Recently in Music Category

Ernest Fleischmann, who died Sunday, age 85, is the only director of a major symphony orchestra with whom I have had a conversation. It is not surprising, that as a mere concert-goer, I have not had many conversations with symphony managers, but it is also not surprising that the one exception should be Ernest Fleischmann, as he was an elemental force of nature disguised as a music executive. For better or worse, when you thought of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1970s, '80s, or 90s, your first thought was of Ernest Fleischmann.

My first contact with Fleischmann was when I wrote to him in the '70's pleading for more contemporary music in the Philharmonic's programming, mentioning as examples Frank Martin, Olivier Messiaen, and Darius Milhaud. Ernest wrote back saying he would take my recommendation under consideration, but also mentioning the need to program music that would sell concert tickets. He finished with a flourish, referring to my trio as the "three Ms" (a reference to the well-known three Bs of classical music: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms).

I also saw Fleichmann once at the refreshment bar on the main floor of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco during an Intermission in 2001 or 2002. He was then retired from the L.A. Philharmonic and was artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival. I had heard that the Ojai Festival was trying to get the original Harry Partch instruments to Ojai so that Partch's music could be featured. I told Fleichmann how much I was looking forward to the upcoming concert. Sadly, he reported that the funds for transporting and insuring the instruments had not been forthcoming and that there would be no Partch at Ojai that year. I was crestfallen, but also jazzed at having had a conversation with the Great Man.

Here are a few remembrances from others more qualified to comment on Flieschmann's passing: Alex Ross, Mark Swed, Frank Gehry, Norman Lebrecht, the late Alan Rich, and Timothy Mangan.

Showing real class, Palm commissioned UCLA composer Roger Bourland to compose the seven default ringtones that come "pre"-installed on the new Palm Pre smartphone. In addition to the one entitled "PRE" which has leaked and which you can listen to below, there are ringtones titled "Flurry", "Raindance", "Scamper", "Discreet", "Triangle", "Dulcimer", and "Anticipation".

Personally, I'm anticipating hearing them all, but I'll have to wait until I have my new Pre (whenever that might happen).

Update: I stopped by my local Palm store this morning and had a look at the Pre. As everyone says, it has a beautiful screen, and an almost erogenous feel as it nestles in your hand. I tried the browser and it was snappy and clear & the grow and shrink guestures worked great. The store was all sold out. They had about 100 units in stock which they sold in the first hour of business today.

Although this performance by Grigory Sokolov of the third movement of Prokofiev's 7th Piano Sonata is taken at a moderate rate and with an almost metronomic steadiness of tempo, it works. This piece, written in the midst of World War II while the German and Soviet Armies struggled for survival is one of the great achievements of 20th century writing for the piano. It will take four minutes of your life to listen to this, and it will be four minutes well spent.

UPDATE: The video previously included in this post has been removed from YouTube for copyright violation. It undoubtedly was copied from this DVD: Grigory Sokolov - Live in Paris (2002). Anyone interested in hearing this superb performance should buy the DVD. I'm going to.

The finale to Mahler's incomparable Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

(Click on through for the lyrics)...

Most folks know O Fortuna! from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana from the soundtrack to Excalibur. Or maybe they know that Hitler was supposed to be fond of the piece. However you've come across it, and I'm betting that you certainly have, it is a bit tough to get all of the nuances because it is sung in Latin and most of us have pretty rusty Latin skills.

Don't despair! Some kind soul has posted an absolutely stupendous ENGLISH version of Carmina Burana. (Hit reload when you reach the page to ensure proper synchronization of the music and images. From The Rest is Noise)

P.S. The post title will make more sense after you have clicked through.

It has been a while since we've touched on music. Here's some more Glenn Gould, this time from 1960 being "conducted" (as if anyone could conduct GG) by Leonard Bernstein. This performance is marked by a very stately and flowing tempo and an amazing fade into pianissimo before it takes off again for the finale.

In 1896 a new Trinity Baptist Church was erected, including an Esley pipe organ to help sing the praises of God. In 1918 the building was sold to the Victor Talking Machine Company, who were impressed with the fine acoustics and wanted to use it for a recording studio. I don't know when Victor/RCA first recorded the Esley Organ which they received as part of the bargain, but those turn of the century Baptists may have been surprised to know that their organ would play an important roll in the history of American Jazz.

The father of jazz organ playing and the undisputed master of hot pipe organ jazz is Fats Waller. The son of a Harlem Baptist preacher, Waller learned the pipe organ early in life before taking up the piano. By his late teens he was making a living as a musician, playing at rent parties and accompanying silent films on theatre organs. By his mid twenties, he had started a career as a Broadway composer and was in demand for recording sessions.

Here is a remarkable sixty-second television ad. And, not to give anything away, it is certainly the soundtrack that is remarkable. Forty years ago, it would have seemed less shocking. But even though we are all used to being shocked, there is an open question: wll it sell more shoes, or more copies of a certain CD? And, another possibility, will it sell LESS shoes?

(Thanks to Alex Ross @ The Rest is Noise for the pointer).

Given the number of wine bottles required to pull this stunt off, perhaps I should have filed this under wine tasting, but music will have to do. If I had been asked, I wouldn't have thought that your average in-line skating expert would have picked Mozart to realize in this manner, but I'd have been wrong. Perhaps this was in Germany?

All I can say is "WOW!" How long did it take to tune all of those bottles? Are they all filled with water? How much experimentation was required to get the "clappers" on the skates to have the correct tension so that they didn't knock the bottles over, or did they glue all of the bottles to the pavement? Will someone next try to perform a piece by Boulez? If they do, how will we know?

It is said that everybody has a favorite song. I hope this is true, but sadly, I doubt it is.

I like many many pieces of music, but few of them have words, and fewer still are songs. But if I had to pick a favorite song there would be no contest. Every time I hear it, I fight back tears; tears of joy for its beauty and tears of melancholy for its sentiment.

Supposedly, we are most fond of songs we listened to in our adolescence. Fortunately, though I was in my teens when "I want to hold your hand" swept over the country, today, I am most fond of the music I found in my 20's, including that of J.S. Bach, and especially J.S. Bach played by that ineffable pianistic genius, Glenn Gould.

Though Gould was a somewhat unconventional character, bundling up in coats and gloves when it was 90 degrees out, giving up live performances when he was but 32, and calling people in the middle of the night from his hermetic Toronto apartment, he was a master of Bach. He was given to conducting himself (with a free hand) and singing along with his playing. This singing, though it drove the record producers mad, is excused by Gould admirers as proof that he was so full of the majesty of Bach's music that it spilled out of him however it could: through his fingers on the keyboard and his Soto voice accompaniment.

My love of Bach inexplicitly includes a fascination with Gould himself. Before the advent of the Internet (and NetFlix), I once flew from Charlotte, NC to New York City to see the film, "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould" as I was certain it would never show up in Charlotte. Today, with the Internet and with YouTube, you can almost get all the Gould you can stand... Enjoy.

P.S. The piece of music featured in the video is the Italian Concerto In F Major, BWV 971: third movement, Presto, which can be found at a very reasonable price here.

Cathy Berberian would have been perfect for this. Do you think the client spent their marketing dollars wisely? (Be sure to click on "Watch" and then "Watch the rehersal")

Great Performances on PBS, last night showed an extraordinary 45-minute computer-graphic film of Stravinsky's The Nightingale.

The film blends 3-D computer graphics with live action and it is simply brimming with creativity and ideas. The tips of hundreds of violin bows appear out of the mist-covered ground. We inhabit a weird yet wonderful world run by an all-powerful "man behind the curtain" who happens to be personified by two black gloves manipulating an enormous control console. "He" has hundreds of assistents sitting in front of computer screens, typing away in rhythm with the music. There are Gigantic Chinese Urns inhabited with dancing girls instead of Genii. There are courtiers who appear as heads inside of Chinese lanterns. There are crowds of black-gloves applauding wildly and pointing at the scenery to get some bit of stagecraft done. There is a cigarette-smoking death (Violeta Urmana), in league with a mad flying, clicking bar-code applier, and there is the Nightingale (Natalie Dessay) who sings most beautifully, and makes a present of a cellphone to the Great Emperor.

Does all of this sound weird? Well, I suppose it is... a bit. But it is also stunning, moving, and, yes, even awe inspiring.

Sigh, if only Dr. Atomic had risen to even a fraction of this level of excellence. Also, I am certain this must have been funded by the taxpayers of France. I am glad it was French taxpayers and not American ones, but miracles like this do make me waver in my opposition to public funding of the arts. Still, why should my pleasure be funded by taxes from folks, the vast majority of whom, would no doubt find this to be absurd?

Update: You can buy a DVD of this production from Amazon.

I love Gustav Mahler's music. I didn't know he was so clever with languange, but I've just found the proof:

"Tradition is the preservation of the flame, not adoration of the ashes" ("Tradition ist Bewahrung des Feuers, nicht Anbetung der Asche").

Nice, ja?