Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise

Accidental art

A Google query sent me back to the glorious trumpet bloopers page. The Portsmouth Sinfonietta rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra is a dead ringer for Giacinto Scelsi. Also, it wouldn't be War on Christmastime without the Messiah on crack.

Apex 06

Here are some of the best things I heard this year.

Preponderantly notational

— Peter Lieberson, Neruda Songs, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, James Levine, Boston Symphony (Nonesuch, 12/19)
— Arvo Pärt, Da Pacem, Paul Hillier, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Harmonia Mundi)
— Debussy, Preludes Books I and II, Steven Osborne (Hyperion)
— Magnus Lindberg, Clarinet Concerto, Kari Kriikku, Sakari Oramo, Finnish Radio SO (Ondine)
— Nicolas Gombert, Missa Media Vita In Morte Sumus, Hilliard Ensemble (ECM)
— Sibelius, Complete Symphonies, Segerstam, Helsinki Philharmonic (Ondine)
— C. P. E. Bach, Symphonies Nos. 1-4, Andrew Manze, English Concert (Harmonia Mundi)
— Osvaldo Golijov, Ainadamar, Spano, Atlanta Symphony (DG)
— Philip Glass, Eighth Symphony, Dennis Russell Davies, Bruckner Orchestra Linz (Orange Mountain)
— Rachmaninov, All-Night Vigil, Hillier, Estonians (Harmonia Mundi, 2005; should have been on last year's list)

Also:  Shostakovich, Symphonies Nos. 1 and 14, Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic (EMI); Nico Muhly, Speaks Volumes (Bedroom Community); Shostakovich, Quartets Nos. 3, 7, 8, St. Lawrence Qt. (EMI): Julian Anderson, Book of Hours (NMC); Beethoven, Ninth Symphony, Vänskä, Minnesota Orchestra (BIS); Mozart, La Clemenza di Tito, Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi); Xenakis, Percussion Works (Mode); Adams, My Father Knew Charles Ives (Nonesuch); Silvestrov / Ustvolskaya, Misterioso (ECM); George Perle, Retrospective (Bridge)

Preponderantly non-notational (f/ Jonathan)

— Joanna Newsom, Ys (Drag City)
— Timberlake / Timbaland, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive)
— Hossein Alizadeh and Djivan Gasparyan, Endless Vision (World Village)
— Kelis, Kelis Was Here (Jive)
— Bob Dylan, Modern Times (Columbia)
— Ali Farka Touré, Savane (World Circuit)
— Brad Mehldau, House on Hill (Nonesuch)
— Cat Power, The Greatest (Matador)
— Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
— Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped (Geffen)

Singles: Timberlake / Timbaland, "My Love," "SexyBack"; Bob Dylan, "Ain't Talkin'"; Cat Power, "The Greatest"; Beyoncé, "Irreplaceable"; Kelis f/ Cheryl Evans and W. A. Mozart, "Like You"; Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins, "The Big Guns"; Tapes 'n Tapes, "Insistor"; Jennifer Hudson, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going"; Paris Hilton, "Stars Are Blind" (yes, I'm gay)

Live events:

— Sufjan Stevens singing "Seven Swans," American Songbook, Lincoln Center
— Ian Bostridge singing Britten's Winter Words, Zankel Hall
— Kenji Bunch's Confessions of the Woman in the Dunes, Issue Project Room
— Angela Gheorghiu in La Traviata, Met
— Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater, Opéra Bastille
— Handel's Solomon, René Jacobs, Lincoln Center
— Madama Butterfly at the Met, opening night
— Shostakovich Eighth, Gergiev, Maryinsky, Lincoln Center
— Reich at 70, Carnegie
— György and Márta Kurtág, Vienna

Happy composers

Missy Mazzoli writes an exuberant final report on the Composer Institute in Minneapolis:

In my laughably biased opinion, last night's concert at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall was a huge success. Close to 800 people, two-thirds of whom were not regular subscription concert-goers, many of whom were under thirty, and at least five of whom sported colorful mohawks and multiple piercings, showed up to hear nine works they had never heard before, enthusiastically stomping and cheering throughout the night. As much as I want to believe that everyone secretly loves new music, that iPods are full of Andriessen, showers reverberate with the sound of Saariaho, and rampant indifference is just a cute way of keeping everyone's otherwise uncontrollable enthusiasm in check, I accept the fact that programming new music is a risk. It was a risk that paid off (in more ways than one) for the Minnesota Orchestra. Music directors from all over the country came to the concert with the idea of bringing this institute to their own orchestras, but the Minnesota Orchestra has the distinction of being the first to take this long-overdue risk with such successful results. Watching Osmo Vänskä conduct with such passion and precision you would have thought the world depended on every twist of his baton. For some of us, it does.

Meanwhile, Mark Swed and Out West describe the large, enthusiastic audience that showed up for Gerald Barry's Triumph of Beauty and Deceit at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Thomas Adès, who conducted, and who's used to relatively big crowds back home in England, expressed delight at the turnout. Yes, new music brings in audiences when it is presented with conviction and flair.

Bresnick in brief

Rags to Riches. The New Yorker, Dec. 11, 2006.

For more, with information about the Zankel concerts tonight and Saturday night, see Steve Smith.

Sleep sound

And the country proverb known,
In your waking shall be shown
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, 
And all shall be well.

— A Midsummer Night's Dream

Benjamin Britten died thirty years ago today.

What would Mr. Bing say?

The Met has a blog. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tan Dun's The First Emperor. Suzanne Mentzer is showing incipient signs of blog addiction. (Speaking of which, my hiatus seems to be on hiatus.) Link courtesy of Campbell Vertesi.

Playlist

— Lou Harrison, Mass for Saint Cecilia's Day, UCSC Chamber Singers (Kleos Classics)
— Terry Riley aka Poppy Nogood & The Phantom Band, All Night Flight (Elision Fields)
— Julian Anderson, Book of Hours (NMC)
— Debussy, Preludes, Steven Osborne (Hyperion)
— George Cacioppo, Advance of the Fungi (Mode)
— Meyerbeer, "Ah! mon fils, sois béni," Ernestine Schumann-Heink (Columbia/Sony)

Booklist

— John Rockwell, Outsider: On the Arts, 1967-2006 (Limelight)
— Howard Pollack, Gershwin (UC Press, Dec. 2006)
— Prokofiev, Diaries 1907-1914 (Cornell UP, Jan. 2007)
— Paul Griffiths, A Concise History of Western Music (Cambridge UP)
— Jack Sullivan, Hitchcock's Music (Yale UP)

Quo usque tandem abutere

On World AIDS Day, I'd like to remember my high-school Latin teacher, the fierce Vaughn Keith, who was also the lead singer of the obscurely famous DC punk band Judie's Fixation. Their hard-hitting anthem "Martyr Me" can be found on the 1978 compilation 30 Seconds Over DC. It holds up.