Night After Night

Symphony in C.

Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet et al: In C at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, April 27, 2009

To my dismay, a small discrepancy found its way into this review; Jon Gibson and Morton Subotnick, mentioned at the end of the fourth paragraph, were not heard "either in the piece's 1964 premiere or its first recording, from 1968." They were in the San Francisco premiere, plain and simple, which is what I wrote. I'd mentioned those involved in the 1967 New York premiere and 1968 recording separately, just before the amended line.

Edit: For the record, I didn't describe Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan's contribution as "classical Indian," either. Sigh…

Fortunate son.

"A Singer-Songwriter Ignores Musical Boundaries"
The New York Times, April 26, 2009

A feature about Gabriel Kahane, considerably more than a singer-songwriter, but most certainly ignoring musical boundaries. Earlier this evening, Gabriel's father, Jeffrey Kahane, presented the New York premiere of Gabriel's Django: Tiny Variations on a Big Dog. If you missed it, you can hear a performance taped last Friday during John Schaefer's program, Soundcheck, on the WNYC website. At least for the moment, you can still buy tickets for Gabe's return to Joe's Pub, coming up this Friday, May 1, at 8pm. And while you're on the Times web site, check out Vivien Schweitzer's article about another emerging son of a famous father, percussionist and composer Lukas Ligeti.

Playlist:

Grateful Dead - To Terrapin: Hartford '77 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)

U-N-I and Ro Blvd. - A Love Supreme (London/Live free download)

Throbbing Gristle - The Third Mind Movements (Industrial)

Ultravox - Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Scotland (audience recording)

Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey, due out June 23)

George Tsontakis - Piano Quartet Trilogy - Broyhill Chamber Ensemble (Koch International Classics)

Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador, due out June 9)

Mike Jones - The Voice (Asylum, due out Apr. 28)

Young Jeezy - The Recession (Def Jam)

The Game - LAX (Interscope)

Giuseppe Verdi - Falstaff - Teresa Stich-Randall, Herva Nelli, Nan Merriman, Cloe Elmo, Gabor Carelli, John Carmen Rossi, Antonio Madasi, Giuseppe Valdengo, Frank Guarrera, Norman Scott, Robert Shaw Chorale, NBC Symphony Orchestra/Arturo Toscanini (RCA)

György Ligeti - Clocks and Clouds; Esa-Pekka Salonen - Violin Concerto - Leila Josefowicz, Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen (radio broadcast; with gratitude!)

El Michels Affair - Enter the 37th Chamber (Fat Beats)

Tanya Morgan - Brookynati (Interdependent Media, due out May 12)

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You (Capitol)

Terry Riley - In C - SUNY/Buffalo Center of Creative and Performing Arts (Columbia)

Terry Riley - In C - Bang on a Can All-Stars (Cantaloupe)

Terry Riley - In C - The Styrenes (Enja)

Rick Ross - Deeper Than Rap (Def Jam)

The Dead - Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, April 25, 2009 (soundboard recording)

Get the balance right.

Juilliard Opera Center: Verdi's Falstaff at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater
The New York Times, April 24, 2009

Summer with the Met Opera.

[Posted this afternoon on The Volume]

With the economy in the state it's in, it comes as no surprise that the Metropolitan Opera will not be returning to its former practice of touring complete opera performances out to the five boroughs and New Jersey this summer. But the good news is that the company is offering considerably more than last summer's one-off schmooze-fest with the "love couple" of Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu.

Moments ago, the Met announced its Summer Recital Series, a run of six concerts in five boroughs, presented in collaboration with the City Parks Foundation, as well as a Summer HD Festival of opera video screenings on the Lincoln Center Plaza, starting with Il Barbiere di Siviglia (with Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez) on August 29.

The first recital, scheduled for July 13 at Central Park SummerStage, features tres hot baritone Paolo Szot with two of the company's best young prospects, soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Alek Shrader, all accompanied by pianist Vlad Iftinca. Szot, as many of you already know, will be starring in the Met's fantastical new production of Shostakovich's The Nose next season. All six recitals will be presented free of charge, but you'll need tickets for the SummerStage event; they'll be available via the Met website starting June 1.

After the break, the complete schedule of recitals and screenings.

Art and craft.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall
The New York Times, April 22, 2009

Balance of power.

The New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall
The New York Times, April 17, 2009

Towering ambition.

Teatro Grattacielo: Mascagni's Il piccolo Marat at Avery Fisher Hall
The New York Times, April 15, 2009

Mix and match.

Absolute Ensemble at (Le) Poisson Rouge

and

Red Light New Music at the Chelsea Art Museum
The New York Times, April 13, 2009

I'm like a bird.

For anyone who has yet to notice -- and who missed this blog post on the subject -- I have indeed joined the masses on Twitter. At the risk of sounding more narcissistic than any blogger is by default, I've encountered enough surprise at this development that I'd like to take a moment and explain just why I'm there.

Yes, it's probably a little bit crazy that I'm adding yet another source of activity to an already perversely overloaded schedule. But no matter how crowded my calendar becomes, no matter how much additional work is piled on at my day job, I still seem to have the need for a purely personal outlet.

While this blog now sits forlorn, untouched for days at a time, microblogging in fits and starts at something close to the speed of life is apparently something I can actually handle -- especially since it's ridiculously easy to post from my iPhone. The five most recent Twitter posts also show up here now, over in the top-left corner.

Friends aware of my longstanding (and continuing) intense distaste for Facebook have asked what makes Twitter different, since my primary point of resistance to Facebook is the requisite blurring of boundaries between oneself and those individuals about whom one might be compelled to write with objectivity.

The biggest distinction, I think, is the notion of "friending" versus "following." That may seem like semantics; I disagree. Facebook is a social community that some folks use for professional communication; Twitter is a communications hub that some folks use to socialize. Or so I see it, anyway.

Plus, writing on walls? Snowballs? Zombie hugs? Thank you, but no.

Playlist:

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten & Håkon Kornstad - Elise (Compunctio)

DJ Envy & Tapemasters Inc. - Purple Codeine 22 (mixtape)

The Dead - Angel Orensanz Center and Blender Theater at Gramercy, March 30, 2009 (audience recordings)

Asher Roth - Asleep in the Bread Aisle (SRC/Universal Motown, due Apr. 20)

Richard Wagner - Götterdämmerung - Gré Brouwenstijn, Astrid Varnay, Ludwig Suthaus, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gustav Neidlinger, Josef Greindl, Hans Hotter, Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra/Hans Knappertsbusch (Music & Arts)

René Marie - Experiment in Truth (René Marie)

Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan - Shehnai (India Archive)

Bark Psychosis - Hex (Caroline)

Jang Sa-ik - Vol. 6 (Loen)

Live Skull - Live Skull (Massive)

Black Sabbath - Cleveland Public Hall, Cleveland, OH, March 21, 1986 (audience recording)

Kiss - Estádio Do Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil, Aug. 27, 1994 and Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, Irvine, CA, June 15, 1996 (VH1 Classic bonus DVDs)

Parting shot.

Juilliard String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall
The New York Times, April 10, 2009

When I saw this one in print on Friday, there was an extra treat on the page that pretty much no one but me would have noticed. Directly under the review was a large display advertisement for Anvil! The Story of Anvil, an excellent new documentary film about a nearly famous real-life thrash-metal band from Toronto. Among the litany of favorable press quotes at the top of the review was a five-star rating from the review that ran in Time Out New York. (No text, just the stars.) I smiled, because that review was mine, too.

My TONY colleague Joshua Rothkopf, the friend who pointed out my "quote" (so to speak) in the advertisement, also turned in a terrific feature story on Anvil and the film.