Month: January 2010

Composers, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Deerhoof – and sfSound – Dig Ligeti

Greg Saunier is in the indie band Deerhoof, but he’s also a composer of concert music. sfSound commissioned a work from Saunier as part of an upcoming concert centered around György Ligeti‘s Chamber Concerto (Jan. 23 at SF Conservatory).

Apparently, this isn’t the first time sfSound has paid tribute to Ligeti. Last time around, in 2002, they ran afoul of the composer’s representatives. You can read a passel of legalese between Ligeti’s lawyers and the group’s bass clarinetist here. Hopefully this time out, they’ll be allowed to go ahead with what looks to be a fascinating concert and appropriate tribute to one of the late 20th Century’s great works.

Lest you think that Saunier’s gone exclusively longhair, he’s also recently been interested in another “L” artist from the pop world. Here he is with Deerhoof covering Liliput’s song “Hitch-Hike.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oymp4js0Pqk[/youtube]

by Christian Carey
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Los Angeles

The only thing bad about a concert called “Mostly Californian?”

MCP…Is that it’s happening in California, and not spreading the wonderful work and word in some navel-gazing opposite coast (NYC, I’m talkin’ to youz!).  But even those who are or might be L.A.-bound, what better place to be on a Monday night (January 11 2010,  8:00pm; Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School), than taking in this absolutely fine mix of the old and the new?:

California has always attracted innovators. Three composers from Los Angeles, Berkeley and San Diego confirm this is still the case. In a program showcasing the variety of activity in our own backyard, Michael Pisaro’s gently expansive The Collection is presented in a version for twenty players. Luciano Chessa’s Variazioni su un oggetto di scena and Louganis (with a video by Terry Berlier) create a poignant lyricism in his radical and theatrical works, including a tribute to Olympic diver Greg Louganis scored for piano and electric toothbrushes. Clint McCallum’s in a hall of mirrors waiting to die pushes a saxophonist to his physical limits, while the sax also enlivens two rarely-heard non-Californian 20th century classics: Anton Webern’s Quartet and Milton Babbitt’s All Set for jazz ensemble.

With Eliot Gattegno, saxophone; Eric Wubbels, piano; Benjamin Lulich, clarinet; David Fulmer, conductor and violin; David Borgo, saxophone; Scott Worthington, double bass; Brian Archinal, percussion; Ross Karre, percussion; Avi Bialo, trumpet; Ian Carroll, trombone; Luciano Chessa, piano.

Here are YouTube previews of Louganis and in a hall of mirrors waiting to die.

Tickets and more info at MondayEveningConcerts.org.

by Steve Layton
Composers, Contemporary Classical, Hilary Hahn, Interviews, Video

Hahn Lang Syne

A new year finds our roving reporter/virtuoso violinist (there’s a movie idea in there someplace) Hilary Hahn back with the next round of her self-made interviews with composers various and not-so-sundry. Definitely in the non-sundry camp, David Lang has been firing on all cylinders the past few years; snagging the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his Little Match Girl Passion (the recording of which is also up for a performance Grammy this year) is likely keeping gas in that tank for a good while to come. Hilary and David have a nice long chat about his life & work in this three-part interview (yes, I know it looks like she caught up with David some where out on Moonbase III, but the conversation’s all there, and perfectly interesting. Just close your eyes if the video quality reminds you too much of a David Lynch scene):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gGtNOdDCXM[/youtube]

And here’s part two and part three.

Thanks again, Hilary! — who we should mention is just releasing her latest CD, an all-Bach excursion through works for violin and voice (with soprano Christine Schäfer and baritone Matthias Goerne). Busy woman!

by Steve Layton
Conductors, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, New York, Online

Spinning tunes with Alan Gilbert

My long-time favorite MP3 download site eMusic has its own little online magazine. One of its features is “Jukebox Jury”, where a musician sits down with the interviewer to chat while listening to and commenting on various tracks played. The latest guest is none other than the N.Y. Philharmonic’s new Music Director, Alan Gilbert. The interview covers a lot of ground in a nicely casual way, with Gilbert listening and then giving his take on everything from his own conducting of Mahler’s 9th Symphony, to tracks featuring Christopher Rouse, Magnus Lindberg, Art Tatum, Uri Caine, John Adams, even The Field and Radiohead.

by Steve Layton
Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, File Under?, Improv

ImprovFriday Vol. 1

A number of  Sequenza 21 contributors and readers also populate the site ImprovFriday. It’s a web community that encourages sharing of improvisations, compositions with an element of improv, and recent compositional sketches at a series of web events run on … you guessed it, Fridays.

While this all sounds very free form, the group has specific guidelines for participation, found here. Employing these operating principles are a wide ranging group of spontaneous creators: diverse in style, outspoken yet constructive in critiquing each others’ work, but unified in ambitious music-making.

The community’s first compilation recording, ImprovFriday Vol. 1, is now available from online vendors Amazon and  iTunes.

For Sequenza 21 readers, the list of participants contains several of our ‘usual suspects:’ Steve Layton, David Toub, J.C. Combs, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, and Bruce Hamilton. Included below are a few sound snippets for your preview.

Steve Layton: Spaceship

David Toub: Virtual Music 2

J.C. Combs: The Giant Eye of the Fifth Dimension

by Christian Carey