Alex Ross's Blog, page 22

For Stephen Goldstine

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The young Stephen photographs himself with Edward Weston.

The San Francisco Chronicle remembers an extraordinary man, one who lived for art and artists.

California Festival

Pacific Modern. The New Yorker, Dec. 11, 2023.

Zürcher Schneetag

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My visit here, motivated primarily by Thomas Mann research, happily coincides with the Sonic Matter Festival, under the artistic direction of Katharina Rosenberger.

Am Bodensee

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A Jonah Haven moment

From Haven's debut CD on Wergo.

A Friedrich Hollaender moment

Hollaender's scalding satire of antisemitism appeared in his Spuk in der Villa Stern revue of 1931. The lyrics are here, though they lose some of their bite in translation.

An Alkan moment

This is equally a Mark Viner moment.

Dike Newlin at 100

The astonishing life of Dika Newlin, who would have been one hundred today, can hardly be summarized in a couple of sentences. Some years back, Donna Arnold wrote a wonderful piece about her for NewMusicBox.

A Georges Lentz moment

Lentz's Violin Concerto, “…to beam in distant heavens…,” had its première at the Sydney Symphony in April, with Umberto Clerici conducting and Arabella Steinbacher undertaking the monumental solo part. In other Lentz news, the Cobar Sound Chapel is now up and running in the Australian Outback.

Bookshelf

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New and recent publications of interest.

Jeremy Eichler, Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance (Knopf)

Jeffrey Arlo Brown, The Life and Music of Gérard Grisey: Delirium and Form (University of Rochester Press)

Harald Kisiedu and George E. Lewis, eds., Composing While Black: Afrodiasporische Neue Musik Heute / Afrodiasporic New Music Today (Wolke Verlag)

Fiona Maddocks, Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile (Pegasus)

Bonnie Gordon, Voice Machines: The Castrato, the Cat Piano, and Other Strange Sounds  (University of Chicago Press)

Mark Hugh Malone, William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator (University Press of Mississippi)

Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel, eds., Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine (Callaway)

Sasha Frere-Jones, Earlier (Semiotext(e))