Night After Night

Rendezvous 802.

Nico Muhly, Thomas Bartlett and Sam Amidon at Miller Theatre
The New York Times, September 12, 2009

Haydn in plain sight.

"Haydn Recordings: A Legacy Reconsidered"
The New York Times, September 11, 2009

As I've stated on several previous occasions, as a New York Times reader I always enjoyed the record-roundup features the paper has run for composers' birthdays and other auspicious occasions. For the last three years I've also enjoyed the privilege of contributing to those features. But choosing just five recordings to celebrate the bicentennial of Haydn's death is like rolling the proverbial rock uphill: There's just no way to adequately plumb the depths of so massive and meaningful a corpus of work. After much consideration, I finalized my picks while cloistered in a hotel room in Rhinebeck, NY, during the Bard Music Festival. Here they are, including links to shopping sites with audio samples. But if you read my essay, you'll notice that I took pains to at least mention some of the more prominent also-rans in passing. (In the Times web layout, my selections start on page two.)

SYMPHONIES (COMPLETE) Philharmonia Hungarica, conducted by Antal Dorati (Decca 478 1221-0; 33 CDs).
(ArkivMusic, Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

PIANO TRIOS (6) Patrick Cohen, fortepianist; Erich Höbarth, violinist; Christophe Coin, cellist (Harmonia Mundi HMX 2968298.99; two CDs).
(ArkivMusic, Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

PIANO SONATAS NOS. 32, 34, 42; OTHER WORKS Alfred Brendel, pianist (Philips B000316302; CD).
(ArkivMusic, Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

‘DIE SCHÖPFUNG’ Vocal soloists; Balthasar-Neumann Chorus and Ensemble, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77537 2; two CDs).
(Amazon)

‘DIE JAHRESZEITEN’ Vocal soloists; RIAS Chamber Chorus, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, conducted by René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi HMC 901829.30; two CDs).
(ArkivMusic, Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

Master thespian.

In which your humble narrator resists alt-rock media kingpin Matt Pinfield's attempt to force alterations in the Top 20 Rock Songs list I painstakingly compiled for a Labor Day Weekend countdown on WRXP-FM. Cinema verité at its pithiest.

The station posted the results of its "Definitive 1019" listener survey, and I'm only vaguely surprised to learn that not one of my 20 picks coincided with the top 20 on the list. The closest—unless you count my "legacy" vote for eighth-place finisher "Gimme Shelter"—was Aerosmith's "Dream On," number 24 on the RXP list and my personal number 17.

Anniversary.

Fall and all attendant memories
Crowd the day with unrelated histories
Each year leaves its unresolving fantasies
To hang around each corner
Hang around each street.

Thick with ghosts, the wind whips round in circuitries
Carrying words as strangers exchange pleasantries
Do they intrude upon your private reveries
As they meet you on each corner
Meet you on each street.

Watch for daily braveries
Notice newfound courtesies
Finger sudden legacies
As they clean up every corner
Wash down every street.

Mark the month and all its anniversaries
Put away the draft of all your eulogies
Clear the way for all your private memories
As they meet you on each corner
Meet you on each street.

Make the time for all your possibilities
They live on every street.

Suzanne Vega, "Anniversary," from Beauty & Crime (Blue Note, 2007)
Photograph from Newsday, borrowed without permission.

(I'm repeating this post intact for the third year running; I still haven't found anything that expresses my feelings about this day more gently, acutely or perceptively.)

No wires attached.

Andrea Bocelli with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, September 10, 2009

Native son.

Native son
Gotham-born maestro Alan Gilbert takes up the reins at the New York Philharmonic
Time Out New York, September 10–16, 2009