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
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: classical
2015
2015
Wednesday, July 1st
string festival
day three
Wolfgang Rihm (1952-), String Quartet No. 13
Arditti Quartet, live, London, 2012
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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
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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.
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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
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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)
2015
Wednesday, May 27th
Sit back. Close your eyes. Listen—just listen.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major (“Waldstein”); Emil Gilels (1916-1985), live
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lagniappe
reading table
My boys.
I don’t have them to hold. What do I do with my arms?
—Sonali Deraniyagala, Wave
2015
Saturday, May 16th
There are a handful of pianists whose every note I’m hungry to hear—he’s one.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Sonata No. 8 in A Minor; Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950), recording, 1950
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Palisades, New Jersey, 1958
2015
Thursday, May 14th
Whether you live for 50 years, 500 years, or 5,000 years, it makes no difference: always there are new things to hear.
Dieter Ammann (1962-), Violation (1999); Lemanic Modern Ensemble (William Blank, cond.) with Karolina Öhman, cello; live, Russia (St. Petersburg), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
2015
Monday, May 11th
career plans for the next life
Maybe, instead of those other things (tap dancer, rubboard player in a zydeco band, bass player in a reggae band, guitar player in a Malian band, cellist in a string quartet), I’ll be a bird.
John Luther Adams (1953-), songbirdsongs (1974-80), Callithumpian Consort (Stephen Drury, dir.), recording (2012)
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art beat
Tony Fitzpatrick (1958-), Lunch Drawing #48: A Bird for Bruce Lee
music clip of the day 