Night After Night

Taking flight.

The Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia at Zankel Hall
The New York Times, January 28, 2009

A new work by MSM president Robert Sirota receives its world premiere on a program featuring music by Grieg and Richard Strauss, the latter featuring more than a few superstar ringers on stage.

Made in America.

The Miró Quartet at Weill Recital Hall
The New York Times, January 27, 2009

This bright young string quartet shoots off sparks in native-born works by Antonin Dvořák, Charles Ives and Kevin Puts.

Mixed blessing.

The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall
The New York Times, January 24, 2009

Riccardo Muti conducts strangely pedestrian Haydn (with a little help from Thomas Quasthoff) and positively radiant Brahms.

Voice of experience.

Robert Ashley's Celestial Excursions at La MaMa E.T.C. Annex
The New York Times, January 20, 2009

A review from Ashley's recent triple bill in the East Village. I never managed to catch Dust, the only one of the three I'd not seen previously, nor did I see the revised version of what's now called Made Out of Concrete. But based on my impressions of Celestial Excursions, which is far clearer in this new production, I'll be looking forward to catching these productions on video at some future date.

Eternal light.

CD review: LIGETI: ‘Lux Aeterna,’ ‘Drei Phantasien nach Friedrich Hölderlin,’ Sonata for Solo Viola; HEPPENER: ‘Im Gestein’
Susanne van Els, violist; musikFabrik; Cappella Amsterdam, conducted by Daniel Reuss.
Harmonia Mundi France HMC 901985; CD.
The New York Times, January 18, 2009
(ArkivMusic, Barnes & Noble)

A review of a wonderful recent release that might easily have crept up to the Top 10 list for last year, had it not been released in December, after print deadlines had passed. Never too late to catch up with so fine a performance and recording, though. (Unfortunately, an awkward sentence crept into the review during the copy-editing process; to be clear, only three out of six movements from the Sonata for Solo Viola are on the disc.)

I'm catching up once again, after a grueling week put paid to my plans for most frequent blogging. It's disappointing -- I'd hoped to write about the debut performance by UKZ in a timely manner. I'll still get around to it, but for now, time to work through a backlog of Times reviews.

Missy Mazzoli declares Victoire.

(Posted this afternoon on the TONY Blog)

We've been enjoying the sounds we've been hearing from Victrola, a newish all-female "bandsemble" led by classically trained composer and groove-oriented keyboardist Missy Mazzoli. Turns out, however, that a certain multinational media conglomerate we won't specify felt the group's name infringed upon that of one of its long out-of-use label imprints, which necessitated a change for Mazzoli and her bandmates (Olivia di Prato and/or Andie Springer on violin, clarinetist Eileen Mack, keyboardist Lorna Krier and double-bassist Eleonore Oppenheim).

Graciously accepting defeat, Mazzoli declared Victoire to be the new name of her group, which you can catch on a double bill with the always-amazing So Percussion at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO on Wednesday, January 28 at 8pm. It'll only cost you $10 to get in, so we don't want to hear any excuses. You can hear some of Victrola's Victoire's music on its MySpace page, but Mazzoli has graciously slipped us a demo track you can stream right here:

We have to imagine that Mazzoli's not wasting much time fretting over the name change; after all, she's got a massive year ahead. In addition to Victoire's debut CD, Cathedral City, which will be issued this fall by—everyone say it together now—New Amsterdam Records, Mazzoli is busy getting ready for this year's MATA Festival, which takes over (Le) Poisson Rouge Mar 31–Apr 4. (The self-described "delinquent tap dancer turned insomniac composer" serves as the festival's executive director.)

But wait, there's more! The fabulous new-music sextet eighth blackbird will be unveiling Mazzoli's promisingly titled Still Life with Avalanche at the University of Richmond's Modlin Center on March 25. (You can bet we'll be shaking someone down for a recording.) And during the press conference announcing the 2009–10 Carnegie Hall season earlier this week, we were excited to see one of Mazzoli's greatest hits, the extremely beautiful orchestral piece These Worlds In Us, on an American Composers Orchestra concert scheduled for April 9, 2010.

Playing, listing.

Among the casualties of the dearth of original blog posts that resulted from my job change last fall was my playlists, those recaps of the more meaningful things to have gone through my head from post to post. Honestly, a lot of what I've been listening to in recent months isn't altogether pertinent for listing: a November show by Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White of Yes, part of the current "In the Present" tour, sent me into a period of listening to Yes almost exclusively, while a more recent concert by the Musical Box, that extraordinary Montreal collective devoted to recreating historic Genesis concerts, provoked a similar attention to old Genesis. But since I'm resolved to blogging with renewed vigor this year, here's the first tally for 2009:

Playlist:

Johann Sebastian Bach - Violin Concerto in E, BWV 1042; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K. 218; Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor - David Oistrakh, Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy (Naxos Historical)

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 3; Das Klagende Lied - Maureen Forrester; Heather Harper, Norma Proctor, Werner Hollweg; Boys' Chorus of St. Willibrod's Church, Amsterdam; Netherlands Radio Chorus; Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bernard Haitink (Philips)

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - The Century of Self (Richter Scale/Justice, due out Feb. 17)

Sara Watkins - Sara Watkins (Nonesuch, due out Apr. 7)

Thomas Quasthoff - Haydn Italian Arias - Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Gottfried von der Goltz (Deutsche Grammophon, purchased via the newly improved DG Web Shop; CD due out Jan. 20)

Nico Muhly - The Reader - Original Soundtrack (Lakeshore)

Peter Maxwell Davies - Leopardi Fragments - Mary Thomas, Rosemary Phillips, Melos Ensemble/John Carewe; Revelation and Fall - Mary Thomas, Pierrot Players/Peter Maxwell Davies; Five Pieces - John Ogdon; Harrison Birtwistle - Tragoedia - Melos Ensemble/Lawrence Foster (EMI Classics)

David S. Ware - Shakti (AUM Fidelity, due out Jan. 27)

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live (Listen to the Lion/EMI, due out Feb. 10)

Igor Stravinsky - Petrushka; The Rite of Spring - Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Igor Stravinsky (Sony Classical)

Robert Ashley - Celestial Excursions (Lovely Music)

Principal attractions.

"Mahler for the Children of AIDS" at Carnegie Hall

and

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Rose Studio
The New York Times, January 17, 2009

Two reviews from this week's activities. The first covers a charity performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, conducted by George Mathew and performed by principal players and other members from dozens of ensembles: the New York and Brooklyn Philharmonics, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York City Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, the Knights and more. (This review appeared exclusively on the Times web site.)

The second is a brief view of a short concert presented by the Chamber Music Society on Thursday night in the Rose Studio, in which Anthony McGill, the outstanding young principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, was prominently featured.

You can look for McGill, along with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Gabriela Montero, during the Presidential Inauguration on Tuesday. Though the instrumentation suggests Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (insert your own joke here), these musicians will actually be performing Air and Simple Gifts, a new piece by John Williams, between the oaths of Joe Biden and Barack Obama. A prime slot for sure, which is part of why Wu Han was in such giddy spirits on Thursday.

In order to survive: David S. Ware.

(Posted this afternoon on the TONY Blog)

Sobering news arrives from Steven Joerg of Brooklyn ecstatic-jazz indie label AUM Fidelity: Saxophonist and bandleader David S. Ware, whose titanic sound and spiritualized compositions have long made him a pillar of the free-jazz/Vision Festival crowd, is seriously ill and in dire need of a kidney transplant.

According to Joerg's statement, Ware was diagnosed with kidney failure in 1999, and started dialysis that fall. Since October of that year, Ware was able to administer his treatments himself, which allowed him to travel and perform. But in December, the treatments stopped working as they were supposed to; Ware was informed that a kidney transplant was his only option. So far, family members or friends who offered to donate organs either haven't matched Ware's blood type (O) or had other health conditions that prevented viability.

Joerg, who acts as Ware's manager, has put out a call for serious, able potential donors, who he will then put in touch with the Kidney Transplant Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. If you are interested and qualified, call Joerg directly at 718-854 2387, or e-mail him at aum (at) aumfidelity (dot) com.

For those unfamiliar with Ware's trademark brand of sonic reverie, here's a track from his latest album, Shakti, due out on Tuesday, January 27, on AUM Fidelity. Ware's current group features guitarist Joe Morris, bassist William Parker and drummer Warren Smith.

A man for all seasons.

Olli Mustonen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The New York Times, January 14, 2009

The provocative Finnish pianist plays Tchaikovsky's The Seasons and his own Jehkin Iivana, and collaborates with members of the New York Philharmonic in Shostakovich's Piano Quintet.