Thursday, May 30th
How about something new?
Close your eyes—listen.
Tyshawn Sorey (1980-), Everything Changes, Nothing Changes (2018); JACK Quartet, live, Banff, Canada, 3/28/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Berwyn, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: viola
2019
Thursday, May 9th
reimagining
Christopher Trapani (1980-), Visions and Revisions (2013); JACK Quartet, 2018
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Bob Dylan, “Visions of Johanna” (B. Dylan), 1966
2019
Wednesday, April 17
what’s new
Joanna Mattrey (viola, stroh violin), live, New York, 4/8/19
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lagniappe
reading table
I made my way to the sofa, where I battled against cancer once more by lying there staring straight ahead. I had such great resistance to thought that I didn’t even worry.
—Colm Toibin, “‘It’s curable,’ he said,” London Review of Books, 4/18/19
2019
Tuesday, March 26th
sounds of Chicago
George Lewis (1952-), String Quartet No. 1.5, “Experiments in Living” (2016); Spektral Quartet, live, New York, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Tuesday, March 19th
sounds of New York
We Free Strings,* live New York, 1/18/19
*Melanie Dyer, viola; Charles Burnham, violin; Gwen Laster, violin; Alex Waterman, cello; Ken Filiano, bass; Michael Wimberly, percussion.
2019
Thursday, January 17th
alone
Kim Kashkashian (viola), “character pieces” by György Kurtág (1926-), live, Cambridge, Mass., 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
the sound of the moat
cracking . . .
winter moon—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2019
Tuesday, January 15th
what’s new
Miguel Zenón (alto saxophone, compositions) featuring Spektral Quartet, live (“Rosario,” “Milagrosa,” “Villabeño”), Washington, D.C., 1/4/19
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lagniappe
reading table
thin wall—
from the mouse’s hole
the cold—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2018
Monday, November 12th
more
Tyshawn Sorey Double Trio (TS, composition, conducting, drums; Cory Smythe, piano; Chris Tordini, bass; Fung Chern Hwei, violin; Kyle Amburst, viola; Rubin Kodheli, cello), “The Inner Spectrum of Variables” (T. Sorey), live, Ojai, Calif., 2017
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lagniappe
art beat
other day, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago
Nicolas de Jesus (1960-), La ofrenda (The Offering), 2009 (Día de Muertos: A Spiritual Legacy, through December 9th)
2018
Wednesday, October 17th
what’s new
This I could listen to all day.
Mat Maneri (viola) and Tanya Kalmanovitch (viola), live, New York, 8/19/18
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Saturday, October 13th
Last night, at the University of Chicago (Mandel Hall), they opened with this piece, which was followed by Shostakovich (String Quartet No. 4 in D Major), Brahms (String Quartet in A Minor) and, in an encore, Webern (Langsamer Satz). One-word review: spellbinding.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4 (excerpt); Takács Quartet, live, New York, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 