Alex Ross's Blog, page 272

Tax dollars at work

Can it really be true that the Department of Homeland Security has been sponsoring research into what it describes as "Brain Music" — "a form of neurotraining ... that uses music created in
advance from listeners’ own brain waves to help them deal with common
ailments like insomnia, fatigue, and headaches stemming from stressful
environments"? When I first read the story, on AC Douglas's blog,
I assumed it had to be an April Fool's joke that had got lost in the
shuffle, but it seems to be the re

Salonen in LA, one last time

Adieu. The New Yorker, May 4, 2009.

A Finnish TV crew was following Salonen on the day of his first encounter with the L.A. Philharmonic, in 1984. You can see the footage on the orchestra's Celebrate Salonen site; click on "Video" and then scroll down to "One Minute, Maestro." I believe you can actually see a couple of veteran players rolling their eyes at the stripey-shirted apparition before them. But he establishes his authority at once. Timothy Mangan has excellent photos from the final conc

This Friday night, Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet, Stuar...

This Friday night, Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet, Stuart Dempster, Jon Gibson, Katrina Krimsky, Morton Subotnick, Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, Sidney Chen, Dennis Russell Davies, Loren
Kiyoshi Dempster, Bryce Dessner, Dave Douglas, Trevor Dunn, Jacob
Garchik, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Harrison, Michael
Hearst, Scott Johnson, Joan La Barbara, Saskia Lane, Alfred Shabda
Owens, Elena Moon Park, Lenny Pickett, Gyan Riley, Aaron Shaw, Judith
Sherman, Mark Stewart, Kathleen Supové, Margaret

Lend a myth

Finally

The great Steve Reich wins a Pulitzer.

Happy Easter

Salonen's final weekend

YouTube Symphony

How went Wednesday's YouTube Symphony event? Judge for yourself on the basis of the videos above. If your attention wanders, I urge you to skip ahead to Measha Brueggergosman's rendition of John Cage's Aria, at 45:00 in the second part. Also worth seeing are the Vlogs of Denk. NYC recommendation: the New Music Bake Sale on Friday night in Brooklyn Heights.

Getting bleaker

Via Anne Midgette comes the latest grim news: Pierre Ruhe, formerly the classical critic of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and more recently a multipurpose arts writer for that paper, has accepted a buyout. The paper's visual-art and theater critics are also gone. Pierre is an excellent critic, and I hope we'll get to read him in another medium.

Handel 250

There's a lively Handel tribute at the Morning News.