Cantus Manifesto Signum Classics The all-male vocal ensemble Cantus’s first full length recording in seven years, Manifesto, features pieces, all in world premiere recordings, that explore relationships and identity. The title work is a piece by David Lang, the text taken from answers to a Google Search auto-complete list of the query “I want to be with someone who…” It was originally commissioned by Cantus for a program titled “The Four Loves.” Lang’s piece signifies romantic love and is written in a minimal style, the textual repetitions being a hallmark of his approach. “If I Profane,” by Libby Larsen,
Read moreIt was saddening to learn that Peter Jarvis has been dismissed from his position at William Paterson University. Jarvis has worked with the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, WPU’s elite cadre of music majors, for decades, directing the group in countless premieres and all the major repertory works. The New Music Series at WPU, also directed by Jarvis, incorporated other musicians alongside the percussion ensemble, making it possible for the students to be coached on music from Cage to Carter. With Jarvis’s departure, it appears that the important work of NJPE will cease. This is a significant loss for
Read moreTerritorial Songs, a new CD release from the Our Recordings label features 72 minutes of distinctive recorder music by Sunleif Rasmussen. A native of the remote Faroe Islands, Rasmussen is nevertheless widely known for his compositions. He received critical acclaim in 2002 when his Symphony No. 1, Oceanic Days won The Nordic Council Music Prize. A particular passion of Rasmussen over the years has been the composition of recorder music and this CD is the product of his creative attempts to bring the recorder into a contemporary context. Michala Petri, a prominent recorder player, performs on all the pieces and
Read moreGyörgy Ligeti The 18 Etudes Danny Driver Hyperion Composed between 1985 and 2001, the 18 Etudes by György Ligeti are an eloquent summary of the techniques he had developed throughout his career. They rival the best collections of etudes for piano while adding substantially to the variety of technical means to be explored, particularly in the realms of polyrhythm and sonority. There are a number of recordings of the Etudes and it is difficult to choose a favorite: different ones excel at various aspects of these multifaceted works. Danny Driver’s is a strong contender. Amply powerful where
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Bang on a Can, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, Music Events, New York
LOUD Weekend, TIME:SPANS, Tanglewood and Bard are all back on stage this summer with in-person audiences Fans starved for live music over the past year and half can rejoice and indulge – many summer festivals are back in the game. In this roundup, we’re mainly covering indoor concerts. As charming as it is to experience a performance under the stars, helicopters overhead, unpredictable weather, distracted audiences and competing bands nearby detract from the artistic experience. When it comes to contemporary music programming, LOUD Weekend put on by Bang on a Can at MASS MoCA is the densest. There are more
Read moreMagnus Lindberg Aura – Marea – Related Rocks Emil Holmström, Joonas Ahonen, piano and keyboards; Jani Niinimaki, Jerry Plippomem, percussion Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu Ondine This recording includes three live recordings of compositions from the 1990s by Magnus Lindberg. Hannu Lintu leads the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in energetic and focused renditions of two of these challenging works, bringing out considerable detail from Lindberg’s vivid orchestrations. A quartet of pianists and percussionists perform the chamber piece, Related Rocks, an interesting corollary to the larger compositions. By 1990, when Lindberg had completed Marea, he was already
Read moreScott Wollschleger Dark Days New Focus Recordings Karl Larson, piano Scott Wollschleger’s music has great emotional range. Dark Days explores an atmospheric and lyrical side to his composing for piano. Wollschleger has collaborated with pianist Karl Larson for some time, and this collection of pieces created over a number of years attests to the felicitous nature of their work together. The tile piece is both the briefest and most dissonant piece. It was composed on the day of Trump’s inauguration and channels Schoenberg’s atonal phase, but in a subdued manner. Much of the music here emulates impressionism instead
Read moreMartin Suckling This Departing Landscape NMC Recordings CD/DL Tamara Stefanovich (piano), Katherine Bryan (flute), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Ilan Volkov Two concertos and two substantial orchestral works by Scottish composer Martin Suckling are programmed on This Departing Landscape, his debut portrait CD. The White Road (after Edmund de Waal) is inspired by De Waal’s ceramic artworks. It features flutist Katherine Bryan, a friend of Suckling’s since childhood – they played in youth orchestra together, and she managed to extract a promise of this commission some twenty years ago. Her virtuosic and energetic performance is remarkable. The violin
Read moreLouis Andriessen has died. He was a highly idiosyncratic composer of music that, like the man himself, inspires great love. Encountering his music as a young composer changed my life. Encountering him as a conductor and producer was one of the greatest joys of my life. Louis was an incredibly gregarious, gentle, funny, wickedly funny, intelligent, well-read man. He treated everyone as a peer, regardless of age or career stage. Always curious and encouraging, he would ask young composers after their work, talk about his favorite American television shows (the “highly ironical” Desperate Housewives and South Park were among his
Read moreCaroline Shaw Sō Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish The Narrow Sea Nonesuch CD/DL Caroline Shaw and So Percussion Let the Soil Play its Simple Part Nonesuch CD/DL The last live performance I saw before the pandemic hit New York was Caroline Shaw with Sō Percussion at Miller Theatre, which I wrote about for Musical America. It was Shaw’s debut as a solo vocalist (she has performed as an ensemble member in Roomful for Teeth for several years). Hearing these pieces again reminds me of the joy of concert life before the pandemic. I am glad to
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