Why do some extraordinarily talented people never show up on the radar? Eric Lyon is one such unsung genius. I understand he’s been impressing folks in Brooklyn the past few years, and he wowed them at the Bonk Festival of Music in Tampa for over a decade (not to say that knocking them dead at the Bonk Festival is going to boost anyone’s career). But unless you go to ICMC or SEAMUS or have had the good fortune to live somewhere that Eric regularly presented his music, you probably don’t know about him. Whatever the reason, it is a cosmic
Read moreI 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
Read moreIt’s summer, it’s hot, and the music scene here in the Center of the Universe is fairly slow so I thought it might be a good time to get some feedback on an unfinished “piece” I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. It’s a website that looks like this: Actually, you don’t have to look at the picture; it’s already up on the web at Chamber Music Now so I guess you might consider this a “beta” launch. I built it because I love to play with new software and the nice Thracians who make the software I
Read moreThe Varèse (R)evolution is tonight and tomorrow at Lincoln Center. Thanks to Alex Ross for pointing out this YouTube clip.
Read moreNothing 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.
Read moreThis 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
Read more…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
Read more[Ed. note — Our long-time contributor Steve Hicken is usually to be found helping out in the CD review section of S21. But a recent shipment of a number of band music CDs prompted Steve to group them together as a larger essay, and we thought it should end up here on the main page. Recordings discussed in this essay: BARNES: Symphonic Overture; Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Nicolo Paganini; GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue (Hunsberger, arr.); Overture on Themes from Porgy and Bess (Barnes, arr.); REED: Ballade. Raimonds Petrauskis, p; Oskars Petrauskis, a sax; RIGA Professional Symphonic Band/Andris Poga. PPOR-CD002
Read moreOur 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.
Read more[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC_3a9mHy3w[/youtube]
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