Cameron Carpenter plays Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” Download this track on iTunes and all proceeds go to the American Boychoir School in Princeton, NJ.
See also:
Cameron Carpenter plays free concert at Segerstrom Concert Hall
Martha Argerich plays Scarlatti
The Sonata, K. 141.
10 more overlooked classics
You seemed to enjoy the last list so much, I’ve made another.
Here are 10 more overlooked classics.
By “overlooked” I don’t necessarily mean unknown, though some of the pieces are that, too. I mean that they don’t seem to turn up on concert programs with any regularity. I have relied on my thirty-plus years of concert-going for that judgement, as well as my knowledge of what groups other than the ones I normally hear perform.
So, we can debate “overlooked” in one or two cases, I suppose, but I’m right.
Also, I’ve tried to pick some very good recordings of the overlooked pieces.
(Obiter dictum: I’m trying to break the 100,000 threshold for hits this month. Supporters of classical music, or anyone else for that matter, can click through my list as many times as they want. I get 10 hits for every time you click through. Go ahead, freak my editors out.)
Esa-Pekka Salonen wins Grawemeyer Award
Our old friend Esa-Pekka Salonen has won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, one of the most prestigious in classical music, for his 2009 Violin Concerto. The prize comes along with $100,000 cash, which is just as good as money.
I’m happy to say I was at the premiere of the work. My rather breathless review is here, but I guess I was more or less right — it sounded like 100 grand.
The LA Times has details on the award here.
Alex Ross interviews Salonen here.
In its official announcement, the University of Louisville (which hands out the Grawemeyer) calls Salonen’s piece “Violin Concerto” — with the quotation marks. That makes it sound as if Salonen has written an ironic work, but rest assured it’s not.
I wonder if Esa-Pekka drank some of this vodka after hearing the news.
10 overlooked classics
In lieu of the usual Tuesday bash of new releases (I didn’t have time … they were mostly re-releases anyway), I’ve restored and refurbished 10 overlooked classical classics on disc. These are great pieces that, for various reasons, we almost never hear in the concert hall, but are well represented on record. I’ve selected the best recordings of each.
Click here to read and see 10 overlooked classics on disc (and MP3)
Selling opera, or, how to put butts in seats, any old butts (II)
I took my Sunday Los Angeles Times out of its plastic wrapper this morn and was rather shocked to find an advertising sticker pasted across the banner. Or more exactly, I was rather shocked at this particular sticker, since stickers on newspapers are common these days.
Long Beach Opera was elbowing into the space normally reserved for cheap bankruptcy offers and carpet cleaning deals.
The little company, one of my favorites, is an avant-garde leaning troupe that generally shies away from presenting mainstream fare.
The sticker was certainly advertising with a broad stroke (though I don’t know how many newspapers it appeared on), and that’s fine and dandy, but I would think that targeted marketing would be both more efficacious (if that’s the word I want) and cheaper.
The company recently received $300,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I suppose the sticker is one of the first results of the largesse.
related post:
Pacific Symphony unwinds Mahler’s Symphony No. 9
In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony by the Pacific Symphony and conductor Carl St.Clair, part of the orchestra’s “Music Unwound” series.
Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.
Classical recordings: New and noteworthy, Nov. 15, 2011
New and noteworthy recordings, released on November 15, 2011.
Related:
He is still … the Most Interesting Man in the World
He bowls … overhand.
Sundays Live at LACMA podcasts
The Sunday Live series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, now in its 7th decade, is now available to download as a free podcast.
Each concert is available on the KUSC website for a week following the Sunday performance. Right now you can download a spiffy program of John Adams’ Shaker Loops and Bizet’s Symphony in C performed by Jorge Mester and the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. Download podcast here.
Tomorrow’s concert (6 p.m. Nov. 13), featuring violinist Movses Pogossian, clarinetist Michele Zukovsky and pianist Antoinette Perry performing Beethoven and Messiaen, can be streamed live here, and will then be available on podcast (at the previous link).
Of course you can also go down to the museum on Sunday and hear the concerts for free, no reservations necessary.
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