what’s new
I don’t understand a word of German. No matter. Commitment and passion don’t require translation.
Carolin Widmann (violin), playing and talking; Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Violin and Orchestra (1979); CM, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Emilio Pomarico, cond.), ECM Records, 5/13
White folks are cool, too.
Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, live, Washington, D.C., 2013
the other day
I heard this ensemble play this piece, along with works by Smetana* and Janacek,** at the University of Chicago’s Logan Arts Center. As I said a while back, if one morning I were to learn that my life would be over at midnight, I would be happy to spend the afternoon as I did the other day—listening, with loved ones, to a string quartet.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), String Quartet No. 16 in F major, op. 135, excerpt (2nd movement); Pacifica Quartet, live, 2012
*String Quartet No. 1 (“From My Life”).
**String Quartet No. 2 (“Intimate Letters”).
Some instruments just seem made for each other.
Ned Rothenberg (clarinet), Mivos Quartet, Clarinet Quintet (N. Rothenberg), excerpt, live, Ann Arbor, 2011
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Let there be physical suddenness.
—Michael McClure
*****
random thoughts
This morning, before sunrise, when I was out walking my son Luke’s dog, Roscoe, he stopped to inspect each blade of grass, carefully.
one thing after
another after another
after another after another after . . .
John Cage (1912-1992), Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958); Variable Geometry (Jean-Phillippe Calvin, director), live, London, 2011
A performance like this can go wrong in so many ways. This one, to these ears, works wonderfully. Momentum, tautness, immediacy—it has them all.
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Everything we do is music.
last night
At the University of Chicago (Mandel Hall), I heard this played by the Keller Quartet, wonderfully.
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Orion Quartet, live, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, 2008
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music, like sex, is an immersive experience—you go to be engulfed.
*****
Intermission. Men’s room. Old man, with a cane, at the urinal. I hope I still go out to hear live music when—if—I’m his age.
Feel like floating?
Steve Reich (1936-), Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76)
eighth blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, et al., live, Chicago, 2011
The other night, as Mitsuko Uchida was performing two of Mozart’s piano concertos (17, 27) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, there were moments so pure, so open, I would have liked nothing more than to disappear into one of the spaces between the notes and stay there.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, KV. 466; Mitsuko Uchida (piano and conducting), Camerata Salzburg, live, Germany (Salzburg), 2001
music clip of the day 