Alex Ross's Blog, page 25

Windansea

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A Louis Karchin moment

The Sonata-Fantasia is featured on the new Karchin disc Keyboards / Winds (Bridge Records), devoted largely to music composed during the pandemic.

Feldman on mourning

Beethoven in the Tank

Slow Beethoven by The TANK Center for Sonic Arts

The opening fugue of Opus 131 played at one-seventh speed, by a distinguished quartet consisting of Lara St. John, Miranda Cuckson, Milan Milisavljevic, and Jeffrey Zeigler. The musicians were recorded at National Sawdust, in Brooklyn, and their performance was then relayed through the hyper-resonant acoustics of The Tank, in Rangely, Colorado. Bruce Odland and James Paul oversaw the process.

Nielsen on film

Via longtime Noise friend Patrick Swanson.

At the grave of Warren G. Harding

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Nightafternight playlist

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New and releases of interest, in the Steve Smith manner.

Fantasia: Bach-Siloti Air on a G String, Bach Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, Liszt Sonata, Schubert-Liszt "Der Doppelgänger," Berg Klavierstück in D Minor, Berg Sonata, Busoni Fantasia Contrappuntisca, Busoni Nuit de Noël; Igor Levit (Sony Classical)

Herrmann, The Man Who Knew Too Much, On Dangerous Ground; William T. Stromberg conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Intrada)

Elis Hallik, Born in Waves and other works; Ensemble Synaesthesis, Triin Ruubel, Juta Õunapuu-Mocanita, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Fractales, Sirje Viise, Monika Mattiesen, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Theodor Sink, Regina Udod, Ensemble U: (Kairos)

Weinberg, Dawn, Symphony No. 12; John Storgårds conducting the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos)

George Lewis, Afterword; Joelle Lamarre, Gwendolyn Brown, Julian Terrell Otis, David Fulmer conducting the International Contemporary Ensemble (New Focus)

Jürg Frey, String Trio; Apartment House (Another Timbre)

Cassandra Miller, Traveller Song, Thanksong; Miller, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini (Black Truffle)

John Luther Adams, Three High Places, Darkness and Scattered Light, Three Nocturnes; Robert Black (Cold Blue)

Playlist

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Fantasia: Bach-Siloti Air on a G String, Bach Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, Liszt Sonata, Schubert-Liszt "Der Doppelgänger," Berg Klavierstück in D Minor, Berg Sonata, Busoni Fantasia Contrappuntisca, Busoni Nuit de Noël; Igor Levit (Sony Classical)

Herrmann, The Man Who Knew Too Much, On Dangerous Ground; William T. Stromberg conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Intrada)

Elis Hallik, Born in Waves and other works; Ensemble Synaesthesis, Triin Ruubel, Juta Õunapuu-Mocanita, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Fractales, Sirje Viise, Monika Mattiesen, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Theodor Sink, Regina Udod, Ensemble U: (Kairos)

Weinberg, Dawn, Symphony No. 12; John Storgårds conducting the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos)

George Lewis, Afterword; Joelle Lamarre, Gwendolyn Brown, Julian Terrell Otis, David Fulmer conducting the International Contemporary Ensemble (New Focus)

Jürg Frey, String Trio; Apartment House (Another Timbre)

Cassandra Miller, Traveller Song, Thanksong; Miller, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini (Black Truffle)

John Luther Adams, Three High Places, Darkness and Scattered Light, Three Nocturnes; Robert Black (Cold Blue)

Brecht's Paper War

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Angelenos should not overlook a fascinating exhibit at USC's Doheny Library, curated by Grischa Meyer. Brecht's singular montage book Kriegsfibel, or War Primer, created when he was in exile in Los Angeles in the 1940s, is at the heart of the installation, but also included are Andrea Simon's film Salka Viertel, Every Sunday, on continuous video display, and items from USC's vast Lion Feuchtwanger archive. The first version of Kriegsfibel was given to Feuchtwanger and resides in the USC collection. Hanns Eisler later wrote Bilder aus der "Kriegsfibel," a setting of selected texts from Brecht's work.

More bad Wagner poetry

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I'm not sure how I overlooked this one, particularly since it precedes Louis Sullivan's endlessly requoted architectural manifesto of 1896 ("Form ever follows function").