Monotonous Forest

Change we can believe in

Announcements of 2010-2011 seasons have been sprouting up all over the place in the last week or so.  But I still can't quite grasp that in October Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic will do Magnus Lindberg's KRAFT (1983-1985), an early bit of wildness for orchestra and electronics from the composer's mid-twenties, and in November, Gérard Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil (1997-1998).

And Gilbert mused on the future, actually mentioning Boulez's Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna (1974-1975) and Stockhausen's Gruppen (1955-1957).  Wonders never cease.

[Photo: spectral image from www.neurocode.de]

More on the X-Man

Iannis Xenakis at The Drawing Center.  artcritical.com, February 21, 2010

Also this week, Alex Ross weighs in on Xenakis in two posts, here and here, in addition to his excellent article in The New Yorker.  His latter post includes a sample of Metastasis (1953-1954) for 46 strings.

That jokester David Robertson

A friend who was in the audience at Friday morning's New York Philharmonic concert called to report on the final piece, the four dances from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera.  Apparently after the first one, Los trabadores agrícolas (The Land Workers), loud applause erupted.  Without missing a beat, conductor David Robertson whirled around and thanked the enthusiastic audience saying, "And now, three encores."

All hail Kari Kriikku

Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto.  MusicWeb International, February 19, 2010

Bach, and inspired by Bach

Orpheus plays Peter Maxwell Davies at Carnegie Hall. MusicWeb International, February 19, 2010

Theatrics in Brooklyn, four by Finns, or Warsaw via Cincinnati

Monday night offers another typical New York conundrum, with at least three intriguing concerts competing for your ear.  At Issue Project Room, the Talea Ensemble offers the U.S. premiere of Steven Takasugi's Strange Autumn (2004), with works by Globokar, Kagel and Xenakis, and at Juilliard, Jeffrey Milarsky conducts AXIOM in four pieces, two each by Magnus Lindberg and Kaija Saariaho.  And at Carnegie Hall, Paavo Järvi leads the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in a fine-looking program of Ravel, Bartók and Bach, ending with Lutosławski's blockbuster from the early 1950s, his Concerto for Orchestra.

[Photo: Cincinnati Public Library (designed by Woodie Garber), shortly after its opening in 1955, photographed by Al Fenn, via the LIFE Photo Archive]

Yikes, yet more Carter premieres

There's only one 101-year-old composer I know of who's still turning out work, and despite the chill and recent snow, Elliott Carter was on hand last night when the New York Woodwind Quintet gave the first performance of Nine by Five (2009) at Juilliard's Paul Hall.  Written at the request of clarinetist Charles Neidich (whose recent conversations with Carter were incorporated into the program notes), the piece was inspired by Goffredo Petrassi's Tre Per Sette (1966), with each musician playing a number of different instruments. 

Starting with blasts from the piccolo and contrabassoon, the short work seems to recall some of Carter's music from decades ago, with more overt aggression, coupled with extremes in texture and dynamics.  It's also great fun to listen to.  In a well-considered gesture, the quintet repeated it at the end of the evening, initiating cheers from the large audience. The composer, looking remarkably fine, was chatty as usual in his talk with Ara Guzelimian halfway through the evening, and I think he's still slightly surprised that his music seems to have finally found its audience.

The program also included premieres of Retracing II (2009) for solo horn, extracted from the Quintet for Piano and Winds (1991), and a short "Adagio" movement added between two outer ones to create Tre Duetti (2008-09) for violin and cello, played with formidable precision by Rolf Schulte and Fred Sherry.  The evening was filled out with Eight Etudes and a Fantasy (1949-50), Woodwind Quintet (1948) and Wind Rose (2008), featuring 24 talented students in a work that seemed more like something from Morton Feldman.

At Carter's request, the line-up included the first movement of Jean Françaix's Quintette (1948), in a scintillating reading that made me wish they had played the whole thing.  (The evening was truncated for time considerations.)  In addition to Mr. Neidich, the peerless musicians included Carol Wincenc (flute), Stephen Taylor (oboe), Marc Goldberg (bassoon) and William Purvis (horn).

[Above: highway sign for Massachusetts Route 101]

85 years young

Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.  MusicWeb International, February 9, 2010

Tonight's encore: Boulez

Taka Kigawa at (Le) Poisson Rouge.  MusicWeb International, February 9, 2010

"50 Hz is so metal"

Thanks to a pianist friend for sending me this link, in which Brown senior Sam Tarakajian demonstrates a highly imaginative way of using up your iPhone battery called Gelie.  Wirelessly linking his phone (the input) to a desktop computer (the output), he waves the phone in the air, alternately stabbing and tracing arabesques in space.  If you can't keep up with his technical explanation, never mind.  The electronic sounds that result not only give "air conducting" an entirely new dimension, but give a glimpse of what could result in a pioneering new way of creating music.