How many composers do so much with so little?
Anton Webern, Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano, op. 11 (1914); Juliane Trémoulet (cello), Vincent Planès (piano), live, France (Pau), 2016
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lagniappe
random thoughts
The door is never locked.
timeless
Anton Webern (1883-1945), Variations, op. 27 (1936); Vincent Planès (piano), live, France (Pau), 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
Moon, plum blossoms,
this, that,
and the day goes.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
tomorrow night in Chicago
He’ll be performing at the University of Chicago, playing Ligeti (including this) and Beethoven (Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major [Hammerklavier]).
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano) playing György Ligeti (1923-2006), Étude No. 13: L’escalier du diable/The Devil’s Staircase, 2016
trumpet festival
day two
Marcos Balter (1974-), Landscape of Fear (2015); Ryan Muncy (soprano saxophone) & Peter Evans (piccolo trumpet), live, New York, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
In a country that continues to coarsen, delicacy grows ever more precious.
John Luther Adams (1953-), there is no one, not even the wind (2017); Emerald City Music, live (world premiere), Seattle, 9/15/17
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
more
Does any pianist play Mozart with more verve?
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) playing Mozart (Sonata in D major [K 311], Sonata in F major [K 332]), Germany (Munich), 1991
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Fruits of the Midi1881
another take
Once I enter this world I never want to leave.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Musica Nova Consort, live, Israel (Tel Aviv), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
Going home,
the horse stumbles
in the winter wind.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
You can listen, on NPR, CNN, XYZ, to today’s noise (Trump: “This is an American disgrace!”), or you can listen to this—your call.
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) playing Mozart (Sonata in F major [K 332], Fantasy in C minor [K 475], Sonata in C minor [K 457]), Germany (Munich), 1990
Last night, like many other nights, this kept me company, on repeat, as I slept.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi (piano)
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Head of Sorrow, 1882 (Rodin: Sculptor and Storyteller, through March 4th)
never enough
If I could play like this, I’d never stand up.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, Prelude; Eva Lymenstull (baroque cello), 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
I like this story from the N.Y. Times—a composition by a child in the third grade: ‘I told my little brother that when you die you cannot breathe and he did not say a word. He just kept on playing.’
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Letter to Robert Lowell, September 8, 1948
