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
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.
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.
like nobody else
Laurie Anderson, “Language of the Future,” Dublin, 2017
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Each day we go somewhere we’ve never been before.
Want to be swept away?
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Violin Concerto in D major; Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Paavo Järvi, cond.) with Hilary Hahn (violin), live, Frankfurt, 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
Yesterday, listening to this while driving to see a client at an outlying jail, I was reminded, again, that hearing the right music at the right time can change your entire day.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; Oscar Shumsky (1917-2000), violin, 1979*
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*Sonata No. 1 in G minor: 00:01
Partita No. 1 in B minor: 17:04
Sonata No. 2 in A minor: 48:26
Partita No. 2 in D minor: 1:11:43
Sonata No. 3 in C major: 1:43:33
Partita No. 3 in E major: 2:07:17
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)
2019?
Hard to believe.
But then so much is.
Arvo Pärt (1935-), Fratres for violin, string orchestra, and percussion (1992); Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra (Sergej Krylov, soloist and conductor), live, Lithuania (Vilnius), 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
New Year’s morning—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
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The Future is exactly the same . . .
—The Baffler, Jan.-Feb., 2019
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin; Bella Hristova (violin)
first four movements, live (studio), Boston, 2012
fifth movement (Chaconne), live, Philadelphia, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival (until midnight New Year’s Eve)
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musical thoughts
On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.
—Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), on Bach’s Chaconne, in a letter to Clara Schumann (translated from German)
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)
