I took this picture at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica around 3 a.m. on December 25, 1966 as some of my shipmates and I made our way back from the McMurdo “Playboy Club” to the U.S.S. Atka, a Navy icebreaker that no longer exists. Given the other military options available to young men on that date, it was not a bad place to be. This rather surreal tableaux of drunken comraderie illustrates, I think, a dirty little secret known to all men and a few women and that is that men–especially hetrosexual men who have worked, lived and played together under difficult circumstances–love each other best.
It was a time of list-making and so they made a list–the most important new musical works of an otherwise shitty, miserable decade. I’ll begin:
1. La Pasión según San Marcos (2000) Osvaldo Golijov
5. The Little Match Girl Passion David Lang
10. Paradiso Jacob ter Veldhuis
Your turn.
Update 1:
3. September Canons (2002) Ingram Marshall – An incredibly powerful 9/11 remembrance made transcendent by Todd Reynolds’ performance.
Our friends at Cedille Records, the Grammy Award-winning, Chicago-based classical record label, are about to embark on their 20th year. Launched two decades ago in a student apartment on Chicago’s South Side by James Ginsburg, then 24, son of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is a pretty prominent lawyer in Washington, DC, Cedille (that’s say-DEE to you) made its debut in November 1989 with its first CD release, a program of solo piano pieces performed by Chicago-based Soviet emigre pianist Dmitry Paperno.
Since then, Cedille’s catalog, which features world-class musicians in and from the Chicago area, has grown and diversified, while attracting critical accolades, an international clientele, and praise from its artists. Cedille has 115 principal CD titles ranging from solo keyboard works to complete symphonies and operas. These include world-premiere recordings and CD premieres of important compositions, plus the commercial recording debuts of some celebrated artists.
Among the label’s major contributions to the world’s CD catalog are its recordings of Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera “The Medium” (the only available recording of the work at the time of its release) and world-premiere recording of Robert Kurka’s opera “The Good Soldier Schweik,” both with Chicago Opera Theater; the world premiere recording of Easley Blackwood’s Fifth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James DePreist, paired with his First Symphony performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch (originally released on RCA Records); the world-premiere recording of Franz Clement’s 1805 Violin Concerto, paired with Beethoven’s concerto, with violinist Pine and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by José Serebrier; two discs of orchestral music by Chicago composer Leo Sowerby (1895-1968), with Paul Freeman leading the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Sinfonietta; the three-disc African Heritage Symphonic Series of orchestral works by black composers, with maestro Freeman and the Chicago Sinfonietta; the complete Mendelssohn string quartets with the Pacifica Quartet; a disc of David Diamond’s chamber music with the Chicago Chamber Musicians; and “Oppens Plays Carter,” the newest and only fully complete survey of Elliott Carter’s solo piano music, performed by Ursula Oppens, and just nominated for a Grammy Award.
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Wolfgang Grajonca that is, who is better-known to us old hippies as Bill Graham, the late impressario of the Fillmores East and West and the man who brought the music to a thousand purple-hazed nights of our misspent youths. Graham taped and saved everything and you can stream hundreds of full concerts free (downloading costs a little money) at a site called Wolfgang’s Vault. Want to hear that dead band’s song before they were dead? You got it. Catch Steppenwolf doing “God Damn, the Pusher Man?” Stevie Ray demonstrating why no one else should ever be allowed to touch a guitar ever again. Jimi, the real Jefferson Airplane, even early Bruce.
And, if that isn’t enough, today Wolfgang’s Vault began adding concerts from the 50 years of Newport Jazz Festivals. There are three up now–the Jazz Messengers, Dakota Staton and a 1959 Basie set that gave me goosebumps when I listened to it earlier this evening. Talk about minimalism, you ain’t heard shit until you dig Freddie Green and the Count sliding into a groove. Get yourself over there.
Random thought: When I went into Starbucks this afternoon, they were playing Jimmy Durante’s version of “You must remember dis…a kiss is still a kiss” and I thought to myself–Greatest Album Never Made? Jimmy Durante sings Tom Waits.
I did some serious updating of the blognoggle|classical music blog aggregation site today…freshened up the design, added a bunch of people, removed some dead links. Take a look and let me know whose blogs I’ve missed.
On the topic of blogs, Alex Ross has moved his over to the New Yorker site where it is now called Unquiet Thoughts. Update your bookmarks appropriately. And while you’re at it, add our good buddy Ian Moss’s Createquity.
Don’t miss Jay Batzner’s review of Julia Wolfe’s new CD of her piece for 9 bagpipes. (A bit too late for Guantanamo, but something for the Pentagon to keep in mind for the future–that’s me talking, not Jay).
The calendar page is fixed again. For those of you who post concert notices there, a small request: after I give you a login and password, don’t register yourself and change the password. Just use the pw I give you, post your concert, and leave quietly. Otherwise, nobody else–including me–can get in.
Suzanne Fiol, founder, artistic director, and driving force behind ISSUE Project Room, died yesterday. The web site announcement reads in part: Born on May 9, 1960, Suzanne died at 1:05 pm on Monday, October 5, 2009, after fighting a courageous and inspiring battle against cancer. Suzanne passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Details are here.
No composers or musicians on the list of MacArthur “geniuses” this year. Is this possible?
Let’s play a game. Who should have been on that list from our team?
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Ferrante & Teicher are getting together again.
Leon Kirchner died today after a long illness. NewMusicBox has an obit. We’ll add more as we find them.
The Boston Globe had a 90th-birthday interview with Kirchner just this past January.
Jeremy Denk
Beautiful older piece by Jeremy
Azica Records’ recording of the San Francisco Symphony playing Jerod ‘Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s Tracing Mississippi, a four movement concerto for flute and orchestra, and Iholba’ for solo flute, orchestra, and chorus, (reviewed here by Jay Batzner) has been nominated for a NAMMY Award (Native American Music Award).
This is the 11th year for the Awards which will be announced on October 3 in Niagara Falls.
Here’s an interesting interview with Tate from YouTube:
Can an absolute beginner, someone who has never played the piano before or read a note of music, learn to play Debussy’s masterpiece “Clair de lune” completely from scratch? Our amigo Hugh Sung thinks so and he’s posting daily 5-9 minute video lessons and responding to feedback from participants via YouTube’s comment and video response features, as well as the Adult Beginners discussion forum at PianoWorld.com. Details about the project here.