Archive for March, 2009
Chamber and Orchestral Musics, Together Again!
I like the way cellist Sol Gabetta put her Shostakovich record together because she’s thinking like someone who listens today. She did not just pair one concerto with another like most do because they feel a disc can only contain concerti (or other orchestra pieces) or that a disc has to be exclusively chamber music. [...]
A Little More to Say About Sharon Isbin
I’ve never been a follower of the classical guitar. To me, as a composer, it represents one of the more daunting instruments to write for: I have no idea how the fingers do it (it is the only instrument I don’t at least have a feel for), and I’ve always thought it was a too-quiet [...]
In C
In C, Now
It’s a boon to the world that Sony and Carnegie Hall joined forces to re-release the original recording, with a gorgeous sonic face-lift, of Terry Riley’s seminal, epoch-making In C, in celebration of its 40th anniversary. This piece literally made music history, being one of the first pieces of true minimalism to get [...]
Baez-Isbin
I was intrigued when I got a copy of guitarist Sharon Isbin’s record Journey to the New World because of the presence of Joan Baez. Not only is there a suite written for Ms. Isbin by the British composer John Duarte based around the songs Ms. Baez got famous for singing, but as an extra [...]
New Haydn
I’ve always loved Haydn, ever since I saw Essa-Pekka Salonen’s concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic 15 years ago where he paired the Viennese master, aptly, with Stravinsky. Though in fairness, perhaps I was starstruck—as a young man, there I was, backstage (through a friend) talking not only to Salonen (whom I continue to admire) [...]
Putting New Music First
When I got the new recording of Lisa Batiashili playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto plus the requisite “something else” to round out the disc, I turned the CD over to see what exactly that “other” was and looked for it in the spot these things usually go, after the concerto. So I have to say, [...]
Smile, She Said
I had one of those terrible days last week, one of those horrible stretches where nothing is actually actively going wrong, yet nothing seems to be going right either, a day of misplaced keys, missed subways, and a day, as most New Yorkers know, where the city just plain beats up on you. One of [...]