performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the composer’s baton, or below by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski …music for a winter’s day, utterly grey and gloomy. Henze, of his second symphony (cover image by Cesare Burei) What would your struggle … Continue reading Henze Symphony no. 2
performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose, or below by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the composer’s baton (cover image by Andrew Yardley) Irving Gifford Fine was born in Boston on 3 December 1914. He earned both … Continue reading Irving Fine: Symphony
performed by Hilary Hahn and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen [It] is extremely difficult, just as much for the head as for the hands. I am delighted to add another ‘unplayable’ work to the repertoire. I want … Continue reading Schoenberg Violin Concerto, op. 36
performed by the Ensemble InterContemporain, or below by members of the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, from The Proms 2016 Boulez completed his Éclat for 15 instruments in 1965. Properly (I think?) called Éclat-Multiples, it is (or was to be) … Continue reading Boulez: Éclat
performed by William Purvis (sorry, no YouTube today, but hop on over to the Naxos page featuring this album to hear a few snippets of this vibrant, varied work for solo horn.) Doesn’t anyone here know anything about baseball? … … Continue reading Babbitt: Around the Horn
performed by Judith Bettina and Parnassus under Anthony Korf (sorry, there’s no video here again today, but if you can spare the dollar or whatever, I highly recommend purchasing the recording [I guess it has to be the entire album, so about $10…] on … Continue reading Babbitt’s The Head of the Bed
featuring Yun Peng Zhao from Quatuor Diotima. Listen here or in iTunes, or an abridged Chinese version here But when you listen to the twentieth century, maybe just give up this habit, for example, nice melody. For example, some drama… maybe … Continue reading Podcast: Livre pour Quatuor Diotima
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Friedrich Goldman (I) Claudio Abbado (II) Marcus Creed (III) “a landmark in 20th-century music . . . probably the first work of the post-war generation of composers in which technique and imagination combine on … Continue reading Stockhausen: Gruppen
performed by the Arditti quartet The string quartet under discussion begins at this point in the above video, or from here In searching for information about this quartet, I came to find that there is very little discussion virtually anywhere of Berio’s almost-earliest work … Continue reading Berio: Quartetto (1956)
performed by the Cicada Quartet Maderna’s Quartet is the hardest nut to crack [on the album], with its fragmented phrases and restless rhythms and dynamics. But behind the notes the Cikadas’ deeply committed playing reveals glimpses of a dramatic personality … Continue reading Bruno Maderna: Quartetto per archi in due tempi
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with Susanne Otto, Marek Torzewski, Barbara Bonney, Dietrich Knothe & Rundfunkchor Berlin under Claudio Abbado If any evidence exists that Webern’s work does not mark the esoteric “expiry” of Western music in a pianissimo of … Continue reading Nono: Il Canto Sospeso
performed by the Wiener Jeunesse-Chor, Günther Theuring, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado Today we begin a rather brief discussion of one of the pillars of the Darmstadt school, in fact of the very man who coined the phrase … Continue reading Luigi Nono: Liebeslied for mixed choir and instruments
performed by Paavali Jumppanen (from his album of the three sonatas) or below by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (from Boulez’s Ouvres Completes box set), both fantastic performances We now jump forward a little bit in time to another of Boulez’s still-early works, the first … Continue reading Boulez Piano Sonata no. 1
performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, or the first Notation performed by the composer, also below We start off our discussion of the Darmstadt school with Pierre Boulez. Needless to say, this is going to be a tough month of articles, for … Continue reading Boulez: Douze Notations
It’s July. Do you remember what we did last July? Go have a look. It seemed like a cool thing at the time to dedicate July to an interesting program of stuff, and last year’s month-long piano series was originally … Continue reading Series: The Darmstadt School
performed by members of the London Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or the below with (members of) the Berlin Philharmonic also under Boulez Greater unity is impossible. Even the Netherlander didn’t manage it. In the fourth variation there are constant … Continue reading Webern: Symphony, op. 21
performed by the Quatuor Parisii from the DG box set the Livre pour Quatuor, from its history as well as its overall economy, does not appear as a bloc but, in reference to Mallarmé’s Livre, like a series of detachable pages that … Continue reading Pierre Boulez: Livre pour Quatuor (1962)
performed by the New Vienna String Quartet (Neues Wiener Streichquartett) A playlist with all four movements can be found here. “…it awakens feelings that are not far from those caused by euphony.” From this article, which I’ll cite also below … Continue reading Schoenberg String Quartet no. 4, op. 37
performed by the Composers Quartet There was until recently no YouTube Video to share, but one has appeared, and I’m not sure how long it will stay up. There’s only one (studio?) recording of this piece, to my knowledge, and … Continue reading Babbitt String Quartet no. 2
played by any of the people in the recordings listed here, or as below (more detail on the performers later, but they are listed in the YouTube video’s info “… the general lesson of Composition for Four Instruments is that … Continue reading Babbitt: Composition for Four Instruments
performed by Robert Taub. The CD is available here The first of these three pieces is above on YouTube, and if it’s even the least bit intriguing, I would highly recommend buying the album. Here we are, at a place I have … Continue reading Milton Babbitt: Three Compositions for Piano
Fugue for Thought 