Gavin Bryars's Underground Sanctuaries of Ambient Sound
Before he turned to concert music in the late '60s, the English composer Gavin Bryars played bass for the seminal jazz trio Joseph Holbrooke, also featuring drummer Tony Oxley and guitar great Derek...
View ArticleAlan Gilbert Delivers a Potent Trio of Magnus Lindberg Premieres
As far as these appointments go, it was a bold statement. Alan Gilbert, incoming music director of the New York Philharmonic, didn't choose, as the composer-in-residence of his inaugural season, a New...
View ArticleBoston Modern Orchestra Project Spotlights Unjustly Neglected Composer
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project continues to put every other symphony orchestra in the country to shame, at least in terms of its fresh, varied recordings. BMOP's music director Gil Rose is not...
View ArticleFred Lerdahl's Mania for Order
On its surface, one might think the history of modern classical music is about chaos: an explosion of styles, a profusion of noise, a sense of radical rule-breaking in every aspect of composing. But in...
View ArticleDaniel Wohl 'Corps Exquis' Marries the Electronic and Acoustic
Classical composers of electronic music have been wrestling with the question of how to join electronic and acoustic textures since the days of wall-sized synthesizers and reel-to-reel tapes. So why...
View ArticleYungchen Lhamo and Anton Batagov's 'Tayatha' Brings Unadulterated Aural...
This record ought to be kitsch. Seven Tibetan songs by exiled chanteuse Yungchen Lhamo, in arrangements by Russian composer Anton Batagov, "Tayatha" is an album that seems to have been conceived and...
View ArticleEinojuhani Rautavaara Merges the Sensual and the Monastic
A cappella choral writing, approached through traditional techniques of composition, is one of the supreme challenges of musical composition.Stream the entire album belowRestricted to the ranges and...
View Article'Evensong' Brings the Club to the Cathedral
The criticism that this or that classical musician "wishes he/she were a rock star" tends to come pretty cheap, but especially so in the case of composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Caleb...
View ArticleKevin Puts Concentrates on the Direct, Intimate Present
Kevin Puts was a dark horse for the Pulitzer Prize when his Silent Night brought him the commendation in 2012. But that opera seems in retrospect tailor-made for the award: telling a gripping story in...
View ArticlePhilip Glass's Latest (and Most Unusual) Collaboration
No wonder Philip Glass has collaborated with musicians from every continent on Earth: the very seed of his famous musical style was an early gig assisting sitarist Ravi Shankar on a film soundtrack,...
View ArticleSofia Gubaidulina Mixes Physical Drama and Sacred Symbols
Yes, some of the pieces on Daniele Roccato's new album were originally composed for the cello, but they've found their rightful home on the double bass. It helps that Roccato's playing is as bright,...
View ArticleMichael Gandolfi Gives 'Underdog' Instruments Their Day on BMOP Album
Anybody who even heard the title of Michael Gandolfi's first album with Gil Rose's Boston Modern Orchestra Project, "Y2K Compliant," should already have noticed that he is a composer of genuine wit....
View ArticleNew York Virtuoso Singers Celebrate 25 Years with 25 Premieres
25 years, 25 composers: founded in 1988, the New York Virtuoso Singers are celebrating a quarter century of music-making by commissioning and performing works by over two dozen of today's most...
View ArticleThe Silk Road Ensemble Charts 'A Playlist Without Borders'
Given the sheer mileage they cover, it's no wonder that Yo-Yo Ma's famous Silk Road Ensemble, a musical caravan named after the trade routes linking Europe and Asia, brings so much baggage with...
View ArticleIrish Mass Reimagined by Uzbekistan's Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky
If it didn't happen here, in London, maybe in Paris or Berlin, it didn't happen: the self-sufficiency of the New York scene is also its fatal flaw, making it all to easy for this town to get lazy and...
View ArticleJohn Adams Provides Thunder, Desperation and Pure Adrenaline
Every die-hard fan of contemporary symphonic music knows who John Adams is – composer of Nixon in China, recipient of classical music's highest honors – but both his bouncy syncopations and his...
View ArticleThe Mind-Bending, Ear-Opening Music of Mathew Rosenblum
"Möbius Loop" is an apt enough title for composer Mathew Rosenblum's new record from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP). Like that topological construct, the album's titular concerto for the...
View ArticleMark-Anthony Turnage's Symphonic Meditation on Hope and Hopelessness
British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage's music is best known for its provocative clashes between the concert hall and the outside world. He's enjoyed a steady, high-profile international career since...
View ArticlePianist Commissions 10 Composers to Redefine 'American Vernacular'
The commissioning project that generated Nicholas Phillips's "American Vernacular" was simple enough. He asked ten composers each to write a piece, inspired by their respective experiences of America,...
View ArticleRemembering Wojciech Kilar, Poland's Late Film-Music Giant
Classical music suffered a terrible loss at the end of last month, when Wojciech Kilar died at the age of 81. He may not yet be a household name, but even listeners who have never heard of Kilar – let...
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