Alex Ross's Blog, page 12

For Quincy Jones

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I had the honor of meeting the remarkable Dr. Jones at the New England Conservatory in 2010. I spoke at the NEC's graduation ceremony, where Quincy was receiving an honorary degree. Of course I mentioned in my remarks that he had studied with Nadia Boulanger. My parents came up for the occasion, and at one point Quincy struck up a conversation with my mother, asking about her background. When my mother told him she was of Greek descent, Quincy began conversing with her in Greek. I have no idea how he knew Greek. My mother was as completely disarmed as I ever saw her.

Annual William Bolcom moment

Donald Trump's "day of love"

Previously: The marginal lament of a D.C. native.

Liza Lim's new cello concerto

In the remaining days of October you can listen at this link to Lim's A Sutured World, with Nicolas Altstaedt as the soloist and Edward Gardner conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony.

Nov. 2, 1920

The pocketbook and certain little things talked loud and noble,
And got in the way; too many readers go by the headlines,
party men will muddle up the facts,
So a good many citizens voted as grandpa always did,
or thought a change for the sake of change
               seemed natural enough.
“It’s raining, lets throw out the weather man,
Kick him out! Kick him out! Kick him out!
              Kick him out! Kick him!”
Prejudice and politics, and the stand-patters came in strong,
and yelled, “Slide back! Now you’re safe, that’s the easy way!”
Then the timid smiled and looked relieved,
“We’ve got enough to eat, to hell with ideals!” ...

                        — Charles Ives

Incomprehensible institutional failure

Joshua Kosman, retired San Francisco Chronicle critic, comments in his new newsletter on a recent performance of Esa-Pekka Salonen's Cello Concerto at the San Francisco Symphony, under the composer's direction: "I don’t want to start penning weekly rants about Salonen’s departure, or the short-sightedness that has led to that incomprehensible institutional failure. But there was no way to witness the excitement of this event — the outpouring of love directed from the hall to the stage, the ovation that brought Salonen and Eudeikis back for curtain call after curtain call, the enthusiasm with which this superb but not especially accessible work was received — and not wonder about the choices and priorities that have brought the organization to its current impasse."

Donaueschingen doings

Several significant premières took place during the 2024 edition of the Donaueschingen Festival, and, as usual, SWR has made the concerts available online. At around 1 hr 14m in the video above you can hear Chaya Czernowin's Unforeseen dusk: bones into wings, for six amplified voices, orchestra, and electronics — a minutely teeming natural soundscape, with the vocal soloists calling out in sometimes desperate, sometimes dreamlike tones. Also very much worth a listen is a concert featuring George Lewis's The Reincarnation of Blind Tom, a majestically wild piece written for the great Roscoe Mitchell (with obbligato AI piano), and Simon Steen-Andersen's kaleidoscopic grosso, composed for Yarn/Wire. Mark Andre's sprawling, meditative piano-and-electronics work …selig ist…, which Jeffrey Arlo Brown previewed for the New York Times, can be heard here.

Previously: Donaueschingen 2012.

Ives at 150

Happy birthday, Mr. Ives! Jeremy Denk marks the anniversary.

Chou Wen-chung at 100

In the spring, Columbia University hosted a centennial concert for the late Chou Wen-chung, a composer who first won notice as a student of Varèse and later established his own identity through mediations between East and West. His output was not large, yet it exhibited unfailing craftsmanship and unflagging inspiration. On Sunday October the 13th, you can see a webcast of that Columbia concert, with the Continuum ensemble under the direction of Joel Sachs. Featured is the American premiere of a recently rediscovered piece titled In the Mode of Shang.

For Leif Segerstam