Alex Ross's Blog, page 263

Rites of Spring setlist

Last night in Brooklyn, Above the Auto Parts Store hosted The Rites of Spring, a benefit for Haiti, with DJ sets by Björk, Tyondai Braxton, David Longstreth, Brandon Stosuy, and, improbably, myself. I went first, before the growing crowd and rising heat demanded something more intense. I'd never DJ'd before, but I seemed to do OK, with some guidance from my experienced DJ husband (Jonathan Lisecki, director of Gayby). Some people actually attempted to dance during the Stravinsky ...

The week in John Adams news

— John Luther Adams wins the Nemmers Prize in Musical Composition at Northwestern University.

— John Coolidge Adams hails the latest New York Philharmonic innovation, the "Listener Speedy Exit Ramp." Be sure not to miss the audio sample at the end.

Apple epilogue

Here are a few shots from the Rest Is Noise show at the Apple Store on the Upper West Side. The atmosphere was maybe a little chaotic for a twentieth-century-music lecture-recital, but we were very pleased that Apple saw fit to invite us.

 

 

 

 

This lucky young man won the Marta Feuchtwanger grapefruit. (See the beginning of Chapter 2 of Noise.)

 

Ethan takes down suggested notes for the theme on which he will base his final improvisation.

Day 4: Kalamazoo

Before leaving Ann Arbor, Ethan and I spent a long hour and a good chunk of cash at Encore, one of the world's more amazing record stores. Ethan has a full report of our takings at his blog. The photo above shows part of the hoard distributed on the back of our trusty Chevy Cobalt. I'm holding the score of one of Boulez's Improvisations sur Mallarmé, which I found tucked among the LPs.

Other happy discovery was this set of beautifully designed American Recording Society 10-inch discs...

Day 3: Ann Arbor

Backstage at Rackham Auditorium. More anon.

Noise at Apple

In an unexpected development, Ethan Iverson and I have been asked to present our Rest Is Noise modern-music show at the Upper West Side Apple Store. It's tomorrow, i.e. Tuesday, April 27, at 6:30PM, at the corner of West 67th and Broadway. Let's hope the Apple folks are prepared for the cyclone of hilarity and terror that we have already unleashed on San Francisco and Ann Arbor and are about to visit on Kalamazoo.

Andriessen and company

Brazen. The New Yorker, May 3, 2010.

Day 2: San Francisco

The Rest Is Noise Stadium Tour rolls through Baghdad-by-the-Bay. Maestro Iverson tests out the handsome Steinway D in Herbst Hall.

We're hoping for a better crowd next time.

In fact, a respectable audience did turn out, including celebrity Bay Area bloggers Sid Chen and Lisa Hirsch and the great Marc-André Hamelin (pictured betwixt the artist and his announcer).

We are available to play symposia....

And tornado shelters.

Charlie the Cougar conveyed us to Detroit...

For Alan Rich

I'm tremendously sad to hear of the death of Alan Rich, the dean of American classical critics, and one of the freshest voices into his eighties. For a brief remembrance by John Rockwell, go to najp.org/articles. More soon.

Day 1

An obligatory Harmonielehre shot of San Francisco Bay to mark the start of the Rest Is Noise Stadium Tour. Incidentally, there is now beginning to be a third Adams.

John Adams, Harmonielehre; Edo de Waart conducting the San Francisco Symphony, Nonesuch 79115.