more
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Piano Concerto in G major (1929-31); Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Termirkanov, cond.) with Martha Argerich (piano), live, Stockholm, 2009
more
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor; Martha Argerich, live, 1966
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lagniappe
It is like what we imagine knowledge to be . . .
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), from “At the Fishhouses”
Best five minutes you’ll have today?
Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, excerpt (4th mvt.); Martha Argerich, live, 1966
She’s one of a handful of pianists whose every note I’m hungry to hear.
The more kinds of music you love, the more chances you have to make wonderful discoveries, as happened yesterday when I heard this for the first time (Oberon Ensemble, Art Institute of Chicago).
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor; Martha Argerich (piano); Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola), Mischa Maisky (cello), 2001
#1
#2
#3
#4
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lagniappe
reading table
You don’t hear the sound; you go into the sound—you and the sound become one.
—Seung Sahn, Only Don’t Know
No matter what she’s playing, she seems never to touch the ground.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Piano Concerto in G (1929-31); RAI National Symphony Orchestra (Claudio Abbado, cond.) with Martha Argerich (piano), live, Rome, 1969
1st movt.
2nd & 3rd movts.
Who needs coffee?
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), Variations on a Theme by Paganini
Martha Argerich & Gabriela Montero, pianos, live
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach, Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826; Martha Argerich, piano, live, Switzerland (Verbier Festival), 2008
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival, now in its tenth day, concludes at midnight.
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reading table
Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. . . . Our noise, our business, our purposes, and all our fatuous statements about our purposes, our business, and our noise: these are the illusion.
—Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island
*****
no passport needed
This year folks from ninety-five countries stopped by to listen. Welcome, all.
otherworldly
Maurice Ravel, Jeux d’eau (1901)
Martha Argerich, live (1977)
*****
Alfred Cortot, recording (1920)
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lagniappe
radio
After finishing, at midnight, their 24-hour Coleman Hawkins birthday celebration, the indefatigable folks at WKCR-FM didn’t rest for even a minute. Instead they embarked on a 4-day, 96-hour celebration of pianist Teddy Wilson’s centennial.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
MCOTD gives thanks for
Lester Bowie and
Blossom Dearie and
The Dirtbombs;
for Mingus, Miles, Monk,
Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, Bartok;
for WKCR-FM and WFMU-FM;
for Morton Feldman and
Elliott Carter and
Alfred Schnittke and
Tristan Murail;
for Hound Dog Taylor, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, Magic Sam;
for The Ex, The Heptones, The Swan Silvertones, The Impressions, The Art Ensemble of Chicago;
for Von Freeman and Art Pepper and Vernard Johnson;
for Friedrich Gulda and Martha Argerich, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Ursula Oppens;
for Ed Blackwell and
for Phillip Wilson;
for Julius Hemphill and
Henry Threadgill and
D’Angelo and
Dorothy Love Coates;
and for all the others—singers, musicians, composers, painters, photographers, printmakers, novelists, poets—who have graced this site;
and for you, who have found your way here, somehow, from Mongolia and Slovenia and Jamaica and Saudi Arabia; from Myanmar and Syria; from Angola, India, Ethiopia; from Finland, Thailand, Ireland, Iceland, and over 100 other countries.