Dance is always about music, and music is, more often than not, about dance. But how does dance animate music, and music animate dance? This seemed to be the central question when I caught Program 1 of the San Francisco Ballet’s 75th anniversary season at the War Memorial Opera House February 9th. Classical ballet and modern dance sometimes plays against and even ignores the music’s rhythmic structure which would never happen in the deservedly popular Dancing With The Stars. But we rightly or wrongly cut the highbrow forms a bit more slack. Virgil Thomson’s music for SF Ballet’s founding choreographer
Read more“Deze naam zegt jullie allicht niks, Marco Antonio woont nu nog in Gent, maar verhuist binnenkort naar Deinze. Als solist voor kamer- en orkestmuziek heeft Marco Mazzini internationaal opgetreden in volgende toonaangevende plaatsen : Carnegie Hall (New York), Tama Center (Tokyo), Paleis voor Schone Kunsten (Brussel), Bijloke concertzaal (België) en in het Conservatorium van Parijs.” Terrific article about our amigo Marco Antonio Mazzini in Deinzeonline. Alas, it appears to be in a foreign language but the pictures are nice and the video is splendid: [youtube]y33fTZJyVlo[/youtube]
Read moreCongratulations are in order to Joan Tower and our friends at Naxos for nearly running the table on the classical music goodies in last night’s Grammy love fest. Tower’s Made in America (Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Nashville Symphony Orchestra) won Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. I think it sounds like something written in 1939 which shows you what I know. Record of the year and song of the year (Rehab) went to the sad junkie from London with the unsightly tattoos. Regretably, it will probably be her last.
Read moreI wouldn’t have gone but if I had gone I wouldn’t whine about it later from the safety of my keypad.
Read more…The Seattle Times‘ forever-esconced-but-barely-there music crtic, Melinda Bargreen (reviewing Thursday’s Seattle Symphony concert): When a conductor picks up a microphone to address the audience about the music they’re going to hear, the audience can be pretty sure of one thing: They aren’t expected to like the piece. By the time guest conductor Michael Stern had finished telling Thursday’s Seattle Symphony audience about Varèse’s “Intégrales,” it’s a wonder they weren’t fleeing the hall en masse. With Stern’s every phrase (“A certain weird clarity,” “An assault on the senses”), the impending work loomed more ominously. When the downbeat finally came, and the
Read moreI’ll start: Fog Tropes – Ingram Marshall When Crows Gather – Lewis Spratlan
Read moreRemember Galen Brown’s piece “Waiting in the Tall Grass” which was premiered by Relâche last November? Sure, you do. Here it is in two parts on YouTube: [youtube]ReYbo4hByHg[/youtube] [youtube]CDWvhfBT9nI&feature=user[/youtube]
Read moreThe composer Jorge Liderman died Sunday morning after reportedly jumping in front of an oncoming BART train in the Berkeley, CA area. I had initially heard of him after coming across his name on a bulletin board in the early 80’s at the U of Chicago, and when I saw the news item about his untimely death at the age of 50, it caught my attention. Of Argentine descent, Liderman was being increasingly performed, although I regret that I actually never have heard a note of his music. The circumstances of his death are currently under investigation. (Update: a newer and
Read moreAmazingly enough, there’s still some people who have never been to New York City…and until yesterday, I could count myself as a member of that group. This weekend, however, I finally got an opportunity to leave my post in Western NY and fly down to NYC, ostensibly to attend a NYSSMA Composition Committee meeting, but also to finally see what all the noise about the music scene was about. Lucky for me, this was a good weekend for concerts – I was able to catch two top-notch ones in the span of less than 24 hours. I’ve been reading a
Read moreDAY It’s been said (probably by Robert Craft) that Stravinsky was the last composer whose work could survive a one man recital. At yesterday’s performance of the complete Sequenzas at the Rose Theater, I heard that mantle happily passed by 14 brilliant advocates to Luciano Berio. In his introductory remarks for yesterday’s performances composer & host Steven Stuckey said that when Berio wrote the Sequenza I for flute in 1958 he didn’t know that he was starting a dynasty. I wonder. By 1958 Berio was already fashioning an approach to composition consciously modeled, down to the smallest detail, on the
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