Contemporary - my/maSCENA

CD Review – Michael Finnissy: Gershwin arrangements for piano (White)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 11 July 2016 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Mainstream Jazz, Piano, Popular Music, Scena Jazz

George Gershwin’s songs are so ubiquitous that it is hard to imagine an experience of his work untouched by adaptations, whether in film or in the concert hall. This set of 13 tunes was transcribed by English composer Michael Finnissy over the same number of years, between 1975 and 1988. Finnissy is perhaps best known for his transcriptions, from his English Country Tunes (1982–85) to his completion of Mozart’s Requiem (2013). Finnissy, who celebrated his 70th birthday earlier this year, hailed Dirk Herten’s performance as “thoughtful, sensitive, [and] delicately-shaded,” while praising his refined touch. He continued, “I feel like a…

Angèle Dubeau: An international success on streaming platforms!

By Newswire on 11 July 2016 Contemporary, Newswire, Quebec Music, Strings, Violin

More than 30 million streams for her discography and 12 million streams for the album Ludovico Einaudi: Portrait Montreal, July 11 2016 – Violinist Angèle Dubeau’s latest album, Ludovico Einaudi: Portrait, has now reached an impressive 12 million streams on the various music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. Yesterday, during the concert offered by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà at the Festival International de Lanaudière, François Mario Labbé, president of Analekta, gave to Angèle Dubeau a commemorative plaque to recognize this remarkable achievement. The works from the violinist’s discography have now been streamed more than 30 million times across more than 100 countries, a rare feat for…

George Gershwin

This Day in Music – 1937: Death of George Gershwin

By Weiyu Dang on 11 July 2016 Contemporary, Popular Music, Scena Jazz, This Day in Music, Vocal Jazz

Gershwin, one of the main catalysts for jazz to become America’s music, was a composer and pianist who bridged popular and classical modes. His prolific compositions are now considered jazz and pop standards, most notably the “rhythm changes” in his tune “I got Rhythm” that would become a seminal chord sequence for bebop development. Notable works include An American in Paris, Porgy and Bess, and Rhapsody in Blue. Ella Fitzgerald – “Summertime”

Lila Downs. Photo credit: Frédérique Ménard-Aubin, 2016

Daily News Roundup: 6 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 6 July 2016 Choral, Contemporary, Mainstream Jazz, Piano, Romantic, Scena Jazz, World Music

+ Cleveland Classical talks with guitarist Denis Azabagić about winning prizes, his wife and duo partner flautist Eugenia Moliner, and practice philosophy. “I remember when I came to the U.S. more than a decade ago. I opened the yellow pages and found an ad that said, ‘Learn to play the piano without practice.’ I thought, who in the world could put out such an ad? I mean how can you lie like that — because that’s impossible. We would all like to get our things in life the easy way, but music is something that certainly doesn’t happen like that.…

Barry Douglas

Video of the Day – Barry Douglas and Celtic Airs

By Weiyu Dang on 6 July 2016 Contemporary, Piano, Video of the day

Splitting time between recording Beethoven concertos, directing music festivals, and conducting the Camerata Ireland, which he founded, Irish pianist and composer Barry Douglas is a well-travelled, decorated artist. To “Tiny Desk Concert,” Douglas brings his heritage in the form of Celtic folk songs. Rippling left-hand waves, impish alternating chords, and gossamer trills come together to capture an image of pastoral Ireland from its rugged cliffs, crisp breeze, and sylvan freshness. Barry Douglas – NPR “Tiny Desk Concert”

Valery Kuleshov

Video of the Day – “Stars and Stripes Forever”

By Weiyu Dang on 4 July 2016 Contemporary, Piano, Video of the day

For another American themed video, here’s Russian-born American virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz’ piano transcription of the iconic American bandmaster and composer John Phillip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” 00Horowitz wrote this famously difficult transcription on occasion of his naturalization as an American citizen. Valery Kuleshov – Horowitz’ transcription of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever”

CD Review – Ives: Sonatas for Violin and Piano Nos. 1–4 (White)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 4 July 2016 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Violin

Interest in American modernist Charles Ives, as these things often happen, spiked after his death. Even as the post factum father of American modernism for his use of experimental techniques as well as his quotation of American melodies from Protestant hymns to Stephen Foster, it is still difficult to find Ives on disc and in the concert halls. In fact, the only other full recording of his four violin sonatas (1906–1913) that springs to mind is Hilary Hahn’s 2012 release. The first sonata is easily the least accessible of the bunch, beginning with a cyclical creeping melody that refuses to…

Photo: Arthur Kaptainis

Concert Review: Orford Music Festival, Poulenc & Gounod

By Arthur Kaptainis on 2 July 2016 Chamber Music, Classical, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Romantic, Violin

ORFORD – Orford Musique, as the festival in the Eastern Townships now calls itself, got under way Friday night, almost a month after it started. The educational camp fires up well before the concert calendar. Thus the first non-student program, paradoxically, represented a farewell for at least a few of the teachers who had spent most of June in residence. It also represented the kind of event that I would gladly cross several county borders to hear. Louis Spohr’s Duo for Two Violins in A minor Op. 67 No. 1? Just try to hum that one. Or more to the point, just…

Daily News Roundup: 1 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 July 2016 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Mainstream Jazz, Opera, Romantic, Scena Jazz, Violin

+ The marriage between text and music in contemporary opera is more important than ever, says William Littler, citing Fellow Travelers (Cincinnati Opera) and Les Feluettes (Opéra de Montréal) as recent examples. “Perhaps today, more than at any other time in the recent past, librettists are coming into their own as something approaching full partners with composers in the creation of successful opera. And tied to this development is the heightened importance in an age of film and television of casting singers who can give visual credibility to their roles. Tenor Aaron Blake and baritone Joseph Lattanzi both looked and…

Lebrecht Weekly – Glazunov, Khachaturian: Violin Concertos (Avanti)

By Norman Lebrecht on 1 July 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Romantic, Violin

The archetype Russian violin concerto – Tchaikovsky’s – looms so large over the musical landscape that all others seem no more than sidebars. Two concertos (each) by Prokofiev and Shostakovich are rooted in political circumstances, inseparable from their history. Miaskovsky’s concerto never took off, despite the advocacy of David Oistrakh, Weinberg’s is emerging too slowly to be counted and the rest barely make up a respectable quorum. Apart from the present pair. Alexander Glazunov wrote his concerto in 1905 for the violin professor Leopold Auer, a formidable authority who once refused to premiere Tchaikosky’s concerto unless he made extensive changes.…

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