Archive for October, 2008
Why improvise? A Review of Gabriela Montero’s New Album “Baroque”
In one of his countless interviews Friedrich Gulda remarked that those who cross boundaries are considered by society either as “revolutionaries or fools.” That, like so many of Gulda’s views, is somewhat exaggerated and simplistic, but there lies a kernel of truth in this assessment: going beyond the boundaries of our ordered world, one can either discover a land of wonderful possibilities or shipwreck in a stormy sea losing orientation and direction.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard On Capitalism and Helmut Lachenmann
“Introducing ‘Guero’ (1970) by Helmut Lachenmann, Mr. Aimard explained that the pianist is supposed to perform the piece mostly by scraping his fingernails along the edges of the keys to evoke the sounds of an African instrument that is played by scratching a stick along the ribbed side of a woodblock. Instead, to protect his [...]
Steakhausen.com
Yes, it really is a pun on Stockhausen… see for yourself at http://www.steakhausen.com/.
The Blue Heron Landing…
Yesterday night, the First Church of Cambridge was the home of the renaissance choir Blue Heron. Under the direction of Scott Metcalfe, the Blue Heron presented secular and sacred music from the Peterhouse partbooks (copied for the Canterbury Cathedral in the first half of the 16th century and named after their current home at Peterhouse College in Cambridge, England), from the Fayrfax Manuscript and from Henry VIII’s Manuscript.
“Crosscurrents” Conference Coming Closer
Mark your calendars for “Crosscurrents,” a conference on “American and European Music in Interaction, 1900 – 2000.” Speakers include Michael Denning, Celia Applegate, Tobias Bleek, Giselher Schubert, Brigid Cohen, David Schiff and many more. Sessions will be chaired by Andrew Shenton (Boston University), Felix Meyer (Paul Sacher Foundation), Wolfgang Rathert (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität), Joseph Auner (Tufts University), [...]
On Webern’s Five Movements for String Quartet, op. 5
“Its darting fragments and solitary staccatos offer vegan austerity next to the red-meat indulgence of Mahler’s romantic ‘Symphony of a Thousand’.” – Vivien Schweitzer New York Times, October 13, 2008
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