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June 2006

Volume 13, Number 6

INTERVIEW 1

CONCERT REVIEWS April Savants 2 MARK ALBURGER

Sleeper Cell 3 PHILLIP GEORGE

Still a Few Bangs in the System MARK ALBURGER

CALENDAR For June 2006 6

CHRONICLE Of April 2006 7

COMMENT By the Numbers 8 Items 8

PUBLICATIONS 9

RECORDINGS 10

WRITERS 11

COVER ILLUSTRATION Editorial Staff

Mark Alburger EDITOR-PUBLISHER

Harriet March Page ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Patti Noel Deuter ASSISTANT EDITOR

Erling Wold WEBMASTER

Ken Bullock David Cleary Jeff Dunn Phillip George Jeff Kaliss Michael McDonagh William Rowland CORRESPONDENTS Interview

INTERVIEWER

Bio Concert Reviews

April Savants If Becker's vehicle was all shiny-slick, Applebaum's was a junker after the Apocalypse. "Martian Anthologies 7*8*9" is one of a series of compositions postulating a post-nuclear MARK ALBURGER Earth, where Red-Planet denizens musically archeologize what little remains of our formerly-green world. In the Paul Dresher Ensemble in Dan Becker's Through a Window, opening movement, four ensemble members (Dresher, Mutru, Mark Applebaum's Martian Anthologies 7*8*9, Roger Davel, Reffkin) are decidedly, jokily underutilized as a quartet Reynolds's Submerged Memories, and Paul Dresher's The of CrackleBox performers -- with hand-held gadgets spewing Tyrant (Act I). April 1, Project Artaud Theater, San crazy electronic nonsense -- lots of fun. Against this, the Francisco, CA. remaining two players, Josheff and Bentley Pollick hold forth in chaotic counterpoint. While the Dresher Band has given us Some new-music ensembles, such as the Paul Dresher fairly free-form improvisatory musics before (The Earthquake Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band and the Kronos Quartet, section of John Adams's "I Was Looking at the Ceiling and have developed such a distinctive sound over the years that Then I Saw the Sky" comes to mind), Applebaum's work was composers can be in danger of losing their individual voices about as far from past experience with this group as could be when writing for the groups. But as an April Fools Day joke imagined. subverts expectations, so the Dresher Ensemble did likewise, in their mostly-engaging Project Artaud Theater gig in San The second movement was a still solo-or-duet, depending on Francisco, springing ahead with instrumental and vocal the point of view and hearing, for Dresher's sustained chords delights beyond past norms. Composers Dan Becker, Mark ("a non-symmetric matrix of possibilities . . . chords made up Applebaum, Roger Reynolds, and Dresher himself offered a of 2-7 notes") as altered by David, whose electronic mallet program long on diversity that maintained the integrity of their percussion station was transformed into a radio-baton situation particular muses, respectively in a series of world premieres as "controller operator transform[ing] the guitar's timbre by and a new revision. changing values on a signal processor improvisationally in real time." Got it? The third movement was much earthier, While Becker, who characterizes himself as a post-minimalist, where Reffkin took downstage center on the skeleton of a was one of the younger creators on the program, his drum set, with cymbals and skins replaced by pizza box, egg contribution was actually closest the normative groove with cartons, bits of aluminum foil, cans, and sturdy plastic bags. which the Electro-Acoustic Band has often been associated Amazingly absurd, and a big crowd-pleaser. All the ridiculous over the years. "Through a Window" was a riff-based music, intensity of a committed rock-and-roller, with none of the where a prominent brusque descending minor third lick proper sonic results. alternated rondo-like with a series of haunting pulses and ostinati, plus interpolations of antique scratchy-record jazz. Reynolds's "Submerged Memories" was considerably more Sometimes the intent was raw, a la Edgar Varèse's "Deserts," subdued until a final wonderful cacophony. Tenor John with the live and recorded components in sharp juxtaposition; Duykers took the stage as a dramatic librarian-poet-professor, at other moments, shreds of the found musique became surrounded by books and a reading lamp, to dramatically concurrente. deliver W.G. Sebald's evocative and imaginative texts, occasionally in sprechstimme stridency. It was a long text -- This work allowed for the clearest showcase of the Band's the libretto printed on seven 8 1/2 x 11 pages, roughly 250 aesthetic and musicianship. The six members -- bass lines -- and somewhere in the pointillistic middle, it was not clarinetist Peter Josheff, guitarist Dresher, keyboardist Marja merely the poet who could say "my own consciousness was Mutru, electronic mallet percussionist Joel Davel, drummer veiled." But the fifth movement's "buffet at Santa Lucia Gene Reffkin, and violinist Karen Bentley Pollick -- took the station was surrounded by an infernal upheaval" made it all dark stage in colorful, casual outfits and a relaxed intensity. worthwhile. As obscure as process was at times, the outcomes Tight animated unisons and dizzying passagework were the were actually surprisingly direct. Following the Applebaum, norms. Haunting harmonies against the ever-present beat Reynolds signaled that the PDEEAB sound world has become were aided and abetted by the lush sound engineering of Greg broad indeed. Kuhn and earbuds for the performers, providing further rhythmic refinement. Becker and the Band's ability to co- ordinate disparate sound worlds is to be congratulated.

2 Dresher's own work brought to mind Arnold Schoenberg on Sleeper Cell several counts. As the old atonal/12-tone master once remarked mid-career to the effect, "there is still plenty of good music to be written in C major," so Dresher reminded us that PHILLIP GEORGE there are still a world of possibilities in older forms such as opera, and established ensembles such as Schoenberg's own Marin Symphony, conducted by Alasdair Neale, in Ravel's "Pierrot" ensemble of flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello. Piano Concerto in G and "Minuet" from Sonatine (orch So ironically, if the "Paul Dresher sound" has often of late Neale), and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2. April 2, been associated with his Electro-Acoustic Band, in his present Marin work "The Tyrant," Paul Dresher sounded the least like "the sound" at all. Even the performers' dress bought into more A most offensive slogan for classical music is that which has traditional conventions, in basic black. been recently used on Bay Area billboards for KDFC: "Everybody Relax." If art music is nothing more than high- This excellent Pierrot ensemble (flutist Tod Brody, Josheff, class Muzak, then we're all in big trouble. A survey of serious Mutru, Bentley Pollick, and cellist Alex Kelly) was sonics from medieval times to the present suggests many supplemented, as is often the case in such more-or-less things: commitment, devotion, dignity, humor, intensity, standard new-music ensembles, with percussion (Davel passion, sophistication -- for starts. But relaxation? again), but, as a nod to "electro-acoustic" was mostly amplified, with the use of electric keyboard. Dresher's OK. Relaxation, too. Maybe I should be a little more relaxed engaging music, as poignantly rendered by Duyker's, was about this all. Calm down. challenged by a traditional allegory of the dictator-as-neurotic, to a text of Jim Lewis (inspired by the writings of Italo The Marin Symphony was able to help in this regard on April Calvino), with Melissa Weaver's staging basic and to the 2, in a program balanced between animation and relaxation, point. The music is not as riff-based as one may expect, yet with works of Maurice Ravel and Sergei Rachmaninoff, all the same, the "Heavenly Clockwork" section is one of the conducted by Alasdair Neale at Veterans Auditorium. most thrilling. The lyrical "Lullaby" section, which was the conclusion of this performance at the end of what will be Act I The energy was weighted toward the first half, in an electric when premiered by the Cleveland Opera and Cleveland rendition of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, ignited by Melvin Playhouse later this year, brought this stimulating program to Chen. Chen's lightning fingers and deft interpretation made an end not with a bang but a lovely, intentional slumber. for a listen that transcended times and place. This is quintessential late Ravel, a work tinged -- as the concurrently composed (but exceedingly dark and different) Concerto for the Left Hand" -- with the blues and jazz, that offers up tunes and taut structures in equal doses. Neale, Chen, and the orchestra were thoroughly on top of their game in the resounding finale. The program began with Neale's admirable efforts orchestrating another Ravel piano work, the Minuet form "Piano Sonatine."

The after-intermission was given over to Rachmaninoff's massive Symphony No. 2, a 65-minute work guaranteed to cool the calmest nerves by its lovely third-movement theme: an ascending major-seventh arpeggio that reaches for the heavens. Up there one might be tempted to relax on a cloudbank, watch the world go by, catch some z's. This is the kind of music that 7-Eleven owners put on to drive the teenagers from their places of pavance, but this is worthy music nonetheless, achingly beautiful for those that have the patience to put up with it.

Rachmaninoff had his share of accolades and disses in his days and beyond. Music history texts late in the last century were unkind to him at times; he was criticized for being an artistic dinosaur, a refugee from 19th-century aesthetics living far beyond his time. But listening to this fine Symphony on its hundredth birthday (I celebrated an anniversary of ever-so- slightly less than half this on the same evening) one finds much to love (could I say the same for myself?!). The music is sturdily and craftily constructed, and the lush tunes and harmonies go ever on. Would that we could say the same for other realities! 3 Still a Few Bangs in the System lost in the dangerous and luscious textures. While the words were no doubt totally clear to the composer, many were left with tantalizing suggestions of intelligibility -- not an unhappy MARK ALBURGER situation, really, given the delightful ambiguity of the art.

Berkeley Symphony in Under Construction. April 4, St. Also as in late Varèse, the computer and orchestral music had John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, CA. their distinct realities. The live component of Bloland shared with Winges and Michelson a certain "common-practice" The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra's Under Construction modernism. All the musics bought into a sturdy values system Program gets its name honestly. Now in its sixteenth year, having a strong interest in color, favoring line over functional this April 6 event, at St. John's Presbyterian, presented new harmonic movement, and delighting in pitch and rhythmic works of Bay Area composers in sight-reading rehearsals and fluctuation over direct repetition. Winges's Mirrors: A run-throughs, conducted by Artistic Coordinator George Concerto for Bass further bought into the classic Alban Berg Thomson. That the ensemble is expert enough to pull this off approach in Wozzeck, with the hope that no one pays attention on a regular basis is noteworthy. That fine composers -- such to the structure but is instead caught up in the drama of the as Per Bloland, Mark Winges, and Helena Michelson -- music. In his introduction, Winges then proceeded to clamor to be involved in this free-of-charge program is demonstrate some of the structure by having the dedicated something else again. bassist Michel Taddei perform the opening licks, which proved to be exemplary post-serialist prime and retrograde We clearly continue to live in a buyer's market for new concert motifs. The title pointedly refers to the structure. music. Amend that. At times, a "giver-aways" market. The opportunities for composers to hear their music performed by In the small repertory of bass concerti, Taddai and Winges are full orchestras is so rare that even a mere public reading seems to be lauded for taking a crack at expanding the possibilities, a blessing. And a blessing it is, as generously funded by The as others have of late. The soloist lovingly attacked his Aaron Copland Fund for Music and Bay Area philanthropic instrument for all he was worth in the perpetual-motion second angel Margaret Dorfman. But how much more so if programs section, and the opening rumination contained lovely like this (the Marin Symphony has or had one similar) went passagework. The challenge of any showpiece in this medium the next step: three or more rehearsals outside of the public relates to the Igor Stravinsky line about the "Duetto" in forum, and then a regular season concert of the results before a Pulcinella, to the effect: "The joke is that while the trombone paid audience. Funding challenges aside, this is possible. has a very loud voice, the string bass has virtually no voice at all." Winges pragmatically avoided most brass, and the notion Obviously the music would have to be arresting enough that of literally electrifying the electrifying bass part remains under the public would demand it, just like in the past and present discussion with the amiable creator. real-world life of many artistic situations. In the question-and- answer sessions, led by BSO Music Director Kent Nagano, Helena Michelson's Scintilla One was an intentional effort by Bloland's The Twilight of Our Minds certainly fit the bill as an the composer to "get away from my usual 'serious' self and engaging work that excited the audience. As the listening write a slightly lighthearted 'fun' piece with a bit of spark and public peppered Bloland with pithy queries, it became clear playful syncopation. Hence the title." Hence the qualifiers. that the composer was as animated as his work. Scored for a For a person who writes a bio noting study with "Olly Wilson, large ensemble supplemented by a laptop computer, Cindy Cox, Jeffrey Miller, Pablo Ortiz" and masterclasses performed in real time by an operator triggering various sound with "Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Mario Davidovsky, and text files, "Twilight" ignited passages from Albert Eric Chasalow, Philippe Leroux, Bernard Rands, and Judith Camus's still-timely "Plague" to incandescent effects. At one Shatin," this is fun. The music remains as gestrually pithy and point during the preliminary sound-check, staticky sounds enigmatic as its writer. erupted massively through the impressive architectural vault, after which Thomson simply urged, "could we have a little None the pieces lasted more than a half hour, yet the event more?" At least one audience member complained later -- but, played and splayed over about two-and-a-half hours. From a given the person's evident fear of loud volumes, a seat down packed hall, a steady "farewell symphony" took place over the front center was not to have been advised in the first place. course of the evening, but mostly during the rehearsal -- not the performance or question -- sessions. Replacing the St. John's is a venue where orchestra and listeners almost fall practice-time with three more wonderful pieces would have on top of one another. The mallet percussion array swept stemmed the tide. The remaining crowd was supportive, but literally upstage right into the audience such that at least one down the street on the way out, the overflow at the Julia had to be played on the bias, its bass end tilted up a good 10 or Morgan was popping, and this is the kind of scene would be 20 degrees. This all connected to timpanist Kevin Neuhoff's even more welcome at showcases such as Under Construction. position up-house left, behind a good number of auditors. The sound for Bloland, however, upped this ante in being of the surround sort, as Edgar Varèse-like dissonances leapt from strings to winds and brass. The basso-baritono-profondo speaker's voice boomed and whispered, but occasionally got

4 Chronicle

April 1 David Gilmour. Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY. "David Gilmour . . . split his concert in half. The first . . . Paul Dresher Ensemble in Dan Becker's Through a Window, which consisted of all the songs from his new album, On an Mark Applebaum's Martian Anthologies 7*8*9, Roger Island (Columbia), was the reason he was there. The second Reynolds's Submerged Memories, and Paul Dresher's The half, stocked with favorites from his band, Pink Floyd, was the Tyrant (Act I). April 1, Project Artaud Theater, San reason teh audience was there. Mr. GIlmour is known as one Francisco, CA. of the most courteous avat-garde rock veterans around (though there's scant competition for the title), and some of that politeness has clearly rubbed off on the fans: they listened April 2 happily, sometimes enthusiastically, to the new stuff. And they knew that after an intermission they would get what they Marin Symphony, conducted by Alasdair Neale, in Ravel's paid for: smoke, lasers, Comfortalby Numb. The pioneering Piano Concerto in G and "Minuet" from Sonatine (orch music of Pink Floyd chandged shape so many times that it Neale), and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2. April 2, barely makes snese to talk about the band's legacy: instead, Marin there are legacies. . . . INstead of trying to play circles around the music, Mr. Gilmour peels off notes so slowly that the music seems to play circles around him. (Uh-oh. Maybe it's April 4 impossible to write about a Pink FLoyd song without sounding like one.) . . . Gilmour doesn't seem overly concerned with Berkeley Symphony in Under Construction. St. John's staying currnt. The night's surprise guests were old friends: Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, CA. David Crosby and Grahm Nash. They also appear on the new CD, which was co-produced by Phil Manzanera, teh Roxy Ned Rorem's Aftermath and Maurice Ravels' Violin Sonata. Music veteran. (He was there, too.) And if the CD, his first 92nd Street Y, New York, NY. "[A] 10-song cycle about war solo album since 1984, sounds like the unhurried, even drowsy and mortality, drawing on poets from the 16th through 20th work of a rock veteran who knows that longtime fans will centuries. Mr. Rorem began the cycle soon after the enjoy whatever music he enjoys making -- well, that's exactly September 11 attacks, and in his program note, he writes that what it is. So the concert's first half was self-indulgent by he wondered whetehr there was any pont to wriitn music design, devoted to the kind of meditative, ostentatious music under the circumstances He conquered that moment of doubt that most newer bands don't -- thank goodness -- emulate. quickly, reasoning that 'the future will judge us, as it always Which was fine with the fans; a musician's least influential judges the past, byt \our art more than our armies.' He cose tendencies are sometimes the ones that come to seem the most his texts to reflect the moment as he felt it, filtered though his intrinsic" [Kelefa Sanneh, The New York Times, 4/6/06]. Quaker pacifism. . . .[T]he melodies are constricted by Mr. Rorem's standards. That isn't to say they are unattractive: they get around enough to engage the ear, but they mostly amplify April 7 the texts" [Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, 4/6/06]. The Gathering Storm, Frank Bridge's Oration: Concerto Elegiaco, Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto, and Ralph Vaughan April 6 Williams's Symphony No. 4. performed by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra. Avery Fisher Hall, New Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra in YOrk, NY. "With all of the orchestras that perom classical Melidnda Wagner's Extremity of Sky and Samuel Barber's music around the globe, it is astonishing how much repertory MEdea's Dance of Vengeance. Carnegie Hall, New York, remains unplayed. . . . Vaughan Williams's imposing FOurth NY. "Wagner's concerto is immensely busy. It also has a Symphony was in itself an impressive close" [Anne Midgette, hard time enjoying itself" [Bernard Holland, The New York The New York Times, 4/10/06]. Times, 4/10/06]. Benny Harris and Regina Carter. Rose Theater, New YOrk, NY.

April 8

Keyshia Cole. Nokia Theater, New York, NY.

Kronos Quartet. Carnegie Hall, New York, NY. "Globe- hopping Kronos Quartet lands in Bollywood" [Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, 4/11/06].

5 April 9 Fourth program of a complete survey of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 symphonies.. Valery Gergiev conducts the Rotterdam Third program of a complete survey of Dmitri Shostakovich's Philharmonic in No. 5 and No. 15. Avery Fisher Hall, New 15 symphonies. Valery Gergiev conducts the Rotterdam York, NY. "In the first movement of the Symphony No. 15, Philharmonic in No. 3 and No. 4. Avery Fisher Hall, New composed in 1971, Mr. Gergiev seemed to be signaling the York, NY. "There are moments in every Shostakovich audience not to be taken in by the Neo-Classical busyness, symphony when the music can seem so blatant and bombastic complete with impish snippets of Rossini's 'William Tell' that you shake your head and think, 'He must be kidding.' Overture. Even this spirited music came across as comples Take the hyperexuberant choral outburst that concludes and weighty, especiallyu during an out o-of-sync fugal Symphony No. 3, an ode to the Soviet May Day celebration, passage that sounded here as ifit were written in three different composed in 1929 when Shostakovch was in his early 20's. tempos. . . . [D]uring this galvanizing perormance [of the Or the strange second movment of Symphony No. 4, which Symphony No. 5], you forgot about the impact of Stalin and seems a brazenly satriical riff on a Mahler scherzo. Of the reveled in Shostakovich's intgenuity. The Largo, taken at a great 20th-century composers, Shotakovich may be the most daringly slow tempo, was taut with tension and rich with eerie inscrutable. But not to Valery Gergiev . . . [who] colorings: a hollow-toned clarinet; nervously pinched high demonstarated a powerfully intuitive connection to these tremolos in the violins. So how did Mr. Gergiev handle the works and a keen ear for the intricacies of Shostakovich's controversial final section of the last movement? Are those musical voice. THe performances were blazing, beautiful, blazing fanfares and repeated high notes on the violins meant ferocious, poignant, pushed to the hilt -- hometimes all at to be taken at face value, or are they bitterly ironic? As once. Others may find this music evasive, ironic or mocking. performed here, with relentless drive and hard-edged tone, the But Mr. Gergiev conducted the symphonies as if every music was simply terrifying" [Anthony Tomassini, The New measure . . . expressed the brutal truth of the human condition York Times, 4/12/06]. . . . . [[The Rotterdam] played with burnished colors, confidence and vigor, even in frenzied passages when Mr. Quasi. Knitting Factory, New YOrk, NY. Gergiev pushed them to take risks. He has been the orchestra's music director since 1995, and from the way the players shuffled their feet and applauded along with the April 11 ecstatic audience, they clearly seem inspired by him. The Third Symphony, though written as one continuous 30-minute Death of Proof (b. Deshaun Holton)-- a member of the rap movement, is episodic and volatile, concluding with a lusty group D12 and close friend of Eminem -- by gunshot to the choral anthem, 'The First of May' . . . Shostakovich would head. C.C.C., Eight Mile Road, Detroit, MI. "Proof, 32 . . . seem to be at corss-purposes in this teeming score, a paean to was teh best man at Eminem's wedding in January and often the Soviets written in a gnashing harmonic language. A appeared alongside him at concerts and public appearances. claming Andante episode midway does not come soon He also appeared in the film 8 Mile. The Detroit police said enough. In the 60-minute Symphony No. 4, Shostakovich that two people were shot in the head -- one fatally . . . . An strove to establish his credentials as a . . . modernist. IN Mr. argument at the nightclub led to gunshots, said a Detroit police Gergiev's gripping account, one episode of the first movemtn spokesman" [The New York Times, 6/12/06]. built to such a crazed din that it made the 'Sacrificial Dance' from Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring seem like music for a skip Chick Corea. Blue Note, New York, NY. around the maypole. Yet there were also long stretches (the funereal slow movement, for one) when the subded and Children of Uganda. Joyce Theater, New York, NY. nuanced playing was transfixing" [Anthony Tommasini, The "Children of Uganda, a troupe of 22 young dancers and New YOrk Times, 4/12/06]. musicians, doesn't mess around. As soon as the curtain rose . . . the stage, awash in vivid blue, was veritable explosion of frenetic hips and pulsating drums. IT was euphoric. The April 10 haunting paradox is found in the biographies of the performers, nearly all orphaned by the devastating AIDS Eliot Fisk and Paco Pena. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New epidemic and civil war in the region" [Gia Kourlas, The New York, NY. York Times, 4/13/06].

6 April 13 George Hunka reviews the opening of the Debby Schwartz / Jeff Lewonczyk Adventures of Caveman Robot: The Musical. 100th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Beckett. Dublin, "A frenetic, disappointing musical with doggerel lyrics set to Ireland. "In the surprise hit show of Ireland's monthlong tuneless music" [George Hunka, The New YOrk TImes, fetival celebration Samuel Beckett . . . the star actor does not 4/15/06]. say a word: Sir Michael Gambon sits on a bed and listens to a disembodied recorded woman's voice for about 30 minutes. Enthusiastic audiences, mesmerized by the subtle reactions of April 17 Sir Michael's weathered features, have been snapping up tickets at prices tht averag out at a dollar a minute. The Revival of Robert Wilson's staging of Richard Wagner's popularity of Eh Joe, a . . . 1965 script that Beckett wrote for Lohengrin. Metropolitan Opera, New York, NY. television, has been one of many pleasant relevations . . . . . The presence of the rock star Bono at the opening event of the festival, where he read one of his own Beckett-style poems, April 18 hleped propel the festival onto newspaper front pages and into the national consciousness. Seventeen years after his death, Lang Lang perfoms Enrique Granados's Goyescas. Verizon and almost 60 years after he redefined modern drama with Hall, Philadelphia, PA. Waiting for Godot, Beckett is undeniably en vogue" [Brian Lavery, The New York Times, 4/15/06]. April 19 Neil Genzlinger reviews Stephen Weiner et al's Iron Curtain. Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, New York, NY. "Writing Mstislav Rostopovich conducts the New York Philhamronic in the show tunes of Lenin: Sometimes it's nice to just leave your Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 and Violin Concerto brains at the door when you enter a theater. And absolutely in A Minor. Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY. noen are required for Iron Curtain, a gleefully ridiculous new "Shostakovich was perhaps the first great composer to extract musical . . . that makes the cold war seem like the good ol' hope from unhappiness. The closest this evening came to days" [Neil Genzling, The New York Times, 4/13/06]. peace was the first movement of teh Symphony, which slowly and at length (almost half an hour) casts a calm, patient eye over a vast and disagreeable landscape. It is one of the truely April 14 memorable occasions of 20th-century music" [Bernard Holland, The New York Times, 4/21/06]. Donald Knaack (The Junkman)'s Odin. Frederick Loewe Theater, New York Univerisity, New York, NY. "Knaack, Sourcing Stravinsky. Igor Stravinsky's Agon, to a aware of his souces, even included a Ride of the Valkyries, choreography by Yvonne Rainer. Dance Theater Workshop, with lots of drumming that sounded like rapid-fire horses' New York, NY. hooves and a female chorus intoning a raw, jagged series of 'Hojotos' . . . nothing at all like Wagner's. Stylized, not to say hackneyed, the story unfolds in alternating bursts of rhythmic April 20 declamation, sprechgesang and choral incantation, supported by a tissue of varying percussion: the blat of a conch shell, teh Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera (Bertolt Brecht). Studio soft beat of a mallet striking a wok top, the shivering hiss of a 54, New York, NY. metal thunder sheet. Tying it all together is the narration of a contemporary television weatherwoman, who provided coy commentary and underlined the contemporary references. The April 23 peformers . . . did a fine job and seemed to be having fun, decked out in vivid war paint and wild hair" [Anne Midgette, Death of sculptor Isaac Witkin, of a heart attack, at 69. The New York Times, 4/17/06]. Pemberton, NJ. "In 1966 his work appeared in one of Minimalism's defining exhibitions, the famous Primary Ken Johnson reviews Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic in Structures show at the Jewish Museum in New York" [Ken the New York Times. Philadlephia Museum of Art, Johnson, The New York Times, 4/29/06. Philadelphia, PA.

April 25 April 15 Alexander String Quartet begins a series of concerts Lionel Richie and Jose Carreras. Port Azizia, Libya. performing all 15 of Dmitri Shostakovich's string quartets. Baruch Performing Arts Center, New York, NY.

7 April 26

Premiere of Lowell Liebermann's Miss Lonelyhearts. Juillarird School, New York, NY.

April 27

Reopening of Preservation Hall, after Hurricane Katrina. Preservation Hall, New Orleans, LA.

Emerson String Quartet begins a series of concerts performing all 15 of Dmitri Shostakovich's string quartets. Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY.

April 28

Joshua Kosman reviews the premiere of Clark Suprynowicz's Chrysalis. Berkeley, Opera, Berkeley, CA. "[W]hen Suprynowicz goes all out with lyrical, melodic writing, the effect is ravishing" [Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/28/06].

April 29

Death of Leighton Kerner, of a heart attack, at 79. New Yrk, NY. "Kerner, who worte music reviews for The [Village] Voice beginning in 157 and worked at the newspaper until 1998, was a fixture at New York concert halls and opera houses, and few, if any, colleagues could match his attendance record for important musical events. He also traveled the country, exercising an unusual avidity for the new or the exceptional in classical music. Besides working for The VOice, Mr. Kerner wrote for several magazines and other publications, especially for Oper4a NEws, but also for Musical America and Travel and Leisure" [The New York Times, , 5/4/06].

Renzo Piano expansion of the Morgan Library and Museum opens to the public. New York, NY.

April 30

Death of oud virtuoso George Mgrdichian, of cancer, at 71. New York, NY. "He played with David Amram, Phil Woods, Avram Pengas, Manny Dworman and Ali Hafid and performed in festivals and concerts of music from Morocco to Lebanon and Turkey. . . . Mgrdichian recieved bachelor's and master's degrees in clarinet from Juilliard and sudied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University" [Ben Sisario, The New YOrk Times, 5/4/06].

8 Comment

By the Numbers

Number of items in the New York Times April 6, 2006, Arts Briefly section pertaining to 20th/21st-century art music. Items

0 (of 7) Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory reported what would seem to set a new standard for vacillation last week: a subatomic partica\le that reverses identity three Number of items in the New York Times April 10, 2006, Arts trillion times a second, switching into its upside-down mirror- Briefly section pertaining to 20th/21st-century art music. image evil-twin antimatter opposite and then back again. . . .

0 (of 8) As with many weird things in modern physics, the problem with the bipolar particle is why it is not even weirder. According to some versions of a popular theory known as Number of items in the New York Times April 11, 2006, Arts supersymmetry, the meson should be oscillating even more Briefly section pertaining to 20th/21st-century art music. rapidly thn it does.

0 (of 8) Dennis Overbye The New York Times, 4/18/06 Number of items in the New York Times April 19, 2006, Arts Briefly section pertaining to 20th/21st-century art music.

0 (of 7)

Number of reviews in the New York Times April 10, 2006, Critics' Choice: New CD'sy section pertaining to 20th/21st- century art music.

0 (of 6)

Number of recordings chosen in 2006 by the Library of Congress for preservation in its National Recording Registry.

50, including Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings (Toscanni/NBC) Ludwig van Beethoven - Egmont(Modesto HS Band) Calvin Coolidge - Inaugural address Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill Buddy Holly - That'll Be the Day Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shinin' Goin' On Clem McCarthy - Joe Louis KO Max Schmeling

9 Publications

Samuel Beckett: The Grove Centenary Edition. Grove Press.

Stephen Walsh. Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971. Alfred A. Knopf. "Stravinsky was always preoccupied with money. He didn't make enough from composing, so he toured constantly, conducting his own works with various orchestras. His 'geographical profligacy' (in Walsh's phrase) became exhausting, above all since [his wife] Vera and Stravinsky (who, we learn, as 'addicted' to zoos, among much else) insisted on seeing all the sights. As his fame continued to grow, he became 'a walking legend, a slice of history' or, more poinedly, a man with 'iconic significance to a mass of people who cared nothing about his music.' He befriended artists and intellectuals, and more distantly, Hollywood stars. Frank Sinatra once spotted him in a restaurant and asked for his autograph. And, though he could be selfish and controlling, he was very often a delightful man, small, impeccable and dashing, drinking Scotch (and then more Scotch), and beaming with 'a wonderful radianc.' 'I came dronk,' he would announce, in his Russian accent. 'I slept one hour.... I have had supper, and then I have composed two bars!' . . . . In Volume 1 of his biography, Walsh firmly but courteously noted that both the reminiscences and [Robert] Craft's editing are unreliable. . . . Walsh is no longer courteous, and when discussing Craft his tone shifts from sarcasm to outrage. . . . As for the writing sby Stravinsky that Craft edited, they were genuine in content at the start, but not in tone. And toward the end they were entirely by Craft. Craft also, Walsh appears to prove, wrote notable parts of what he puslished as Vera's diaries (because similar passages later appeared as his own recollections in his own memoir). . . . And yet Walsh strongly defends the personal relationship, the real need the two men had for each other, the genuine warmth they felt, the crucial help Craft gave Stravinsky -- so crucial, in fact, that without that help, Walsh writes, Stravinsky's later works might never have been written. . . . [A] new avant-garde -- taking off from Schoenberg's 12-tone system -- was scorning him. He was finished, he said; at one point he actually 'broke down and wept.' So when Craft, in the early 1950's, showed Stravinsky how Schoenberg's music worked, he was open to the possibilities it offered. . . . For anyone who loved to play with notes the way Straivnsky did . . . the 12-tone system was a perfect fit. . . . How could Stravinsky not have liked that? His 12-tone works are disjunct, bracing and dissonant, but also wildly playful.

Greg Sandow The New York Times, 4/30/06

10 Selassie's Imperial Bodyguard Band. Returning to Ethiopia at 21, she was to study in England, but the emperor stepped on the plan. her hopes crushed, she burrowed into religion. She seems to have made five records f her own music, between 1963 and 1996, and has donated all the proceeds to the poor. She lives in an Ethiopian convent in Jerusalem. . . . Ethiopiques [is] an astounding series of folkloric and pop music from Ethiopia. . . . While the sound of this musician's pensive, repetitive drawing-room etudes owes something to Beethoven, Schumann and Debussy -- although they are studded with little arpeggios special to Ethiopian music -- there is a dusky, early-blues quality to much of it" [Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, 4/17/06].

Toby Keith. White Trash With Money. Show Dog / Universal. "Not the first time, [Toby Keith] seems slightly -- and deliberately -- out of step. Mr. Keith's current hit is 'Get Drunk and Be Somebody,' a rowdy bar song; when he sings, 'Great God almighty,' he's not prying -- he's issuing a beery rallying cry. . . . [T]he back cover shows a chest (presumably his) and a pendant bearing a dollar sign. . . . The album includes a sure-to-be-infamous addition to the Toby Keith canon: 'Runnin' Block,' in which the protagonist graciously beds a big woman -- a 'jelly roll,' he calls her -- so his buddy can bed her big sister, who's smaller. Not for the first time, he is practically begging listeners to hate him. Mr. Keith's career has lasted longer than nonfans know. (He released his self- titled first album in 1993.) Over the last half-decade especially, he has mastered the art of bobby and weaving. He has stuck to his guns enough to seem like an untabable maverick. And he has tweaked his image enough to keep both friends and enemies off balance. One minute he's a law-and- order vigilante; the next he's singing about smoking 'Weed With Willie.' (Nelson, that is.) That song came from 'Shock'n Y'all, his smash 2003 album, which also included "american Soldier' and 'The Taliban Song.' But while the Dixide Chicks are still licking their wounds from their public feud with Mr. Keith . . . their tormentor seems to have moved on. . . . Like manyu self-styled pop mavericks, Mr. Keith knows how to play up his rebellious image without ever rebelling against the folks who buy his CD's and concert tickets . . . Keith will never be an overpowering singer, but he's an overpowering character . . . . It's easy to smirk at a chart-topping pop star who sings about poverty. But it would be easier to laugh at Mr. Ketih if he weren't so good at laughing at himself . . . [O]ne of the many small surpises in this album; the jokey title isn't really a joke at all" [Kalefa Sanneh, The New York Times, 4/6/06].

Recordings

Ethiopiques 21. Buda Musique. "The pianist Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou is an Ethiopian nun. . . . In the 1940's she studied in Cairo, under a Polish classical violinist who was at one time the musical director of Emperor Haile 11 Writers

MARK ALBURGER is an eclectic American composer of postminimal, postpopular, and postcomedic sensibilities. He is Editor-Publisher of 21ST-CENTURY MUSIC, an award- winning ASCAP composer of concert music published by New Music, conductor, oboist, pianist, vocalist, recording artist, musicologist, theorist, author, and music critic.

HARRIET MARCH PAGE is Artistic Director of Goat Hall Productions: San Francisco's Cabaret Opera Company, as well as soprano, librettist, monologist, and Associate Editor of 21ST-CENTURY MUSIC.

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