30.6.06

Palm Beach Story

I've added the blog of Palm Beach Post writer Greg Stepanich to the blogroll. Mr. Stepanich covers concert music in the growing South Florida region, as well as recordings and events in the concert music world at large.

27.6.06

...and the list'nin' isn't necessarily easy

Pieces that refer to summer, one way or another:

"Sumer is icumen in"
Gustav Mahler, Symphonie 3, I: "Pan Awakens; Summer Marches In"
George Gershwin, "Summertime", from Porgy and Bess
Samuel Barber, Summer Music
Samuel Barber, Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Michael Tippett, The Midsummer Marriage
Felix Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night's Dream (incidental music)
Benjamin Britten, A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
Anton Webern, Im Sommerwind
John Cage, "Summer" from The Seasons
Antonio Vivaldi, "L'Estate", from Le Quattro stagioni
Arnold Schoenberg, "Sommermorgen an einem See", Op. 16, No. 3
Paul Hindemith, "On hearing 'The Last Rose of Summer'"
George Crumb, Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)

Bonus track:

Fountains of Wayne, "It Must Be Summer"

26.6.06

Workshop (VI)

I recently completed two pieces, The Rings of Saturn (clarinet and viola, 4 minutes) and The Beginning of Things (piano trio, 19 minutes). Scores (in PDF format) are available for the asking.

13.6.06

Ross on Feldman

Alex Ross gets Morton Feldman here. Alex gets what's important and moving about Feldman's music, life, and career, but more importantly, he is able to communicate it without jargon or hype.

12.6.06

Ligeti

"'I am an enemy of ideologies in the arts. Totalitarian regimes do not like dissonances." --GL

Gyorgy Ligeti, one of the best and most important composers of the second half of the 20th century, has died. His publisher, Schott, has an article here. Alex Ross links to this obituary.

Update, 13 June: Tim Rutherford-Johnson has assembled links to the many tributes and obituaries that have appeared in the blogosphere and throughout the web so far. In a separate post Tim provides a link to a filmed performance of Ligeti's Poeme Symphonique (1962), for 100 metronomes. The ending of the piece is especially poignant today.

5.6.06

Miriam Burns

The Tallahassee (FL) Symphony Orchestra has appointed Miriam Burns its Music Director and Conductor. (My review of her audition concert is here.)

I look forward to hearing what Ms. Burns can do to move the Orchestra forward. I'm also very interested to see what her relationship will be (if any) with the composers in the community.