

  • There he goes...

    JSU
    15 Oct 2009 | 8:07 am
    I wasn't at Tuesday's Rosenkavalier, but positive reports from that and Friday's dress rehearsal may get me to see Edo de Waart's version of the piece before he departs. But here is the long-contemplated appendix to my February post on Lisa della Casa: that great Marschallin at the 1960 opening of Salzburg's Festspielhaus, in the monologue and closing duet of Rosenkavalier Act I. Sena Jurinac is Octavian. I'm not sure if the embed widget works, but I believe the download should. Act I (conclusion).mp3

  • The end of the QXR era

    JSU
    8 Oct 2009 | 4:10 pm
    Tonight at 8PM, the sale of WQXR arranged in July makes itself heard on the air. The deal was a three-way transaction: the New York Times company, continuing to hemorrhage money in the Pinch Sulzburger era, sold the WQXR name and website to WNYC (formerly a classical-music competitor, now long since taken over by the public radio talk-talk) and WQXR's most valuable asset -- its place in the middle of the dial and 6000 watt broadcast license -- to Univision Radio. WNYC also got the frequency (105.9) and 600 watt broadcast license heretofore used by WCAA, the Spanish-language channel that will…
 
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    Felsenmusick

  • Pretender to the Throne (?)

    18 Nov 2009 | 11:06 am
    Fantastic little piece about a very clever fraud (I'm OBSESSED with frauds: art forgers, Tristan Foison, Welles' move F for Fake) who fooled the smart people at the Ojai Festival by impersonating Steve Mackey. Weird. But compelling.

  • So Much, So Much To Do

    17 Nov 2009 | 8:03 pm
    Here's just a few things going on:Tomorrow night, November 17, I'll be astage at Le Poisson Rouge playing the piano once again as part of John Wesley Harding's final Cabinet of Wonders of 2009 (more to come in 2010, you can be sure!). Which is a mixed blessing because I'll not be able to hear my friend, the astoundingly gifted Jody Redhage perform her show with her band Fire in July that night at Roulette. My loss, though the cabinet promises to be excellent, with a fascinating roster of guests. The following night, I'll have to miss The Metropolis Ensemble (also at LPR) in order that I might…

  • Once Again, A Return

    16 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm
    Yes, Felsenreaders, fallen of. Missed me? Given up? Wondered if there was no meaning to your life since, well, where's all the goodies on Felsenmusick? Believe me, I've missed being here, and so, with a few key clicks and a tip of the wireless mouse, I return. Some good things coming up: an opera in the bay area, a sinful concert in Brooklyn, new monodramas with a brilliant playwright, opera-ish things, piano works, a concerto all around the country, performances by not one but two of my favorite ensembles on this G-d's Green Earth, some curatorial responsibilities, a whole new slew of…

  • Auspicious Beginnings

    23 Aug 2009 | 9:35 pm
    Summer winds down, the hiatus ends, and its back to composing, teaching, writing, reading and of course blogging. And what better way to start the coming year than with a nice mention by one Alex Ross on the New Yorker's Web site. I loved Alex's article on fictional composers (being one myself from time to time, as he mentions) and wish I could offer a link, but as its for subscribers only, you'll just have to pick up a copy of this weeks New Yorker or subscribe to read it. Wholly and completely worth it!Sometime soon, I'll blog about this summer, some cool concerts (Costello and Cohen for…

  • Passings

    27 Jul 2009 | 8:35 pm
    I want to echo Alex Ross in mourning three passings this weeekend: Robert Hilferty, Michael Steinberg and Merce Cunningham. I could eulogize the latter two (whom I did not know personally) and recount some truly hilarious stories of Robert Hilferty, but I will just let their names stand as the sadness their loss represents. The world is lighter once again.
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    On An Overgrown Path

  • New music in the paradise garden

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:39 am
    Gaston Bachelard's image of an ecstatic paradise garden is linked with the Buddhist vision of the pure land, a state of mind beyond suffering where there is no grasping, in Jonathan Harvey's Fourth String Quartet. Dating from 2003, the Fourth Quartet uses electronics to explore spectralism, the deconstruction and manipulation of sound as an abstract medium to expose what the composer describes as:'the materiality of the sound itself... the ‘suchness’ – to use a Buddhist term – the ‘thing in itself’: the grain, the richness, the quality of the sound'.The Fourth Quartet is available…

  • The lost art of listening

    18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    'Music for young people. The Art of Listening. Dr George Firth director of Scotland of the Arts Council for Great Britain. Mary Firth (pianist). An Opportunity for those under 35'.This last item, The Art of Listening, was a favourite subject, often repeated. In Sir George Trevelyan's view listening was as active as speaking, neither was to be undertaken casually.This course, which was organised by Sir George Trevelyan at Attingham Park in Shropshire in 1948, introduces a theme later pursued by Benjamin Britten and others. In 1964 Britten wrote about the 'holy triangle of composer, performer,…

  • Somehow indicative of the times

    17 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm
    Drew80 has left a new comment on your post "Here comes ovation inflation":You are always essential reading, Pliable.Observing the Dudamel phenomenon has been highly amusing. I have no idea whether Dudamel will turn into a fine conductor—only time will tell—but he certainly attracts the lunatics. Otherwise sane people have gone berserk, praising 250 youth musicians sawing away at “The Rite Of Spring”, a composition that turns into sludge when performed by such a vast number of players.A conspicuous example of the widespread Dudamel foolishness is a photograph I saw on some website of…

  • EMI keeps playing with its Rattle

    17 Nov 2009 | 5:38 am
    PR-speak reaches a crescendo in an EMI Classics press release announcing a new exclusive recording contract with Simon Rattle. The president of EMI Classics Global Eric Dingman, whose CV includes almost twenty years with Labatt Breweries, gushes:'I am delighted about the ongoing partnership with Sir Simon which will continue to produce ground-breaking recordings and projects, adding to the great wealth, depth and breadth of repertoire that Sir Simon is building with EMI Classics.'Bang on cue the conductor himself joins in the refrain with:'In a time when recording contracts are rare enough to…

  • The Tao of music

    16 Nov 2009 | 8:31 am
    However, back to the beat - something it seems we must return to with regularity in some form or another, if we wish to cooperate with the natural regulatory forces of existence. I instinctively knew at the age of four that rhythm was the palpable expression, at the deepest level, of the universe in motion...Understand the rhythm of life - not intellectually but by feeling it in your body - and you understand the rhythm of the way the forces of expansion and contraction, the yin and yang of Taoist philosophy, the zeroes and ones of our present technological reality, alternate with each other.
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    rogerbourland.com

  • under CONSTRUCTION

    Roger Bourland
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pm
    We are playing with a new look for this blog. There may be some erratic behavior for the next day or so, so be patient. If you find any bugs you can email me at my first name at my last.

  • Drones and pedals

    Roger Bourland
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm
    This week in Music History, Culture, and Creativity, our students must compose, record, convert to mp3 and upload their compositions to the class website. Their compositions are to feature a drone (a sustained bass note throughout a section or an entire piece of music), or pedal (as in when an organ holds down a PEDAL, a low note, while other music happens on top) with a melody. It may be for any instrumentation and in any style. For inspiration I played several music videos from YouTube illustrating a wide variety of musics that use drones or pedals. In Stevie Wonder’s “Too…

  • Tibetan monks from Maitri Vihar Monastery

    Roger Bourland
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am
    I’ve heard a lot of Tibetan monks chant, but never with this incredible sense of cosmic harmony. Listen to all the notes in each chord: unbelievable! Then, you have the contrabass solos functioning as little interludes. Then they all join in again. WOW!

  • Thelonious Monk: Crepuscule with Nellie

    Roger Bourland
    16 Nov 2009 | 7:27 pm

  • The Beatles “Everyday Chemistry”

    Roger Bourland
    14 Nov 2009 | 11:51 am
    Uh, yeah. This website alleges to have “found” a cassette of a lost Beatle album. Whatever. But it IS a wonderful mashup of Beatles tracks put together in fun new ways. Instant Beatles! Shazaam! Link -via YesButNoButYes
 
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    Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog

  • The Amazing Story of François Rabbath, Part One

    Jason
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Longtime friend of the blog Brian Roessler, bassist for the Fantastic Merlins, has a multi-part series about François Rabbath (former Contrabass Conversations guest) being published on Destination Out. Here’s a link to the first part–it’s really cool, and I can’t wait to check out more: DRUM AND BASS: THE AMAZING STORY OF FRANÇOIS RABBATH, Part One

  • Study with Jason Heath this summer at the National High School Music Institute!

    Jason
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    I rarely use this blog to actually plug anything that I do (other than urging folks to read my crazy gig stories, I suppose), but I’d like to take this opportunity to announce that I’ll be teaching bass this summer at Northwestern University’s National High School Music Institute. The High School Institute (NHSMI for short) is an intensive five-week program designed to train young musicians for a career in music. As a bass teacher who was for the past ten years specialized in training bassists to be competitive in music school auditions, I am definitely looking forward to…

  • In search of the United States’ top double bass schools

    Jason
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pm
    It’s survey time! We’re soliciting reader opinions on the top music schools in the United States. Please take a moment or two and visit the link below to fill out your own personal ranking. This should prove to generate some interesting data that we can use in the future. Click Here to take survey By the way, I realize that I’m leaving many good schools off of this list, so please do not be offended if I skipped your school. I did leave a write-in school spot, so this should allow people to submit choices that I didn’t include as options.

  • Doublebassscore – Koussevitzky Concerto Mvt 3

    Jason
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    More great content from the Doublebassscore YouTube channel: -Gary Karr, bassist Thanks to John Grillo for pointing this out to me!

  • Chicago Bass Festival to debut 2/7/10

    Jason
    16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    I’ve kept this under wraps to the general public, but we’re close enough to doing our official release that I just can’t resist giving blog readers a sneak peek: I’m pleased to announce that the first annual Chicago Bass Festival will be taking place on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at Ravinia’s Bennett-Gordon Hall in Highland Park, Illinois from 9 am – 5 pm. The day will include master classes, performances, and clinics on a variety of topics (solo playing, orchestra, jazz, early music, young bassist workshops) from Chicago’s leading double bass…
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    The Omniscient Mussel

  • Wednesday Links

    Miss Mussel
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:54 am
    This just in: Classical music will survive – Anne Midgette gets out her Magic 8 ball on NPR Tim Rutten spares a thought for the ghost in Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue For the first time, London 2012 Olympics and the word inspire appear next to each other in a non-ironic context. From Frere Mussel – “This is totally badass” Share This Post:

  • All Aboard The Nostalgia Train

    Miss Mussel
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:40 pm
    Poking around Youtube for the Near/Far Sesame Street clip from Thursday got Miss Mussel thinking about what other televisions shows she liked as a child. Here’s a list of ten for your Sunday morning ration of televisual delights. Simon In the Land Of Chalk Drawings The Little Prince [Swifty!] Belle & Sebastian The Friendly Giant Téléfrancais [Les Squelettes a 5:38] Dr Snuggles Today’s Special [at the opera!] You Can’t Do That On Television 3-2-1 Contact Square One Share This Post:

  • Thoughts On The Berliner Mauerfall

    Miss Mussel
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am
    These were meant to be posted on Monday in honour of the Berliner Mauerfall commemoration. Celebration doesn’t seem like quite the right word, particularly since even now, 20 years on, not all Berliners are convinced that this modern day Jericho moment was really for the best. Miss Mussel was in the city in September to visit the Yellow Lounge and while there wasn’t a lot of time to poke around, the basics were covered. Walking from the snazzy new Hauptbahnhoff (five floors of trains!) to Potsdamerplatz, it was impossible to avoid thinking of the Wall. Outside the station, there…

  • Ultimate Sesame

    Miss Mussel
    13 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm
    Just in case you’ve been under a rock these last few days here’s an OM FYI Bulletin: Sesame Street is 40 this year. Its interaction with classical music has been well-documented elsewhere, so all that’s left to do is to say that this is the best sketch ever. Watching it takes Miss Mussel back to those idyllic days of the early 1980s when Grover, Bert, Ernie, Oscar, Big Bird and Snuffy et al. were daily companions. Share This Post:

  • Review: KWS Back To Baroque

    Miss Mussel
    13 Nov 2009 | 9:01 am
    In today’s Record The immensely popular Back To Baroque Series presented by the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony had its first concert Wednesday evening at First United Church in Kitchener. Although the title is a bit misleading – music from the Baroque period is rarely in the majority – it offers listeners a chance to hear pieces that aren’t often programmed in the more formal Signature Series. The results tend to be a pleasant-enough hodge-podge of throwaway Baroque and classical incidental music leading up to a larger piece at the end. Wednesday night followed the…
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    time4time

  • Video: Reinventing the harpsichord - Telegraph

    13 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am
    via telegraph.co.uk Posted via web from lichtconlon's posterous

  • Zaha Hadid Pavilion installation time lapse

    12 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pm
    Zaha Hadid Pavilion installation time lapse from Manchester Art Gallery on Vimeo. Posted via web from lichtconlon's posterous

  • Wolfmother - Woman

    12 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am
    Wolfmother/ Woman from A.C.E on Vimeo. band website: www.wolfmother.com Posted via web from lichtconlon's posterous

  • Ship forged with 9/11 steel

    10 Nov 2009 | 6:29 pm
    Crude, distasteful, bizarre, impious, insensitive, and contumelious totalitarian propaganda à la Stalin... What a shameful act. "NEW YORK (AFP) - The USS New York, a naval vessel whose bow was forged in part with steel from the World Trade Center towers destroyed on 9/11, sailed for the first time Monday into the city's harbor. The bow section of the ship contains 7.5 tons of steel from the twin towers destroyed September 11, 2001." leaderpost.com: Ship forged with 9/11 steel sails into New York http://bit.ly/4s6YcX "forged in part with steel from the World Trade Center" Google Search:…

  • Murdoch to Block Google from Searching News Items?

    10 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am
    via readwriteweb.com Murdoch said in the interview, "There are no websites... anywhere in the world making any serious money. Some may be breaking even or maybe making a couple of million." Posted via web from lichtconlon's posterous
 
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    Naxos Blog

  • CSO Resound Releases a Recording of Mahler Symphony No. 2

    Kelly
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:43 am
    Recording conducted by Bernard Haitink featuring the Chicago Symphony Chorus, soprano Miah Persson and mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn Naxos of America and the CSO present a sweepstakes to celebrate the launch of distribution of CSO Resound by NOA - click sweepstakes link above or see details below Mahler’s towering Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection) is the ninth and newest release on CSO Resound, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s award-winning record label. Having previously recorded Mahler’s First, Third and Sixth symphonies, Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink and the CSO…

  • Innova Distribution Launched with Recording by Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble

    Kelly
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:52 am
    Founded in 1982 as a way to document the McKnight Fellowship winners of the Minnesota Composers Forum, Innova Recordings initially featured mainly the works of Minnesota composers such as Eric Stokes, Libby Larsen, Paul Schoenfield and Steven Paulus. In 1994 the label opened its doors to any artists with a finished master tape that wanted access to an established distribution network, and now, produces and releases up to 25 CDs per year. On November 17, Naxos of America proudly began distribution of the releases of Innova Recordings. Innova is dedicated to forward-“hearing” work that…

  • Podcast: William Schuman - Prayer in a Time of War

    Raymond
    16 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am
    When he graduated from high school, William Schuman enrolled in New York University with every intention of doing a commerce degree. Then his sister took him to a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini. That very night, he decided to become a composer. Schuman went on to become one of the most important American composers and composition teachers of the 20th century. He was president of Julliard School, President of Lincoln Centre in New York, and the composer of eight major symphonies. This podcast looks at a new recording of his Symphony No. 6, Prayer in a Time of War,…

  • Naxos Releases its First Blu-ray Production, The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard

    Kelly
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am
    “Tom Beghin belongs to the very few concert pianists with a professional musicological background who can turn his discoveries of rhetoric and other intellectual features in classical scores into fascinating new and impressive interpretations.” —László Somfai, author of The Keyboard Sonatas of Joseph Haydn, University of Chicago Press, 1995. On October 27, 2009, Naxos of America released a groundbreaking project—and its first Blu-ray production— from McGill University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology, entitled The Virtual Haydn: Complete…

  • Naxos of America Begins Distribution of Cutting-Edge New York Label New Amsterdam Records

    Kelly
    12 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am
    On October 27, Naxos of America began distribution of cutting-edge New York-based label New Amsterdam Records. Founded as a haven for young New York composers and performers whose music traditionally has slipped through the cracks between genres, New Amsterdam was the brainchild of composers William Brittelle, Judd Greenstein, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. New Amsterdam Records is a non-profit model service organization run by independent musicians whose goal is to support talented colleagues by functioning as truly “pro-artist”—without the conflict of interests present in conventional…
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