Posted in Uncategorized on October 31, 2007 | No Comments »
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending another concert in Chicago’s very own Music of the Baroque series. Director Jane Glover is such a treasure to the musical life of this town. Her programming ideas are brilliantly achieved and highly effective. This concert was entitled, The French Connection, and focused on French music from the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 30, 2007 | No Comments »
Tomorrow marks another release of William Bolcom’s music on Naxos. Previous releases have included a disk of violin sonatas, songs, and, of course the epic Songs of Innocence and of Experience with Leonard Slatkin and the University of Michigan Symphony.
Tomorrow’s release features the complete works for cello!I am excited about this release for a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 28, 2007 | No Comments »
If I were more disciplined I would have put something up earlier about Alex Ross’ visit to the Northwest and his reading at the UW Bookstore. Instead, I am getting to it a few days late.
A respectable crowd showed up to hear Ross and Dave Beck have a conversation about music in the 20th Century. Ross read [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 27, 2007 | No Comments »
Shame on you if you missed the Finisterra Trio’s recital at Benaroya Hall. Though the trio has only been together for a few years, individually and collectively they showed a remarkable sense of one another. Its no wonder music luminaries like Bill McLaughlin, Ned Rorem (who someone once told me was the most important American composer living today), [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 26, 2007 | No Comments »
A day ago I hinted that I would be talking more about the Finisterra Trio and their upcoming recital at Benaroya Hall. As is usually the case, the good stuff always happens by chance. Early last Saturday I was puttering around in my car when I heard an advertisement for a recital where the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 24, 2007 | No Comments »
In the coming days I am going to be covering the Finisterra Trio’s recital this Friday. The trio is a local ensemble. In their recital, they will be performing music by Shostakovich and Daron Hagen.
Posted in Uncategorized on October 24, 2007 | No Comments »
A post over at the Huffington Post had a few things to say about the state of concert program notes. I think, generally speaking, they are spot on.
When I first started listening to classical music about ten years ago, I lacked any sort of musical vocabulary. I wasn’t a performance major. I didn’t know what [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 24, 2007 | No Comments »
Since I love lists of music, I will be happy to offer up some pieces of music that just slay me with their pathos, sublimity and ecstasy. There are many pieces that I can choose, but these are perennial favorites. Once you find the right recording of each, then it stays with you forever.
1. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 23, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Over at Daily Observations there was a thought provoking post about what pieces of music tug the heart strings. I gave it some thought myself. I had a hard time with the question because music and the emotions conjured are so context specific. What moved me as an undergraduate at Iowa State University doesn’t always [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on October 21, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Chicago is home to the Midwest Microfest. Founded by Aaron Krister Johnson and Chris Bailey, the organization is dedicated to the exploration and promotion of music that uses microtonality. As you might surmise from its name, microtones are tones that are "found in between" the tones that we have come to accept as the universe [...]
