Chorus, soprano Miah Persson and mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn

Naxos of America and the CSO present a sweepstakes to celebrate the

launch of distribution of CSO Resound by NOA

- click sweepstakes link above or see details below

Mahler’s towering Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection) is the ninth and newest release on CSO Resound, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s award-winning record label. Having previously recorded Mahler’s First, Third and Sixth symphonies, Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink and the CSO continue to showcase their unique collaboration with Mahler’s Second Symphony. Mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn sings the touching “Urlicht” solo, and soprano Miah Persson and the Chicago Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Duain Wolfe, are featured as well.

The two-disc album will be released in the U.S. Tuesday, November 17, and worldwide on November 30. It can be downloaded exclusively through iTunes for one month starting November 17 and through other major digital music services beginning December 17, including Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic and HDtracks. Listeners can purchase the album in CD, hybrid SACD or digital download formats.

Beginning with this release, CSO Resound initiates a new distribution agreement with Naxos of America. The agreement encompasses the distribution of physical CDs and hybrid SACDs in the United States and Canada, as well as digital distribution worldwide.

Amsterdam-born Bernard Haitink is one of today’s most celebrated conductors, with an international conducting career that has spanned more than five decades. Appointed principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2006, he has established a remarkable rapport with the Orchestra, demonstrated by unsurpassed music making in Chicago, New York, Europe and Asia. His distinguished 25-year tenure as music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with which he has been associated since 1956, brought worldwide praise for his development of the ensemble and his interpretations of the music of Mahler and Bruckner. He now serves as conductor laureate of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and is conductor emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, having been principal conductor there for nine years. He has received many international awards in recognition of his services to music, including both an honorary knighthood and the Companion of Honour in the United Kingdom and the House Order of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands. Haitink was named Musical America’s 2007 Musician of the Year.

Swedish soprano Miah Persson is in great demand with the major opera houses and orchestras of the world. She has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Barcelona Liceu, Netherlands Opera, San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Frankfurt Opera, Wiener Staatsoper and Paris Opera. In concert, she has appeared at the BBC Proms and with the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Musiciens du Louvre, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She has given recitals at Wigmore Hall and Frankfurt Opera. Conductors with whom she has performed include Sir Charles Mackerras, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Iván Fischer, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Semyon Bychkov, René Jacobs, and Marc Minkowski.

Christianne Stotijn earned her solo diploma for violin in 2000 at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. She has worked extensively with Bernard Haitink, who is one of the most influential figures in her career, having appeared with him and the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Boston, BBC Proms, Concertgebouw and Radio France. She also has collaborated with conductors René Jacobs, Gustavo Dudamel, Marc Minkowski and Iván Fischer, and she has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra and La Scala Philharmonic. An impassioned performer of song recitals, she has appeared at Wigmore Hall, Vienna Musikverein and Carnegie Hall. Christianne Stotijn is the recipient of the ECHO Rising Stars Award, Borletti Buitoni Award and Dutch Music Prize and was a BBC New Generation Artist.

A musical force in Chicago and around the world, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been consistently hailed as one of the finest international orchestras since its founding in 1891. At its helm are three of the greatest conductors of our time: Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink, Conductor Emeritus Pierre Boulez and Music Director Designate Riccardo Muti, who becomes the Orchestra’s 10th music director in September 2010.

The Orchestra’s expansive catalog of more than 900 recordings has earned 60 Grammy Awards—more than any other orchestra in the world. In 2007, in order to significantly broaden the reach of the world-class music making of the Orchestra, the CSO launched its own record label, CSO Resound. All CSO Resound releases are selected from live recordings of CSO concerts in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, documenting and extending a unique concert experience.

Previous CSO Resound releases include Mahler’s Third Symphony, with Michelle DeYoung and the Chicago Symphony Chorus; Mahler’s First and Sixth symphonies; Poulenc’s Gloria with Jessica Rivera and Ravel’s complete Daphnis et Chloé; and Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, all conducted by Bernard Haitink; Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago, with Yo-Yo Ma, Wu Man, the Silk Road Ensemble and conductors Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Alan Gilbert (2008 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical); and a download-only recording of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony under Myung-Whun Chung. A two-disc CD/DVD set of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Bernard Haitink (2008 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance), with video of the CSO’s Beyond the Score exploration of the work, was released in August 2008. CSO Resound is underwritten by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Smykal.

Founded in 1957, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, currently under the leadership of Director and Conductor Duain Wolfe, has earned admiration and acclaim as one of the world’s superior symphonic choruses. The Chicago Symphony Chorus has performed and recorded virtually all the major works in the choral symphonic repertoire, including important world premieres, and has been a key part of the CSO’s history. Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings featuring the Chorus have won nine Grammy Awards for best choral performance, including Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Bach’s B minor Mass and two recordings of Brahms’ A German Requiem.

]]> http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/21/cso/feed/ 0 http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/19/in-c-remixed/ http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/19/in-c-remixed/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:52:45 +0000 Kelly http://blog.naxos.com/?p=4097 Founded in 1982 as a way to document the McKnight Fellowship winners of the Minnesota Composers Forum, Innova Recordings initially featured mainly the works of Minnesota composers such as Eric Stokes, Libby Larsen, Paul Schoenfield and Steven Paulus. In 1994 the label opened its doors to any artists with a finished master tape that wanted access to an established distribution network, and now, produces and releases up to 25 CDs per year. On November 17, Naxos of America proudly began distribution of the releases of Innova Recordings.

Innova is dedicated to forward-“hearing” work that pushes and challenges the boundaries of contemporary music. The label’s releases are less dictated by record-bin-constraints or typical notions of marketability, but by the integrity of the work, its originality, conceptual richness and technical quality, and the artist’s willingness to support and promote the release. The label attempts to redefine the typical relationship between artist and label. Artist and label work together, taking advantage of each other’s strengths, to provide both the tools of an established record label and the freedom usually associated with self-publishing.

Innova is geared towards work that is unlikely to find a home in the mainstream record industry. The label focuses on world class music—regardless of its genre (or lack of one, even though for convenience we use words like New Classical, Jazz, Experimental, Electronic and World)—that commercial labels overlook. Several projects have brought national attention to the label: Philip Blackburn’s field recordings from Vietnam (Stilling Time) and his archival series of the works of Harry Partch and Henry Brant. Prominent titles also include GVSU’s recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, Douglas J Cuomo’s Arjuna’s Dilemma and Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Apti. Other Innova releases have earned awards and nominations for Grammy, Emmy, and Pulitzer prizes, while numerous titles have received wide acclaim and charted significantly.

“The awesome young musicians from the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble have teamed up with some of the most imaginative DJ’s, remixers and composers to realize not only one of the best In C performances ever, but also some ‘alternate universe’ In C’s that got me smiling, beaming and sometimes amazed. A new revelational viewpoint on a piece that has been turned every way but loose over the past 45 years.” – Terry Riley

This new version comes not from loft-based hipsters in New York or California, but via a mostly undergraduate crew from Allendale, Mich. Beyond the geographical surprise, it actually makes sense that a young ensemble has shown a flair for this music. The kids, as itwere, have always been alright with t he minimalists. Pete Townshend was so influenced by Riley’s early synthesizer pieces that he named “Baba O’Riley” in part after the composer. “Black Mozart,” from Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon’s latest record, might just as easily have been dedicated to a minimalist, given its catchy, brief figure that repeats through verse and chorus alike. The members of Grand Valley State’s ensemble play with a confident swing that suggests they understand these links implicitly. It’s also why this new release offers not just their own astute performance but also 18 remixes by a collection of big names, such as DJ Spooky and Pulitzer winner David Lang. – Seth Coulter Walls, Newsweek, October 1, 2009

The Story

Hailed as “the story of the year in classical music” by WNYC’s John Shaefer in 2007, Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble’s recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians vaulted to number one on the iTunes and Amazon charts and spent eleven weeks on the Billboard charts. As an answer to that recording which garnered 30 positive reviews and a feature article in the New York Times, the GVSU New Music Ensemble decided to tackle the work of another Minimalist icon; Terry Riley’s In C.

With more than twelve mostly outstanding recordings of In C already on the market, the ensemble simply did not want record another interpretation of the piece. Bill Ryan, director of the GVSU New Music Ensemble, had an idea. The open instrumentation, interchangeable parts and overriding philosophy of freedom of In C would be the ideal foundation for remixing. A 2-CD release that would include a full performance of Riley’s In C as it was intended and short remixes of the work using the GVSU recording tracks as its inspiration. On November 17, Innova Recordings will release the product of this inspiration; In C Remixed.

The Remixers

Representing a true cross-section of musical genres, the remixers on In C Remixed bring together the worlds of classical, pop, electronica, jazz, trip-hop, dance, techno, industrial, disco, ambient, and more. With collective accolades including Grammy nominations (Jack Dangers), a Pulitzer Prize (David Lang), an Emmy nomination (Daniel Bernard Roumain-DBR), a Guggenheim Fellowship (Mason Bates), an ASCAP Foundation/Morton Gould Young Composer Award (Dennis DeSantis), a Fulbright Scholarship (Michael Lowenstern) and an Oscar-winning soundtrack (Nico Muhly), their music has been heard in numerous major motion films, on television and radio, and performed at the most notable venues with the top orchestras throughout the world.

Many of the remixers commented about the first time they each encountered Terry Riley’s In C, remarked on the creative processes that they used when they were crafting their remixes, and also gave explanation of the resulting works:

Bints Mix and Foster Grant Mix, Michael Lowenstern

“For me, the flexibility of In C is singularly unique in its ability to alternately live in the background and/or draw in the listener’s focus. I tried to stay true to that sensibility as I organized my thoughts around the two remixes I made for this compilation, and hopefully succeeded in making them a similar type of ‘flexible listening.’”

Counting in C, Jab Abumrad

“First time I heard In C I was a freshman in college, majoring in music composition and completely lost in a wilderness of scary music. Serial, post-war atonality. Our teacher was asking us to compose music that literally hurt (I was told someone in a class a few years ahead of me had actually sawed an old piano in half for a piece). So anyhow, at one of my more despairing moments, I went to the music library, and on recommendation from a friend, checked out In C on vinyl. And when I dropped the needle on the record, I almost wanted to cry. Here was “serious music” that was actually…fun.”

In Sea of C, DJ Spooky

“When you hear the opening lines of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” – you know they heard Riley’s work. When you think of Philip Glass, John Adams, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Meredith Monk, Harry Partch, Morton Feldman, Lou Harrison and others, you can also connect the dots. In C was the original DNA of many of these composers relationship to repetition. I hope that the listener can hear a mirror reflection in a hip hop take on the same composition. The Futurists always thought the future would be noise. Who would have guessed that their ideas would be usurped by repetition! I hope you enjoy the work.”

Zachary’s Dream, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)

“The poet in me, if asked what Zachary’s Dream means, might reply that I wanted this remix to be a soundtrack to the moment when you’re very young, and very tired, and are falling asleep in the backseat of a car or on a train, as you fight to stay awake, if only to listen to the ambient sounds on the radio or the music on your loose fitting headphones, and your siblings conversation, and the anecdotes of your parents mind-numbing, endless quarreling—all of this, a soothing, comforting lullaby for the over-stimulated children we all might be.”

In C (Todd Reynolds Remix), Todd Reynolds

“As I sat down to work on this, it became clear to me just how much of it all was still close to the surface. As the mix developed, I was reminded of the time I spent on that motorbike as the temples, rice terraces, wild dogs, people selling their art, water, forest, all whirred by, natural and man-made beauty unfolding by the second, and I, simply a humble observer. Not surprisingly, it’s much like the first time I played my way through In C, where I discovered that the listening and the watching was as profound a part of the process as the playing. Terry Riley has given us a timeless work which elevates “presence in the moment” to the art form it truly is, and this mix is my humble response to it.”

simple remix, David Lang

“I have always loved In C and over the years have participated in many many performances – as a trombonist, as a percussionist, as a guitarist, and even once (erratically, I am afraid) playing the pulse. I remember my college new music ensemble drinking a bit too much after a concert and singing the whole thing, backstage in an art center in Mendocino California. It is an easy piece to do badly – I also remember one performance in which everyone agreed too much, and the whole performance took on a march-like quality, as we all unwittingly moved in lock-step with each other. In memory of that performance I remixed a section as a kind of slow march, with the studio help of Todd Reynolds and a spectacularly funereal bass drum sample from Paul Coleman.”

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559625

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

—László Somfai, author of The Keyboard Sonatas of Joseph Haydn,

University of Chicago Press, 1995.

On October 27, 2009, Naxos of America released a groundbreaking project—and its first Blu-ray production— from McGill University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology, entitled The Virtual Haydn: Complete Works for Solo Keyboard. The brainchild of performer and musicologist Tom Beghin, Tonmeister and producer Martha de Francisco, and recording engineer Wieslaw Woszczyk, The Virtual Haydn employs virtual acoustics for the first time in a recording of this magnitude.

The set features four double-layer Blu-ray discs containing 15 hours of music, offered in both 5.0 surround (DTS-HD) and high-resolution stereo (PCM), as well as three hours of HD video, including a “making of” documentary Playing the Room, with subtitles in Dutch, French, German, and Japanese. Additionally, the user may navigate from one “virtual room” to the next—or from one instrument to another—mixing, matching, and comparing the performance of a short piece for musical clock, for a total of 7 x 9 possible combinations. A beautifully designed 64-page booklet contains richly illustrated program information as well as three informative and imaginative essays by the producers. Smart Blu-ray pop-up menus allow for efficient navigation through a wealth of material.

The music of Haydn has been a longtime passion and area of study for keyboardist Tom Beghin, whose innovative scholarship, especially in the domain of musical rhetoric, has been widely recognized, most recently in his editorship of Haydn and the Performance of Rhetoric (University of Chicago Press, 2007). The Virtual Haydn, as Beghin explains, “is still very much about Haydn, but has become about so much more. These discs challenge all conventions of performing, recording, and listening, and introduce new paradigms.”

Listeners experience the complete works for solo keyboard in nine virtual rooms—that is, replications of actual rooms where Haydn, or a typical player of his keyboard music, would have performed. They have been acoustically sampled, electronically mapped, and precisely recreated in the recording studio. Featured rooms range from the most private to the most public, from Haydn’s own study in his Eisenstadt home to the famous Holywell Music Room in Oxford, England.

Further enhancing this unique experience of the Haydn repertoire are the seven historical keyboards on which the music is performed. All seven instruments, from a 1760s clavichord to a 1798 English grand piano, were built for this project by today’s leading artisans. This release captures the first performances on three of the instruments: a 1755 harpsichord with an idiomatic “Viennese short octave,” a 1788 Tafelklavier, and a 1780 fortepiano with an early-Viennese “stoss”-action. Modern audiences are able to experience these instruments in the acoustical environments for which they were originally designed.

Surrounded by a semi-sphere of 24 speakers, Tom Beghin plays as if in the historical room. The sounds of his performance are captured, mixed with reverberation responses identical to those of the actual room, and retransmitted almost instantaneously through the sphere, allowing him to engage “the room”—that is, to “play” with it, then and there. It is as if it is 1774 and the listener is seated next to Prince Nicolaus Esterházy in the grand Ceremonial Room of his Eszterháza Palace while the artist—possibly Haydn himself—is playing on the Prince’s newly-acquired double-manual harpsichord. By contrast, we experience Haydn’s sonatas for Princess Marie Esterházy, played on a Kober square piano, in the intimate setting of a Prunkraum of Vienna’s Albertina. Or we embrace the more public eighteenth-century concert experience of the acoustically accurate yet virtual English concert hall for a performance on a Longman, Clementi & Co. piano of the two concert sonatas that Haydn wrote for the celebrated Therese Jansen.

Musicking happens through instruments, in rooms, by people. No repertoire celebrates this experience more than Haydn’s keyboard works. This revolutionary recording project stands as a tribute to the timeless appeal of a composer whose life and career revolved around similarly experimental interactions with technologies and audiences.

Tom Beghin is at the forefront of a new generation of interpreters of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century music. His discography includes 10 CDs on the Bridge, Claves, Eufoda, and Et’cetera labels. As a scholar he has published in major musicological journals and volumes, and has co-edited Haydn and the Performance of Rhetoric (University of Chicago Press, 2007). His mentors include Malcolm Bilson, James Webster, Rudolf Buchbinder, Jean Goverts, and Alan Weiss. He is currently Associate Professor at McGill University.

Martha de Francisco is an internationally acknowledged leader in the field of sound recording and record production, and has credits on over 300 recordings, most of them for worldwide release on the main record labels. She has worked in the best concert halls and has collaborated with some of the greatest classical musicians of our time. Her research topics include the latest surround-sound techniques, music recording with virtual acoustics, and the aesthetics of recorded music. At present she is Associate Professor at McGill University.

Wieslaw Woszczyk holds the James McGill Professorship in Sound Recording at McGill University. Internationally recognized as a researcher and 
educator in audio technology, he is the founding director of CIRMMT and McGill’s Graduate Program in Sound Recording. He was President of the Audio Engineering Society, Chair of the AES Technical Council, and is currently AES Governor. His current research addresses virtual acoustics, high-resolution audio, and remote real-time communication of multisensory content using broadband networks.

]]> http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/14/virtual-haydn/feed/ 0 http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/13/new-amsterdam-records/ http://blog.naxos.com/2009/11/13/new-amsterdam-records/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:30:02 +0000 Kelly http://blog.naxos.com/?p=4028 On October 27, Naxos of America began distribution of cutting-edge New York-based label New Amsterdam Records. Founded as a haven for young New York composers and performers whose music traditionally has slipped through the cracks between genres, New Amsterdam was the brainchild of composers William Brittelle, Judd Greenstein, and Sarah Kirkland Snider.

New Amsterdam Records is a non-profit model service organization run by independent musicians whose goal is to support talented colleagues by functioning as truly “pro-artist”—without the conflict of interests present in conventional record labels. To that end, the vast majority of proceeds from all music sales go directly to New Amsterdam artists in order to help them develop sustainable careers.

In its first year of existence, New Amsterdam’s recordings have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and in New York magazine, MUSO magazine, and Time Out New York. The Sunday New York Times cited their first group of releases in two separate year-end “best-of” articles. The label’s first 12 albums have garnered radio airplay and glowing reviews from major media outlets around the country (including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.). New Amsterdam also has become a major concert presenter in New York, putting on sold-out shows at venues such as Joe’s Pub, Le Poisson Rouge, and Issue Project Room, as well as a new monthly chamber music show, Archipelego, at the Galapagos Artspace in Brooklyn.

“A smart young chamber group that straddles a line between contemporary classical music and indie rock.”

—WNYC’s Soundcheck

“Striking a balance between the old and the new has rarely sounded this good.”

—Newsweek

Hailed as “a deft young group gaining attention” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), NOW Ensemble is a dynamic band of performers and composers dedicated to chamber music for the 21st century. With their unique instrumentation of flute (Alex Sopp), clarinet (Sara Budde), electric guitar (Mark Dancigers), double bass (Peter Rosenfeld), and piano (Michael Mizrahi), NOW Ensemble brings a fresh sound and new perspective to the classical tradition. The music performed by the ensemble reflects the diverse backgrounds and listening experiences of its members. They play in concert halls, art museums, rock clubs, and jazz venues—for large audiences and intimate gatherings—acoustic and “plugged in.” Over the course of their five years in existence, NOW Ensemble has developed a reputation for performances that are as lively and engaging as they are rigorous and technically sophisticated.

For their debut album, entitled NOW, the group chose seven works by four composers, three of whom are members of the ensemble—Patrick Burke and Judd Greenstein, along with guitarist Dancigers. In addition, the group chose to present a piece by their good friend, the ascendant Nico Muhly. The resulting disc is both a compilation of the band’s core repertoire from its early years and also a highly listenable, smoothly-flowing album that “combine(s) the formal elegance of chamber music with a pop-honed concision and rhythmic vitality” (Time Out New York). NOW Ensemble has performed works by many of today’s most prominent young composers, commissioning over 40 pieces, and has played on some of the country’s most vital new music series, including the Bang on a Can Marathon, Wordless Music, Undiscovered Islands, Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge, Sarasota’s New Music New College, and the Carlsbad Music Festival, as well as the 2008 Festival International de Chihuahua in Chihuahua, Mexico.

“Rustic folk melodies, gangly dances and pulse-oriented workouts on woodblocks and marimbas—as well as flowerpots, rocks and a wheelbarrow—interspersed with quirky narratives.”

—Time Out New York

“Draw[s] on a tremendous variety of sounds and musical traditions.”

—Sequenza 21

The highly esteemed, New York-based percussion quartet So Percussion has teamed up with fiddle/guitar duo Trollstilt for an album that combines the innovative and edgy sounds of contemporary music with ancient Norwegian fiddling. The artists employ multi-media percussion, guitar, Hardanger fiddle, spoken word, and electronics in a unique and compelling collection of music. The album also features the vocals and spoken word of writer, composer, performer, director, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rinde Eckert. Five (and-a-half) Gardens contains a DVD portion featuring motion paintings (a series of paintings strung together with computer animation) set to the music from the album.

Five (and-a-half) Gardens is the brainchild of composer Dan Trueman (of Trollstilt), whom PopMatters calls “the most fascinating musician on the face of the Earth.” In a similar style to So Percussion’s most recent album, Amid the Noise (Cantaloupe Music, 2006), Five (and-a-half) Gardens features instruments made from materials such as flower pots, plumbing tubes, and cell phone microphones, as well as traditional percussion instruments, fiddles, and guitars. These instruments are combined with electronic samples, processed sound, and spoken word to create a multi-layered sonic effect. The juxtaposition of traditional folk and percussion music with electronic and computer-synthesized sounds results in a unique listening experience.

Dan Trueman, professor of music at Princeton, is also a co-founder and director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), an ensemble of laptop musicians with six-channel spherical speakers and various control devices. Trueman was awarded a major grant from the MacArthur Foundation for his work with the orchestra. He also is a member of interface, an electronic improvisation ensemble. Their first CD, /swank, was released in early 2001; their DVD, RECORDING FIELD, H, with guest Pauline Oliveros, was released by the Deep Listening label in 2003.

“Invigorating, innovative but immediately approachable… [with] an unguarded quirkiness and a sense of accidental poetry.”

—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Dargel sings in a modest, sweet-toned, conversational way, and writes songs whose lyrics and melodies are at once wistful and wry, tender and irreverent… giving voice to the lives and relationships of his subjects.”

—New York Times

Corey Dargel is a “baroquely unclassifiable” (New Yorker) composer, lyricist, and singer of “elegantly skewed” (Time Out New York) electronic art-pop songs that stir the heart and delight the mind. His gentle assault on the pop idiom creates a tension that pervades his music: deadpan and detached vocals reveal heartbreaking intimacies, awkward and obtrusive drum patterns struggle against fragile harmonies, vocals and music uneasily opposing each other as songs stumble to their ends.

Dargel’s Other People’s Love Songs is based on an earnest, sentimental concept: All 13 songs were commissioned by individuals as gifts to their significant others. Dargel—acting as reporter along with his regular duties as composer, lyricist, and singer—interviewed the couples and learned all about their histories, personalities, quirks, private jokes, and emotional lives. He spun this tender data into music and lyrics that encompass a universe of feeling: not only gratitude, as one would expect from songs written as gifts, but generous measures of wistfulness, longing, frustration, and pride … and, in some cases, regret, sadness, and resignation. The real-life subjects of these songs range from celebrities to the “couple next door.” Newlyweds, long marrieds, gay couples, siblings, daughters, mothers, and others stepped forward to commission these songs. The album is hardly a mere compilation, however; it is a unique and deeply emotional exploration of the many angles of love and relationships. At times, the songs are almost voyeuristic in their intimacy.

Corey Dargel has performed on bills with Joanna Newsom, Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett), Grizzly Bear, Anti-Social Music, Eve Beglarian, Phil Kline, Nico Muhly, William Brittelle, Margaret Lancaster, and the American Composers Orchestra. His music-theater piece about love and voluntary amputation, Removable Parts, premiered in September 2007 at HERE Arts Center in NYC and was hailed by The New York Times as “almost perversely pleasurable … pleases on almost every level … with an intelligent grace that is as moving as it is impressive.” Dargel’s latest composition, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences, is a 50-minute art-pop song cycle about hypochondria, commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and performed by Dargel and ICE.

Infernal Machines is the debut studio recording by New York’s acclaimed 18-piece steampunk big band, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, a group The New York Times’ Nate Chinen describes as “calibrated for maximum intrigue, with a sound that suggests Steve Reich minimalism as well as orchestral jazz in the lineage of Bob Brookmeyer (one of Mr. Argue’s mentors).”

This release, which takes its name from a John Philip Sousa quote about the dangers of music technology, features new, definitive studio recordings of material Argue and the band have been developing since their first gig in 2005. “No swing-era revivalist,” writes Time Out New York’s Hank Shteamer, “Argue draws on the full spectrum of modern rock, jazz and classical music with his band, Secret Society. Yet his complex, emotionally-charged pieces handily transcend pastiche … the album ought to not only raise Argue’s profile, but also serve as a reminder that big-band jazz needn’t be a fossil.”

“A nearly perfect creative synthesis between tradition and innovation.”

- BBC

“Big band music for folks who like Jimi Hendrix and Parliament Funkadelic. This is unlike any jazz I’ve heard before.”

- Paste Magazine

“This is a seriously great band, with a tremendous rhythm section, a beautiful blend of brass and winds, chops and enormous reserves of power. The soloists are outstanding, particularly Ryan Keberle’s tasty, funky trombone on ‘Zeno’ and Ingrid Jensen’s searching trumpet on ‘Transit.’ The album comes to an intense and unresolved end, not unlike Mingus’ ‘Black Saint and the Sinner Lady,’ which just leaves one reaching for the replay button. Because, to repeat something else, this is a seriously great record, one of the finest examples of new jazz I’ve heard in the past decade, one of the finest big band records ever made, one of the finest jazz records I’ve truly ever heard.”

- The Big City

Despite the inherent obstacles facing a big band leader in 2009, composer Darcy James Argue is one of the most visible and respected musicians in New York. Part of that success comes from the broad-spectrum popularity of his blog, also called Secret Society, which covers relevant political issues as well as musical ones. Musically, as allaboutjazz.com’s R.J. DeLuke recently observed, “he’s garnered critical praise from just about everyone who has heard the band.” Critics have called him “a young jazz master” (The New Yorker) and noted his penchant for “mixing jazz harmony, rock edge and postmodern angst into a new music creole” (Tom Greenland, AllAboutJazz-New York). “The morning after,” declared Montreal Gazette reviewer Juan Rodriguez, “I was still stunned at what I’d heard—clearly some of the most ambitious and compelling sounds I’ve ever encountered in the past 40 years.”

Argue’s extensive resume also includes arranging work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, featuring jazz/soul vocalist Lizz Wright, alt-country artist Shelby Lynne, and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. The recipient of a variety of commissions and composition awards, Argue accepted the SOCAN/CAJE Phil Nimmons Emerging Composer Award, in May 2009 at Canada’s National Jazz Awards in Toronto. Learn more at http://secretsociety.typepad.com.

Musicians

Erica vonKleist (flute, alto flute, soprano and alto saxophones), Rob Wilkerson (flute, clarinet, soprano and alto saxophones), Sam Sadigursky (clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones), Mark Small (clarinet, bass clarinet and tenor saxophone), Josh Sinton (clarinet, bass clarinet and baritone saxophone), Seneca Black (lead trumpet), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Laurie Frink (trumpet), Nadje Noordhuis (trumpet), Tom Goehring (trumpet), Ryan Keberle (trombone), Mike Fahie (trombone), James Hirschfeld (trombone), Jennifer Wharton (bass trombone), Sebastian Noelle (acoustic and electric guitars), Mike Holober (piano and electric piano), Matt Clohesy (contrabass and electric bass), Jon Wikan (drum set, cajon, pandeiro and percussion).

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Ondine ODE 1158-2

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

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Album details…
Catalogue No.: ERM Media Film

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A website has been designed to accompany this entertaining and educational DVD (http://www.myfirstballetcollection.com) in association with the US branch of the Royal Academy of Dance. Founded over 80 years ago, the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is the largest, most influential dance teacher training and examining body for classical ballet in the world. On the website, parents are able to search RAD certified dance schools to find the right school for their child and find helpful tips on locating the right dance teacher if there is no certified instructor in their area. The My First Ballet Collection website also includes a list of websites for major American dance companies, a list of all of the complete ballets from which the excerpts have been pulled, trailers from many of those ballets, and links to the RAD website.

My First Ballet Collection Includes:

Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty Valse

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Entrance of the Swans

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Battle of the Toys and Mice

Hérold La Fille mal gardée The Fanny Elssler pas de deux

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Madame du Cirque and the Dancing Bear

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Chinese Dance

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream Oberon’s Kingdom

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

Hérold La Fille mal gardée Picnic

Adam Giselle Retour des vendangeurs et valse

Hérold La Fille mal gardée Dance of the cock and hens

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Russian Dance

Delibes Sylvia Pas des esclaves

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Dance of the Mirlitons

Prokofiev Cinderella Cinderella

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Waltz of the Snowflakes

Prokofiev Cinderella Duet of the Prince and Cinderella

Delibes Coppélia Bringing Coppélia to life

Hérold La Fille mal gardée Clog dance

Delibes Sylvia Pizzicati

Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty Act 1 Finale

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Cygnets’ Dance

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Waltz of the Flowers

Delibes Sylvia Les Chasseresses

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream Epilogue

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Pas de trois – Odette, Siegfried, Von Rothbart

How did you first develop a love for music? What inspired you to begin playing?
I am fortunate enough to have an older brother and sister who play the violin. Growing up in a musical environment helped me obtain a passion and love for music. I never had a one-track career in mind to become a soloist, and my mother always believed in a well-rounded education for her children. I never would have foreseen that I would be making a career as a viola soloist, especially after attending a liberal arts college and majoring in political science and international relations.

Although this is not the case for myself, like many violists, you began your musical instruction on the violin and later switched to viola. What ultimately made you stick with the Viola, and what do you enjoy most about playing Viola as opposed to the Violin?
I started playing the violin at age 6 and gravitated to the viola at 11 years of age. In my opinion, the viola can sometimes be a very clumsy instrument to begin with for young players, and I always recommend starting on the violin to develop good habits for technique. I attended pre-college at Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music as a double major in both violin and viola and it was very liberating for me to approach different works on both instruments. In the process, I was always more inclined to the complex tone of the viola. Also, the repertoire on the viola is unique and the possibilities are endless.

Artur Nikish believed that ‘a player’s psyche depended upon the instrument he played,’ and he characterized violists as being ‘calm and good-natured.’ It has also been often said that ‘viola players are the least troublesome’ in orchestral settings. Do you agree?
I agree, and think we need to change such a passive role! It is time that violists start to make a stand to change the status of the instrument. Violists have historically been the “least troublesome,” and I believe that if we had more virtuosi like Lionel Tertis and William Primrose living in the classical or romantic eras, we would certainly have more extant masterworks for the viola repertoire.

What are some of your favorite compositions to play? Do you have an era you prefer?
This really changes depending on the project and composer that I am studying at any given point in time. I like all eras of music, which include the baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary periods, although I have been recently focusing more on 20th century compositions. I am also interested in sensible transcriptions for the viola, especially those that are sanctioned by a particular composer.

As you have just recently released your first album, what did you enjoy most about the recording process? Least?
It was more than a dream to record the Elgar and Schnittke Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra directed by Maestro Eschenbach. The synergy of all parties involved was truly magical, and I am extremely proud of the product and outcome of the recording. Although there wasn’t any particular aspect that I enjoyed least, I must say that playing for 2 days straight was quite a strenuous undertaking.

If you could choose one composer, conductor or artist, deceased or living, to meet who would it be? Why?
Jacqueline Du Pre—to this day, I have never encountered in person or heard on record an artist who was the embodiment of musical intuition, emotional connection, and raw talent. Her artistry was the primary reason I gravitated towards the deeper sound of the viola.

When you’re not performing or practicing, what activities do you enjoy?
I enjoy playing tennis with my brother and sister, and also like to read and keep apprised of world events, financial markets, and international diplomacy. When I am traveling, I try to make it a priority to attend museums and special cultural events that are occurring in each city.

Which composer would you most like–or would have liked–to contribute to the instrument’s repertoire?
One of my favorite composers who never wrote but sanctioned a viola concerto will be featured on my next recording. I won’t disclose the composer’s name yet, but I am sure it will stir up some controversy!

There are countless viola jokes. Can you share a few of your favorites?
I have never heard of one before.

To see videos of David Aaron Carpenter’s playing: http://www.youtube.com/user/violarocks45

Conducted by Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony and Conductor Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the recording features Robert Orth (Richard Nixon), Maria Kanyova (Pat Nixon), Marc Heller (Mao Tse-tung), Tracy Dahl (Madame Mao), Chen-Ye Yuan (Chou En-lai), Melissa Malde, Julie Simson and Jennifer DeDominici (the three Secretaries) as well as the Opera Colorado Chorus and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

“Few operas written in the last quarter of the twentieth century have withstood the test of time to remain as musically and dramatically vibrant today as they were at their premieres,” noted Opera Colorado General Director Greg Carpenter. “Nixon in China is one of a handful of American operas to achieve celebrity status. Opera Colorado is proud to have been part of this exciting recording project, the first such recording in Opera Colorado’s history.”

The new recording was inspired by Marin Alsop’s dedication to performing and promoting contemporary classical music and was produced in cooperation with Opera Colorado and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Association. Composer John Adams attended performances of the work as it was recorded live in Denver.

John Adams

One of America’s most admired and respected composers, John Adams is a musician of enormous range and technical command. His many operatic works, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Doctor Atomic, and the recent A Flowering Tree, stand out among contemporary compositions for their depth of expression and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. His work, On the Transmigration of Souls, written to mark the first anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2003, a film version of The Death of Klinghoffer was released in theaters, on television and on DVD. Adams has been awarded honorary degrees and proclamations by Cambridge University, Harvard University, Yale School of Music, Phi Beta Kappa, the governor of California, the French Legion of Honor, and Northwestern University, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate and the first Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. John Adams is active as a conductor, appearing with the world’s great orchestras.

Marin Alsop

Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, a relationship now extended to 2015, Marin Alsop is the first woman to head a major American orchestra. Currently Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, she continues as Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, a post she has held since 1992. The first artist to win both The Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor’s Award in the same season, Alsop was named to a MacArthur Fellowship and won the Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist that year—the first conductor to receive this prestigious American honor. Marin Alsop is a regular guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She can be heard regularly as a commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition segment “Marin on Music” and on BBC’s Radio 3. Marin Alsop is a native of New York City; she attended Yale University and received her master’s degree from the Juilliard School.

Opera Colorado

Based in Denver, Opera Colorado has been committed to presenting the highest quality live performances of operas in their original languages since 1983. The company is dedicated to enriching the quality of life in Colorado through the presentation of opera performances that inspire audiences and serve the community through education and cultural programs. In 2005, Opera Colorado moved into the state-of-the art Ellie Caulkins Opera House inside the historic Quigg Newton Municipal Auditorium at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Under the leadership of Gregory Carpenter, the company served as one of the hosts for the National Performing Arts Convention during the spring of 2008. To celebrate this momentous event, Opera Colorado produced director James Robinson’s acclaimed new staging of Nixon in China at the opera house.

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Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559653

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Three decades ago, visionary Venezuelan musician and politician José Antonio Abreu founded El Sistema, a national system of music education designed as a model for social improvement. Today, some 265,000 Venezuelan children and young people are involved in choirs and orchestras around the country, and El Sistema is exporting some of the world’s finest musicians.

El Sistema takes us from the barrios of Caracas and Maracay to the concert hall of the Lucerne Festival, following the lives of children who have found the way to a better future through the model of the symphony orchestra.

This lyrical and moving documentary shows us young children and their families in their home environments. They speak of their everyday hopes and fears: of gang warfare and gunfire, drugs and violence, and the dream of a better life through education and music. “To my mind, our social problems all stem from a sense of exclusion”, says Abreu. “If you look at the world, you see that exclusion in some form or other is to blame for the explosion of social problems everywhere. So we have to fight to bring as many people as we can, everyone, if possible, into our wonderful world: the world of music, the world of the orchestra, of singing, of art.”

El Sistema shows how children as young as two are taken from the dangers of life on the street and taught the rudiments of music. In one of hundreds of “núcleos” created within the communities themselves they are provided with instruments, music lessons, social support and the chance to work as part of an ensemble. Six days a week, four hours a day, children come together and make music in a safe and supportive environment.

Given acceptance, encouragement and inspiration, they quickly develop into capable musicians. For some, that means better tools for future study in other fields. Others go on to play in the world’s top orchestras. Gustavo Dudamel, now in demand on the world’s best stages, conducts the flagship Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in Caracas and talks of his own experience as a child growing up with El Sistema. His is just one of many stories of transformation and hope.

Quirky, exuberant, honest and heart-warming, El Sistema is both an unlikely journey and an exceptional success story. Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier have created a joyful portrait of the power of music as a positive tool for social change.

The film earned several awards like the “Grand Prix” of the Golden Prague Festival, the “Special Jury Prize” in the category “Feature Length Film Awards” and the “Feature Film Competition Award” in the category “The Ecofilms Team Awards” of the Rodos Ecofilms Festival.

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Catalogue No.: ATMA ACD22559

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First off of course we’ve become familiar with the quartet through its work with Gabriel Prokofiev and Nonclassical, can you tell us how this relationship came about?
Laura went to York University with Gabriel and they had a lot in common musically, both being interested in contemporary and electronic music. A few years later, when she had joined the quartet and we had started working with amplification and electronics, she rang him up and suggested a collaboration. He wrote his first ever string quartet for us, and it went so well that we commissioned him to write us another.

Of course on these Nonclassical releases of Gabriel’s string quartets your performances are also remixed, what’s the groups take on this part of the projects?
We thought it was a great idea, especially as Gabriel’s music is so influenced by dance music in the first place, and when we heard the remixes we were all pleased with how they had turned out. They only use sounds from the original recordings, so the remix artists had to find ways of creating new music from original material without resorting to extra drums or beats.

Which remix is most fun to play? Which do you prefer listening-wise?
The remixes are not written to be performed live – they were made by people using sounds from the recordings and have had many many effects and layers put on them. We have talked about trying to turn them back into live pieces, but the complications have so far put everybody off! Listening-wise it would be far too cheeky to single anyone out…

Can you give us a little history lesson on the quartet itself? Maybe tell us a bit about each member?
The quartet got together at Trinity College of Music in 1999 and gradually morphed from a normal classical string quartet into what it is today, totally dedicated to contemporary, electronic and improvised music. A big turning point for us was playing George Crumb’s music, and then also meeting Gabriel. Each member of the group has a very diverse background in classical, jazz, pop, and improvised music and everyone plays regularly with other groups, and on other instruments. This seems to bring many styles of playing into the group and gives us a great advantage and certain lack of fear when we improvise.

You have such a fun and energetic feel as a group. What makes you have such a unique approach to playing and ‘classical music’?
Thanks! I think we might come across like this because we all consider ourselves ‘musicians’ rather than ‘classical musicians’ and we bring our different musical experiences to the group. For instance, two of us used to play in a samba band, and that not only teaches you a lot about rhythm and feel, but also a great deal about group vibes. Also each one of us knows what it’s like to play on stage in a pop/folk/rock context, which is usually so much more fun and relaxed than playing classical music. So I think subconsciously we probably bring a bit of that into our concerts.

Have you recorded projects for other labels? If so what were / are they?
We recorded a great project with British composer Max de Wardener last year, with cover art by Stanley Donwood (Radiohead collaborator), for Stanley’s record label Six Inch Records. We have also contributed our improvising skills to some pop albums, and recorded our own EP of improvised music. We are also planning a few albums with other people next year – will let you know which label they come out on!

What music / art inspires the quartet as a group?
Wow big question. I think our various inspirations would be so massive it would be crazy to list them all! But as far as music goes you could definitely throw in the Crumb, and Gabriel, then Dai Fujikura, Reich, Stravinsky, Hot Chip, Melanie Pappenheim, Can, Janacek, Keith Tippett, Adem, Simon Fisher Turner… Art is a bit less relevant to us as a group, but individually I think we are all pretty modern in tastes…

I see from your facebook updates that you guys play in Germany from time to time, where else do you perform regularly and what rep do you play generally?
We have been to Belgium and France several times, and many other countries internationally, but mostly we perform in the UK. Our repertoire has become more and more fully improvised over the last two years, but we also play a lot of British and American contemporary music, most of which is either written for us or commissioned by us. Our concerts at the moment tend to be a mixture of very contemporary music and improvisation, sometimes both within the same piece.

Are the members involved in other music projects? What might those be?
Emma and Vince together are remix artists Geese and are becoming quite successful with their string instrument based remixes. Jenny and Emma play in Mercury-nominated Basquiat Strings, which is a jazz based project, and Laura is successfully carving out her own solo career with her music for cello with voice. All four of us are involved with other performers too: James Yorkston, Nancy Wallace, Adrian Crowley, Gilad Atzmon to name a few.

Ok so WoW you’ve worked with Damo Suzuki! how did this come about? Your impressions of Damo? Was this material recorded? How is CAN important to the quartet?
Damo is a pretty amazing guy, in that he makes his living going round the world improvising in a made up language every night. i’d like to make a living this way…seems like a nice life! He’s usually very friendly and interesting, occasionally grumpy when he hasn’t had enough sleep and has been flying around the world too much.. He is a total showman on stage with incredible charisma and a great voice. We’ve played with him twice now, and the first time was the best, at the Purcell Room on the South Bank, London. This was recorded, and Damo absolutely loved it, so it was then edited because it was VERY VERY long, and then…don’t think it got released or anything. Hopefully one day… As a group we obviously listened to a lot more CAN prior to and after working with Damo, and I think we all took a lot of inspiration from the spirit and energy in that band. Obviously when we improvised with Damo it was an entirely different thing. But CAN are great. You can always learn a lot from bands like that.I can’t quite remember how the collaboration came about.

Any future plans with Nonclassical? Plans on performing in the USA?
Nonclassical’s pop imprint StopStart will hopefully be putting out Laura’s solo album next year, and we are also discussing our future projects with them, but nothing is concrete as yet. We would absolutely love to go back to the USA after our very successful first time out there this March for SXSW, perhaps with composer Graham Reynolds who we met in Austin, or with Meredith Monk who we are working with next year. If anyone wants to book us a tour we’ll be right there….

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naive OP30486

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Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559304

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Catalogue No.: Dorian Sono Luminus DSL-90911

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Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.508009

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Flemming, Can you give us a little background on yourself and your playing?
Coming from a home where there was an understanding and an interest in classical music, I showed an early interest in sound and timbre and in consequence was taught piano from the age of 5. This led later to studying at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music with a major in piano. Later I switched to a church music education with organ as my main instrument. This education was attractive in preparation for a continued, varied occupation in music, because of the many substitute job possibilities as an organist and the concert challenges provided by the church.

What music inspires you to do what you do?
Already as a child when my preferred composer was J. S. Bach – for instance because of his music’s sustained motor dynamics – the ground was laid for what has become a lifestyle for me: playing organ.

Are there any composers that really blow your mind?
If early on it was Bach who impressed me, then in my growing years the classical composers like Beethoven, Brahms and not least, Wagner were a considerable inspiration for my perception and way of approaching the matter of improvisation, which is an indispensable and rather essential discipline for professional church musicians.During a study period in Paris in the early 70s, I met the especially gifted improviser, Pierre Cochereau, at the Notre Dame cathedral, and that meeting became a turning point in my musical perception up to then, by leading to my listening to the cathedral organist’s exceptional, daring melodically, harmonically and rhythmically stimulating improvisations.

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Catalogue No.: Ondine ODE 1153-2

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Catalogue No.: Navona NV5814

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Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570322

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Catalogue No.: Naxos American Classics 8.559635

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I hear some of your grandfather’s sensibilities in your music, is this intentional? What impact has he had on you as a person and composer of classical composition?
Most S Prokofiev sensibilities you might hear in my music aren’t intentional, and a few people have told me that my music often has a ’soviet’ feel to it; which is something that I never tried to do… it’s just how it comes out – may be it’s in my blood ? Pr may be it’s just because I’m a fan of Russian music listened to quite a lot of Prokofiev when I was growing up ??
But there have been a few moments when I’ve given a little nod to my grandfather. In the 2nd movement of my 2nd Quartet, the ‘alberti-bass’ type figure in the Viola becomes a unison motif, which changes from straight quavers to a swinging dotted quaver /semi-quaver, I deliberately extended this passage as a humorous reference to the oh-so-famous Dance of the Knights (from Romeo & Juliet), but nobody’s noticed it yet -so I guess I was the only one who got the joke

Can you talk about your background a bit? What music did you grow up with? What music do you love? What else inspires your sound and love for both acoustic and electronic musics?
I grew up with quite a mix of music. I loved both Pop music, Classical, and Jazz. My dad was a big Jazz fan, so I heard a lot of different Jazz as a child; but neither of my parents were really into pop music (The Beatle’s White Album was the only pop album they happened to have, and I think a friend had left it in our house by mistake!), so I got into pop music through school friends, and my older sister; also an uncle of mine gave me a cassette of Grace Jones & Sade when I was 10 and that set me up to be a big funk & hip-hop fan as a teenager.
Of course I heard quite a bit of my grandfather’s music as a child, and besides Peter and the Wolf, my big childhood favourite was a another children’s piece by him called ‘The Winter Bonfire’, I used to spend many an afternoon running round the sofa to that as a four year old. Then as I grew older I discovered more old and new classical music -like many people I went through as stage of listening to renaissance choral music, then Bach piano music, Beethoven quartets, Stockhausen, Debussy… etc… In the 1990s I also got really into the emerging electronic dance music scene, and was very exciting my the energy and rhythm of some of the early acid house music and techno.

This month the Nashville Symphony releases its latest recording on Naxos American Classics, featuring two works by American composer Michael Daugherty. Scheduled for release on September 29, the recording is the Symphony’s first with new Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero.

According to the League of American Orchestras, Daugherty is one of this country’s 10 most performed living composers. His Metropolis Symphony pays tribute to the American comic book hero Superman, with movements devoted to characters such as Lex Luthor and Lois Lane. The London Times has called the work a “Symphonie Fantastique for our times.” Featured performers include Nashville Symphony musicians Mary Kathryn Van Osdale (violin), Erik Gratton (flute) and Ann Richards (flute/piccolo).

The recording also includes the piano concerto Deus ex Machina, which was co-commissioned by the Nashville Symphony and four other American orchestras. Inspired by trains of the past and the future, the piece features award-winning soloist Terrence Wilson.

“I’m a big fan of Michael Daugherty’s music,” Guerrero said. “It’s amazingly rich with color, rhythm and vivid orchestral effects, and I think this recording will appeal to a wide range of listeners.”

“In these pieces, I seek to express the energies, ambiguities, paradoxes and wit of American popular culture,” Daugherty added. “The Nashville Symphony has done a truly remarkable job of bringing this music to life.”

Over the past decade, the Nashville Symphony has become one of the most active recording orchestras in the country. Recorded at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, this latest release is the orchestra’s 17th for Naxos. Past releases include Joan Tower’s Made in America, which received 3 GRAMMY® Awards in 2008.

In 2005, composers John Matthias and Nick Ryan received a request for a string orchestral work from the Voices II Festival of Contemporary Music in Plymouth; at the same time, NonClassical Recordings asked if they had material for an album. Cortical Songs began as two songs, on which the composers then elaborated by incorporating results from their experiments on “rhythms and timbres triggered from spiking neuronal models of the human brain.” They noticed that the rhythms created by firing neurons were quite musical and “tend[ed] to repeat themselves over time periods of a few seconds, in what have become known, in scientific literature, as ‘cortical songs.’”

This recording features the String Ensemble of Trinity College of Music, led by Nic Pendlebury. John Matthias performs the violin solo, with interactive programming by Nick Ryan. In addition, the CD features remixes by 12 of the composers’ favorite musicians, including Thom Yorke, Neil Grant and John Fisher, Gabriel Prokofiev, Jem Finer, Marcas Lancaster, David Prior, John Maclean, Simon Tony, Dominic Murcott, Andrew Prior, and Marcus Coates.

The composers’ work with neural patterns was exciting, they explain, because these rhythms are unpredictable but not random. “Neurons,” they note, “are highly connected and trigger each other in a complex and fascinating way.” Matthias and Ryan sought to combine these rhythms with “song-based structures and string arrangements.” Cortical Songs consists of four movements composed for a solo violin and 24-piece string ensemble in which the orchestra is “partially controlled by a tiny computer brain.” Each player follows a written score and flashing LED light, connected to a small computer “brain” consisting of a software network of 24 simulated neurons-one for each member of the orchestra.

“When a neuron in the computer brain fires,” the composers explain, “the LED light to which it is connected flashes once, and the instrumentalist, following that particular light, responds according to a written instruction.” Additionally, they note, the notes played by the orchestra “are fixed in the score, but the times at which they are played are controlled by the flashing of the lights, which in turn are controlled by the firing times of the neurons. These firing times are indeterminate; the piece will never be the same twice.”

“Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra was born out of a passion for two seemingly different strands of music: hip-hop and classical. Throughout the rich history of Western classical music, however, there has always been a cross-pollination of sound between art music and folk/dance idioms, be it in the Partitas and Suites of J.S. Bach or Bartok’s in-depth study of folk song. In fact there was not a distinction between art and popular music up until the 19th century. Therefore drawing on the rhythms, colors and energy of hip hop, the 21st century’s most prolific sound, and more specifically its instrument of choice, the turntable, acknowledges and build on this tradition, addition an urban timbre to a structure that has evolved over the last 300 years.”

-Will Dutta, Executive Producer, Chimera Productions

In his Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra, composer Gabriel Prokofiev questions whether the turntable can work as a classical instrument. He observes that the right DJ can weave musical magic with a turntable: “[It] can be used VERY expressively-the DJ’s hand is [in] indirect contact with the vinyl and every movement shapes the sound.” (Unlike other instruments, however, he admits that turntables don’t have any of their own sounds.) Featuring DJ Yoda and the Heritage Orchestra, Prokofiev characterizes this five-movement work as “polystylistic,” incorporating elements from hip-hop and other DJ-oriented styles like “house and grime” into a classical framework. The recording also features 11 remixes.

Prokofiev began composing the piece knowing that certain “phases and grooves … would work well for the DJ.”  In traditional classical concertos, composers showcase virtuosic solo performance; in this work, Prokofiev does the same for a DJ by utilizing the full potential of the turntable. He explores many techniques used by DJs, from the basic- “just playing back a bit of music, then stopping it, interrupting it, reversing it, slow it down, and cutting it up”-to the more advanced, including “scribbling, planning, hydroplaning, the transformer, echoes and the crab.” He also uses two-turntable techniques such as “beat juggling, mixing, and phasing; pitching and melodic playing.” As in a classical concerto, the soloist performs cadenzas in each movement, displaying refined musical skills.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Ondine ODE1156-2Q

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Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.572230

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On September 29th, Opus Arte presents Twin Spirits, the story of the passionate romance and subsequent marriage between composer Robert Schumann and piano prodigy Clara Wieck, available on DVD and Blu-Ray disc. This production from the Royal Opera House brings together nine diverse performers of the highest caliber: Sting, an artist who defies simple classification, joins his wife, actress and producer Trudie Styler to read from the letters between Robert and Clara. Their story, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi, is illustrated and interwoven with music composed by Robert – whose spirit is embodied by pianist Iain Burnside, baritone Simon Keenlyside and violinist Sergej Krylov – and by Clara, who is evoked by pianist Natasha Paremski, soprano Rebecca Evans, and cellist Natalie Clein.

This subtle and moving piece, a fusion of recital and drama, was devised by the stage director and writer John Caird. His credits include Hamlet and Candide at the National Theatre, Les Misérables and Nicholas Nickleby with Trevor Nunn, and Don Carlos for Welsh National Opera.

“A performance like this is a personal journey,” Sting explains. “You’re forced to share very private thoughts and make them public, and that creates a tension. This love story – the relationship and the tragedy – provides a great introduction for people who don’t normally listen to classical music. Hearing the Schumanns’ music at the same time as telling their story is a very intimate, engaging and emotional experience.”

“When we started on this adventure with Twin Spirits,” adds Trudie Styler, “I was profoundly moved by the richness and power of the narrative. The passion of Robert and Clara’s love transcends the ages. It is a wonderful and moving story which I believe remains fascinating and relevant to today’s world.”
Love began to blossom between Robert Schumann (1810-56) and Clara Wieck (1819-90) when she was a teenager and he was the student of her father, Friedrich Wieck, who made every effort to impede the relationship. She was one of the 19th century’s greatest pianists and herself a composer of note. After a legal battle with her father the couple finally married in 1840. In the 1850s their happiness became compromised by Robert’s increasing mental instability, which resulted in a suicide attempt in 1854; he died in an asylum in 1856. Clara, who lived for another 40 years, devoted her considerable energies to propagating her husband’s music, which is at its greatest in his intimate works for piano, voice and chamber ensemble.

“Twin Spirits tells a great human drama, irrespective of the fact that it’s about two great musicians,” says director John Caird. “It makes us think about love, marriage, relationships, pain, illness and how they influence art and life. Robert and Clara’s chamber music was almost like a diary and listening to it you feel you are looking into the pages of something deeply personal.”

Twin Spirits was recorded before a small audience in a studio space at London’s Royal Opera House shortly before Christmas 2007. All the artists involved donated their talent and time so that everyone buying a copy will be supporting the important work of the Royal Opera House Education Program which provides opportunities for some 90,000 people annually to engage with opera, music and dance. These projects reach people of all ages and backgrounds, including the isolated and elderly, the socially deprived, disabled adults and children, young offenders and for these people they have a very significant and positive impact. The Royal Opera House’s work helps them to become enthusiastic and motivated, learn self-respect, discover the potential within themselves and develop a team spirit. For every performance on the world-famous stage, at least twice as many educational activities are taking place and this work is a vital part of the Royal Opera House’s mission.

The original performance of Twin Sprits took place in June 2005, also at the Royal Opera House. Other charity performances took place at Salisbury Cathedral (to benefit the Salisbury Cathedral Girl Choristers), the New Victory Theatre in New York (to benefit Broadway Cares – Equity Fights Aids) and, at the Prince of Wales’ invitation, Windsor Castle (to benefit the Royal Opera House Foundation, and Soil Association). Among other performers who have participated alongside Sting and Trudie are actors Sir Ian McKellen, Charles Dance, and Jonathan Pryce and violinists Vasko Vassilev and Joshua Bell.

Twin Spirits will be released by Opus Arte on DVD (OA 0994 D) and Blu-Ray (OA BD7043 D) in the US on September 29th, 2009. Preview the DVD and access further information about the Twin Spirits project, Robert and Clara Schumann and the Royal Opera House Education Program at www.twin-spirits.com.

This year, artists from Naxos of America’s family of distributed labels were nominated for three awards, including BestClassical Album nominations for pianist Sonia Rubinsky for her Naxos recording Villa-Lobos: Piano Music; Guia Pratico, Albums 10 and 11; Suite Infantil Nos. 1 and 2 (Naxos8570504); and renowned cellist Andrés Díaz, for his Azica recording of Bach Cello Suites (ACD-71252).

Composer Clarice Assad also was nominated for the Best Classical Contemporary Composition award for Danças Nativas, from the Chandos recording Spirit of Brazil (Aquarelle Guitar Quartet; CHAN 10512).

My parents come from a generation where learning an instrument, usually piano, was commonplace. It was considered part of being a well-educated, well-rounded individual irrespective of one’s economic status. My mother played violin and piano, so I and my sister did too. Viola came later, in my early 20’s.

I began playing the violin when I was 6 years old. I was raised in the interior of Alaska, and when I was first learning violin, the Suzuki Method was being introduced to the area. My first violin teacher was a cellist, but she must have done her job well because I developed a love for playing. I think that’s the most important thing a young child gets with a good beginner’s teacher. No one wants to play an instrument if it’s tedious, boring or too academic.

Although this is not the case for myself, like many violists, you began your musical instruction on the violin and later switched to viola. What ultimately made you stick with the Viola, and what do you enjoy most about playing Viola as opposed to the Violin? Quincy Porter’s Complete Viola Works, is coming out at the end of September. What did you enjoy most about the recording process? Least?

My friend and colleague John McLaughlin Williams who plays and conducts on the album, suggested several years ago that I do a recording. It took a while for me to come around to the idea. My assumptions were that the process is boring, tedious and interested primarily in note and ensemble perfection. I found it to be quite the opposite. This is not a competition, but a foray into creativity. I found myself more interested in exploring the types of sounds I could make, and aiming to play in a manner that best represents the purpose of the music.
There’s nothing I really disliked about the process. It is physically taxing to play so many hours a day with such intensity, so that is one challenge.

If you could choose one composer, conductor or artist, deceased or living, to meet who would it be? Why?

There are so many fascinating artists and composers, but I would especially love to meet the Chevalier de Saint-George (1745-99). He was a contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, and equally well regarded during his life. What amazes me about him was that he was a true Renaissance man – not just a violinist and composer, but master swordsman and fighter for the French Revolution. He taught Marie-Antoinette, conducted and premiered Haydn’s “Paris” symphonies, and became the first “music director” of one of Europe’s great orchestras, yet very few know of him, and his music/life is all but a footnote in history. Perhaps if his mother had not been a black slave and his father a wealthy French nobleman, he would not have suffered from the French code noir of that time, but his accomplishments and experiences are phenomenal for anyone.

When you’re not performing or practicing, what activities do you enjoy?

I enjoy physical activities like yoga, running, hiking and weight lifting. I’m also the “handyman” of the family, and I’m always finding things around the house to fix up. I have a book club that meets about every 2 months, but I do read quite a bit during the summer and when I travel. I’m expecting my first child early October, so motherhood will be the newest all consuming activity coming up!

I began playing viola out of curiosity and a desire to learn something new. I stuck with viola because I got an orchestral job as acting principal viola of the Florida Philharmonic immediately after getting my master’s degree, so I needed to play viola! Now I’m happy it turned out that way. I’m researching and learning a lot of fantastic viola repertoire that has been lost or underplayed, plus I love learning standard repertoire I “should” have learned as a kid.

I view the violin and viola as two separate instruments with different sonorities. I don’t necessarily value one over the other, but I do prefer the sound of the viola. I also find it more physically difficult to play, and sometimes when I’m feeling tired, I wistfully recall how much easier technical feats are on the violin. Paganini Caprices are much easier on the violin than the viola!

Artur Nikish believed that ‘a player’s psyche depended upon the instrument he played,’ and he characterized violists as being ‘calm and good-natured.’ It has also been often said that ‘viola players are the least troublesome’ in orchestra settings. Do you agree?

Hmmm. That’s what I’m told, that all violists are calm and good-natured. However, I have certainly met high-strung, very competitive and supremely self-confident violists! I think it takes all types, even in a viola section.

What are some of your favorite compositions to play? Do you have an era you prefer?

I love to play whatever pieces I’m performing at the moment. I prefer variety in repertoire. So far, I’ve had the luxury of not being told what repertoire I must perform for most solos with orchestra and recitals, so it’s been my choice. I use the opportunity to learn new music as well as perform pieces in my repertoire I love.

My favorite era is Renaissance music, so that means I listen to a lot of vocal music. There’s something about the purity of the voice and the use of intervals that I find captivating. I have Josquin des Prez, John Dunstable and Orlando de Lassus among others on my iPod. However, I have a wide range of musical interests from Appalachian folk music to Balinese gamelan.

Which composer would you most like–or would have liked–to contribute to the instrument’s repertoire?

It would be fascinating to see what a Brahms, Beethoven or Prokofiev viola concerto would sound like.

There are countless viola jokes. Can you share a few of your favorites?

The MIT web site has a fantastic list of viola jokes. One of my favorite shorter ones is about a violist and conductor. You see a violist and a conductor crossing the street. Which one do you hit first? The conductor – business before pleasure!

What projects or exciting events do you have planned for the future?

I’m in the process of researching new pieces by little known or neglected composers for future recordings. I have wonderful help from Victor Ledin, one of the producers I worked with on the Porter album. I would have liked to have had a release party for the album, but being that the release date is September 29 and I’m expecting a child four days later, I decided against it! I’m not doing much in the fall and early winter due to the newborn, but in January things pick up again with a talk at Trumbull College at Yale about the Porter Project. Later in the spring I have a recital and other performances.

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Collin: Do you compose music? If so can you describe your style?

Ralph: In fact I never had a big urge to compose music, as there are so many great composers out there, who have more to tell than I do in that respect. I have often thought what I would write if I would be a composer, but I had to conclude that it would be mostly a kind of mixture of all my favorite composers and pieces – some Messiaen, some Ives, some Debussy…However, as an instrumentalist, it is quite likely that one has some more pronounced ideas for a composition than for any other instrument; there are in fact quite a few pianists who do have composed for their own instrument, now and in the past, such as Glenn Gould, Arthur Rubinstein and Horowitz. However, also in these cases, in my opinion, the music sounds, in the first place, remarkably similar to the works by the composers they play as part of their concert repertoire.

That said – I have composed myself a few things, and during my conservatory studies, one work was actually performed at a concert of the composition department, after which I was encouraged to study composition. It strikes me that of the works I did compose (all were for piano solo), that without exception, they were in minor keys, and heavily influenced by the early and middle Scriabin especially, with some hints of Debussy and Chopin. Also I wrote a piece in memory of the great Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, but thinking back of it, and although the pieces themselves are not bad I think, they are too much of an imitation.

I do realize that all great composers have started by imitating their great examples, and I think that as an instrumentalist, it is very useful to try composing – just to understand the process and the problems of composing to a greater extent (and ultimately, to perform other composer’s works better). However, I think that in order to seriously compose, one needs hard and serious work, and especially a lot of creativity and urge to add something really original of oneself to the enormous existing canon of great compositions.

Collin: What parts of the US would you like to visit? Do you have any venues that you dream about playing in?

Ralph: As a part of my studies in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, I studied with Ursula Oppens at Northwestern (Chicago) for almost a year. It was a wonderful period to which I think back very often. I was invited to be a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center during two consecutive years at that time as well, and I would love to visit those places again, sniff the atmosphere (perhaps this is a Dutch expression) and see all my friends. During several holidays, I have been to California, Nevada, Arizona and New York, and also thsoe places grabbed me especially because of their natural beauty – the vastness of everything is unknown to us Dutchmen, and it would be something I would like to see and especially feel again. It seems to me that the works by someone as John Adams could only have been created in such environments; in a small, measured, rainy place such as The Netherlands, the mind simply seems not to have enough space to think of such a music style. But I have never been to Florida or Texas, for example, so there are still many places to discover.

Concerning my dream of a concert venue: of course there are many big halls in the US that any musician dreams of. I have attended a lot of concerts at Chicago’s Symphony Center during my studies, so this has a special place in my heart. But often, my mind has wandered to other thoughts. For example, wouldn’t it be great to perform Charles Ives’ legendary Concord Sonata at Walden Pond, in Henry David Thoreau’s cottage? The atmosphere, perhaps even the ‘vibes’ in such a place would certainly beat even the best concert hall in the world, even though the acoustics would probably not be the best ever. And when I let my thoughts go further, I could dream of playing Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux Étoiles (From the Canyons to the Stars), for piano and chamber orchestra, in the place where the composer found his inspiration: right inbetween the canyons of Bryce Canyon, at sunrise for example….A concert inbetween the half-constructed airplanes at Boeing Hall in Everett, Washington, is an even weirder phantasy, to which I would not say ‘no’…

Collin: What music do you buy? Do you have any current favorite recording right now?

Ralph: Sometimes I doubt whether I have a normal musical mind, as there are just so many types of music that I like. I have never understood why there is such a big ‘gap’ between what they call classical, contemporary, pop, world and jazz music. At the moment there is a CD of Coldplay in my car stereo – I must admit that I do not know pop music so well, but many contemporary composers mentioned it to me, and indeed it is good music. At the same time, I am again in a ‘minimal’ period. With me, my music interests go in recurring waves – few months ago I had one of those Scriabin periods, in which I listened to his music any time I was not practising myself. Now, there is Steve Reich in my CD-player in the living room. For some reason I always feel drawn to his music whenever I go travelling. My holidays are nearing quickly, and perhaps the pulse of his music sets my mind to the pulse of the many hours on the highway to come. Other music which is always close by is from Debussy and Keith Jarrett, to name a few. I have not so long ago discovered music by the German composer Hans Otte (1926-2007), who was a piano student of Walter Gieseking and a composition student of Paul Hindemith. He was absorbed by new music, but in his own music you always hear the sensuality of Gieseking’s hallmark: Debussy. In an original and haunting combination, you hear an almost perfect world of impressionism, minimalism, Eastern influences and even some hints of Romantic music.

….to be continued????

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I have long been a fan of Italian film music of the 60’s and 70’s. Rota was truely one of the most important and influential composers of his generation, the generation that would influence such greats as Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai and many others. Rota of course (like many other film composers) had a “Classical Music” side to his work. I had a chance to chat with conductor Enrico Bronzi about his disc of Rota Concertos on the Concerto label.

Enrico, can you tell us a little bit about the Rota project? What inspired you to make this recording? Why these particular compositions?
For a while now I have been looking for an opportunity to study the Concerto n. 2 for cello. So when the Musici di Parma asked me to join them in a project regarding Rota, naturally my reaction was to join them immediately. This recording brings together all aspects of my life as a musician: chamber music, work as a soloist and conducting.

Can you describe for us where Nino Rota fits in the Italian Music Landscape (historically speaking)?
Rota’s music is like breathing Italian air. His vocation for melody originates in the lyric traditions of my hometown. Often his music is tinged with a typically Mediterranean mood. It can be playful: in it he frequently alludes to particular sounds, such as a band from southern Italy or the circus. However, he does know where the limits lie and it is done with a gentlemanliness, which keeps everything from becoming mere imitation. And this sense of ‘moderation in all things’ is part of the education of that refined aristocrat from the south, which is a part of the foundations of our culture.

What do you see as being Rota’s most important compositions outside of the film works? What makes these pieces important?
Rota’s concert music is contiguous with his music for film. It is sophisticated music that has absorbed all of the lessons of European music. And yet it is not music that feigns solemnity or zeal. When Morricone writes ‘serious’ music, he does it disowning the poetry of his film music. Rota, on the other hand, just enlarges and reinforces the poetic structure of his pieces. We never get the impression that the joy exuding from his enormous melodic streak is running out.

What would you like this recording you’ve made to achieve both in Italy and abroad?
I hope this recording will be considered a step toward rediscovering this great composer’s recorded music. Many have begun to re-evaluate all angles of his music and I believe the public will not have to work at all to appreciate him. I am thinking of some rather silly and useless criticisms leveled at Poulenc. In the end the coherence of these authors is worth more than an aesthetic credo or the poorly placed problems regarding the avant-garde. Let it be understood I am a big fan of a wide variety of very different composers, such as Zimmermann, Ligeti, Kurtag. Our age is a Tower of Babel of different and diverse languages. But if we know how to listen we will be able to understand the beauty that can be found in opposites.

While some people in America are familiar with Rota’s film music, by and large his “Classical Compositions” still remain somewhat obscure (when speaking in terms of the “Classical mainstream”), why do you think this is?
For many years, in Europe, there was, basically, a kind of censorship regarding this composer who was so far removed from any of the beacons of the avant-garde in the last century. Given that 20th century American music is not so very different from Rota’s aesthetic cannons, I think that, in the United States, he could be warmly welcomed. For people who enjoy Copland or Bernstein, admiring Rota’s spontaneous and luminous music should come naturally.

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Next morning: full dress rehearsal at the Palace goes surprisingly well. The final movement is still challenging. A fast 3/8 flourish that begins the movement still sounds sloppy and the ending isn’t quite as emphatic as it needs to be. I spent the rest of the day wandering the canals and streets, and drinking espresso, which is a silly thing to do to calm one’s nerves. The musical sites of St. Pete’s are so abundant as to be laughable. I had coffee in a building where Tchaikovsky lived and died. I visited the famous Mariinsky Theatre and the statues of Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov at the Conservatory. Most important to me of anything I might do in this city was to visit 66 Krukov Canal, which happened to be around the corner from Dima’s, and a rite of pilgrimage I had longed to take for years. This was the home of the Stravinsky’s until Igor’s triumphant Paris premieres with the Ballets Russe. The Revolution would keep him away from his birth country for another 55 years. A Firebird plaque hangs on the entrance to the building. I would return to this spot over and over, as well as to the Shamrock Pub, directly adjacent to it. Old habits die hard.

Arriving in the Palace again was a sobering experience. It was certainly the most glorious setting for my music, and I say this knowing I’ve been blessed with performances at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully, Steinway and a few smart college campuses. We very nearly had a full house and I was surprised to see Anna, a woman I spoke to on the flight over for no more than 10 minutes and to whom I briefly mentioned the concert. She joined us after the day-long wedding of her sister in Pushkin the day before. Charles, Vladimir and the band gave a strong performance of the Aikman piece, with its wonderfully tuneful middle movement. I’m happy to report that the performance of my Cello Concerto – the product of some six months of labor – went off extremely well. Dima played like someone absolutely possessed and Vladimir held the orchestra together nicely, and created a real sense of pacing. The crowd was more silent than any I had ever experienced, especially in my hushed central movement with its cadenza for cello and percussion. Tempos were as I had them indicated, and the applause for the performers was hard-earned. The US embassy and the St. Petersburg Times sent four officials who I never managed to talk to but I was pleased to hear English spoken elsewhere in the crowd a bit. A bunch of us went out to celebrate afterward to a far-too-hip-for-me club and restaurant. I got a little thrill from seeing my name rendered in Cyrillic on the concert posters. We wandered the streets in the only hour of darkness in the city.

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Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered in 1996, LA Variations highlights the virtuosity and power of this celebrated American ensemble. In an interview with Allan Kozinn for a 2006 New York Times article, Salonen commented on his breakthrough work: “For me, this was the moment when it all came together; when I finally had the harmonic language that produced the sound I want to hear. I felt free.”

Mr. Salonen provided these notes for LA Variations:
“LA Variations is essentially variations on two chords, each consisting of six notes. Together they cover all twelve notes of a chromatic scale. Therefore the basic material of LA Variations has an ambiguous character: sometimes (most of the time, actually) it is modal (hexatonic), sometimes chromatic, when the two hexachords are used together as a twelve-tone structure.

 
“This ambiguity, combining serial and non-serial thinking, is characteristic of all my work since the mid-’80s, but LA Variations tilts the balance drastically towards the non-serial.

 
“This piece, some 19 minutes of music scored for a large orchestra, including a contrabass clarinet and a synthesizer, is very clear in its form and direct in its expression. The two hexachords are introduced in the opening measures of the piece together in the chromatic phenotype. Alto flute, English horn, bass clarinet, and two bassoons, shadowed by three solo violas, play a melody which sounds like a kind of synthetic folk music, but in fact is a horizontal representation of the two hexachords transposed to the same pitch. Some of the variations that follow are based on this melody, others are the deeper, invisible (or inaudible) aspects of the material. There are also elements that never change, like the dactyl rhythm first heard in the timpani and percussion halfway through the piece.”

On July 28, Naxos presents a new compilation of music by a composer whose career spans eras of history and music: Anonymous. The two-CD recording offers a considerable sampling of her still-growing repertoire. In a mere 48 tracks, Anonymous evokes the many cultures, political turmoil, romantic gestures, and religions he has experienced.

Anonymous was born to the world during the Early Middle Ages. Her compositions were simple, monophonic, and occasionally accompanied by minimal rhythmic accompaniment. Music of this time, and most other periods in history, sheds light on cultural and political happenings of the day. Therefore, in the infancy of his vocation, Anonymous was creating pieces of sacred peacefulness and spiritual love to combat the often unsympathetic world in which he lived.

It was during the High Middle Ages (or around 1150) that Anonymous bore witness to, and became part of, the expansion of music into a polyphonic and much more rhythmically complex art form. It is only natural that sacred music was at the heart of this migration of sound. She was actively involved in the composition of innovative 13th-century liturgical music such as the Mass of Tournai, which some scholars believe was the first mass to be documented as a unified work of polyphonic parts.

The Renaissance era proved to be much less productive for this faceless composer. Instead of passing along their compositions by rote, composers were now able to have their music printed for posterity, including their names, making ascription of authorship a much easier task. Anonymous and her composing brethren of the Renaissance era (Dufay, des Pres, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Byrd) were more focused on secular and complex instrumental music such as madrigals, chansons, and rondeau (set to poetry) than they were in the Middle Ages. It was during this time that Anonymous penned one of his most timeless melodies, Greensleeves. Although once credited to Henry VIII, this haunting tune was rightfully returned to our era-spanning composer’s vast catalog.

Part 1: Cello in the Sun – St. Petersburg 2009

In late 2007, I was commissioned to write a concertante work for cello and orchestra by the brilliant cellist Dmitry Kouzov, in collaboration with Vladimir Lande, principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg Symphony. I completed the three-movement concerto in 2008, working very closely with the soloist in New York, particularly in the cadenzas, and dedicated it to the spectacular artistry of Dmitry. Composing this work in this degree of collaboration was new for me and I think I gained a lot from it.

In May, Maestro Lande led the Chamber Orchestra of Southern Maryland in two performances (in two different towns) of the work with Kouzov as soloist. Though the semi-professional orchestra clearly had difficulties with the score, it allowed all of us – composer, conductor, soloist – to address the hurdles in the work before taking it to St. Petersburg for its official world premiere. That concert took place on June 21st, 2009, in the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, one of the many palatial residences Catherine the Great built for her lovers in St. Petersburg.

Never traveling to Russia before but knowing a good handful of St. Petersburg musicians based in the States meant that this would be an interesting trip in a lot of ways. I would be staying with Dmitry and his parents on the Moika Embankment. Dima and I had organized a series of chamber music concerts in New York over the previous six months to raise money for the recording of my concerto. We were helped along by a couple of generous donations from individuals who have supported my work over the years.

Dima picked me up in a newly-purchased but old-as-dirt Soviet Lada, which required two strong hands on the glass in order to roll up the passenger window. Driving up the broad Moskova Prospekt, we sped through Soviet history: a statue of Lenin high on a pedestal in front of a hammer and sickle bas relief; the spot where the Nazis stopped in their siege of Leningrad, now a memorial dedicated to the defenders of the city; rows of Soviet housing estates, most of them looking like they could be toppled by a light breeze. At Dima’s comfortable flat, his mother served us an array of Russian delicacies and we set out to explore the city at night. St. Pete’s is the world’s northernmost city with more than a million people. In fact, nearly 5 million people call it home and it’s easy to see why in June. During this time of White Nights, the sun sets for about an hour and a half. It’s only truly dark for about an hour, around 2:30 AM. Most Petersburgers don’t seem to go to bed at all and I wouldn’t sleep much either.

Entering Palace Square, with the Alexander Column in the center, the massive Hermitage surrounding, and the Admiralty and St. Isaac’s in the near distance, was an unforgettable experience. Dima and I walked around extensively, along the broad Neva and across the exquisite bridges that bisect the many canals and rivers of the city: Fontanka, Moika, Griboeveda. Summer time usually means dinner around midnight, and most restaurants on the Nevsky Prospekt – Russia’s most famous street – make accommodation for diners at all hours. Amazing to think of this city built on islands and swamps, made to order by Peter the Great in the 18th century and where some 200,000 people perished in its construction, is actually younger than New York.

Next morning Dima and I drove to the pink and graceful Palace of Beloselsky-Belozersky on the banks of the Fontanka. The grand staircase was opulent, the enormous rooms of the palace sumptuous in their rococo detail. We ascended staircase after staircase to reach the smallest room on the whole place: the rehearsal space for the St. Petersburg Symphony. All composers feel anxiety in rehearsal and I’m certainly no exception. As soon as Vladimir gave the downbeat, the strings struggled with intonation, the nicely-dovetailed chorale-like wind passages weren’t so in tune or chorale-like and the overloud percussion sounded as if they were playing instruments manufactured in the Stone Age. My greatest fear, of course, was errors in parts, much of which was ameliorated in the Maryland performances. I was confident everything was proofed and reproofed. Alas, it was not quite. A xylophone part went mysteriously missing and though I had my files on disc, we couldn’t find a copy shop or hotel to read the files. Dima later bought some manuscript paper and I stayed up late the second night rewriting the part from score. Rosemary, a great friend from Ireland, came with me to the first rehearsal and after lunch the two of us headed to the impossibly opulent Church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood. With more mosaics than any church in Europe, the place is almost too extreme in its color and detail. Inside, the stones where anarchists assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881 form the centerpiece opposite the altar. The church’s setting on the banks of the Griboedov makes it one of the most photographed places in Russia.

Alas, I’m getting carried away. I used to do a lot of travel writing but this is supposed to be about my musical experience. We had some late-night discussions with Vladimir before the next morning’s rehearsal. Dima played like a demon and the orchestra had improved, though not to any great degree. I was worried and Dima was clearly tense. Alexander Titov, music director of the orchestra and a well-known conductor, gave a few pointers and tried to rally the orchestra to concentrate. We were two days away from our concert, which also happened to feature another concerto premiere, the Violin Concerto of James Aikman, performed by an extraordinary violinist, Charles Wetherbee. Two American premieres in one concert! To the disbelief of the non-Russians present, the orchestra was recording this work the day after mine. In fact, between rehearsals, concerts and recordings, the orchestra worked some ten days straight, in many cases for 8-10 hours at a time. Their calm and quiet determination was astonishing.

The contrast between the opulent, wedding-cake facades and behind-the-scenes areas is shocking throughout St. Petersburg. Dima dragged me to the stage door of the Large Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic where a friend was waiting. She led us through a cavernous catacomb of dripping light bulbs, rusty pipes and exposed wiring. Then up a few flights of crumbling stairs and through a musician’s lounge of cigarette butts and chessboards, through another long hallway where she then parted a heavy velvet curtain. In an instant we were on stage with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic – mid-concert mind you – in the most sumptuous hall, replete with glittering chandeliers. We sat close enough behind the basses to read their parts of Prokofiev’s L’enfant Prodigue.

Dima and I had some serious discussions with Vladimir on this premiere and recording and I was reminded that I carried not an insignificant wad of US dollars in my pockets on the plane, and I wasn’t going to see it go to waste. Volodya assured us that the concert would be good and the recording – scheduled for the next day – would be better than good. Russians like to smoke like Americans like to eat and it was obvious that Dima was worried as he took drag after drag at a café on the Nevsky Prospekt. I wandered around on my own, snapping pictures of the Yussupov Palace (where Rasputin was poisoned and dumped, still alive, in the Moika), and climbed the steps to the top of St. Isaac’s, where I could look out over the entire watery city. That night, I got caught up in controlled mayhem and ran into a tank-reinforced line of hundreds of police officers. Hundreds of thousands of graduating 17-year-olds descend on the Neva to watch fireworks and hundred-foot tall fountains spew from barges. As all intersections to Nevsky were closed, I had to backtrack several blocks and canals, going against a tidal wave of traffic, each person with a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of beer or champagne in another. For a few moments, I was genuinely scared as bottles flew, a few pretty close to my head. I met up with Dima in a sudden downpour which turned the million-plus crowd into a writhing, soused, but well-dressed mess.

I commented to Sasha, Dima’s dad, how their television always seemed to be showing scenes from WWII, or the Great Patriotic War, as it’s considered by Russians. As I was reading Antony Beevor’s book on Stalingrad, I should have known that my premiere would take place on the very anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Russia. In my concerto’s second movement, there’s a not so thinly-veiled quote from Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony “Leningrad”, first in the flutes, then in the bass clarinet. The musicians picked up on it in the second rehearsal. Talking to Sasha over a couple of scotches, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the very fact that the two of us could talk about growing up in our respective countries; he, born in Leningrad during the siege where family members starved or later disappeared during the Stalin purges; me, growing up safe but with a Cold War suspicion and even hatred of anything Russian, helped by Reagan’s endless rhetoric. The truth was that the two of us could not have had this discussion even fifteen years earlier.