Classical Music, Orchestras, Philadelphia Orchestra

Roll Over Beethoven: Philadelphia Orchestra Goes Digital

The Philadelphia Orchestra unveiled this morning an online music store where you can download archival recordings, commerically released CDs and, coming soon, recent Philadelphia Orchestra concerts.  Other orchestras have done the same thing but the orchestra says it is first major American ensemble to market directly to the public without a distributor. 

There are 26 pieces currently available on the site, including eight Beethoven symphonies conducted by Christoph Eschenbach over the 2005-06 season, plus Wolfgang Sawallisch’s Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 from 2005 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 from 2000.

For a limited time, you can download Beethoven’s Fifth (can’t get too many copies of that one) in a performance led by Eschenbach, recorded live in the orchestra’s home, Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Prices are $4.99 for basic MP3 files; shorter works, such as Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, cost 99 cents.

Smart move by Philadelphia.  Downloading is clearly becoming the dominant form of music distribution which is good news for classical music in general because the economics of digital mean almost anybody can get into the game.   A lot more music will be available in a lot more flavors.  Take that, EMI.

Elsewhere, check out Darcy James Argue’s splendid review of Monday’s Wordless Music concert at the Good Shepherd-Faith Church.

You’ll note in the right-hand column that the Metropolis Ensemble, one of the hipper new chamber music groups around town, has joined Bridge Records as a distinguished sponsor of  S21.  The ensemble will open its second season on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 8 pm at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts, 172 Norfolk Street, with the New York premiere of David Schiff’s song cycle All About Love, a panoramic meditation on love and all that good stuff. Schiff, the ensemble’s composer-in-residence, is best-known for his opera Gempel The Fool.

The program also features rising vocal stars Thomas Glenn and mezzo Hai-Ting Chinn and a semi-staged performance of the Rite of Spring of the Baroque Era: Monteverdi’s musical drama Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda.

If you’re interested, we still have space for a couple of more sponsors.  For the time being, at least, any dinero we take in will be used to pay musicians for the S21 concert on November 20.

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, Piano

Last Night in L.A.: Gloria Cheng and friends

Gloria Cheng opened the season of serious music-listening in her position as opener of the Piano Spheres series of concerts.  The program was oriented the program to two-musicians works, and there was a gracious lead-in to the guest appearance to be given by Thomas Ades in December, with performances of two of his early works.

Cheng began the concert with Ades’s Opus 7, “Still Sorrowing” (1992-1993), written at age 21.  This is a more restrained work than many of his, with the prepared piano dampening the middle range of the piano, creating a hollowness to support its feeling of loss.  The middle work of the second half of the concert was Ades’s Opus 8, “Life Story” (1993) in its version for soprano and piano; Angela Blue was our excellent singer last night.  The work is a setting of the Tennessee Williams poem (1956) of two strangers having had their first one-night stand; I wondered how the poem escaped the attention of composers before Ades.  Ades gives the soprano (with one minor exception the words work fine for a woman singing about a man) a yawning, boozy, blues-y melody, up to the sting in the tail of the last line.  Amazon has a great CD, at bargain price, with Ades at the piano; the CD includes seven of his early works, and clips are available.

Completing the first half of the concert were two major works for piano duet.  Cheng was joined by Robert Winter — UCLA professor, Philharmonic lecturer, interactive CD developer — for Beethoven’s four-hand version of the “Grosse Fuge”.  The two made things easy by using two pianos, which avoided developing the choreography for whose arm would be where, but I didn’t find the performance especially persuasive. 

She was then joined by Neal Stulberg — currently director of orchestral studies at UCLA and a former recipient of the Seaver/NEA Conductors Award — for a performance of “Variations on a Theme by Beethoven” by Camille Saint-Saens.  We seemed to be in a salon in Paris while this was being performed. To replace a premiere which was withdrawn because the work wasn’t ready, Cheng substituted a work written for her, two movements, rather.  Two years ago, she gave the premiere of “Seven Memorials” (2004) by Stephen Andrew Taylor, now at the University of Illinois.  This is an excellent work; the NY Times music critic called it “sparklingly tactile” in reviewing Cheng’s performance of four of the movements at Tanglewood in August.  Last night Cheng played the fifth and sixth movements; excerpts of the music are available here, from Cheng’s performance of 2004.

For the rousing conclusion, Cheng was joined on the second piano by Grant Gershon, now in his sixth year as Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.  The two gave us a work written for them, which they premiered at Getty Center, “Hallelujah Junction” (1998) by John Adams.  I am an unabashed fan of this work.  It belongs in your music collections.

A good concert!  (And the attendance was about the largest I’ve ever seen there.)

by JerryZ
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Opera

What to Wear in LA

Michael Gordon’s new post-rock opera What To Wear opens tonight at the Redcat Theater in downtown LA.   Richard Foreman wrote the libretto and directs the stage production.

According to our sources (Michael, who “guarantees a good time will be had by all”), What to Wear is a raucous and bitingly funny work about fashion. There are 4 main characters (all called Madeline X) and 2 ducks,
a small one and a big one. There are ten singers, ten actors and 7 musicians all under the musical direction of David Rosenboom.

“What to Wear postulates a world in which military tanks and nightmare toy ducks take turns threatening  would-be fashion models, who are trying to escape reality by dressing in bizarre outfits that semi-disguise them as lost children who never found out how to be lovable,” Gordon explains, helpfully.  “They inhabit a large red room, dominated by four giant images of colorful abstract demons, suggesting that whatever one does finally wear, worse nightmares will eventually turn even the most riotous party inside out. They sing again and again, ‘I am Madeline X, beautifully dressed’. But as everyone on-stage turns less and less beautiful– something more ecstatic than beauty slowly reveals its awesome 21st century face.”

Whatever.

The Recat Theater is CalArts’ downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts and is located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall.   What To Wear runs through October 1

by Jerry Bowles
Awards, Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Downtown

News Flash: Zorn is a Genius

John Zorn is officially a genuis.   The 53-year-old composer, improviser, saxophonist, provocateur, and ardent promoter of experimental music through his Tzadik recording label, was one of 25 new MacArthur Fellows named today.  Like his fellow honorees, Zorn will receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.  Unlike most other awards, MacArthur winners don’t apply but are picked by a secret committee of “experts.”  One day you get phone call that says you don’t have to worry about next month’s rent. 

The award notes that Zorn is a “largely self-taught artist who, since the mid-1970s, has been at the center of what has come to be called “downtown” music, based on his residence and collaborations in lower Manhattan.”

Speaking for the S21 community (always a dangerous thing to do), let me offer a hearty “Nice going, Johnny.”

Speaking of genius, Christina Fong posted some thoughts on that very subject a few days ago.

by Jerry Bowles
Electro-Acoustic, Festivals

NWEAMO Festival Comes to Soho October 6-7

Some exciting news via e-mail today from our old virtual pal Joseph Waters, godfather of NWEAMO (the New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization).  The NWEAMO Festival is coming to New York on Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 7 with a program called Pulse: the Influence of Africa — NWEAMO-SoHo 2006 International Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music, which will feature cross-genre works that investigate the influence of Africa on classical music. 

The NWEAMO Festival began in Portland, Oregon eight years ago and has since spread to San Diego, Mexico City, Venice (Italy) and now New York.

Each year NWEAMO proposes a theme to composers around the world, and invites them to submit their take on it.  The NWEAMO board takes this as a starting point, and the original theme grows and evolves to become a unique event, that could not have been predicted at the onset. 

“This is what makes the festival so fun, despite the months of hard work it takes to bring it off — we really do not know what we will end up with and it is this sense of adventure that keeps us coming back to do this again each year,” Waters says.

The influence of Africa on the development of classical music is the core topic of this year’s cross-genre, cross-continent, cross-equatorial celebration.  Each night has a different feature and each is unique.
Both New York performances will be at The Apple Store in SoHo at 103 Prince Street.  The October 6 program, which begins at 7 pm, features works by Luke Dubois, Dennis Miller, Centrozoon, Brian Knoth and Lukas Ligeti with guest artist Mai Lingani.  This year’s festival is dedicated to Lukas’ father.

The October 7 program begins at 6 pm and includes works by Noah Keesecker, Paula Mathusen, Brad Decker, Meg Schedel/Alison Rootberg, Greg Beyer, Michael Theodore/ Tim Eriksen and SWARMIUS.

NWEAMO says its mission is to forge connections between the composers, performers and lovers of avant garde classical music and the DJs, MCs, guitar-gods, troubadours and gourmets of experimental popular music.  

“When there is no connection, both suffer,” Waters says.  “When classical music does not connect with popular culture, it becomes a music of experts, unable to reflect and contribute meaningfully in the broad marketplace of developing ideas and cultural experimentation. When popular music has no connection and communication with the classical it becomes naive and superficial, untethered to its historical roots and broad cultural underpinnings. A healthy cultural milieu celebrates both.”  

Sounds suspiciously like one of those perfect made-up quotes that you see in press releases.  Better than most, though. 

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Critics

A WTF Moment From Mark Swed

I like Mark Swed’s writing a lot and find I normally agree with his tastes but I can’t make sense out of his review of the Carl Orff/Jefferson Friedman concert at Hollywood Bowl that we hyped a little last week.  I am particularly baffled by this line: 

As in “Carmina,” there is much to like musically in “Throne,” as long as you hold your nose. The political implications in both scores are troubling. Orff was, if not a Nazi sympathizer, at least a National Socialist opportunist.

Okay, but I can’t for the life of me see a parallel in anything else in the review that would make me think Jeff Friedman is an awful person.  What exactly are the “politics” of Friedman’s The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly?  Is Friedman some kind of closet skinhead?

Read Mark’s review and tell me what I’m missing.

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Metropolitan Opera, Opera, Washington National Opera

Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

Reader Bill Westfall passes along this link to a story about a new research study that reports more than one quarter of classical music fans use cannabis and 12.3 per cent of opera buffs have tried magic mushrooms.  This, I suppose, is as opposed to the 100 per cent of Grateful Dead fans who do and have. 

The finding suggests an interesting topic:  Great Composers Who Were Stoners.  Discuss.

And speaking of discussion, get on over to the new, spiffed up Composers Forum page and weigh in on Rob Deemer’s question about how important a web presence is for an active composer’s career.

Meant to mention this a couple of days ago but the WaPo has a profile of William Friedkin, director of Sorcerer, indisputedly the worst movie ever made, who is directing Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at the Washington National Opera.

I am told by a reliable source that new Met manager Peter Gelb was once punched on the grounds of Tanglewood by Michael Steinberg, who was then the Boston Symphny’s program book annotator.  Anybody got details?  Pictures?

by Jerry Bowles
Metropolitan Opera, Opera

Flash: Cio-Cio San Now Working in Times Square

Gelb.jpgIf there were ever any doubt that Peter Gelb, the new director of the Metropolitan Opera, had big plans to turn the venerable company into a glitzier, more populist experience, there isn’t any more. 

The New York Times reports this morning that the Met will simulcast the opening night “Madama Butterfly” gala on September 25 on the Panasonic jumbo screen in Times Square. Traffic will be closed between Broadway between 42nd and 45th Streets to make room for 650 cushioned seats and standing room for the performance, which will be blared to the large tin can that is Times Square on giant speakers.  Goodbye amplification purists; hello power chords.

The Met also plans to broadcast the performance on a large screen in the Lincoln Center Plaza. Tickets are free but you will need one.  You’ll also get a look at another Gelb innovation–the celebrity red carpet where news personality Daljit Dhaliwal will conduct Joan Rivers-style interviews with such well-known opera lovers as Goldie Hawn, Sean Connery, Al Roker, the formerly fat weather man from the Today show, and Tony Soprano.   

The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the Met will begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Europe.

Gelb calls these initiatives “building bridges to the broader public.”  Color me skeptical but (snarky tone aside) I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  The folks in the family circle (myself included) are beginning to look a little long in the tooth.

by Jerry Bowles
Composers

Let’s Hear it for Jeff Harrington

Daniel Wolf, who hangs around these parts from time to time, has written a terrific piece about our resident tech adviser Jeff Harrington who, in addition to knowing how to do a 301 redirect, is also a composer of some talent. Daniel applauds Jeff for being the first composer to put all of his bets on the web rather than the traditional ways composers try to get their works heard.

Daniel also has some nice things to say about Jeff’s work. Check it out.

And while we’re praising Jeff, now might be a good time to thank him for all he does to keep S21 up and running as our official, if unpaid, webmaster.

by Jerry Bowles
Housekeeping

Welcome to Sequenza21 3.0

Okay, we’re back and ready to ramble.  What we have here now is a web site that looks great but you don’t want to look in the closets.  The original Sequenza21 was just a collection of static html pages, S21 2.0 was the addition of dynamic pages using Blogger software to create separate blogs for the main page, the Composers Forum, the Calendar, and the CD Reviews.

S21 3.0 is the same four blogs recreated in WordPress.  I’ll be sending out today new user names and passwords to those of you who currently have access to the old pages.  The new WP posting interface is similar and you’ll quickly figure it out.

I’ll be sprucing up the place over the next few days, moving some of the old furniture over from the old place.  Everything that was here is still here; you may just have to use the search function to find it.

Back with more later.

by Jerry Bowles