Wednesday, August 5th
more
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in B-flat minor (Op. 9, No. 1); Ivan Moravec (1930-2015), piano
**********
lagniappe
random sights
last night
Columbus Park, Chicago
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: classical
2015
2015
Tuesday, August 4th
more
I don’t care what you had planned: it can’t compare to this.
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), 24 Preludes; Ivan Moravec (1930-2015), piano
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Why did I / shrink into a story?
—Alice Notley, “Are Loyal” (Poetry, 7-8/15)
2015
Monday, August 3rd
passings
Ivan Moravec, pianist, November 9, 1930-July 27, 2015
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Ballade No. 1 in G minor
**********
lagniappe
random thoughts
Ever grow weary of the 21st century?
Me, too.
2015
Thursday, July 30th
Morton Feldman (1927-1986), Rothko Chapel (1971), live (excerpts), Houston (Rothko Chapel), 2013; Kim Kashkashian (viola), Steven Schick (percussion), Sarah Rothenberg (celeste), Hallie Reed (soprano), Houston Chamber Choir (Robert Simpson, cond.)
#1
#2
Today Morton Feldman enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets John Berryman and Wislawa Szymborska and William Bronk, photographer Helen Levitt, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
**********
lagniappe
random thoughts
No matter how often we turn away, the world keeps calling out to us.
Look.
Listen.
2015
Thursday, July 2nd
string festival
day four
Alfred Schnittke (1934-98), Piano Quintet (1972-76), live (Katya Apekisheva, piano; Boris Brovtsyn, Julia-Maria Kretz, violins; Amihai Grosz, viola; Torleif Thedéen, cello), Netherlands, 2010
2015
Wednesday, July 1st
string festival
day three
Wolfgang Rihm (1952-), String Quartet No. 13
Arditti Quartet, live, London, 2012
**********
lagniappe
reading table
One peers down into regions where one’s feet would never, never have trod, because in certain regions, indeed in most, one has no purpose whatever.
—Robert Walser (1878-1956), “Balloon Journey,” 1914 (translated from German by Christopher Middleton)
2015
Monday, June 29th
string festival
day one
György Ligeti (1923-2006), Sonata for Solo Cello (1948-53); Matt Allen, live, Westport, N.Y., 2009
**********
lagniappe
reading table
the butterfly I passed
two miles back
is ahead now—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2015
Wednesday, June 24th
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Rothko Chapel (1971); Seattle Modern Orchestra (with Julia Tai, conductor; Melia Watras, viola; Stephen Olsen, celesta; Brian Yarkovsky, percussion; Sarah Marroquin, soprano), live, Seattle, 2012
Today Morton Feldman enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets William Bronk and Wislawa Szymborska, photographer Helen Levitt, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
**********
lagniappe
reading table
This performance reminds me at times of Emily Dickinson:
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air—
Between the Heaves of Storm——No. 591 (Johnson), “I heard a Fly buzz”
*****
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Jean-Luc Mylayne (1946-), No. 560, 2008 (Mutual Regard, through August 23rd)
2015
Thursday, June 18th
sounds from the other side of the moon
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), Piano Sonata No. 5; Dmitry Rachmanov, live, San Francisco, 2015
*****
Here’s another take.
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), live recording, Prague, 1972
2015
Thursday, May 28th
How about something new?
PRISM Quartet and Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), excerpts from “15 Places at the Same Time” (S. Lehman), live, Philadelphia, 2014
**********
lagniappe
reading table
There’s a reason it’s called the nervous / system.
—Karen Solie, “Ode” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
music clip of the day 