When Primo Levi died in 1987 at age 67, after falling down the stairwell of his apartment building in Turin, Italy, his fellow writer and survivor Elie Wiesel delivered an epigrammatic coroner’s report: “Primo Levi died at Auschwitz forty years later.” The long-delayed suicide of the Holocaust survivor is a story whose outlines we know … Continue reading Primo Levi : no suicide – his newly published Complete Works
Category: Reviews
This is where I will post my thoughts about my favorite classical or jazz CDs and sometimes survey the various recordings of a specific piece.
Arve Henriksen : The Nature of Connections
Arve Henriksen is a classically trained musician whose ethereal, Japanese-influenced trumpet playing has placed him in a league of his own. He was born in Stranda, Norway, and educated at the Trondheim Conservatory. It was during his time at the conservatory that a friend gave him a tape recording of the shakuhachi flute. Henriksen was … Continue reading Arve Henriksen : The Nature of Connections
Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame : an overview
Guillaume de Machaut is the most important poet and composer of the 14th century, with a lasting history of influence. His unique oeuvre, contained, thanks to the composer’s own efforts, in manuscripts that include only his works, stands in many respects for itself: in terms of its volume, its poetic and compositional formulation and quality, … Continue reading Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame : an overview
Piazzolla’s Angels
Of all Latin American composers, the most widely performed today in classical circles is surely Astor Piazzolla, who has achieved something resembling pop status within the past two decades. Born in Argentina, he grew up in New York City, where his family moved in 1925; there he learned to play the bandoneón, a concertina accordion … Continue reading Piazzolla’s Angels
Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano
“To hear composers take my work and take it seriously... it’s a thrill.” – Stephen Sondheim Liaisons is a landmark commissioning and concert project, conceived by acclaimed concert pianist Anthony de Mare, based on the songs of legendary musical theater composer Stephen Sondheim. Both an homage and a celebration, Liaisons makes the case for Sondheim … Continue reading Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano
Elvira Nikolaisen : from Norwegian Pop to the Great American Songbook
Elvira Nikolaisen is a Norwegian singer-songwriter signed to Sony BMG. She released her debut single Love I Can’t Defend in December 2005, it reached the number 3 spot on the Norwegian singles chart. She followed up with her first album, Quiet Exit, and a second single, Egypt Song, in March 2006. The album peaked at #2 in the … Continue reading Elvira Nikolaisen : from Norwegian Pop to the Great American Songbook
Myriam Alter : encompassing jazz, classical music, and various European influences
Myriam Alter is one of those musicians about whom the Internet seems to know very little. What Google manages to dig up more or less tells the same story: Alter hails from a Belgian family of Sephardic Jews. She started piano lessons at age 8 but abandoned the instrument at 15 for other preoccupations. After … Continue reading Myriam Alter : encompassing jazz, classical music, and various European influences
David Krakauer : Reframing Messiaen
Cellist Matt Haimovitz, clarinetist David Krakauer and beat writer Socalled came together to create a new project centered around Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Given that this piece was composed in a prisoner of war camp in the midst of tremendous world upheaval, and that the subject matter of the quartet describes … Continue reading David Krakauer : Reframing Messiaen
Elam Rotem : Early Music performer, scholar and composer
Since about the mid-19th century, classical music has been governed by a narrative of historical progress. Composers have been taken seriously only if they write in a modern, new-sounding style; composers who continued to write in traditional styles were considered less “important,” and when they wrote in frankly historical styles - as when Mendelssohn wrote … Continue reading Elam Rotem : Early Music performer, scholar and composer
Valentin Silvestrov : Requiem for Larissa
Valentin Silvestrov composed Requiem for Larissa between 1997 and 1999 as a memorial to his wife, musicologist Larissa Bondarenko, who died in 1996. It is a big and unceasingly somber work, scored for chorus and orchestra. Understandably, this Requiem is to a degree reflective, incorporating musical themes drawn from older works that had special meaning … Continue reading Valentin Silvestrov : Requiem for Larissa
Musica Kaleidoskopea 