I Know I Am
As those of you who come round here regularly know, I’m not a composer or musician but I am an experienced listener with limited patience for things that take too…
Some Proms
On Aug 9 The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by David Atherton, presented the first performance of …onyt agoraf y drws…(…unless I open the door…) by Welsh composer Guto…
Programming Note
9 P.M. (Lifetime) LOVE NOTES When a classical music critic becomes pregnant from a fling with (gasp!) a country-music singer, she decides to give her baby to her infertile best…
Sliocht sleachta ar shliocht bhur sleachta
Two of S21’s favorite people are getting married…to each other. One of them is Brian Sacawa. The other member of the wedding is playing it coy but feel free to…
Glass Rules
With at least 135 recordings (by my quick count) now in circulation, one would think there wasn’t much Philip Glass music that hasn’t already been submitted for the judgment of…
Nancarrow: Ten Years After
Conlon Nancarrow died 10 years ago today in Mexico City. Pliable has a nice writeup, and quotes György Ligeti praising Nancarrow as the most important composer of the second half…
August in New York
I don’t ski. Asthma. And fear. Mostly fear. I used to party a bit though and because many of my companions were ski buffs, I have socialized, but not skied,…
Hello, Nonino
Seems like only yesterday we reported that Matthew Cmiel, one of our favorite boy wonders, had put together a new band called Formerly Known as Classical. (Actually, it March 15,…
Monday Who’s Dead Wrapup
Frank Zappa has a street named after him in Berlin. Frank Zappa Strasse is in Marzahn, a district on the eastern fringe of the capital made up of communist-era housing…
Die Meisterbators
From today’s Deutsche Welle: Germany’s annual Bayreuth Festival of Wagner operas began on Wednesday with a highly anticipated, make-or-break production by the 29-year-old great-granddaughter of the composer Richard Wagner. And…