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Goldberg Variations
The Open Goldberg Variations project is complete. You can download the recording in various formats free from this website. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c8Bn0T4RFo] Kimiko Ishizaka performing the first variation of the Goldberg Variations. This project was funded via Kickstarter, and I really like the way that it seems to be opening the door to other projects like this; democratically…
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In which I roll my eyes twice
Just a couple of articles I wanted to respond to: BBC: Why do people play music in public through a phone? For many, teenagers playing tinny music to each other on public transport on their mobile phones can be intensely irritating. Why do they do it? With mobile phones in many a teenager’s pocket, the…
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Digging Into Schubert
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkH0cPzg-IU] Alfred Brendel playing Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960. Over the past few months, I’ve been going through a little bit of a gloomy period, and I think a big part of the reason why I was feeling melancholic was that I wasn’t playing or making as much music as I had been,…
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Web Roundup
Posting has been scarce of late due to my normal post-semester crash. Hopefully my brain will be up and running soon. I plan on tackling Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and Edward Abbey’s Monkey-Wrench Gang this week. In lieu of in-depth thoughts, here’s a potpourri of impressions: 1. Modernism, Music, and Politics [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBVYhyXU8o] Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody for…
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Oregon Represent
Congratulations to all of the musicians of the Oregon Symphony, who have just finished their very first Carnegie Hall concert. Early word has it that the concert was a great success; Alex Ross tweeted “Triumphant Carnegie debut for the Oregon Symphony — best of Spring for Music so far. Eloquent Sylvan, explosive Vaughan Williams.” David…
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El Amor Brujo
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz7-617UaYc] Miles Davis “Will o’ the Wisp” from Sketches of Spain 1. prologue In a weird case of repeating myself, I had another revelation recently while trying to track down the origins of a Miles Davis tune. A few weeks ago, I described my journey of tracking down the origins of a particular combination of…
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On Sacred Ground
I’ll be up late writing a paper on the significance of the compositional chronology of the last section of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor,* but I wanted to link to a release of the premiere performance of On Sacred Ground, The Bad Plus’ reworking of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Pianist Ethan Iverson is…
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The Cleveland Orchestra & the "Local Orchestra"
Greg Sandow in the Wall Street Journal on Enrique Fernandez, the Cleveland Orchestra’s new “critic-in-residence”: Despite his resounding title, Mr. Fernández is not a critic in the ordinary sense of the word. His blog, which you can visit by going to clevelandorchestramiami.com and clicking on “blog,” is an online magazine that runs feature pieces…
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The Cleveland Orchestra & the "Local Orchestra"
Greg Sandow in the Wall Street Journal on Enrique Fernandez, the Cleveland Orchestra’s new “critic-in-residence”: Despite his resounding title, Mr. Fernández is not a critic in the ordinary sense of the word. His blog, which you can visit by going to clevelandorchestramiami.com and clicking on “blog,” is an online magazine that runs feature pieces…
