Alex Ross's Blog, page 17

For Hans Janke

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Yuja Wang

Thoroughly Modern. The New Yorker, June 3, 2024.

A Stenhammar moment

In which Stenhammar proves himself a tunesmith at the Rachmaninov level.

Zemlinsky, Schulhoff

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Out of the Darkness. The New Yorker, May 20, 2024.

Twentieth-anniversary issue

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"I have four razors and a dictaphone."

                — Andrey Tarkovsky, Diaries, 1979

Previously: Quote of the day.

Eagle Mountain, Amargosa River Valley

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Eagle Mountain is a solitary, jagged limestone mass that rises eighteen hundred feet above the Amargosa River Valley. "A fun and easy scramble," the Internet said. To my fifty-six-year-old legs, it was not, but worth the fairly considerable effort. In the last picture, Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley, is visible far in the distance. I'm happy to hear from Susan Sorrells that plans for an Amargosa Basin National Monument are moving along. Also, the vole population in Shoshone is now around ten or so, with many more vole pups expected this spring. This area remains my favorite place on earth.

A Robert Carl moment

Nightafternight playlist

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Sarah Hennies, Zeitgebers, Clock Dies, Motor Tapes; Ensemble 0, Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Dedalus (New World, available digitally May 3)

Bára Gísladóttir, VAPE, Hringla, COR; Bára, Eva Ollikainen conducting the Iceland Symphony (Dacapo, out May 17)

Fauré, Complete Piano Music; Lucas Debargue (Sony)

Ockeghem, Complete Songs, vol. 2; Blue Heron (Blue Heron)

Louise Bertin, Fausto; Karine Deshayes, Karina Gauvin, Ante Jerkunica, Nico Darmanin, Christophe Rousset conducting Les Talens Lyriques and the Flemish Radio Choir (Bru Zane)

Music in Time of War: music of Debussy and Komitas; Kirill Gerstein, Ruzan Mantashyan, Katia Skanavi, Thomas Adès (myrios)

John Adams, Girls of the Golden West; Davóne Tines, Julia Bullock, Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Daniela Mack, Ryan McKinny, Adams conducting the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the LA Phil (Nonesuch)

Louis Beydts, Melodies and Songs; Cyrille Dubois, Tristan Raës (Aparté)

Chopin, Études; Yunchan Lim (Decca)

Cosmos Kosman

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My friend and colleague Joshua Kosman, who has been the widely esteemed chief music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle for thirty years, is stepping down. In a farewell column, Joshua looks past the near-extinction of classical-music criticism as a profession — an ever-dwindling handful of people in America still have full-time staff jobs in the field — and conveys a characteristically wise and warm message to his audience: "The important thing is to have the conversation, to take music seriously in all its divine glory and human fallibility . . . We listen, we react and then we go in search of the reasons we responded as we did. Did you find the music exciting, boring, incomprehensible, weirdly familiar? Can you try to say why? Congratulations — you’re a music critic." Fortunately, there is no danger of Joshua's voice going silent; it will surely be present in less institutionalized venues. There's a celebration of him tonight at Manny's, in San Francisco.

A Goldmann moment