It’s been a couple of unexpectedly busy weeks for me; blogging shall resume (almost) immediately
Category Archives: Blog
This section contains news, updates and oress releases about our company.
Portent of Continuing East Coast Symphonic Mess
Phenomenal clarinetist Ricardo Morales is leaving the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of next season to become principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic.
Grab the popcorn: Temirkanov blasts use of Saint Pete Phil pix for “phantom” orchestra
Go read this story. One of my very reliable overseas contacts tells me that this is just the beginning of trouble for a certain quasi-omnipotent music management firm.
More Sad News — Peter Lieberson, 1946-2011; Max Mathews, 1926-2011
Lieberson, whose colorful music was greatly inspired by his devotion to the Vajrayana school of Buddhism, but is best known for the song cycles he worte for his late wiffe Lorraine. He was remarkably warm and easygoing the handful of times I would run into him in New York City, and had an amazing depth of knowledge about jazz. I never had the chance to meet Mathews, but he was an enormously important figure in postwar music as not only arguably the first computer composer but an innovator in the field of digital music creation and systems.
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson — Berlioz / Handel
Regular readers know that I’m a fan of the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. While she may have been gone nearly five years, a number of live recordings have been released since her untimely passing that strongly complement her studio output.
ATOS Trio @ The New School
Synaphaï welcomes Elizabeth Barnette as a contributing writer and critic.
Rachmaninoff: “Trio élégiaque” No. 1 in g minor
Dvorák: Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 26
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat Major “Archduke”, Op. 97
ATOS Trio
Annette von Hehn, violin / Stefan Heinemeyer, cello / Thomas Hoppe, piano
Tishman Auditorium, The New School, New York City
Sunday, April 10, 2011
After starting their American tour in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center on April 7, the ATOS Trio came to New York to play two different programs on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.
Deryck Cooke Lives
The voice of legendary critic and musicologist Deryck Cooke has officially been recovered from the depths of the BBC’s tape archives.
On December 10, 1960, the Third Programme (now Radio 3) aired Cooke’s lecture-demonstration on his first realization (with the assistance of composer Berthold Goldschmidt) of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 followed by a performance of the near-complete realization by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Goldschmidt. This program has long circulated privately among Mahler enthusiasts. Testament Records has just released a newly remastered edition of the broadcast under license from the Beeb — along with a live Proms performance of the completed first realization (with further assistance from David and Colin Matthews) on August 13, 1964 by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Goldschmidt.
I’ve just put disc one on the CD player, and can attest to a huge improvement in sound quality over any privately circulated version I’ve run across. I will have much more to say about this release in the next few days. And here’s something else Mahlerites and admirers of Cooke might find interesting.
Sunday Afternoon Listening
Nothing quite cheers up an overcast Sunday afternoon in New York City like a little bit of music — in today’s case, that of Michael Finnissy. I’m typing this between the first two tracks on the “Lost Lands” CD, a program of works drawing on the sounds of disappearing musical cultures, from UK indie Metier Records. Oboist Christopher Redgate and percussionist Julian Warburton dispatch the complexities and nuances of “Dilok” and “Dalal”, two particularly pungent and exuberant works, with jaw-dropping ease. The remaining tracks, played by members of new music ensemble Topologies, are equally exciting.
Jenny Lin @ Greenwich House Music School
Regular readers of my blog know I love Jenny Lin’s terrific traversal of the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87. Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to hear her play keyboard works of György Ligeti in Greenwich House Music School’s recital space.
Deal in Detroit?
Both Michael Hodges at Detroit News and Daniel Wakin at nytimes.com report on a possible deal. The deal may salvage the summer concert schedule.
UPDATE: Both parties have reached a tentative deal, per Wakin @ nytimes.com.