I noted below that the classically trained pianist and Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx has been taking cello lessons from a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. According to this article in the Scottish Daily Record, Foxx has hit it off with his new teacher: "The guy who shows up to show me how to play the cello is nothing like what I expected. I thought it would be a stiff guy. But my guy is like a Ninja cellist."
Soho the Dog, il miglior fabbro, has discovered a very de-luxe item in the Neiman Marcus catalogue: Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. "Classical music lovers, hold on to your batons. The world-famous Kirov Orchestra. Uber-maestro Valery Gergiev working his Russian magic. Firebrand virtuoso Lola Astanova beating the daylights out of a Steinway® Concert Grand. Performing The Nutcracker Suite, the Tchaikovsky "Piano Concerto," and another Tchaikovsky masterpiece of your choice. In your hometown, at a private holiday concert for you and 499 of your closest friends. Hosted by Regis Philbin! The concert will be filmed as an after-party favor for each of your guests. You even get to keep the tour piano after all the artists autograph it. BRAVO!, if we do say so ourselves. (And we do.)" The whole package costs a mere $1,590,000.00. I hope some megarich wiseass requests Vakula the Smith.
From the letters column in the current issue of Science: "...Watanabe and Sato [Behav. Processes 47, 1 (1999)] have shown that Java sparrows can discriminate between Bach’s French Suite no. 5 in G minor and Arnold Schoenberg’s Suite for Piano opus 25. The birds were also able to generalize new music by Bach (Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major) and Schoenberg (Five Orchestra Pieces, Opus 16) and artists in similar categories, i.e., Vivaldi and Elliott Carter. In these experiments, music by Bach and Vivaldi was considered classical music, while the music of Schoenberg and Carter was considered modern music. Watanabe and Nemoto [Behav. Processes 43, 2 (1998)] have also shown that, given the option of three perches producing either silence, classical, or modern music, the Java sparrows preferred Bach to Schoenberg and Vivaldi to Carter. These results indicate that Java sparrows or songbirds prefer classical to modern music, or perhaps just more harmonious to dissonant sounds. Additionally, the sparrows chose music they 'liked' (e.g., Bach) over silence or music they 'disliked' (e.g., Schoenberg)." A flawed experiment — I have a feeling the sparrows might have preferred Messiaen to all of the above. I wish we had video of Java sparrows alighting on perches that play Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra.
James Levine conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, DG / Arkiv Music.
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Update: Doree Shafrir in the New York Observer comments on America's startling love affair with Wagner.
I have appeared on the New Yorker's élite New Yorker Out Loud podcast. Pardon the scratchy condition of my ordinarily melodious speaking voice. I have Sinatra's cold.
Advance tickets for my two New Yorker Festival events, the first with Peter Sellars (Saturday, Oct. 6) and the second with my iTunes (Sunday, Oct. 7), have sold out, but a limited quantity of tickets will be available at Festival Headquarters, 125 West 18th Street, and at event doors. From 1-2 PM on Sunday I will be signing some advance copies of my book at the headquarters.
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Never mind Kanye v. Fitty: meet the original gangsta MC.
Note: Not everyone is having an easy time with the new service.
Radiohead, the monumentally great English rock quintet, has temporarily done away with the concept of the record label and is offering its new album In Rainbows on a dedicated site. The MP3s, available on Oct. 10, are priced on a pay-what-you-like basis; a deluxe CD-and-book box version, which comes out in December, costs around $80. Traditionalists fear not: a normal CD is scheduled for next year. I'm particularly looking forward to the new version of "Reckoner," which is said to be amazing.
Very warm congratulations to Terry Teachout.
From Amazon.com's new MP3 pages:
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Wagner's phenomenal rise up the charts would seem to have something to do with the fact that the 1953 Bayreuth Ring under Clemens Krauss is being offered for $13.98.
Update: Bargain's over — the Ring has now been re-priced at $104. The physical CDs cost $60.
Why is Tashi's recording of the Quartet for the End of Time not on iTunes? It's one of the classic discs of twentieth-century music. Other options on iTunes do not measure up.
