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SEQUENZA21/
340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Zookeeper:   
Jerry Bowles
(212) 582-3791

Managing Editor:
David Salvage

Contributing Editors:

Galen H. Brown
Evan Johnson
Ian Moss
Lanier Sammons
Deborah Kravetz
(Philadelphia)
Eric C. Reda
(Chicago)
Christian Hertzog
(San Diego)
Jerry Zinser
(Los Angeles)

Web & Wiki Master:
Jeff Harrington


Latest Posts

Love and Cow Bells
Sorceress of the New Piano
Well, That Was Fun
Naxos Dreaming
Reich@70: Let the Celebrations Begin
The Bi-Coastal Jefferson Friedman
Violins Invade Indianapolis
John Cage (born Los Angeles, 5 September 1912; died New York, 12 August 1992).
The People United Will Never Be Divided
Attention Sequenza21 Shoppers


 

Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019


Friday, June 30, 2006
Rrrove Me Tender

Remember last week when I tried to get someone to go review the Anti-Social Music/Gena Rowlands Band performance of The Nitrate Hymnal out in Brooklyn and no one voluteered? Bob Massey, composer of the "Hymnal," which now exists as a multimedia opera, an album and a concert performance, is the subject of a LONG and favorable and fascinating article by Richard Harrington in today's Washington Post. We could really use a few more folks to contribute concert reviews for the front page. I'm old and don't get out much and this is one I'm sorry we missed covering, especially since Andrea of Anti-Social is one of our regulars. Volunteers? I can usually get you in free.

Plus, the continuing saga of Paul Hersey and Everly Brothers. (Paul's the one in the light brown sport jacket on the right):
Tomorrow, Graceland

Pianist Paul Hersey, who recorded Morton Feldman's Complete Violin|Viola and Piano Works with Christina Fong on OgreOgress is also a talented interpreter of Japanese. So talented, in fact, that he is serving as George Bush's "Japanese voice" during the visit of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. In a clip on this page, you can see Paul walking behind Bush and Koizumi as they shake hands with Mr. and Mrs. Shooter. Via this link, you can hear Paul as Bush's voice, starting at the 11:00 mark.
Shuffling to Buffalo

The always alert Steve Layton passed along a press clip yesterday with the news that the University of Buffalo Music Library has opened an exhibition of material from its Morton Feldman Collection that will run through Sept. 11. The exhibition is a commemoration of what would have been Feldman's 80th birthday a features a number of Feldman's "unorthodox" (their word) musical manuscripts,now known to be unique to the Music Library, as well as examples from the library's recently acquired C.F. Peters Collection of Morton Feldman manuscripts; prose manuscripts from the Music Library collections; and photographs from the library's various collections. Some of you may have attended or participated in the "June in Buffalo" festival this month and seen the exhibition already. If so, give us a report.

If I had known that a simple expression of affection would bring so many of our bloggers out of hiding, I would have used the "L" word a long time ago. Today, we have fresh musing from Stephanie Lubkowski whom we haven't heard from for months; a report from Anthony Cornicello on his visit to Italy, and Lawrence Dillon on making an "ASS" of oneself.

I found Barbara Hannigan's account of Ligeti's funeral to be elegant and touching and I'm honored that she chose to share it with us.
Funeral Service for György Ligeti

From Barbara Hannigan: As an interpreter of Ligeti's vocal works, I attended his funeral yesterday in Vienna. I am sending you this account of the funeral and subsequent memorial concert, of one of our greatest composers.

Monday, June 26 2006 in Vienna

Yesterday I attended the funeral and memorial concert for György Ligeti in Vienna. The numbers in attendance were unexpectedly small, but those who were there included Ligeti’s wife Vera and son Lukas, several of his former composition students, old friends, performers and publishers.

The funeral took place at the Feuerhalle Simmering, part of Vienna’s cemetery and crematorium. Ligeti’s coffin was blanketed with flowers and surrounded by large bouquets. Aside from biographer Paul Griffiths’ poignant poem which created a world literally without Ligeti (he wrote a tribute to Ligeti without allowing himself to use any letters of the composers name), the official speeches left one with the impression that this was a person who could not be described in words. György and Marta Kurtag ended the ceremony with quiet and introspective playing of Bach on the Feuerhalle’s unassuming upright piano, Ligeti’s legacy of music that raged, passionate and fierce, searing with fearsome intelligence and wit, invading the listener with sadness and hurt and pain, included Lontano, Melodien, Atmospheres, Apparition, Le Grand Macabre, and his Requiem, all of which speak with brilliant and often unsettling clarity.

It took the afternoon concert at the Vienna Konzerthaus’ Mozart Hall to bring us closer to the only Ligeti most of us could know. Pianist Pierre Laurent Aimard, the dedicatee of many of Ligeti’s piano works, walked to the piano from the back of the concert hall, ignoring the uncertain smattering of applause, and launched into three movements from the Musica Ricercata (1951-53), followed by several of the Etudes (1985-2001). Aimard perfectly balanced the combination of thunderous technique and calculation with passionate spontaneity, sometimes tackling the keys like a sportsman and at other times, creating a blurry blush of colour that left us awestruck and vulnerable. This is Ligeti: heart and mind working together in a virtuosic storm. Aimard left the stage after prolonged silence at the end of the last Etude, and left us staring at the well-worn cut and pasted sheets of music on the piano.

The Arnold Schönberg Choir sang Lux Aeterna (1966) for 16 part choir, a piece in which Ligeti’s paintbrush guided the listener to points of light and darkness, with brief moments of calm surrounded by moving rays of light, as if the notes were sunlight, moving through a prism.

The final piece on the program was Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes (1962). It was one hundred heartbeats of various speeds and lifetimes, only rarely finding a common rhythm, slowly dying away until the very last metronome was beating alone, leading finally to a standing ovation of silence.
More Blogger Love

Out chasing the holy dinero all day but I'm delighted to see that three of our regular irregulars have checked in with terrific posts. Tom Myron has a swell summer pic and poem, Rodney Lister has a fine wrapup of the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory Summer School, which featured Michael Finnissy this year, and our old friend Brian Sacawa, checks in to explain why he hasn't touched his saxophone in more than a month.

Lots of new CD Reviews.
We Love Our Bloggers Sunday

"They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom for trying to change the system from within," Leonard Cohen wrote a few years back. Lennie's cautionary tale noted, the great danger of being an antiestablishmentarian is that the establishment might come around sometime looking for you to give it a hand. Christina Fong has a fascinating post about the perils and pleasures of being invited to come in from the rain...Elodie Lauten wonders if composers and performers who understand the technical aspects of software and the web don't have an unfair advantage now that so much music distribution has moved to the internet. Is this the real "revenge of the nerds?" (By the way, I am no longer capitalizing "internet." We don't capitalize "radio" or "television.")

Ligeti may be dead, but we still have Gérard Grisey, writes Jacob Sudol...The indispensible Lawrence Dillon is headed for the annual festival on North Carolina's Outer Banks--a stunning landscape if you've never been.

 



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