Night After Night

Chopin list.

"1 Composer, 2 Centuries, Many Picks"
The New York Times, May 28, 2010

BALLADES, SCHERZOS Arthur Rubinstein, pianist (RCA Red Seal 82876 61396-2; CD).
Amazon / Amazon MP3* / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / eMusic* / iTunes*

NOCTURNES Ivan Moravec, pianist (Nonesuch 9 79233 2; two CDs).
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / eMusic / iTunes

THE LEGENDARY 1965 RECORDING Martha Argerich, pianist (EMI Classics 5 56805 2; CD).
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / iTunes

WALTZES Alexandre Tharaud, pianist (Harmonia Mundi HMC 901927; CD).
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / eMusic / iTunes

BALLADES, OTHER WORKS Piotr Anderszewski, pianist (Virgin Classics 6 86370 2; CD).
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble* / iTunes

(* same recording, different commercial edition)

There was a time when the notion of picking five favorite Chopin recordings would have scared the bejeebers out of me. Growing up, romantic piano was never my forte, so to speak. I always enjoyed Chopin's music -- who doesn't? -- but never really bothered to explore it in any especially deep or vigorous way.

But writing for the Times these past four years has constantly forced me to break out of my box, to newly assess music I'd overlooked and reassess what I'd disregarded, and to develop an ability to analyze and describe what it was that worked, or didn't, about a given performance. That process, as well as regular live encounters with performers like Arnaldo Cohen, Evgeny Kissin, Maurizio Pollini and Yundi, helped me to go far deeper into the Chopin oeuvre than I'd previously bothered to do.

The richness therein, needless to say, is intoxicating once you've started to investigate. And in the end, it proved surprisingly easy to pick five recordings among those on my shelf that stood out for one special reason or another. For the complete descriptive text, scroll just a bit more than halfway down the article linked above.

For convenience, I've added direct links to each recording on a variety of shopping sites. I'm not an affiliate and don't make a cent for this; clearly, it's the former record store clerk in me that makes me do it. I considered adding the newish Passionato for its lossless FLAC option, but since that site only had one of the five titles (Argerich, here), the notion seemed decidedly premature. But if your favorite CD or download source isn't here, do me a favor and tell me about it.

Make it new.

American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings at Miller Theatre

and

New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, May 25, 2010

Instant poetry.

i am simon doodoo. i am michael gallery douglas. i use cetaphil. i am a wide-angle eCommerce app.

i am an NBC page. i have no chin. i am a real hausfrau. i have a -stein family name.

i am an iPad sync'd to Sade Baderinwa's WordPress account. i am the master of our domain.

i am an app for that. i have a listicle. i am beautiful and i am a chair. i am "draped up."

-- Nick Scholl (@trrill), May 21, 2010

Mixed signals.

"The Week Ahead - May 23-29"
The New York Times, May 23, 2010

Scroll halfway down the linked page for my brief preview of the program that the outstanding chamber ensemble Signal will present at Merkin Concert Hall on Thursday, May 27, pairing the U.S. debut of The Corridor, a dramatic scena by Harrison Birtwistle, with the world premiere of a Stabat Mater setting by Nico Muhly.

The Birtwistle piece, which I've heard in a radio broadcast from the Aldeburgh Festival last summer, strikes me as one of his most direct and communicative recent works. I was eager to hear it performed live, and curious as to how Muhly would approach sharing a bill with it. Alas, I'm unable to attend due to a conflicting assignment, and can only hope that a recording of Muhly's piece becomes available.

Reviews of the Birtwistle premiere:

Andrew Clements, The Guardian

Lynne Walker, The Independent

Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

Guy Dammann, The Times

Anne Ozorio, Opera Today

Gavin Dixon, MusicWeb International

Mike Reynolds, MusicalCriticism.com

Simon Thomas, musicOMH

What's in a name?

Yundi at Carnegie Hall
The New York Times, May 22, 2010

Rip it up and start again.

In anticipation of catching up with iconic English vocalist John Lydon and his latest version of Public Image Ltd. on Wednesday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, I've finally started reading—ridiculously late—Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984, a seminal music history book by Simon Reynolds.

Based on the few chapters I've consumed, the book lives up to its billing as the definitive chronicle of the era and its significant players—including PiL, the initial 1978 lineup of which appears in the photograph at left (by Dennis Morris), and also on the cover of Reynolds's book in its 2005 Penguin softcover edition. Pictured, from left to right, are drummer Jim Walker, guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble and Lydon. The most vital version of the band, the one that emerged during sessions for the epochal 1979 triple-EP Metal Box, came a year later, when Martin Atkins took over as the band's full-time drummer.

The PiL lineup that will be appearing in Williamsburg (and on Tuesday night at Terminal 5 in Manhattan) is not remotely the classic version, though rumors had Wobble, at least, being approached and saying no. Instead, the current group includes guitarist Lu Edmonds, formerly of the Damned, Mekons and 3 Mustaphas 3; drummer Bruce Smith, from the Pop Group and the Slits; and bassist Scott Firth. Following a brief, well-received U.K. tour in December 2009, the band has trekked across the U.S. in May, a tour that ends in Williamsburg.

It's an admirable and versatile group, to judge by a three-disc live recording of its December show in Leeds that I've been listening to for a few months now, and I'm very much looking forward to the show. The irony, if it can be called that, is that my sole previous live encounter with PiL also involved a lineup with Edmonds and Smith (as well as later mainstays John McGeoch and Allan Dias)—and I pretty much detested it.

But that had a lot more to do with my own expectations and prejudices—a passion for the band's early, experimental and confrontational period, combined with severe distaste for the Bill Laswell-produced Album, PiL's American-mainstream breakthrough—than it did with a very good group of interesting, proficient musicians. (It didn't help my outlook that Lydon swaggered out to an instrumental cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and the band played a faithful version of the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" later on.) More sanguine in my old age, I expect to enjoy the sight of Lydon enjoying himself.

What really prompts this post, though, is Lala, a brilliant online music service to which I managed to grow passionately attached mere months before its demise at the hands of Apple was announced. Among the many reasons that I'll miss Lala fiercely, being able to jump from Reynolds's descriptions of records by the Normal, Thomas Leer, Cabaret Voltaire and Swell Maps to a site where I can listen to all of the above—on demand, free of charge the first time and again indefinitely for a nominal free—has got to be among the foremost.

For a succinct history of Public Image Ltd. with embedded videos, see RJ Dent. The mother of all PiL fansites is the amazing Fodderstompf, a vast, keenly organized archive as engrossing as it is useful. Among Simon Reynolds's bewildering network of blogs, he posts most frequently on Blissblog; another of his blogs features his footnotes for Rip It Up and Start Again.

Playlist, Rip It Up Special Edition (2010.05.17):

The Normal - "Warm Leatherette"/"T.V.O.D." (Mute)

Thomas Leer - "Private Plane" (Oblique)

Buzzcocks - Spiral Scratch (New Hormones)

Cabaret Voltaire - "Do the Mussolini (Head Kick)"/"The Set Up" (Rough Trade)

Swell Maps - A Train to Marineville (Rough Trade)

The Pop Group - Y (Radar/Rhino)

The Slits - Cut (Island)

…to be continued…

Bloc party.

Wall to Wall Behind the Wall at Symphony Space
The New York Times, May 17, 2010

Pleasure in pieces.

"Riding Herd on the Wild Orchestra"
The New York Times, May 16, 2010

A review of three new releases featuring music by French composer Pascal Dusapin:

 

Solos Pour Orchestre
Liège Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Pascal Rophé
Naïve MO 782180; 2CDs
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / iTunes

Concerto(s)
Montpellier National Orchestra, conducted by Pascal Rophé; Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach
Naïve MO 782181; CD
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / iTunes

String Quartets & Trio
Arditti Quartet
Aeon AECD 0983; 2CDs
Amazon / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / iTunes

You know my name.

Pro Arte Quartet at Weill Recital Hall
The New York Times, May 15, 2010

Bohemian rhapsody.

The Emerson String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall
The New York Times, May 11, 2010