Tuesday, April 14th
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Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993, piano); Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I & II
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: classical
2020
Monday, April 13th
what’s new
Andrea Bocelli (1958-, voice), Music for Hope (“Panis Angelicus” (from “Messe Solennelle” Op. 12, FWV 61), César Franck; “Ave Maria,” CG 89a (arr. from Johann Sebastian Bach, “Prelude” no. 1, BWV 846), Charles-François Gounod; “Sancta Maria” (arr. from “Cavalleria Rusticana”, Intermezzo), Pietro Mascagni; “Domine Deus” (from “Petite Messe Solennelle”), Gioachino Antonio Rossini; “Amazing Grace,” John Newton), live, Italy (Milan), 4/12/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 314 (Franklin)
2020
Saturday, April 11th
How about a little vacation from your little self?
Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993, piano), live, Moscow, 1990 (program: 00:40: Ravel, Miroirs, Oiseaux tristes//04:15: Ravel, Miroirs, Une barque sur l’océan//11:52: Scriabin, Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand, op. 9//19:41: Scriabin, Poeme Tragique, Op. 34//24:51: Borodin, Petite Suite, In the Monastery, Au couvent//30:25: Mussorgsky, Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks//33:03: Prokofiev, Prelude op. 12 no. 7, Harp)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Wednesday, April 1st
His sound-world, full of foreboding, I return to, gratefully, in dark times.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), String Quartet No. 4 (1928); Quatuor Ebène, live, France (Wissembourg), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Tuesday, March 31st
passings
Krzysztof Penderecki, composer, conductor, November 23, 1933-March 29, 2020
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Krzysztof Urbański, cond.), live, Helsinki, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Wednesday, March 25th
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Morton Feldman (1927-1986, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Rothko Chapel (1971); Markus Creed (cond.), SWR Vokalensemble (Vocal Ensemble), et al., live, Germany (Cathedral of Speyer, Schwetzinger), 2017
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), The Red Studio (1911), detail
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reading table
Coolness—
the sound of the bell
as it leaves the bell.—Yosa Buson (1716-1784), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass
2020
Monday, March 23rd
like nobody else
His sound-world seems just right for these strange times—beautiful and solemn in equal measure.
Arvo Pärt (1935-), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Tõnu Kaljuste, cond.), live (Fratres, 1:30-; Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, 13:49-; Adam’s Lament, 22:10-; Salve Regina, 45:40-; Te Deum, 59:30-), Germany (Hamburg), 2/18/20*
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
*ECM Records founder/producer Manfred Eicher (1943-), who has long championed Pärt’s music, joins the others onstage at the end.
2020
Tuesday, March 17th
passings
Charles Wuorinen, composer, June 9, 1938-March 11, 2020
Flying to Kahani (2005); Orchestra of the League of Composers (C. Wuorinen, cond.), live, New York, 2016
In 2011, jazz composer Carla Bley called Mr. Wuorinen ‘the greatest composer working.’ And the proudly poly-stylistic composer John Zorn, who has worked in forms ranging from klezmer to punk rock, recently called Mr. Wuorinen ‘a true artist whose intense and uncompromising vision produced work of remarkable beauty and drama.’ ‘He never wrote an insincere note in his life,’ Zorn continued. ‘He was a powerful role model and I loved him dearly.’
—Tim Page, obituary, Washington Post, 3/14/20
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lagniappe
random sights
early yesterday morning, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Monday, March 16th
Want to be swept away?
Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), Etude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12 (1894); Daniil Trifonov (1991-, piano), live, Berlin, 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
And I Was Alive
by Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938),
translated from Russian by Christian Wiman
And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear,
Myself I stood in the storm of the bird-cherry tree,
It was all leaflike and star shower, unerring, self-shattering power,
And it was all aimed at me.
What is this dire delight flowering fleeing always earth?
What is being? What is truth?
Blossoms rupture and rapture the air,
All hover and hammer,
Time intensified and time intolerable, sweetness raveling rot.
It is now. It is not.
2020
Saturday, March 14th
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Violin Partita No. 1 in B minor; Rachel Podger (1968-, violin), live (performance begins at 2:00), London, 11/24/19
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Water Lilies (1914-1926), detail
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reading table
Playing ball
With the children in this village
Spring day, never let the shadows fall!—Ryōkan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel
music clip of the day 