Steve Smith
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Some of you may have fond memories of the late-’90s website Bird Lives, a proto-blog whose pseudonymous propreitor, the Pariah, used to tell wild, off-color stories of the dark side of the jazz recording industry. The site was regarded as the jazz world’s Drudge Report — and rightly so, even if my perspective as an…
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I’d originally planned to go hear Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto at the New York Philharmonic’s "Hear and Now" concert on Tuesday night. By all accounts, the piece is a smash hit. And when Alex Ross told me on Sunday night that he’d rearranged his schedule in order to hear it a second time, I was…
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David Byrne’s "One Note" with Haale, Alarm Will Sound and Camille at Zankel HallThe New York Times, February 6, 2007
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Joshua Kosman’s San Francisco Chronicle review of British composer Robin Holloway’s Fourth Concerto for Orchestra, newly premiered by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, is a brilliantly effective piece of writing. Opening with a paragraph that compels attention, Kosman provides just enough history to help you comprehend how this new piece came to…
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That a massive crowd of New Yorkers was extremely eager to greet the legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone in his first-ever American concert was made eminently clear by the rousing ovation that greeted an assistant who carried the maestro’s scores to the podium. That awkward moment, which generated a hearty laugh when the mistake…
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Focus! Festival at the Juilliard SchoolThe New York Times, January 31, 2007 Bruce Hodges offers another view. The Focus! Festival continues through Friday night, entirely free of charge.
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Happy birthday, Philip Glass.
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Hamburg Symphony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and John Scott at St. Thomas Church, Fifth AvenueThe New York Times, January 30, 2007
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In an interesting pair of posts on his blog, David’s Waste of Bandwidth, David Toub has sounded off on the pros and cons of the Internet music store eMusic.com. In his first post, Toub succinctly described the way the site works — a subscription format entitles you to X-number of downloads per month, which are…
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"A Serialist Island Thrives in a Sea of Minimalism"The New York Times, January 28, 2007 An article about composer Charles Wuorinen, whose recent orchestral works have found a powerful, enthusiastic champion in conductor James Levine. Theologoumenon, the symphonic poem premiered by Levine and the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall exactly two weeks ago, is indicative…
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If the reviews of Waiting for the Barbarians, the announcement of Satyagraha at the Met and ENO, and the news of Appomattox hadn’t already tipped you off, 2007 is a Philip Glass year: the composer celebrates his 70th birthday on January 31. But he’s wasted no time getting the celebration underway: a new recording of…
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Sometimes a vacation just isn’t a vacation. That’s why I’m at home today, recovering from a four-day excursion in which practically nothing — apart from attending the Philip Glass opera and spending some quality time with my sister (whose birthday is today — cheers!) and nephew in Houston — went according to plan. I’ve been…
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Waiting for the Barbarians at Austin Lyric OperaThe New York Times, Monday, January 22, 2007 Edit: Mark Swed liked the opera, too. Playbillarts.com has a recap with photos.
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The Daedalus String Quartet at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, January 19, 2007
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For lovers of Robert Ashley’s oeuvre, Concrete is a wonderfully revealing, even intimate experience. At first I missed the rigor of Ashley’s earlier operas, but the improvisatory freedom of this work had its own rewards. Plus, Joan La Barbara = funny! More than that I can’t say, because I’m reviewing the piece for The Wire.…
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The New York Collegium at the Church of St. Vincent FerrerThe New York Times, Monday, January 15, 2007
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The jazz world lost two greats this weekend: pianist-harpist Alice Coltrane and saxophonist Michael Brecker. Both were musical titans who never entirely received their due. Coltrane, in particular, was the focus of much criticism for her role in husband John’s final bands. I’ve always found this inexplicable; listening to any one of those late sessions,…
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"An Opera Full of Secrets From a Master of the Opaque"The New York Times, Sunday, January 14, 2007 An article about composer Robert Ashley’s latest opera, Concrete, which runs at La MaMa E.T.C. Annex in the East Village on Wednesday, January 17 through Sunday, January 21. The opera deals with the sometimes surprising secrets harbored…
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From colleague Kurt Gottschalk’s "Metal Friday" e-mail newsletter comes news that veteran rock record producer Sandy Pearlman—pseudonymously immortalized by Christopher Walken in the infamous "More Cowbell" sketch on Saturday Night Live—is teaching a seminar titled "Bruckner and Heavy Metal: From Chord Power to Power Chord" at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montréal. An…
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Bachiana Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, January 8, 2007 (The blogging drought is about to end, I promise.)
Night After Night 