Take note of a blog by Steve Brookes, who writes on music for The Washington Post. He has a link to the purported blog of pianist Lang Lang, though I can't quite tell at a cursory glance whether it's for real or not.... The Ne(x)tworks ensemble, whom I wrote about in brief a few weeks ago, will perform again at the Gowanus silo space Issue Project Room on June 7. The program includes "graphic" and "open" scores (works that leave much to the imagination of the performer) by James Tenney, Christian Wolff, Julius Eastman, Cornelius Cardew, and John Zorn.... Reader Neville Young sends along this story from the UK, which describes how a Yorkshire woman has subjected her neighbors to various forms of "mental torture," including "loudly playing a choral work 'about rape, pillage and the trashing of villages.'" What is the piece in question, Young asks? The first that comes to mind is Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible.... Tonight, as part of WNYC's American Music Festival, Mark Morris will present favorite works of Gershwin, Cowell, and Partch.... Harrison Birtwistle recently won new fans at the Ivor Novello Awards. Taking the stage at the end of a ceremony that also saluted the Kaiser Chiefs and James Blunt, he made the following remarks: “Why is your music so effing loud? You must all be brain-dead. Maybe you are. I didn’t know so many clichés existed until the last half-hour. Have fun. Goodbye.” (Via The Rambler.)
Photo: AirTrain Newark!
