From today’s NYT: Newspapers Trimming Classical Music Critics Doesn’t mean they’re giving them free haircuts either. If only Paris Hilton could play the cello. (No piccolo jokes, please.)
Read moreThe 61st Ojai Music Festival opened last night. Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams, returning after their success two years ago in their performances of Nancarrow, gave us a great survey of modern works for two pianos with works by Stravinsky, Ligeti, Sciarrino, and this season’s featured composer, Peter Eötvös. (Us amateurs have trouble coming to a decision as to the best mispronounciation of his name.) But let me start with the featured composer, glad I can write the name and not try to speak it. The second half of the program opened with his Cricketmusic (1970) a tape of cricket
Read moreI meant to flag this earlier but Mark Stryker had a terrific profile of Leon Kirchner in the Freep a few days ago. Wonderful pictures, too. Great head of hair for an 88-year-old dude. Anybody study with Kirchner? A reminder to those of you who owe us CD reviews; I have a terrific new batch and I am keeping score. Cough up or bring an excuse from your mommy.
Read moreGreetings S21ers: The OgreOgress gang has been having a swell time in Old Bohemia for the past month. Last night I had the honor of recording John Cage’s Three with the multi-talented and very humorous German-born (and Amsterdam-based) recordist Susanna Borsch at the facilities of the Prague State Opera. If you’re interested in the recorder I would encourage you to check out Borsch’s activities and be in contact. Of particular note to those in the US of A (apologies to Borat), Susanna’s eclectic new music “girl band” Electra will be in the Massachusetts area to perform Louis Andriessen in July and I am certain
Read moreFirst Jeff Harrington, then David Salvage, and now our very own Lawrence Dillon is feeling some end-of-the-season love on the concert circuit. This very evening (Thursday), at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, violinist Piotr Szewczyk will perform Lawrence’s Mister Blister and a movement from Fifteen Minutes as part of his Music in Time – Violin Futura program. Szewczyk will also perform works by Mason Bates, Moritz Eggert, Daniel Kellogg, Jennifer Wang, and others as part of this program of new, short, innovative solo violin pieces. And, on June 15 at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Ithaca, New York, bassoonist Jeffrey Keesecker will
Read moreA few picks ago I introduced you to my new Houston friend, pedal-steel guitarist Susan Alcorn. She’s off to Argentina just now, but before she left she sent me a YouTube link to her performing in her studio just a week or two ago: [youtube]4x5UEEbnVQU&NR[/youtube] Absolutely fascinating to see and hear.
Read moreThe Los Angeles Master Chorale gave the premiere of a new work by Eve Beglarian for full chorus and two Persian instruments. The work is “Sang”, Persian for “stone”, taken from a Persian parable that appealed to Beglarian; she added texts in Hebrew and Septuagint Greek from the Hebrew scriptures. Her program notes are here. An English translation of the texts was given in the program, but no attempt was made to provide surtitles; the thing to do was to relax and be absorbed into the sounds. The work was the first in a planned series of commissions for the
Read moreFor the past 27 years, the Mexican-born pianist and composer Max Lifchitz has been a tireless and resourceful promoter of new music (including his own) through live performances and recordings with the North/South Consonance Ensemble, the chamber group of the non-profit North/South Consonance organization. Many young composers, particularly those of the Neoclassic or New Romantic temperment (Larry Bell comes immediately to mind), have gotten a career boost from Lifchitz’s annual programs and recordings, which now number nearly 50. I mention all this because North/South Consonance’s final concert of the current season is coming up on Sunday afternoon June 17 at 3 PM and will
Read moreMusic by Nicolas Flagello National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine John McLaughlin Williams, conductor Elmar Oliviera, violin Susan Gonzalez, soprano Artek 0036-2 Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994) was born in New York City, earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and, upon graduation, taught there until 1977. Flagello’s music is romantic and firmly built on 19th century models with lush orchestrations and long melodic phrases. The Symphonic Aria from 1951 is moving, but sometimes too rich. Mirra (1955) concludes with an exciting “Dance” that allows the orchestra to show a lot of meat. Many of the works
Read moreJohn Schneider and his group “Partch” gave their annual REDCAT concert of Partch’s music last night. The program included Partch’s film of U.S. Highball: A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip (1958, film completed in 1968). The program began with the eight hitchhiker inscriptions of Barstow (1941/1943/1968); this interesting site provide clips of different performances of the first inscription. The second half of the program included rousing performances of Ring Around the Moon (1950) and Castor & Pollux (1952), both involving the seven instrumentalists in the group. The audience jumped up and called their approval at the end. There were
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