Minimalism and “the only adequate musical response—one of the few adequate artistic responses in any medium—to the Holocaust.”
Continue reading...Classical
097: Mstislav Rostropovich, ‘Cello Concerto Opus 43, Adagio’ (Mieczyslaw Weinberg)
On Holocaust Day we remember the incomprehensible persecution suffered by Moldovan/Polish/Russian Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919–1996) at the hands of both the Nazis and the Soviets.
Continue reading...084: Dmitri Shostakovich, Prelude & Fugue No 16 in B-flat Minor (Tatiana Nikolaeva)
As our hearts weep with the innocent Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression, our thoughts turn to Dmitri Shostakovich, a courageous human being and a great composer who lived and worked under the shadow of Soviet oppression.
Continue reading...077: J.S. Bach, ‘The Art of The Fugue’ (The Emerson Quartet, ‘Contrapunctus 9’)
Listening to Bach isn’t so different from prayer. They are both human attempts to impose an artificial order upon an inherently chaotic world.
Continue reading...073: Erik Satie, ‘Gymnopédie No. 1’
Erik Satie hung out with Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, Milhaud, Stravinsky, Cocteau, Duchamp, Picasso, Braque, Man Ray, Breton, Diaghilev and Rene Clair, but no one entered his apartment for the last 27 years of his life. After his death, 84 identical handkerchiefs were found in his wardrobe.
Continue reading...161, The Swingle Singers, ‘Sinfonia from Partita No.2 in C Minor’
The 2013 Swingle Singers are great. The 1963 Swingle Singers weren’t bad, either. (Caution: This posting contains a clip of Glenn Gould practicing which may not be suitable for younger audiences.)
Continue reading...055: Miles Davis/Gil Evans, ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’
Thanks this week to my friend MK, who has so generously and virulently argued with me over the last couple of weeks about the sanctity and inviolability of classical music. She believes in all her...
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