Looks like I”m doing some softball questions again. For a pair of pretty expensive tickets to the NYPhil performance of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18, who can answer any of the following questions. Where in New York did Bartók live when he died on September 26, 1945. (Street and nearest cross-street) In what hospital did he die? Where is his grave? What was the last work that he completed? What friend of mine lived for several years in the same building? Answer one or more and you might be a winner.
Read moreOkay, kiddies, I have four pairs of tickets to give away to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at Avery Fisher Hall on March 18. The performance is part of the New York Philharmonic’s Hungarian Echoes Festival led by the estimable Finnish hockey star Esa-Pekka Salonen. The problem is that Sequenza 21 readers are all such a bunch of smart asses that I can never come up with a question that stumps anyone for more than 30 seconds so that means the first person who reads this probably wins. So, here’s what we’re going to do this time. Today, we’re giving away one pair
Read moreThere was a certain amount of preliminary drama in the few days before the first performances of Harrison Birtwistle’s Violin Concerto by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on March 3 through 5, during the course of which James Levine, who has been plagued by a series of health problems for several years and who had canceled the preceding concert due to illness, first announced that he was unable to participate in any of remaining concerts of the current season, and then, a day later, due to those recurring health problems, resigned as the orchestra’s music director, leaving considerable doubt about how the
Read moreComposer Mario Davidovsky turns 77 today. The International Contemporary Ensemble and soprano Tony Arnold are celebrating his birthday with a Portrait Concert at Miller Theatre tonight at 8 PM (details here). They’ve also recorded a birthday greeting for the composer (video below), adding a bit of angularity and jocular dodecaphony to a more traditional number. Mario Davidovsky Birthday Toast from Miller Theatre on Vimeo.
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Boston, Composers, Concerts, Conductors, Contemporary Classical, Criticism, File Under?, New York, Orchestras, Performers, Violin
We’re saddened to learn of James Levine’s cancellation of the rest of his appearances this season at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and his resignation from the post of BSO Music Director. Levine has been in that position since 2004, but has had to cancel a number of appearances during his tenure due to a variety of health problems. In an interview published today in the New York Times, Levine indicated that he will retain his position as Music Director at the Metropolitan Opera. Apparently, conversations between Levine and the BSO about a possible future role with the orchestra are ongoing.
Read moreMusic is as much of a time art as reading or looking at pictures because its subject, as John Ashbery once said about poetry, is always somehow about time. And composers, like writers, whether consciously or not, are always playing a game with time. A long piece can sound short, and a short one, long. Time can seem heavy, as in Dostoevksy, or Wagner, or light as in Proust, or Earle Brown. The four pieces on sfsound‘s most recent concert at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s elegant hall managed to be about all these things at once. Anton Webern‘s
Read moreOn February 17th, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin declared 2011 the “Year of the Composer” in Vermont, the first such proclamation in the country. Getting the proclamation itself — little more than a prosaic document signed by a friendly politician — and getting something useful out of the proclamation are two separate stories, one still in the process of being written. The proclamation is a whereas-filled document that states, “the creation and presentation of newly composed music is fundamental to the history of Vermont and provides a basis for continuing growth of educational opportunities, progress in the our cultural leadership and
Read more…it behooves all composers and musicians to participate in a little supply-side bonhomie, if you know what I mean. I’m talking self-promotion, growing your personal brand, reaching out and touching people who can do you some good. You’re in luck. The next Chamber Music America First Tuesdays workshop (which is next Tuesday) features music journalists Nate Chinen and Steve Smith who will give you the real skinny on how artists and presenters can attract print-media attention for concerts and CD releases. The particulars: Workshop Title: Meet the Music Press Speakers: Music journalists Nate Chinen and Steve Smith When: Tuesday, March
Read moreDespite driving snow and slippery roads, an eager crowd gathered Sunday evening to hear Michigan’s University Philharmonia Orchestra deliver eight world premiere performances of works by student composers. The concert is one of the most highly anticipated of the year and is a culmination not only for the student composers involved but also for the student conductors responsible for bringing their pieces to life. This year was even more special than most because all the pieces on the programs were Masters Degree theses from the 2011 class. This fact made the evening more of a watershed event than usual as
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Chamber Music, Choral Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Houston, Percussion, Performers, Piano, viola
(Houston, TX) On February 25th and 26th at 8pm and February 27th at 2:30 pm (the third date added due to popular demand), the Houston Chamber Choir and Da Camera present Music for Rothko, a concert program of contemporary music in one of Houston’s most unique performance spaces. All three performances are sold out. Presented in the interior of Rothko Chapel, the Music for Rothko program includes piano works by John Cage and Erik Satie, Tagh for the Funeral of the Lord for viola and percussion by Tigran Mansurian, and choral compositions by John Cage including Four. Feldman’s Rothko Chapel
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