Nice interview with Maurizio Pollini in the Times too, in which the pianist is disarmingly unflappable in the face of questions about how no one cares about contemporary music any more:
“Why not play music that has so much beauty?” he asks. “Boulez’s harmonies, for instance, give me joy. … What matters, whether it’s classical or contemporary, is for the performer to make the sense clear: the necessity of the notes.”
Interesting article by Paul Hillier in the Guardian today on Stockhausen’s Stimmung, and working with the composer:
I felt the beginnings of a controlling hand taking over – a hand that I had seen at work before – making demands not only on musical issues (which the score left to the performers), but also requiring my guarantee that we would use cushions rather than chairs, even prescribing their size and shape.
It’s not yet available to us Britishers, but a quick glance at Amazon’s newly launched MP3 store doesn’t have me holding my breath in anticipation.
Item: results 1–24 in ‘Modern, 20th and 21st century‘:
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| 24. |
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Emusic may have its problems with searching and metadata, but this is really poor.
Gordon Brown has been making a lot in his first speech to the Labour Party Conference of the parable of the talents. To this end, his headline revamp of education policy includes a lot of impressive figures: one-to-one tuition for 300,000 primary school pupils in literacy; the same for another 300,000 in maths; a guaranteed 5 hours of school sport per week; and “time for arts and music”.
You’re not reluctant to put a similar commitment on that last, are you Gordon?
Hey, it’s Friday, have some fun. Here are Pierre Laurent Aimard, Cynthia Millar, Andrew Davis and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, performing at the 2001 Proms.
From the comments: “Aimard playing by memory!! The guy’s a f*cking piano monster!”
Paul Bailey links to a Ferneyhough post of mine on the old blog, which leads me to notice that people are still commenting on that thing. Maybe I need to make the “THIS BLOG IS NO LONGER LIVE” notice at the top even bigger?
Gotta love the comments people are still making though:
I think Ferneyhough is the worst piece of crap in contemporary music. He should burn in Hell.
John Smith: what a lovely, open-minded individual you seem. But, really, get some perspective here.I think you’d like Jonathan Dove.
Ugh. So much to do at the moment, and I’m sooo bored of all of it at the moment. I really want to write something substantial on each the following links, but I just can’t find the spare energy at the moment, so I’ll just point you towards them for now, and maybe come back later.
Guardian Unlimited: Alexander Chancellor: I tried to give classical maestro Pierre Boulez a chance
Journalist approaches music with closed ears, leaves with closed ears, writes about how closed his ears are. Yawn. There’s more to it than that, but you’ll just have to wait.
Update: Tristan Jakob-Hoff responds, but not nearly tough enough. The daft thing is, these arguments are being made about Péter Eötvös, ffs, not Merzbow. I mean, if his sumptious music (built around such radical concepts as drama, harmony, melody and sonic excitement) doesn’t grab you then part of me would like to tear your ears off and give them to someone else who might just appreciate them a bit more. But what do I know? These days even music that richly entertains hundreds of people – diverting them from a Friday night in the pub, even – I’m told is “cacophonous and a bit like hell“.
Kyle Gann: Euro-Postclassicality does exist
Minimalism seems to be crossing my path a lot at the moment (and I’ve never even been to Bangor), and I have much more to add to this post of Kyle’s than a hasty comment.
Alvin Curran: Maritime Rites
I also want to blog about this, which was wonderful. For the time being there are a few pictures and a little video here.
Back soon.
del.icio.us/skills/obituary | About this list
This week we bid farewell to the following members of the musical community:
:: Thomas Hansen, aka Saint Thomas Singer-songwriter
:: Henry Mackenzie Jazz clarinettist and saxophonist
:: Joe Zawinul Jazz keyboardist
:: Fritz Fryer Four Pennies guitarist
:: Miyoshi Umeki Singer and actress
:: Luciano Pavarotti Tenor
:: Janis Martin Rockabilly singer
:: Richard Cook Jazz critic
:: Tom Munnelly Irish folk musician and folklorist
:: Alan Cooper Trad jazz clarinettist
:: Pak Cokro Javanese composer, musician, and teacher
:: Richard Bradshaw Opera conductor
:: Hilly Kristal CBGB founder
:: Luqman Ali Sun Ra drummer
:: Herb Pomeroy Jazz trumpeter
:: Rose Bampton Operatic soprano
:: Jerom Hines Ska guitarist and songwriter
:: Tony Dangerfield Bass player
:: Ron Miller Motown songwriter
Rest in Peace.
