Wednesday, February 22nd
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Miranda Cuckson, violin; Michael Hersch (1971-), Fourteen Pieces for unaccompanied violin, excerpt; live, 2009
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Miranda Cuckson, violin; Michael Hersch (1971-), Fourteen Pieces for unaccompanied violin, excerpt; live, 2009
Yesterday, in Chicago, at the Art Institute, I heard this woman play the violin. She played for well over an hour, by herself, without intermission. She performed seven pieces: the earliest, by Pierre Boulez (Anthèmes 1), was composed in 1992; the latest, by Steve Lehman (En Soi), this year. When a performer surrenders to the music wholeheartedly, she invites you, the listener, to do the same. And I did, gratefully.
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Ralph Shapey (1921-2002), Etchings (1945; excerpt), 2009
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Playing and talking, 2015
If I knew I had a week to live, this is one of the recordings I would want to hear.
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), 24 Preludes
Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), piano, 1933/34
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langiappe
reading table
dizzying, adj. making you feel dizzy. E.g., reading a John Ashbery poem.
Listen to it the way everybody
here was naughty today,
of how broad it is.Foreign man with an affluent cigar,
he used to live on top of this bed
on the local rails he was so proud of
among the recyclables, this morning,
spouting words that I thought were other.
Yes, and they became addictive. Oh,make me a boy again! Do something!
But the little candle just stood there,
reflected in its lozenge-shaped mirror.
Maybe that was “something,”
a lithe sentence.He’s only going to do it for the first time.
It’s snowing hard.Hand me the orange.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “Just So You’ll Know,” New Yorker, 2/13 & 20/17
Quiet, beauty—sometimes they seem to have all but disappeared.
Valentin Silvestrov (piano), live, Ukraine (Kiev), 2012
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lagniappe
random thoughts
I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years. Week in and week out, I’m in federal and state courts. I have deeply mixed feelings about our legal system. But last night, as I read the Ninth Circuit’s 29-page ruling, I felt enormous gratitude for the one branch of government that currently seems capable of—or even interested in—thoughtful analysis.
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partitas No. 1 (B minor), 2 (D minor), and 3 (E major) for solo violin; Gidon Kremer (violin), live, Austria (Lockenhaus), 2006
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Grapes, Lemons, Pears and Apples, 1887
Last night, in Chicago, worn out by work and the world, I walked from my office to Symphony Center, where I heard these folks perform pieces by, among others, this composer—and I’m so glad I did.
Kremerata Baltica with Gidon Kremer (violin), live; Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996), Sinfonietta No. 2, excerpt (3rd mvt., Adagio)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
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Wet Ink Ensemble, Pendulum V (Alex Mincek), live, New York, 2009
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langiappe
reading table
in such an ugly time the true protest is beauty
—Phil Ochs (1940-1976), Pleasures of the Harbor (1967), liner notes
Sunday night, in Chicago, I heard these folks perform at Constellation. Afterward, as I walked out the door, the night air seemed clearer, lighter, as if it had just been washed.
Wet Ink Ensemble, Pendulum VII (Alex Mincek), live, New York, 2013
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, High Line (New York)
Tony Matelli (1971-), Sleepwalker, 2014
This I could listen to all day.
Jürg Frey (1953-), Sam Lazaro Bros (1984); Dante Boon, piano
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
As with breaths, so too with sounds: one after another—each new.
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art beat: other day, The Guggenheim (New York)
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Tableau No. 2/Composition No. VII, 1913
In a world so noisy what’s more precious than sounds so quiet?
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and string quartet (1985), Sed Contra Ensemble, live (performance begins at 4:11), Ukraine (Lviv), 2016
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York)
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), A Woman in the Sun, 1961