Listening to Kahane at Carnegie Hall

 

Recently, the Awl published an interesting article about one of the challenges concomitant with the crossover success of artists such as Gabriel Kahane: what happens when fans of your more pop-infused material try to listen to your concert music? In a sort of Socratic dialogue, one such listener, Jaime Green, questions an anonymous "classical music expert" about challenges posed by the sounds, milieu, and investment of time, money, and attention required of listeners by the concert music experience.

These are questions asked by a lot of listeners, and not just new ones either. But I get uncomfortable when one work or composer on a single concert is supposed to stand in for the contemporary ...

For all my anticipation seeing Simon Rattle onstage with the Philadelphia Orchestra last night at Carnegie Hall, it was soprano Barbara Hannigan who unapologetically stole the show. Hannigan, who hails from Canada, is one of today's most sought-after contemporary musicians, with over 70 world premieres to her credit. She is also one of today's most charismatic singers, known for writhing about the stage like a woman possessed. Hannigan's calling card is Mysteries of the Macabre: a three-part aria taken from Gyorgy Ligeti's absurdist opera Le grande macabre. Hannigan, portraying the Chief of the Secret Political Police, wore a black wig, lycra dress and thigh-high boots with 4 inch heels, which she used at one point to ...

by Robert LeeperLast Tuesday night, fresh from curating and performing in his own festival, A Scream and An Outrage, Brooklyn-based composer Nico Muhly returned to New York for two shows at (le) Poisson Rouge. The evening consisted of a broad range of works based loosely around a preview of his upcoming opera, Two Boys, premiering at the Metropolitan Opera in October.    With a libretto by celebrated American playwright Craig Lucas, Two Boys examines issues associated with the darker corners of the Internet and online chat rooms. The production is an important part of Met General Manager Peter Gelb’s larger effort to bring opera to a younger demographic, and the nature of the issues explored firmly drags opera into ...

Composer and Brandeis University Professor Emeritus Harold Shapero has died. Jerry posted an article about Shapero on Sequenza 21′s homepage and Alex Ross wrote about it on The Rest is Noise.

Steve Martland (1959-2013) We're saddened to learn of the passing of English composer Steve Martland at the age of 53. Composer and Peabody faculty member Oscar Bettison was kind enough to share the following remembrance of Martland with us.

Remembering Steve Martland

by Oscar Bettison  

 

“Where do you go to college?” “The RCM.” “Oh, that place is terrible. Actually, all institutions are terrible.”   That exchange was how I met Steve Martland. I was eighteen, just finishing my first term as an undergrad at the Royal College of Music in London, and the circumstance of our meeting was the BBC Young Composer of the Year competition, in which I was a finalist. A couple of days later, ...

Some news about a hot ticket tonight from one of our regular contributors, composer Lawrence Dillon.

After performing his Violin Futura program a gazillion times all over the map in the last six years, Piotr Szewczyk is bringing it to NYC (Carnegie Hall. May 6^th. 8 pm).

What is Violin Futura? In the words of Santa Fe New Music, it is an “enthralling program [that] shows off the diversity and range of the contemporary violin.” As Piotr says, “I created the Violin Futura project because I wanted to expand the contemporary violin repertoire with pieces that are exciting to play and listen to while bringing something new and unique to the repertoire. Violin Futura is currently in its 3rd edition and I have over 40 pieces ...

There is French narration for about a minute and a half into the first segment, but then it's just pure Bartok.

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Part six

Love this post-minimal string track by Arcade Fire's Sarah Neufeld. Album out in August via Constellation.