what’s new
Why not immerse yourself in something beautiful?
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), String Quartet No. 12 in F major (“American,” 1893); Lincoln String Quartet (featuring members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Qing Hou and Lei Hou, violins; Lawrence Neuman, viola; Kenneth Olsen, cello), live, Chicago, 8/16/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
Want to go somewhere you’ve never been before?
Linda Catlin Smith (1957-), String Quartet No. 6 (2013); Mivos Quartet (Olivia De Prato, violin; Maya Bennardo, violin; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; Tyler J. Borden, cello), live, New York, 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago
sounds in the dark
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Clarinet and String Quartet (1983); KOAN Quartet and Katie Porter (clarinet), live, Los Angeles, 2/15/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
In the beggar’s tin
a few thin copper coins
and this evening rain—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
sounds of New York
No Land (poems), Daniel Carter (trumpet, reeds), Joanna Mattrey (viola), Miriam Parker (movement), Chris Williams (trumpet), live, New York (Prospect Park), 7/31/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New York
Jason Kao Hwang’s Spontaneous River Orchestra (JKH, conductor, violin; Sarah Bernstein, Skye Steele, Rosie Hertlein, Helen Yee, Leonor Falcon, Ben Sutin, Fredrika Krier, Aimee Nieman, Gwen Laster, violin; Melanie Dyer, Joanna Mattrey, viola; Daniel Levin, cello; Hill Greene, Ken Filiano, bass; Andrew Drury, drums), “New York” (L. Jenkins), “Bien Ho Blues / Nothing But Love” (B. Bang), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
One-word review: Wow!
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-), String Quartet No. 1 (1971); Armida Quartet (Martin Funda, violin; Johanna Staemmler, violin; Teresa Schwamm, viola; Peter-Philipp Staemmler, cello) with Manaho Shimokawa (dance), live, Berlin, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
With dewdrops dripping,
I wish somehow I could wash
this perishing world—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
Why not begin the week with something quiet?
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello (1987); Aleck Karis (piano), Curtis Macomber (violin), Danielle Farina (viola), Christopher Finckel (cello), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
How reluctantly
the bee emerges from deep
within the peony—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
His sound-world, full of foreboding, I return to, gratefully, in dark times.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), String Quartet No. 4 (1928); Quatuor Ebène, live, France (Wissembourg), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
passings
Krzysztof Penderecki, composer, conductor, November 23, 1933-March 29, 2020
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Krzysztof Urbański, cond.), live, Helsinki, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
alone
Mat Maneri (1969-, viola), “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (trad.), live, Paris, 2020
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
A leaf, one of the last, parts from a maple branch:
it is spinning in the transparent air of October, falls
on a heap of others, stops, fades. No one
admired its entrancing struggle with the wind,
followed its flight, no one will distinguish it now
as it lies among the other leaves, no one saw what I did. I am
the only one.—Bronisław Maj (1953-), “A Leaf,” translated from Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
music clip of the day 