Contemporary Classical

Contemporary Classical

Ominous Portents

I found one of my favorite reviews from the 1990’s (Roger Reynolds’s Dreaming and Harvey Sollberger’s Passages), and posted it here.

There was a minor controversy surrounding Roger Reynolds’s commission from the San Diego Symphony (his first from the Symphony after living in San Diego for over 2 decades). Dreaming had been on the schedule for performance the season before, but the premiere was cancelled. Theories about the cancellation, many involving Symphony Board intrigue, bounced around the UC San Diego Music Dept.

Several months later I interviewed Igor Gruppman, the concertmaster for the SDS. He related that the musicians have a clause in their contract allowing them the right to cancel if they don’t get parts a certain number of weeks ahead of a world premiere; apparently Reynolds’s parts got to the players too close to the performance date, and they voted to reschedule. The performance I reviewed months later sounded great, so hopefully everything worked out for all parties.

I can’t recall the San Diego Symphony playing any contemporary music as challenging as Reynolds’s work on a main subscription series concert since this performance. More’s the pity, as the Symphony is playing even better now than when they tackled Dreaming.

by Christian Hertzog
Contemporary Classical

My 11 Favorite Movies of the Past Decade

Nothing to do with music, but, hey. Who can add to the list?

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) Romania – Directed by Cristian Mungiu – Young woman helps friend get abortion in 1980s Romania and discovers the truth of the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished. Not a single wrong note in this tale of friendship abused.

2. Pan’s Labyrinth (2007) Spain – Directed by Guillermo del Toro – Imaginative young girl retreats into a fantasy world in order to deal with the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and a brutal facist stepfather. Magical and heartbreaking.

3. Talk to Her (2002) Spain – Directed by Pedro Almodovar – Love in the time of coma. Almodovar’s bequiling combination of humor, perversion and human nature testify again to the power of love to save and destroy.

4. Venus (2007) England – Directed by Roger Mitchell – Peter O’Toole’s swan song as an aging actor and lothario who finds a final, unlikely muse. Acting students will be watching this one a hundred years from now and marveling at how easy he made it look.

5. No Country for Old Men (2007) U.S. – Coen Brothers – Nobody making movies in America today is better at delivering a combination of high art and pulp entertainment. A nailbiter from beginning to end from filmmakers who know that words matter.

6. A Serious Man (2009) U.S. Coen Brothers – A shaggy dog tale about Jewish dybbuks and family curses that shows what the Coens do when they obviously don’t care if a story has commercial prospects or not. This one doesn’t but it is unlike anything you’ve ever seen and will have future filmmakers scratching their heads for a very long time.

7. The Son (2003) Belgium – Dardenne Brothers – What would you do if the teenager who killed your baby years earlier (and doesn’t recognize you) turned up in your shop looking for an apprenticeship after getting out of jail? The truth is, you don’t know, and it is a tribute to the skill and integrity of Europe’s spiritual heirs to Robert Bresson and the Italian realists that they offer no easy answers.

8. The Secret in their Eyes (2009) Spain Argentina   – Juan José Campanella – Retired prosecutor revisits haunting old case and discovers that there is sometimes justice in this imperfect world.

9. The Lives of Others (2006) Germany – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck – Stasi agent goes soft on spied upon actress and boy friend with deadly consequences.

10. Lost in Translation (2003) U.S. – Sofia Coppola – Loneliness and alienation in a Tokyo hotel. A few implasibilities in the writing but for anyone who has been there and done that, the mood is right on. Not to mention the opening shot of Scarlett Johansson’s butt.

11. The Barbarian Invasions (2003) French-Canadian – Denys Arcand – The characters from Arcand’s 1986 The Decline of the American Empire have gotten older and one of them is dying. An enchanting fairytale about a son who gives his father the gift of the perfect death.

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, File Under?, New York

Non Classical Showcase at LPR on 7/21

This coming Wednesday, Le Poisson Rouge is hosting a showcase for one of our favorite up and coming UK labels: Nonclassical.

The concert features the music of label founder Gabriel Prokofiev. Grandson of the great Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, Gabriel is not only a mean turntablist; he provides a fascinating viewpoint on concert music with his “non classical” compositions. The Russian pianist GéNIA (great-great-grandniece of  legendary pianist Vladmir Horowitz) will present selections from his Piano Book No. 1, which she recently recorded for the imprint.

The Piano Book reflects Prokofiev’s uneasy relationship with classical music. His usual penchant is for blurring the distinctions between his work as a DJ with more formal compositions – his concerto for turntables and orchestra is a good example. But here Prokofiev, doubtless in no small part due to GéNIA’s encouragement, crafts an engaging series of postmodern Character-Stücke. A piece such as “Rockaby” is instructive. It begins with lullaby signatures, articulated with somewhat portentous harmonies. This gradually evolves into aggressive “rocking” music: punk rock for the piano. The coda returns to the earlier ambience; but after all the ruckus, good luck getting back to sleep!

Also on hand is Joby Burgess (aka Powerplant). He’ll perform an excerpt from Import/Export, Prokofiev’s newest Nonclassical release. A CD/DVD double disc, I/E is a suite for “global junk” percussion, ranging from soda bottles to oil drums. The instrumental palette recalls some of the junkyard percussion efforts of Lou Harrison and Harry Partch. But Prokofiev’s music, and Powerplant’s performances thereof, rock more heartily!

Concert details, as well as a couple of teaser videos, are below.

Non Classical Showcase
Wed., July 21, 2010 / 6:30 PM
Tickets: $10
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 505-FISH (3474)

by Christian Carey
Contemporary Classical

And the Winners of the Varese (R)evolution Tickets Are…

…Ross Marshall, who correctly divined that the film whose title reminded me of the Paul Verlaine poem on which Varese’s  1906 piece Un Grand Sommeil Noir is based is Total Eclipse.  Verlaine was played by David Thewlis and Rimbaud was played by Leonardo In Siprio.  Ross also got the bonus question:  Régine Wieniawski a.k.a. Poldowski was the female composer who wrote 21 pieces based on Verlaine poems.

The winner of the second pair of tickets is Robert Thomas, who correctly responded that Varese’s short flute piece is called Density 21.5 because it was written for Georges Barrère’s platinum flute and Varese thought the density of platinum was 21.5,  but, in fact, it is 21.45.  Actually, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz was first with the answer but he can’t go because he’s milking the cows or something that evening and Elaine Fine was second but she won’t be in New York until the following week.  So, Dr. Bob wins by default, but that’s ok.  Elaine added the helpful note that Density 21.5 is a total ripoff of Debussy’s Syrinx, which is also for solo flute.

Others with the correct answer were Tawnie Olson, Jim Supanick, Eric William Lin and Warren Stewart.  Thank you all for playing and we’ll do it again.

by Jerry Bowles
Contemporary Classical

Join Amanda’s Social Media Chat Party

Our adorable amiga Amanda Ameer, the music publicist extraordinaire, is hosting a discussion for Chamber Music America about the ways composers and other artists are using social media to promote themselves and their work and she’d love to have your experiences be part of it.  It starts at 1 pm eastern on Wednesday July 14 (today).

UPDATE: The entire hour-long chat was lively and went well. It’s been archived; for a replay of the whole conversation, Click Here.

by Jerry Bowles
Broadcast, CDs, Cello, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Interviews, New York, Percussion, Premieres, Radio

Tune in Wednesday for Marvin, Morty and Maya

Heads-up, listeners! WPRB‘s Classical Discoveries host Marvin Rosen has a couple nice treats through the day this Wednesday:

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 11:00am (EDT) Classical Discoveries Goes Avant-Garde will present the world premiere broadcast of Morton Feldman‘s 21-minute ‘lost work’ Dance Suite [For Merle Marsicano] (1963), recorded by Glenn Freeman, percussion and Debora Petrina, piano-celeste. This is ahead of its September limited-edition release on OgreOgress Records. Originally composed for the dancer and choreographer Merle Marsicano, it was the longest work Feldman had composed to date and provides insight into his upcoming 1964 solo percussion work The King of Denmark. This very unique and haunting sound world, created with various keyboards, mallet instruments and exotic percussion instruments, can later be heard in several of Feldman’s epic length works of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Then from 12:00pm till 2:00pm (EDT), world-renowned Israeli cellist and new-music champion Maya Beiser — whose latest and most excellent CD release Provenance is riding high in the charts — will join Marvin live in the WPRB Studio to chat and perform.

As always, NYC’ers can tune in directly to WPRB at 103.3 FM on the dial; everyone else can head to the WPRB website and click the “Listen Now” link on the left side of the page.

by Steve Layton
Bang on a Can, Contemporary Classical

BOAC All-stars and Paul Dresher Ensemble, 1995

I’ve been uploading my old reviews on my blog. Today’s upload is a review I did for a new music festival at the University of California, San Diego in 1995: concerts by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. This may seem totally run of the mill to New Yorkers and younger composers, but it was heresy at the hallowed halls of modernism at the UCSD Music Dept. At the time, Paul Dresher was probably the most successful, acclaimed alumnus of the dept.–and this was the first time he had been asked to perform there since his graduation. (he had been invited to do a performance of Slow Fire a few years before this–for the UCSD Theater Dept.!) Following the Bang On A Can All-Stars concert, Roger Reynolds was rumored to have apologized to his composition students for their concert, and swore they would never come back to the Music Dept. (Looks like he kept his promise!) So what caused all the fuss? You can read about it here.

by Christian Hertzog
Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals

The Show-Me State puts on a show

Mention of our composer pal Jeremy Podgursky a couple days ago brought this late word (but better late than never, right?):

Gary Kass wrote to tell us about the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, which starts tomorrow (Monday), July 12th, at the University of Missouri and runs the whole darn week. Quite a lot happening: five big concerts and lots of open rehearsals;  two great guest composers (Martin Bresnick and Derek Bermel); eight resident composers getting world premieres (Francisco Cortés-Álvarez, Christopher Dietz, Paul Dooley, Moon Young Ha, Edie Hill, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jeremy Podgursky, Zhou Juan); stellar ensemble Alarm Will Sound, pianist Lisa Moore, the Missouri Symphony Society Music Ensemble led by Kirk Trevor; resident, guest and faculty (including MU composer and festival organizer Stefan Freund) presentations and meet-ups… the website will give you a full rundown on times, pieces, performers and composers, and their blog provides lots of extra goodies.  Here’s hoping for a good run, all success, and that we’ll be talking about a second round come next year!

by Steve Layton
Contemporary Classical

Win Tickets to the Lincoln Center Festival’s Varèse: (R)evolution

As you know if you read Christian Carey’s earlier piece,  Lincoln Center Festival’s Varèse: (R)evolution will present the composer’s entire oeuvre over two concerts on July 19 & 20. Performers include the New York Philharmonic, conductor Alan Gilbert, percussionist Steven Schick, and ICE. We have two pairs of tickets to give away for one of the performances. Because we have so many smart people who read S21 and the first answer is usually right, I’m going to take the names of all the people with the right answer, put them on a slip of paper, and have my unsuspecting next door neighbor pull one out of a Yankees cap.

Here’s your tossup:  Varese’s 1906 Un Grand Sommeil Noir is titled after a poem by Paul Verlaine and suggests (to me, at least) the title of a 1995 film about Rimbaud and Verlaine.   What is the title of that film and who played Verlaine?

You can get your name in the cap twice by answering this bonus question.  What female composer wrote 21 pieces based on Verlaine poems?

by Jerry Bowles