Down, Cujo. Down.
Okay, sports fans, here’s something you’ll like. Today, beginning at 6 pm PST and running through midnight (That would be 9 pm to 3 am {thanks, Andrea for straightening me out} here in the Center of the Universe), KFJC radio in Los Altos Hills, CA is doing a 6-hour special focusing on Berio’s Sequenzas.
Cujo, a dj on KFJC and Sequenza21 peruser, has lined up some stellar color commentary for this one. In addition to a live performance on flute, you’ll hear from from David Osmond-Smith, author of the only existing English Berio book (with more to come), Janet Halfyard, editor of the forthcoming Berio Sequenzas, and Brian Brandt, chief of Mode Records. (I believe I was invited to participate in some way but forgot about it–one of the hazards of being 64.)
Cujo provides several good reasons why we should all listen. We will:
o learn why you should be disgusted when the trombone sequenza is played in a clown costume
o learn about the beef between Rostropovich and Berio
o understand exactly how Berio learned to write so virtuosically for such uncommon instruments. (Seriously, accordion?).
If you continue to listen beyond midnight, you will be treated to KFJC’s annual Night and Day of the Sun, a 24-hour tribute to Sun Ra on his birthday.
Chances are you don’t get KFJC on your radio, but thanks to the miracle of the Internets you can listen online here. As it says on the station’s Netcast page, “Ain’t technology wonderful.”
Thanks, Andrea. Another casualty of turning 64. Orientation as to time and place, what a concept.
This is probably a good time to mention the current WHRB (Harvard Radio) Orgy Season. An orgy is a more or less comprehensive broadcast survey of the works/recordings of whatever the subject is. They’ve already finished with the Brahms and Stravinsky Orgies. The Machuat Orgy is going on as I type this (Monday morning). Upcoming are:
The Art Blakey Orgy (5/22 and 5/23–6:00am to noon, both days), the Silk Road Orgy (today 3:00-11:00pm), the Szymanowsky Orgy (5/22 noon to 5/23 7:00pm, with interruptions–for, among other things the Blakey Orgy), and the Ligeti Orgy (5/23 7:00pm-5/24 11:00). also a PDQ Bach Orgy sometime, and more. All of this is streamed. A schedule and streaming can be found at http://www.whrb.org/.
Whew, glad to know I’m still in the center of the universe — don’t have to move to a Pacific Island.
that’d be 9pm to 3am in our center of the universe. we are three hours later than CA, not earlier.