Last week while driving solo up to The Newman Compound (trademark pending, JM) I made the most of the long trip by finally listening to some pieces I purchased a few weeks ago in a flurry of iTunes Store activity. It was a random selection of this and that … a bunch of David Lang [...]
Category Archives: criticism
Reich Drive
30-Aug-06Old English Monsters in Town
13-Jul-06It was a night of high/lowbrow on Tuesday, when Better Half and I attended the much-anticipated premiere of the Elliot Goldenthal/Julie Taymor opera, Grendel, after which we rushed home to watch the TiVo’d All-Star Game like a couple of rabid blue & orange body-painters. I’m sure everyone’s had their fill of the game by now, [...]
Odd Couples
18-Feb-06It’s the kind of thing we used to bitch about in school. We’d sit around, soaking in our green youth, and complain about how concerts stink. How the whole experience of modern concerts is boring and dated, and how when New Music, usually saddled with electronics and amplification and complex percussion setups, is infused in [...]
Piano Men
17-Oct-05Last night I attended a great big concert in a teeny tiny space … American Modern Ensemble, recently started up and expertly run by Rob and Victoria Paterson, produced an evening of new American piano works, showcasing the two best pianists in town (in town no doubt—best in the world I would imagine, I just [...]
Songs for Silverman
23-May-05My Ben Folds fandom goes back to the heady days of Ben Folds Five, when every song was a precious Beatles-derived gem, and the last two solo albums have not disappointed. As a rule, I buy his albums, even the EPs and occasional single for download off of the iTunes Music Store, because I am [...]
PRISM Quartet – Saxophone Buffet
26-Nov-04Well, they’re loud. Saxophones definitely have volume going for them. Other attractive qualities of the instrument are debatable, but last week’s PRISM Quartet 20th Anniversary Concert served as a valuable forum for those of differing minds on the subject. To celebrate the ensemble’s (impressive) milestone, the sax quartet programmed 20 short “dedications” (they were about [...]
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
18-Nov-04You would think that in our current museum-culture of symphonic music that New Opera is a rarity, but it’s not as endangered as you would imagine. In Cooperstown, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Houston, Chicago, L.A., and other cities of impressive cultural heft, New Opera gets an airing. It’s not an everyday occurence, but it happens. [...]