classical | music clip of the day

Category: classical

Thursday, September 7th

another take

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

**********

lagniappe

art beat: yesterday, Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Cup Decorated with the Figure of a Bathing Girl, 1887-88 (Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist, through September 10th)

*****

reading table

John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)

What will it all be like in five years’ time
when you try to remember?

—”For John Clare” (fragment)

Leave a comment

Tuesday, September 5th

soundtrack to a dream

John Luther Adams (1953-), The Light Within (2007); Faculty & Fellows, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Mass., 2016

**********

lagniappe

reading table

John Ashbery (July 28, 1927-September, 3, 2017)

The bad news is the ship hasn’t arrived;
the good news is it hasn’t left yet.

—He Who Loves And Runs Away (fragment; Planisphere, 2009)

*****

random sights

this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)

Leave a comment

Thursday, August 24th

never enough

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Prelude No. 15 in D flat major (“Raindrop”); Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), piano

**********

lagniappe

reading table

dragonfly—
flying two feet,
then two feet more

—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)

Leave a comment

Monday, August 21st

more

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (1977-), In the Light of Air (2013/2014); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, New York, 2014

**********

lagniappe

musical thoughts

Suppose that, for the rest of your listening life, you had two options. One: You could only listen to things you’d never heard before. Two: You could never listen to anything new. Which would you choose?

Leave a comment

2017

Saturday, August 19th

mysterious, adj. Exciting wonder, curiosity, or surprise while baffling efforts to comprehend or identify. E.g., Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Sequences.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (1977-), Sequences (bass flute, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, contrabassoon), 2016; International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, New York, 2016

**********

lagniappe

reading table

in the big rain
gushing down
little butterfly

—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)

Leave a comment

2017

Monday, August 14th

This piece, in over forty years of listening, has never—not once—let me down. And this performance, which I encountered last night, is among the strongest I’ve heard.

Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 5 in C minor for Unaccompanied Cello
Mischa Maisky, live, 1991

**********

lagniappe

reading table

Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity –

Unable they that love – to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity.

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 951 (Franklin)

Leave a comment

2017

Monday, August 7th

Why not begin the week with something beautiful?

John Luther Adams (1953-), In a Treeless Place, Only Snow (1999); Faculty & Fellows, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Mass., 2016

**********

lagniappe

art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago

Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Untitled #12, 1977

Leave a comment

2017

Saturday, July 29th

Want to be swept away?

Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Cello Concerto in A minor; Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra with Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), live, Amsertdam, 2016

**********

lagniappe

art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago

Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940), Fresh Air for the Baby, New York East Side, c. 1910

Leave a comment

2017

Wednesday, June 21st

serendipity

Just now, walking to the Art Institute of Chicago after lunch, I heard a man singing on the sidewalk. The voice seemed familiar. And the more I listened, the more confident I became that I’d heard this voice before.

Willie Barbee, today