Sequenza21

Gilbert Kaplan is a Wall Street billionaire who has devoted much of his idle rich time over the past 30 years to studying and conducting Mahler’s great Second Symphony.  It has become his passion, one might even say his “Rosebud” if one were unkind (as we most certainly are not).  He has led some of the world’s best symphony orchestras through its rigorous paces more than 100 times at last count and while the Resurrection itself seems to have suffered no permanent damage, the reaction to Mr. Kaplan’s conducting has been decidedly mixed.  Not bad enough to be really awful in an interesting way (like, say, William Friedkin’s remake of Wages of Fear) or good enough to rise above mediocre.  Kaplan’s money usually assures a polite acceptance.

But, no mas — not in this age of the tell-all blogger.  David Finlayson of the New York Philharmonic had the courage to say what others have merely thought.   And, today’s Center of the Universe Times picks up the thread in this piece by Daniel J. Wakin.

As a topic of further discussion, can anyone think of other “amateurs” who have made a difference — good or bad — to serious music.  

Such is my devotion to you, dear reader, that last Wednesday in spite of a bad cold I went to the latest installment of the Music On MacDougal series at the Players Theatre in downtown Manhattan.  Music on MacDougal, as you may recall, is the concert series that S21 helped kick off with our M50 concert celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Minimalism.  Wednesday’s bill was split between Mantra Percussion and the Talea Ensemble [Talea shown above, in a recent performance of Daniel Iglesia‘s Contrapositive Antidote; how cool is it to get to wear 3D glasses while playing? -ed.].

Mantra opened with the always mesmerizing “Music for Pieces of Wood” by Steve Reich, and then moved on to a new piece by Kyle Hillbrand called “Aether.”  “Aether” was a surprisingly and refreshingly low-key piece–quiet, subtle, lovely, featuring a lot of very effective unison between the two players.  Mantra closed with Iannis Xenakis’s 1978 rock-out “Peaux.”  Some enterprising person has posted the performance on YouTube, although for obvious reasons this video doesn’t come close to capturing the intensity of the live experience.  Mantra is one of the co-commissioning ensembles for a new Michael Gordon piece to be premiered in December 2009, and has a CD coming out on Innova next month.

Talea’s repertoire was mostly too Uptown for my taste, but the performances were excellent and it’s great that Music on MacDougal is programming such a wide range of styles.  Talea has only been around since early 2007, but they already have a very full concert schedule and they’re especially dedicated to championing new and recent work by lesser-known composers, so keep an eye out for this group.  For me, the most interesting piece on the Talea program was Alexandre Lunsqui‘s “Ruptura(s),” written in 2004 for vibraphone and piano, which featured sharp jumps between different demented (in that good way) grooves.

The next Music On MacDougal show will be Likeness to Lilly on January 28th.

We are tardy in adding our voice to the vast chorus of congratulations that have greeted Elliott Carter’s attainment of centenarian status.  Getting old is not in itself an achievement, but what makes Mr. Carter’s milestone all the more remarkable is that he remains so amazingly productive and healthy in mind and body.  He has produced more music in the last decade than most composers do in a lifetime and his work has become deeper, richer and more complex (some would say unlistenable) with the passage of time.   We can’t top Willard Scott but we do want to do a respectful shout-out to our man, Elli.  

Our friends at NPR have a terrific article with some sound samples. 

There an excellent conversation with Carter, Daniel Barenboim, James Levine and Charlie Rose here.

The Library of Congress Music Division has an extensive collection of digitized holograph music manuscripts by Carter. 

Stephen Soderberg’s tribute is here.

And, of course, Carter now has his own MySpace page.

Standing, left-to-right: Garth Sunderland, Emily Brausa, Thomas Piercy, Samuel Andreyev, Jeremy Podgursky, Alex Kotch, Rodney Lister, Rusty Banks, Samuel Vriezen. Kneeling, left-to-right: Christina Perea, Galen Brown, Miranda Cuckson, Laura Barger, David Salvage. The hall was cold; the music was hot. We hope to share the sounds with you soon.

Composer, artist, Fluxus member, Scratch Orchestra member, John Cage associate, and chemist George Brecht died in a nursing home in Cologne, Germany, on Friday, December 5th.  Brecht, who was born George MacDiarmid but took Bertolt Brecht’s name in homage,  was one of the most significant and influential avant garde artists of the 1960s.  The title of this post refers to a document (page 17 of the linked PDF file) Brecht wrote for Fluxus in 1969 in which he proposes “moving landmasses over the surface of the earth” using conveyances such as icebergs or massive amounts of styrofoam, since his made-up company feels that it will be “technologically realizable within ten years.”

In searching the web for information on Brecht I also discovered that project.arnolfini, an online division of the British Arnolfini museum, is organizing a worldwide performance of Brecht’s “Motor Vehicle Sundown (Event)” at sundown (in your own location) on January 10, 2009.  The event was planned prior to Brecht’s death, and I assume it will take on something of a memorial quality now.

Those of you who were at the first Sequenza21 concert two years ago may remember that pianist Hugh Sung played my piece Systems of Preference or Restraint.  What you may not have noticed was the technology he used to do it.  That technology is now considerably more accessible to the average performer, and I encourage you to keep reading after the cut. (more…)