Monotonous Forest

Startled by warhorses

The MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.  MusicWeb International, January 29, 2010

Poetry from Perle

George Perle, who died early last year at 93, was perhaps best known for much of his life as a scholar whose writings included The Operas of Alban Berg (1980 and 1985), and before that, his revelatory article for the International Alban Berg Society, "The Secret Program of the Lyric Suite."

But his compositions, especially many from the last decade of his life, are marked by elegant details and perhaps surprisingly, a sense of humor.  On Tuesday at Merkin Concert Hall, the Da Capo Chamber Players will present a tribute to Perle with four of his works (two written for the group), as well as pieces by Paul Lansky, Alexander Scriabin and Leo Kraft.  Lansky, who studied with Perle and now teaches at Princeton University, will also offer remarks.

More music for unsuspecting hotel guests

On Sunday afternoon, in the light-filled solarium at the top of the Roger Smith Hotel, Wet Ink Ensemble will present music of Sam Pluta, Alex Mincek and Chiyoko Szlavnics, along with works for solo violin by Ligeti and Feldman.  Fascinating program aside, one of the draws here is the venue.  Behind the building's seemingly traditional facade lurks a decidedly nontraditional bent for presenting contemporary music concerts.  I hope Holiday Inn is taking notice.

[Above: "Forms" (2009) by Chiyoko Szlavnics]

Schuman (William) and others off the map

On Friday, Juilliard’s 2010 Focus! festival begins with Jeffrey Milarsky leading the Juilliard Orchestra in William Schuman’s Symphony No. 5 (Symphony for Strings), plus works by Copland, Bernstein and Barber.  Titled Music at the Center: Composing an American Mainstream, the week features more Schuman as well as rarities from the mid-20th century by Jack Beeson, Morton Gould, Vincent Persichetti and Walter Piston, among others. 

On Monday, Joel Sachs and the New Juilliard Ensemble perform Schuman’s The Young Dead Soldiers: Lamentation (1975), plus works by David Diamond, Hall Overton and Henry Cowell (his Symphony No. 13, “Madras”).  The week closes with a concert version of Copland’s opera, The Tender Land, directed by Copeland Woodruff and conducted by David Effron.

[Above: William Schuman in 1963, photographed by Carl Mydans, via the LIFE Photo Archive]

While waiting for cocktail hour

A food and drink-oriented double bass player with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Allan Santos, reminds me now and then that the cocktail recipes here have not exactly been "occasional" but more like "non-existent," so I hope to correct that soon.  In the interim, check out this report from my friend Ennis Smith, who posted his impressions of his first visit to the Pegu Club on his blog, Smokin' Room.

1,460 days later

Four years ago, when I started this site, I had little idea that blogging in general would become so ubiquitous, and that this blog in particular would have such a variegated and vocal audience.  Thank you all for reading. 

And in 2010, I am especially pleased that this anniversary coincides with a day dedicated to a man of peace. 

"The reason I can' t follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. Somebody must have sense and somebody must have religion. I remember some years ago, my brother and I were driving from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee. And for some reason the drivers that night were very discourteous or they were forgetting to dim their lights...And finally A.D. looked over at me and he said, 'I'm tired of this now, and the next car that comes by here and refuses to dim the lights, I'm going to refuse to dim mine.'  I said, 'Wait a minute, don't do that. Somebody has to have some sense on this highway.'" 

(From Martin Luther King, Jr., May 3, 1963, via the King Institute)

Xenakis on paper

This Friday, The Drawing Center opens a large show (nearly 100 works) of drawings by Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), including mathematical renderings, architectural plans and sketches for compositions.  The show is accompanied by an array of concerts, installations, lectures and films at various locales around town, and runs through April 8.  Of particular note: at Judson Church, the Electronic Music Foundation will offer a virtual reality recreation of the interior of the Philips Pavilion, designed by Xenakis and Le Corbusier for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, and for which Edgard Varèse wrote Poème électronique.  The score, with additional music by Xenakis and images by Le Corbusier, will be played six times nightly.

Correction: My apologies, the Varèse will be played only on Friday night, January 15, not through April 8, as it might appear above.

[Photo: "Study for Metastaseis" (c. 1953, ink on paper), from the Iannis Xenakis Archives, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris]

Sunday repast

At yesterday's MET Chamber Ensemble concert at Zankel Hall, James Levine offered a welcome repeat from just a couple of years ago: Milton Babbitt's The Head of the Bed (1981), sung with supreme authority by Judith Bettina.  In fifteen sections, which use every instrumental combination available from a quartet (flute, clarinet, violin and cello, in solos, duos and trios), the singer traces a sinuous line with words by John Hollander.  By the end of 22 minutes, somehow the formal rigor seems as fascinating as Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and leaves the impression of a softly glowing object in its wake.

Coming immediately after, Elliott Carter's Syringa (1978) seemed almost voluptuous, inviting the listener to enter its dense world in a way that the Babbitt may not.  Using English texts by John Ashbery, Carter adds a Greek "commentary" as a possible subtext, all swept up in gusts from a small chamber ensemble.  Mezzo Kristin Hoff and bass-baritone Evan Hughes were brought out again and again by audience applause afterward, and having Carter and Ashbery on hand for bows was an unexpected bonus.

As giddy counterpoint to the first half, Levine and 35 of the Met's brilliant players romped through Richard Strauss's Der Bürger als Edelmann Suite (1920), seven delicious sections climaxing with "The Dinner," filled with musical quotations from Wagner, Verdi, and Strauss himself.  In his program notes, Jay Goodwin ends saying, "...it takes genius to make music sound so effortless."  This burst of impish refreshment can only succeed if its difficulty is completely disguised, and in that spirit, Levine and the musicians seemed to be having a little post-holiday party onstage.

[Photo: Family dinner, c. 1950s]

I dream of "Lulu"

Opera Chic reports on comments in the Italian magazine Classical Voice by Claudio Abbado, who says he would be eager to conduct Alban Berg's Lulu again, if filmmaker Michael Haneke directed it.  Haneke, creator of The Piano Teacher (2002) and the Cannes winner The White Ribbon (2009), is known for his austere, disturbing style, and could be perfect for the job.  Oh, and the venue could conceivably be La Scala.

Book me a ticket now, please.

Psychoanalytic comment of the day

"Are we inside Olivia de Havilland's head in The Snake Pit?"

[From a review of FAMA (2004-05) by Austrian composer Beat Furrer, on Audiophile Auditions]