What you want, sometimes, is to lose yourself, even if only briefly, in beauty. Leo Janacek (1854-1928), String Quartet No. 1, “The Kreutzer Sonata,” excerpt (arr. Tognetti), Australian Chamber Orchestra ********** lagniappe random thoughts When you’re young you want to find yourself; when you’re old you want to lose yourself. ***** reading table Variations for Two Pianos [...]
Archive for the ‘string quartet’ category
Tuesday, 1/10/12
01/09/2012Thursday, 12/15/11
12/14/2011mysterious, adj. exciting wonder, curiosity, or surprise, while baffling efforts to comprehend or identify. E.g., the string quartet music of Anton Webern. Anton Webern (1883-1945), Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 Penderecki String Quartet, live Falls Village, Connecticut (Music Mountain), 2010 Part 1 *** Part 2 More? Here. ********** lagniappe musical thoughts Ignorance has [...]
Sunday, 9/11/11
09/11/2011Steve Reich, WTC 9/11 (2010), excerpts Kronos Quartet, with prerecorded tape 1st Movement *** 3rd Movement ********** lagniappe reading table They jumped from the burning floors— one, two, a few more, higher, lower. The photograph halted them in life, and now keeps them above the earth toward the earth. Each is still complete, with a [...]
Saturday, 9/10/11
09/09/2011lucid, adj. suffused with light, luminous. E.g., Morton Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet. Morton Feldman, Piano and String Quartet (1985) Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi (piano) In a world that keeps getting faster and noisier, Feldman offers a refuge. Here time slows. Quietly. More? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.
Thursday, 6/30/11
06/29/2011two questions 1. Why would anyone create a piece of music that lasts not one, or two, or three, or four, or five, but six hours? 2. Why don’t more more people? Morton Feldman, String Quartet No. 2 (1983), excerpts, Flux Quartet *** On June 12th the Flux Quartet performed this piece in Philadelphia, the [...]
Saturday, 5/14/11
05/13/2011three takes Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), String Quartet No. 15 in E flat minor (1974) Excerpt (1st Movement) ‘Play it so that flies drop dead in midair, and the audience starts leaving the hall from sheer boredom,’ the composer told the players preparing its premiere in 1974. —Edward Rothstein, New York Times, 5/6/11 Emerson String Quartet, [...]
Saturday, 4/9/11
04/09/2011If you’re away from home, how good it is to find a musical sanctuary, as I have the last two Fridays at Harvard’s Paine Concert Hall; last night I heard this string quartet play, wonderfully, music by Brahms and two contemporary composers (Adam Roberts, James Yannatos). Chiara Quartet, Jefferson Friedman: String Quartet No. 2 (excerpt) [...]
Thursday, 2/3/11
02/02/2011Music, like people, comes in all kinds. Some is easy to embrace, some thorny. I wouldn’t want to live without either. Milton Babbitt, May 10, 1916-January 29, 2011 About Time, Alan Feinberg, piano *** String Quartet No. 2, Composers Quartet ********** lagniappe His music can be playful, too. Semi-Simple Variations, The Bad Plus ***** If you [...]
