Night After Night

Drum porn.

Two former Frank Zappa drummers go at it. The amount of time it must have taken just to assemble these two kits... well, kingdoms have surely risen and fallen in less of an expanse.

My temptation to poke a bit of fun at Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackerman (heroes of my college years, mind you) for this exercise in bombast is mitigated by the fact that I probably could have written a novel or two in the time I expended making connections from one YouTube video to another in order to end up here.

Wholly spirited.

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela at the Mostly Mozart Festival
The New York Times, August 27, 2007

Internal exile.

"A Composer Who Forged a Different, More Defiant Path"
The New York Times, August 26, 2007

Rued Langaard - Symphonies 2 and 3; Symphonies 12 to 14
Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Thomas Dausgaard
DaCapo 6.220516 and 6.220517.
(ArkivMusic 1, 2; Barnes & Noble 1, 2)

A review of two recent CDs featuring the music of Danish composer Rued Langgaard. Most of the sounds heard in these pieces could have been conjured in the 19th century, but they were written in the 20th. In earlier works, Langgaard was much more experimental; his Music of the Spheres, finished in 1918, even manages to predict Ligeti's cloudy polyphonies. Rebuked by the establishment, Langgaard invented a new vocabulary based almost entirely on Romantic-era sounds, but with a strange syntax all its own. In the context of his troubled life, it comes off less as reactionary conservatism than as a streak of willful defiance.

It's a fascinating story, but what's more important is that this is also captivating music. The pioneering complete cycle of the 16 symphonies by Ilya Stupel and the Artur Rubinstein State Philharmonic Orchestra is still in print on the Danacord label. Neeme Järvi, naturally, explored some of these pieces, and even brought the Sixth to the New York Philharmonic, a performance reviewed here by Bernard Holland. Gennady Rozhdestvensky (who conducted an excellent Chandos recording of Music of the Spheres) and Leif Segerstam also took note of Langgaard. But the current symphony cycle Thomas Dausgaard is recording for the DaCapo label provides the most convincing accounts to date of these curiously beautiful pieces.

One last note: Leon Botstein, it comes as no surprise, will present the U.S. premiere of Langgaard's Music of the Spheres with the American Symphony Orchestra next June, on a program that also includes pieces by Takemitsu, Panufnik and Ligeti; details are here.

Playlist:

Harrison Birtwistle - Neruda Madrigals - BBC Singers, London Sinfonietta/Susanna Mälkki (live recording from Royal Albert Hall, July 31, 2007)

Huang Ruo - Chamber Concerto Cycle - International Contemporary Ensemble/Huang Ruo (Naxos)

Philippe Manoury - La Partition du ciel et de l'enfer; Jupiter - Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez (Adès)

Annea Lockwood - The Glass World; Tiger Balm (EM Records; Japan)

Charlemagne Palestine - Charlemagne at Sonnabend (CP Records)

Tony Conrad - Early Minimalism (Table of the Elements)

Quiz time.

I'm fried, and completely stressed out over the number of tasks I'm currently trying to juggle -- and the good Dr. LP has departed for distant shores, not to return until December. (I'll be joining her in late September, but that's a story for another post.) All things considered, what better time to give in to the pleasant distraction of Matthew Guerrieri's latest quiz?

1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?

The sneering parody of Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony in Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, with seriously honorable mention to Warren Benson's evocation of Bach's "Eine feste Burg" in The Leaves Are Falling and Karel Husa's quotation of the Hussite anthem "Ye Warriors of God and His Law" in Music for Prague 1968. (Is my wind-band background showing?)

2. Name the best classical crossover album ever made.

East Village Opera Company - La Donna (Canal). A success because these guys obviously respect the rawk as much as the opera. Who else could pull off a wedding of Rossini and Eminem? Also, pretty much anything by Isao Tomita (kudos to Tears of a Clownsilly).

3. Great piece with a terrible title.

I wanted to be clever and cite David Lang's Eating Living Monkeys, but I've never actually heard it. (Plus, the title is actually kind of great.) So I'll echo the obvious choice: Kindertotenlieder.

4. If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?

Even though I adore Tippett to the extent of taking serious road trips to hear his music played live, I'll go with Britten.

5. Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer? (Besides your own.)

Sarah Deming.

6. Terrible piece with a great title.

Grendel. (And I'm not referring to the song by Marillion.)

7. What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?

If Aria counts as a "Hollywood movie," then Franc Roddam's Liebestod segment absolutely guts me. Otherwise, Beethoven's Ninth and Rossini's overture to La Gazza Ladra in A Clockwork Orange.

8. Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.

Michael Bolton - My Secret Passion: The Arias (Sony). Sincerity doesn't even elevate Michael up to Andrea Bocelli's level.

9. If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?

Sam Cooke.

10. Name a creative type in a non-musical medium who would have been a great composer.

My immediate impulse was J.M.W. Turner, but that probably would have resulted in a murkier Debussy with an inappropriate accent. So I'll vote for Diego Velásquez, with a very close also-ran for John Singer Sargent.

EXTRA CREDIT:

For opera nerds: If you had to choose:
a) Lawrence Tibbett or Robert Merrill?
b) Amelita Galli-Curci or Lily Pons?

Merrill and Galli-Curci.

For early-music nerds: Name a completely and hopelessly historically uninformed recording that you nevertheless love.

Simone Dinnerstein's intense take on Bach's Goldberg Variations -- although I hesitate here just because "completely and hopelessly uninformed" seems to imply a lack of sympathy and insight into what can make this piece an experience, which is certainly not the case here.

Thanks, Matthew, for the welcome diversion.

The continuing story of counterpoint.

The debate over minimalist music that's been going on here (and here, and here) and on Kyle Gann's PostClassic may have slowed to a trickle, but new opinions continue to surface. Bruce Hodges added his perspective -- accompanied by a stellar visual, as usual -- at Monotonous Forest a few days ago. Earlier today, Tim Rutherford-Johnson had his say at The Rambler, and presented another striking piece of visual art.

If you still haven't had your fill, tune in to WNYC-FM on Monday, August 27 at 2pm, when Kyle and I join John Schaefer on Soundcheck for what should prove to be a lively discussion of the subject. New Yorkers can tune in live at 93.9 FM; everyone else can listen via Windows Media Player or an MP3 stream, or dig the show out of the archives after Monday.

Image: Dan Flavin, untitled (to a man, George McGovern) 2, 1972.

How I learned to love the bomb.

For those of you near a computer and a high-speed Internet connection, the world premiere of the Doctor Atomic Symphony by John Adams, with the conductor leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in approximately 20 minutes (as I type this at 3:27pm EST)... we're about three-quarters of the way through Century Rolls, and presumably there's an intermission feature to come. You can tune in the live stream via RealAudio right here.

If you can't listen right now, check this page tomorrow for the archived recording.

Playlist:

Charlemagne Palestine - Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone (Organ of Corti)

Rued Langgaard - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3; and Symphonies Nos. 12-14 - Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir/Thomas Dausgaard (DaCapo)

Eliane Radigue - Songs of Milarepa (Lovely Music)

Rued Langgaard - Music of the Spheres; Four Tone Pictures - Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, Danish National Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Chandos)

Immersion therapy.

Bard Music Festival, weekend two
The New York Times, August 21, 2007

See also Tony Tommasini's fine review of the first weekend. And here, as cited by Tony and by scholar Byron Adams during the festival, is a film of Elgar recording the "Land of Hope and Glory" section of his ubiquitous Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.

Green and pleasant land.

Off to lovely Annandale-on-Hudson for an immersion in the world of Edward Elgar during the second weekend of the Bard Music Festival. I'll be offline and incommunicado until Sunday night. Be good.

Playlist:

Edward Elgar - String Quartet in E minor - Maggini Quartet (Naxos); The Dream of Gerontius - Helen Watts, Nicolai Gedda, Robert Lloyd, John Alldis Choir, London Philharmonic Choir, New Philharmonia Orchestra/Adrian Boult (EMI Classics); Violin Concerto in B minor - Albert Sammons, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Malcolm Sargent (Naxos)

Max Roach memorial broadcast on WKCR-FM (MP3 stream)

Doveman - With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead (Brassland, due out in October; meanwhile, download the first single, "Chasing Clouds," from Stereogum)

Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust (Constellation)

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music - Zeitkratzer (Asphodel)

The Angels of Light - We Are Him (Young God, due out August 28, 2007)

Curt shilling.

"When listening, keep in mind artists such as Frederic Chopin, Cat Power, Keith Jarrett, Talk Talk, and Chris Whitley -- unless you don't know any [of] them or are not a fan, in which case you should keep in mind Nick Drake, The National, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, and other, trendier bands whose music has recently appeared in car commercials."

Excerpted, verbatim save the one obvious amendment, from the back-cover text printed on promotional copies of With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead, a new CD by Doveman due out in October on the Brassland label. I'm not entirely sure that any artist could live up to these claims, but this is a very pretty album and I'm sorry I'll be missing the show at Joe's Pub on Wednesday, August 29.

Max Roach 1924–2007

A legendary musician, composer, bandleader and activist has passed today. More to say later; meanwhile, head over to WCKR-FM, where an extensive tribute will begin at noon EST. Hank Shteamer has posted an appreciation on the TONY Blog, with links to relevant articles and videos.

Update 1:51pm: The New York Times has just posted a superb obituary by Peter Keepnews -- son of fabled producer Orrin, in case you're curious.