In a sure sign that classical music is about to blow up in a major way, the art form was recently featured in the New York Times's explosively hip Styles of the Times section. It's a story about attempts to interest the fashion world in svelte artistes such as Janine Jansen. Sometime guest-blogger Justin Davidson drew my attention to a passage in which Eric Latzky of the New York Philharmonic suggests alternate choices for Fashion Week soundtracks: “It could be anything from a ubiquitous piece like Mozart’s ‘Turkish March,’ or something contemporary, like ‘Scherzoid,’ by Mark-Anthony Turnage." What other avant-garde works would work form a suitably edgy yet propulsive accompaniment for bony Czech models striding down the runway? Justin suggests Xenakis's Kraanerg and Revueltas's Sensemayá. I'd nominate Adès's Asyla, Gordon's Decasia, Boulez's Rituel in memoriam Maderna, something by Electric Kompany, or, for the truly cutting-edge couturier, Petr Kotik's Many Many Women.
