Night After Night

Playlist (Abschied).

A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears.
Published on National Sawdust Log.

Goings On About Town, March 30, 2020.

The Goings On About Town section in The New Yorker, not surprisingly under the circumstances, is suspended indefinitely in its conventional format. But people still need wonderful things to occupy their time, perhaps especially right now, and some bright soul came upon the notion of publishing album reviews instead of concert picks, at least for the time being. So here's my first-ever New Yorker album review, covering piano works, a sublime recent collection of gemlike compositions by Anastassis Philippakopoulos, recorded by pianist and fellow composer Melaine Dalibert, issued in February on the Elsewhere label. (Click on the image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the text on the New Yorker website.)

[link]

Order piano works on Bandcamp:

The future is an infinite succession of presents.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."—Howard Zinn

From You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
Beacon Press; 2002

(More than anything else, this is what I have to remember, and to believe, right now. I promise to post more, soon.)

Playlist (Out Beyond Earshot).

A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears.
Published on National Sawdust Log.

Note: YouTube embed codes were not working when this list was made, so links are provided where necessary.

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Reflections (Concord Jazz; 1986)

William O. Smith - Two Sides of Bill Smith (CRI; 1974)
> Concerto for Jazz Soloist and Orchestra - William O. Smith, Orchestra U.S.A./Guther Schuller; Variants for Solo Clarinet - William O. Smith; Mosaic - William O. Smith, Robert Suderberg

Shelly Manne & His Men - Vol. 6: Concerto for Clarinet and Combo (Contemporary; 1957)

Anastasis Philippakopoulos - piano works - Melaine Dalibert (Elsewhere; 2020)

Lea Bertucci - Acoustic Shadows (SA Recordings; due April 15, 2020. More details here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Flying to Kahani - Anne-Marie McDermott, Orchestra of the League of Composers/Charles Wuorinen (YouTube; 2016)

The Giving Shapes - Earth Leaps Up (Elsewhere; 2020)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat (K. 595); Franz Schubert - Allegretto in C minor (D. 915); Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 7 in E - Paul Lewis, Berlin Philharmonic/Bernard Haitink (Digital Concert Hall; 2019)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 in C minor - Berlin Philharmonic/Zubin Mehta (Digital Concert Hall; 2019)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 9 in D minor - Bavarian State Orchestra/Hans Knappertsbusch (Orfeo; 1958/2016)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 in E-flat ("Romantic," original version ed. L. Nowak) - Bavarian State Orchestra/Kent Nagano (Sony Classical; 2009)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 5 in B-flat (original version) - Berlin Philharmonic/Wilhelm Furtwängler (Russian Compact Disc; 1942/2011)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 6 in A - New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Georg Tintner (Naxos; 1997)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 3 - Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell (Columbia/Sony Classical; 1966/2018)

Dave Brubeck - Dave Brubeck Octet (Fantasy; 1946-49/1956)

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Near-Myth (Fantasy; 1961)

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Brubeck à la Mode (Fantasy; 1960)

Luigi Nono - A floresta é jovem e cheja de vida (Col Legno; 1955-56/2020)

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Concord on a Summer Night (Concord Jazz; 1982)

Matt LaJoie - Everlasting Spring (Flower Room; 2020)

Starbirthed - Tour Guide (Flower Room; 2020)

Dante Boon - One Night in Forest Hills (Bánh Mì Verlag; 2020)
> Christian Wolff - Exercise 15; Assaf Gidron - Hurray; John Carlos Callahan - Blue Dream Excerpt with Proportional Ending

Sarah Hennies - Habitat (self-released; 2020)

Will Guthrie - For Stephane (self-released; 2020)

Caterina Barbieri - Scratches on the Readable Surface Live Version (self-released; 2020)

Lea Bertucci - Reaches (self-released; 2020. Available only on March 20, 2020)

Yarn/Wire - Yarn/Wire/Currents Vol. 6 (self-released; 2020)
> Olivia Block - Calibration Circle; Sarah Hennies - Primers

The Glass Orchestra - Verrillon (self-released; 1982/2013)

Beatriz Ferreyra - Echoes + (Room40; 2020)

Jason Lescalleet - The Tunnel at the End of the Rainbow (Glistening Examples; 2020)

Sarah Davachi - Horae (self-released; 2020)

Ne(x)tworks - Live, Vol. 2: Music by Jon Gibson (self-released; 2020)
> Multiples; Anthem from Relative Calm; Untitled - Trio, excerpt; Multiples

Roger Eno and Brian Eno - Mixing Colours (Deutsche Grammophon; 2020)

(Not) Goings On About Town, March 16 & 23, 2020.

Last week, before I could collect and share my contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the March 16, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates March 11-17, the cancellations started to trickle in—and then came the flood. Here are screenshots of my listings for that issue as they appeared online, before they were hidden away one by one. (Click on an image to enlarge it, or hit the link to read the listing on the New Yorker website.)

[link]

[link]

[link]

[link]

>>>>>>>>>>          >>>>>>>>>>          >>>>><<<<<          <<<<<<<<<<          <<<<<<<<<<

While all of this was going on, we GOAT contributors already had put the finishing touches on our listings for the March 23 issue, covering the dates March 18-24, with our valiant editor, Briana Younger. Those listings never made it to page or to the website, and none of the events transpired. Perhaps some of them will, some time down the line; for now, I'm preserving the text here simply for posterity.

Again: The following events are not happening on the dates and times listed.

Switch~ Ensemble
DiMenna Center; March 21 at 7:30

Switch~ Ensemble, which devotes itself to fusing music with technology in innovative ways, presents the world première of “Up Close,” by the resourceful Swiss composer Katharina Rosenberger. The new piece, the result of a yearlong collaboration between Rosenberger and the group, features tiny sounds that are closely amplified and conjoined with interactive lighting in a darkened room. Complementary works by Cathy van Eck, Dieter Ammann, and the ensemble members Jason Thorpe Buchanan and David Clay Mettens complete an intriguing program.

Latitude 49
Areté Venue and Gallery; March 24 at 7, free with suggested R.S.V.P.

A well-travelled sextet widely known for its technical assurance, stylistic versatility, and abundant personality, Latitude 49 visits Brooklyn on the heels of its vivid new recording, “Wax & Wire.” Playing at the cozy, comfortable venue Areté, the group serves up compositions by Gabriella Smith, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Viet Cuong from the album, plus a newer piece by Juri Seo and a longtime favorite by Pierce Gradone.

Belcea Quartet
92nd Street Y; March 24 at 7:30

The Belcea Quartet recorded a compelling Beethoven cycle not quite a decade ago; it’s no surprise, then, that the British group would mine this lode during a season dominated by the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program isn’t quite an alpha and omega, but it’s close, pairing the blithe Quartet No. 1 in F Major with the powerful Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat Major—the latter outfitted with its still jolting original ending, the “Grosse Fuge.”

Johnny Gandelsman
Irish Arts Center; March 24 at 8

The violinist Johnny Gandelsman, a linchpin of Brooklyn Rider and the Silk Road Ensemble, celebrates the release of his superb new recording of Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello, as rearranged for violin. The Irish Arts Center is an ideal setting in which to hear the set of beloved works anew, both for its intimacy and its close association with dance—a quality Gandelsman emphasizes in his interpretations.

Passing notes: 50 Years of S.E.M. Ensemble, online April 1.

As has been the case with basically every upcoming concert scheduled to occur during the next six weeks or more, New York new-music institution the S.E.M. Ensemble has announced that its planned concert for April 1 at the Bohemian National Hall has been canceled. In this instance, presenting the concert online for an empty house also wasn't an option. But with admirable resourcefulness, the ensemble and its leader – the composer, flutist, and conductor Petr Kotik – will present a virtual recreation of the celebratory event, featuring recent live recordings of the pieces involved.

Dates and sources for the recordings have just been announced:

Christian Wolff
Small Piece for Orchestra (2019, American premiere)
Ostravská banda, Petr Kotik, conductor
August 26, 2019 at Ostrava Days Festival, Czech Republic

Robert Ashley
The Mystery of the River (2014)
Excerpt from the opera Atalanta (Acts of God) (1991)
Thomas Buckner, baritone; Tom Hamilton, electronics
September 11, 2014 at Roulette Intermedium, NYC

Miya Masaoka
States of Being, States of Becoming (2018, world premiere)
S.E.M. Ensemble, Petr Kotik, conductor
December 19, 2018 at Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC

Julius Eastman
Joy Boy (1972)
S.E.M. Ensemble
September 26, 2017 at Studio 1 of Czech Radio Ostrava

Petr Kotik
Wednesdays at RW on Spring Street (2019-20, American premiere)
Ostravská banda, Petr Kotik, conductor; Hana Kotkova, violin
August 30, 2019 at Ostrava Days Festival, Czech Republic

The streaming presentation also will include commentary from Wolff, Masaoka, and Kotik, as well as an overview of S.E.M. activities by George Lewis. You can watch on April 1 at 1pm EST at www.semensemble.org.

Playlist (Ich habe genug).

A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears.
Published on National Sawdust Log.

David Grubbs & Taku Unami - Comet Meta (Drag City; due May 29, 2020)

Ellen Fullman - In the Sea (self-released/Superior Viaduct; 1987/2020)

Rachel Beetz - Script - Rescript (Populist; 2020)
> Rachel Beetz - Script - Rescript; Nicholas Deyoe - NCTRN3; Edward Hamel - Pull the Name from My Tongue; Brian Griffeath-Loeb - Echoes of Cassandra; Yiheng Yvonne Wu - Relay/Replay

Cenk Ergün - Sonare & Celare - JACK Quartet (New Focus; 2020)

Liquid Transmitter - Meander (Infrequency Editions; 2020)

John McCowan - Solo Contra (International Anthem; 2017)

Jon Gibson - Songs & Melodies, 1973-1977 (Superior Viaduct; 2020)

Richard Strauss - Don Juan; Dai Fujikura - Impulse (Piano Concerto No. 3); Richard Strauss - Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D; Richard Strauss - Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche - Yu Kosuge, Alexei Ogrntchouk, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Jonathan Nott (Audio livestream; 2020. Archived here.)

Johann Sebastian Bach - Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (arr. Myra Hess); Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor (arr. Wilfried Fischer); Chorale Prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (arr. Ferruccio Busoni); Cantata Ich habe genug - Simone Dinnerstein, Kady Evanyshyn, Alecia Lawyer, Rebecca Fischer, Baroklyn (Video livestream; 2020. Not archived; program information here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Eighth Symphony ("Theologoumena"); Fourth Piano Concerto - Peter Serkin, Boston Symphony Orchestra/James Levine (Bridge; 2016. Audio samples here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Symphony No. 3 - Japan Philharmonic Orchestra/Akeo Watanabe (CRI; 1962. Audio samples here.)

Arnold Schoenberg - Trio for Strings; Alexandra du Bois - Heron. Rain. Blossom.; Tristan Murail - Paludes; Ben Johnston - String Quartet No. 4 (“Amazing Grace”) - Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Video livestream; 2020. Archived here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Symphony Seven - unidentified orchestra and conductor (composer's website; 1997. Available for streaming here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Piano Concerto No. 3 - Garrick Ohlsson, San Francisco Symphony/Herbert Blomstedt (Elektra Nonesuch/Tzadik; 1990/2005. Audio samples here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Piano Concerto - Charles Wuorinen, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/James Dixon (CRI; 1968)

Ben Hackbarth - Lockstep Variations; Clara Iannotta - Limun; Brian Ferneyhough - Liber Scintilarrum; Brigitta Muntendorf - shivers on speed; Gérard Grisey - Talea - Riot Ensemble/Aaron Holloway-Nahum (Video livestream; 2020. Not archived; program information here.)

Charles Wuorinen - Percussion Symphony - New Jersey Percussion Ensemble/Raymond DesRoches (Nonesuch; 1978)

Elliott Sharp - The Velocity of Hue (Emanem/Zoar; 2003/2017)

Johann Sebastian Bach - St. John Passion - James Gilchrist, Hana Blažiková, Damien Guillon, Zachary Wilder, Christian Immler, Yusuke Watanabe, Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki (Video livestream; 2020. Archived here.)

Ernst von Dohnányi - Serenade; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence; Béla Bartók - Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion - Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Video livestream; 2020. Archived here.)

Playlist (Engineered to Suit You).

A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears.
Published on National Sawdust Log.

Anastassis Philippakopoulos - piano works - Melaine Dalibert (Elsewhere)

Matt LaJoie - Everlasting Spring (Flower Room; due March 14, 2020)

crys cole - Beside Myself (Students of Decay; 2020)

Katharina Rosenberger - REIN - Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg/Baldur Brönnimann (YouTube; 2020)

Arnold Schoenberg - Pelleas und Melisande - Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Yahav Shani (France Musique/YouTube; 2018)

Tyshawn Sorey - Unfiltered (Pi Recordings; 2020. Audio and more information here.)

Johannes Brahms - Academic Festival Overture; Michael Pisaro - Umbra & Penumbra; Anahita Abbasi - why the trees were murmuring; Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 3 in F - Greg Stuart, La Jolla Symphony/Steven Schick (University of California Television/YouTube; 2020)

Jon Gibson - Melody IV Part 1 - Apartment House (SoundCloud; 2019)

Linda Catlin Smith - Gold leaf - unidentified orchestra and conductor (SoundCloud; 2018)

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (Deluxe Edition) (Lava/Kscope; 2002/2020)

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters (Tzadik; 1999. Audio samples here.)

Witch ‘n’ Monk - Witch ‘n’ Monk (Tzadik; due May 22, 2020)

Urs Peter Schneider - klavierwerke 1971-2015 - Urs Peter Schneider (Edition Wandelweiser; 2019. Audio samples here.)

Ehnahre - Quatrain (self-released; 2020)

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters 2 (making sonic spaces) (Tzadik; 1999. Audio samples here.)

Latitude 49 - Wax and Wire (New Amsterdam; 2020)
> Gabriella Smith - Number Nine; Viet Cuong - Wax and Wire; Sarah Kirkland Snider - Thread and Fray; Annika Socolofsky - a sense of who; Chris Sies - these (were) used to harm; Sarah Kirkland Snider - You Are Free

McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy (Blue Note; 1967)

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (Impulse!; 1965)

David Murray - Special Quartet (DIW/Columbia; 1990)

Wayne Shorter - JuJu (Blue Note; 1965)

McCoy Tyner - Asante (Blue Note; 1974)

Hank Mobley - Straight, No Filter (Blue Note; 1963-88/1985)

Art Farmer/Benny Golson - Meet the Jazztet (Argo; 1963)

Joe Henderson - Inner Urge (Blue Note; 1966)

McCoy Tyner - Tender Moments (Blue Note; 1968)

Grant Green - Matador (Blue Note; 1964/1979)

Bobby Hutcherson - Stick-Up! (Blue Note; 1968)

John Coltrane - Ascension (Impulse!; 1966)

McCoy Tyner - Solo: Live from San Francisco (McCoy Tyner Music/Half Note; 2009)

Florence Price - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 - Fort Smith Symphony/John Jeter (Naxos; 2019)

Liza Lim - Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus (Kairos; 2020) > Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus - Sophie Schafleitner, Klangforum Wien/Peter Rundel; Axis Mundi - Lorelei Dowling; Songs Found in Dream - Klangforum Wien/Stefan Asbury

Amy Beach - Symphony in E minor ("Gaelic") - Nashville Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Schermerhorn (Naxos; 2003)

Ruth Anderson - Here (Arc Light Editions; 2020)

Olga Neuwirth - …miramondo multiplo… - Håkan Hardenberger, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra/Ingo Metzmacher; Remnants of Song – An Amphigory - Antoine Tamestit, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien/Susanna Mälkki; Masaot/Clocks Without Hands - Vienna Philharmonic/Daniel Harding (Kairos; 2020)

Who Is Florence Price?

Reading to and with The Girl at bedtime is a constant joy: a time for discovery and sharing and, increasingly, an opportunity to gauge how her ability to read on her own is growing by leaps and bounds. One thing we especially enjoy is books about real-life women who made a substantial impact in science or the arts. We've got both of the Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls volumes, naturally—and we're even friendly with one of the women profiled therein, a firefighter who lives in our building in Queens. We've got special favorite books about Eugenie Clark, a bold ichthyologist who dared to love sharks, and Joan Procter, a pioneering herpetologist who revolutionized how reptiles are housed in zoos. We've read engaging age-appropriate biographies of Helen Frankenthaler, and Zaha Hadid, and Yayoi Kusama, and more.

Tonight we added a new volume to our library, and it's got a very special twist: Unlike all the other books I just mentioned, Who Is Florence Price? was created for young people by young people. Newly published by the Kaufman Music Center, the slender paperback was written and illustrated by sixth, seventh, and eighth graders enrolled in the center's Special Music School, guided by teacher Shannon Potts.

Near as I can tell, Who Is Florence Price? is not available commercially—but, having read it this evening, I'll voice a sincere wish that everyone could get their hands on it. In lively and affirmative prose, the book recounts a succinct version of Price's life that hews to facts presented in widely read 2018 articles by Micaela Baranello in The New York Times (here) and Alex Ross in The New Yorker (here). Both of those articles relate a story about a trove of yellowing manuscripts found in a dilapidated house outside of Chicago in 2009, restoring to circulation works by Price believed long lost. (It bears mention that those two stories unwittingly played into a burst of "long-lost composer rediscovered" claims, which scholars like Kori Hill and Doug Shadle, among others, rebutted efficiently; unlike her manuscripts, Price herself never had gone wholly missing.)

The rediscovery of the manuscripts – a genuinely momentous event that absolutely did serve to catapult Price back into the public eye – both starts and finishes the story told by the Special Music School students. The prose is easygoing and stylish, telling a story of aspiration, determination, and substantial achievement. The authors deal with obstacles represented by Price's gender and ethnicity in plainspoken manner. And notably, while the instance of conductor Frederick Stock taking up Price's Symphony No. 1 is rightly treated as a life-changing event, a reader gets the sense that the milestone came as a result of Price's resolve to have her talent noticed and appreciated, rather than an anointment of worth from a white male elite.

As I indicated previously, in recent years I've read a lot of books aimed at relating sophisticated life stories for very young readers; it takes a deft balance of content and tone, and these young writers get the mix just so. The illustrations – an appealing mix of drawing, painting, and collage – are similarly sophisticated and often arresting, as you might have seen in a tweet by the composer Marcos Balter late last week.

Heartwarming moment of the year: Kate Sheeran gave me this beautiful book on Florence Price, written and illustrated by middle schoolers from the @KaufmanMusicNYC Special Music School, and I ugly cried all over it. If you have a kid, get a copy!!! pic.twitter.com/2JZDtTCFPb

— Marcos Balter (@MarcosBalter) February 28, 2020

You likely noticed in the photograph at the top of this post that my copy of Who Is Florence Price? arrived with a handwritten card from one of the authors. I hope he won't mind that I'm sharing his message with you:

Dear Mr. Smith,

In January we researched, wrote, and illustrated this book about Florence Price. This project taught me that even music back then, and even now had/have ways to put some people better than others. Just like how one conductor changed Florence's musical life, it only takes one important person to change someone's life. I hope you enjoy the book.

Sincerely,

Jonah 12

7th grader

Dear Jonah: Thank you! I did enjoy the book a great deal, and so did my six-year-old daughter, who immediately declared my copy of Who Is Florence Price? is now part of her personal library. I'm certain that we'll be reading it many, many more times now, and I hope that many, many more people will have an opportunity to do the same.

Sincerely,

Steve and The Girl

P.S. We'd like to extend our thanks to Kaufman Music Center executive director Kate Sheeran for sending the book and your note along, too.

After we set the book aside for the night, we listened to a bit of the first movement from Price's Symphony No. 1, in the excellent Naxos recording by the Fort Smith Symphony conducted by John Jeter. The Girl was duly impressed, but the rousing strains weren't especially amenable to falling asleep, so we switched over to our traditional lullaby, Bach's "Goldberg" Variations. (No, that's not pompous; it's effective.) But had I thought of it, maybe I could have played the incredibly beautiful Andante Cantabile movement from Price's String Quartet in A minor. Listen for yourself, in this gorgeous recent performance presented by Castle of Our Skins at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Goings On About Town, March 9, 2020.

My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the March 9, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates March 4-10. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.)

Dai Fujikura
Miller Theatre; March 5 at 8

The intrepid musicians of International Contemporary Ensemble present a Composer Portrait showcasing music by a gifted longtime associate of the group, including a world premiere.

yMusic
Rockwood Music Hall; March 5 at 7

The unpredictable sextet yMusic celebrates the release of a brilliant new album, Ecstatic Science, featuring music by Missy Mazzoli, Caroline Shaw, Gabriella Smith, and Paul Wiancko.

New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; March 5 and 10 at 7:30, March 7 at 8

The stylish and insightful conductor Louis Langrée makes his Philharmonic debut (!!) with a top-to-bottom luscious program that includes the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; March 8 at 5

Robert Schumann gets top billing, but the real headline news here is the New York premiere of a new piece by John Harbison, featuring soprano Joëlle Harvey—who also lends her voice to music by Schubert and Chausson.