Stile Antico Sings Palestrina at St. Mary’s March 29, 2025 Church of St. Mary the Virgin NEW YORK – Celebrating their twentieth year, the vocal ensemble Stile Antico brought a program dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s birth to Miller Theatre’s Early Music Series. The concert was held at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in midtown, a space that Miller has employed to host a number of Renaissance music performances. Stile Antico appeared with only eleven singers, instead of their usual complement of a dozen. Baritone Gareth Thomas was ill
Read moreMichael Tippett New Year Rhian Lois soprano Ross Ramgobin baritone Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano Roland Wood baritone Robert Murray tenor Rachel Nicholls soprano Alan Oke tenor BBC Singers BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, conductor NMC Recordings Michael Tippett’s final opera, New Year (1988) has finally been recorded. The work was produced in Houston in 1989 and Glyndebourne in 1990 and then fell out of the repertoire. The Birmingham Opera performed it last year, and the NMC double-CD recording is of a 2024 live semi-staged production by the BBC Scottish Symphony, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. New Year’s reemergence is
Read moreKhruangbin remixes Arooj Aftab Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign was one of my favorite recordings of 2024. Released today, the Thai funk by way of Texas artists Khruangbin have made a remix of one of the album’s most memorable tracks, “raat ki rani.” As a bonus, here is another favorite from Aftab, live in London playing with Anoushka Shankar: ____ Aftab’s Night Reign Tour 2025 begins late March in North America, Brazil and UK/EU: NORTH & SOUTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES 3.27.25 | Union Stage | Washington, D.C 3.29.25 | Big Ears Festival 2025 | Knoxville, TN
Read moreSatie Alain Planès, Pleyel piano (1928) François Pinel, piano duets, Marc Mauillon, baritone Harmonia Mundi In 2025, substantial attention is being paid to the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth. Pianist Alain Planès has instead decided to celebrate the centenary of Erik Satie’s passing with a recording of music from the various stylistic periods of the eclectic composer’s oeuvre. Most of the music are works originally for piano and transcriptions, but there is a set of four-hands pieces and another of songs. At age seventy-seven, Planès has maintained his technique and interpretive skill, accommodating the varying demeanors –
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Classical Music, Concert review, Conductors, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Lincoln Center, New York, Orchestras, Twentieth Century Composer, Vocals
Sound On: A Tribute to Boulez The New York Philharmonic, Conducted by David Robertson Jane McIntyre, Soprano David Geffen Hall, January 25, 2025 By Christian Carey – Sequenza 21 NEW YORK – If you think that audience development is a relatively new practice, then you may not have heard of Rug Concerts. In the 1970s, during Pierre Boulez’s tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, these were an experiment to attempt to attract young people and downtown artsy types to try a concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Instead of rows of seating, rugs were strewn about the
Read moreLisa Illean Arcing, stilling, bending, gathering NMC Records, 2024 Composer Lisa Illean (b. 1983) is from Australia and has been based in recent years in the UK. Her work encompasses a variety of techniques, including alternate tunings and sampled electronics. These are means to consummately expressive ends, and Illean’s music maintains an organic sensibility irrespective of how the sounds are formed. The title piece, performed by the Australian Academy of Music, is split into various constellations of sound: small groups of strings, solo piano, and pre-recorded sound. Illean uses detuned pitch collections to make a supple harmonic language. Like much
Read moreCanyons compilation Sequenza 21 friend Nick Norton has speedily put together a digital compilation called “Canyons” to benefit LA firefighters. It is a loaded setlist, with contributions from India Galley, Dustin Wong, Molly Pease, Isaac Schankler, Nicholas Deyoe, Warp Trio, and more. The release is pay what you like on Bandcamp (embed below), but don’t be stingy; the firefighters can use all the help they can get. comp.02_canyons by people | places | records
Read morePersist Ethel and Allison Loggins-Hull Sono Luminus The string quartet Ethel presents a characteristically diverse program of contemporary music on Persist, their first recording for Sono Luminus. They are joined by composer/flutist Allison Loggins-Hull and the resulting quintet are strong advocates for the emerging composers featured here. The title work is by Loggins-Hull, currently a composer fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra. Her work is gracefully written and appealing. Persist begins with an ambling section with an angular flute melody, pizzicato strings and percussion instruments. This is varied throughout, juxtaposed with presto passages featuring quickfire flute lines accompanied by
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CD Review, CDs, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, File Under?, London, Twentieth Century Composer
Music for Trumpets, Bass Clarinets, and Saxophones Aural Terrains Rebecca Toal, Katie Lodge, Bradley Jones, trumpets Raymond Brien, Michelle Hromin, Eb and bass clarinets Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, bass clarinets Robert Burton, soprano saxophone Julie Kjaer, alto saxophone, Tim Hodgkinson, alto saxophone and conducting Jason Alder, baritone saxophone, contrabass clarinet William Cole, conducting A live recording made in England’s Cafe Oto, Music for Trumpets, Bass Clarinets, and Saxophones includes both brand new compositions for the assembled musicians and important pieces from the contemporary canon. An example of the latter is John Cage’s Five (1988) which is performed by
Read moreMusic Sacra Classics for Christmas: Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra Kent Tritle, conductor Simone Dinnerstein, piano Susanna Phillips, soprano Carnegie Hall December 18, 2024 NEW YORK – Musica Sacra, directed by Kent Tritle, gave a concert of Christmas music on Thursday, but you didn’t hear caroling. The group presented choral pieces with Christmas texts, and topped things off with the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, a piece premiered in December 1822 but having little to do with the holiday. Still, the work, which is part piano concerto and part choral cantata, is festive and was jubilantly performed.
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