FriPod: Think of the Children!

1. "Children's Song," Chick Corea on Works.
2. "Children and Art," from Sunday in the Park with George by Steven Sondheim, Original Broadway Cast recording.
3. "For Unto Us a Child is Born," from Messiah by George Handel, performed by Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
4. "Sweet Air," from Child by David Lang, performed by Sentierri Selvaggi.
5. Ancient Voices of Children, by George Crumb, performed by Jan DeGaetani, Machael Dash, and the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.
6. "Godchild," by George Wallington, performed by Miles Davis on Birth Of The Cool.
7. Kindertotenlieder, by Gustav Mahler, performed by Agnes Baltsa, Lorin Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic.
8. "Wiegenlied am Lager eines kranken Kindes," by Robert Schumann, performed by Dorothea Röschmann, Ian Bostridge, and Graham Johnson.
9. Kinderszenen, by Robert Schumann, performed by Claudio Arrau.
10. "Jolie Fille," by Joaquin Turina, performed by the Empire Brass.
11. "La Fille aux Cheveux De Lin," by Claude Debussy, performed by the Empire Brass.
12. "Scene Et Legende De La Fille Du Paria," from Lakme by Léo Delibes, performed by Maurice André.

FriPod: Random 10

I'm not up to picking a meaningful topic today, so I just hit the refresh on Party Shuffle.

1. Sonata in D: Spiritoso ed adagio – Arcangelo Corelli, performed by Crispian Steele-Perkins. A short movement that shows off Corelli's tender side. It's not as good as his Adagio from Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 8, but still a nice change from the normal fireworks of Baroque trumpet concerti.

2. "My Favorite Things" – Rodgers & Hammerstein, performed by John Coltrane on the eponymous album. For the length of this track, I'd like to hear the familiar piece deconstructed more. The head is played almost verbatim, and the solos are harmonically conservative. Yes, the conversion of a standard to a Cool style modal improvisation is interesting, but take it outside a little more, please!

3. Missa "Puisque je vis": Benedictus – Guillame Dufay (attrib.), performed by the Binchois Consort. This is a wonderful benediction, full of peace and hope. The voices are so clean, the counterpoint is so stark, and the melismas perfectly balanced. The harmonic language seems to slide between unapologetic modality and more gentle tonal cadences and motions.

4. "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Salome – Richard Strauss, performed by Rudolf Kempe with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Okay, get your minds out of the gutters, people. Let's address the music, not the incestuous, manipulative, seductive, sensuous.... Ahem! The orientalism is an interesting choice, giving a sense of otherness and perhaps a touch of judgment on those evil heathens. This performance is a little slow, losing the dance flow. But there are good timbral colors and some nice phrasing.

5. Four Seasons Concerti: Winter, III. Allegro – Vivaldi, performed by Itzhak Perlman and the London Symphony Orchestra. This is an icy movement, so careful and almost emotionless, except for the little gasps of the tutti strings at the end of the introduction. The solo has some fireworks in the arpeggios, but they still seem cold in the planning and more like fake emotions rather than the real thing. The obligatory Vivaldi tremoli have the same effect on me.

6. Symphony No. 3 "Rhein," 5. Lebhaft – Schumann, performed by Rafael Kubelik and the Berlin Philharmonic. I used to prefer Schumann's second symphony, but now I feel the third has more depth. This movement (hey, if Beethoven can go beyond four movements, so can I!) alternates between elegant figures, passionate turbulence, grandiose river motions, a little nostalgia/sorrow, and some Brahmsian metric displacements.

7. Graal Theatre: I. Delicato – Saariaho, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gideon Kramer on violin. This is a work driven by colors, not by melody. Listening to the soundscape being created, you can picture the sound masses that Varèse strove for (I never really experience them in his own works). This is indeed a delicate tapestry, with the violin threatening to tear the fragile fabric of timbres. It is a long movement (16:54) but has enough tension and movement to keep my attention.

8. "Scriabin" – Vince Mendonza, performed by Michael Brecker on Don't Try This At Home. This is a very sad work, appropriate with the tragic loss of this great musician. I purchased this album after seeing Brecker live back in 1989 at Lawrence University. This track is full of angst, the tenor sax sound almost wailing while still remaining "cool."

9. Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 "Funeral March," IV. Presto – Chopin, performed by Horowitz. Not the famous march movement, but rather a frenzied series of meandering runs that never pause for breath. Running from Death? If so, Death catches up on the last two chords.

10. Short Ride in a Fast Machine – John Adams, performed by Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Orchestra. A strange juxtaposition with the previous work, the machine doesn't seem nearly as fast after Chopin's run with the devil. This performance is 4 seconds slower than my De Waart/San Francisco recording, and just doesn't have that sense of out-of-control driving that Adams wanted. The low brass don't come out enough, losing that metric tension. Still a fun piece, though as I think back to my first time experiencing it (about the same time as the Brecker concert mentioned above), I'm amazed that I found it so radical at the time.

FriPod: The challenge

I (and all of my pointy-headed musical peers) have been challenged by Phil Ford to "post a randomly-generated Ipod playlist on your blog, with relevant commentary." This is suspiciously like my old attempts at iChing. But I'll play along, especially as that linked iChing has turned out to be scarily applicable.

1. Carmen Suite No. 1: Entr'acte (Act II) Georges Bizet, performed by Herbert von Karajan; Philharmonia Orchestra. Carmen is one of the best operas ever, and this Entr'acte is very charming. When I was at Eastman, I took a class on Intermediate Keyboard Skills. For our final project each of us transcribed a portion of Carmen and performed it in relative order. I chose parts of the Prelude rather than this Entr'acte, but it still brings back good memories.

2. "Did You Ever Cross Over To Sneden's?" Bob Levy. The title track from my undergraduate trumpet professor's latest jazz CD. It features Janet Planet on vocals, a very sentimental song with a sad ending. It is a little predictable for me, but again brings back good memories of the nine years I studied with Bob.

3. "Mood Indigo/Hot And Bothered/Creole Love Call" Duke Ellington From The Best Of Duke Ellington: Centennial Edition. This is old school Ellington, with shimmering winds and dixieland-ish banjo-led rhythm section. The mix of tunes is nice, especially the growling trumpet solo in "Hot And Bothered." The slow-fast-slow arrangement of the medley makes this like a little suite.

4. Breves Rencontres-1 Divertissement Jacques Castérède, performed by Terry Everson, Trumpet; Susan Nowicki, Piano. I love Castérède. I played his Concertino for Trombone and Trumpet on my college roommate's senior recital, and his duet suite with my wife on my graduate recital. His music is so French, but without the sarcasm of Poulenc and the other Six-ers.

5. "Why do the nations" from The Messiah George Friedrich Handel, performed by Samuel Ramey; Andrew Davis, Toronto Symphony, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Just today I read a poem by Theresa of Avila that uses the nations raging line to symbolize emotions and desires warring within ourselves and the divisive nature of the Christian Church post Reformation. Handel gets both meanings across in this aria.

6. "Tabuh Teluh" Sadha Budaya Gamelan Gong Suling from Bali - Gamelan & Kecak. This gamelan piece features pipes and voices rather than percussion. The bright timbres of the pipes keep me from getting lulled by the repetitive nature of the melodic patterns, so I can notice the rhythmic shifts. There is also a subtle accelerando on this piece, an amazing feat with such ambiguous metric accents. It slows back down towards the end. Today I was told to embrace ambiguity. This piece reflects that balance of change and stasis well.

7. "Give Me One Reason" Tracy Chapman from New Beginning. This is one of the only songs by Chapman that I knew before Mary brought this CD into our relationship. Tracy has such an easy approach to the blues, not pop-ified but not hard core blues either. There is a lot hope to this song, tempered by the rules of the blues.

8. Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 "Pastorale" (F Major): I -- Allegro ma non troppo Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by New York Philharmonic - Leonard Bernstein. This is a truly lovely movement, as long as I can keep the dancing cherubs out of my head. Symphony No. 7 remains my favorite, but 3 and 6 both have excellent features. This movement is very restful while remaining Allegro, full of grace and joy.

9. Carnaval: 11. Chiarina Robert Schumann, performed by Claudio Arrau. "Chiarina" was Schumann's nickname for Clara Wieck, then the 15 year-old daughter of his piano teacher, later to become his wife. This is a very complex work, not gushy romanticism or childlike innocence. It is waltz-like, somewhat passionate yet not overly so. It sounds rather unstable, as if Robert isn't sure what his feelings for Clara are yet.

10. "Why Worry" Dire Straits from Brothers In Arms. Yes, almost all of my popular music is very old. This song is not nearly as well known as "Money for Nothing" or " ," but it is very beautiful. It explicitly states to balance opposing forces: "there is laughter after pain, sunshine after rain," and that hope and love will prevail. A good ending to the challenge, Mark Knopfler is telling me to stop worrying, after an introduction that is far too long to get played on the radio.

Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra

Tonight's family concert outing was the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, coming to Greencastle to back up Ida Kavafian. Kavafian was fabulous, with a lovely dark sound that especially fitted the Dvorak Romance. But my favorite was Schumann's Second Symphony. While the Rhenish has become more favorable to me, I've always liked the cyclic nature of the Second. When the major motives of the four movements all come together at the end, it is like the musical version of a great novel. All the plotlines are intertwined at the end, revealing new relationships and new facets of the characters/motives. I was especially impressed with the woodwind section, including two lovely oboe solos by colleague Anna Mattix. And in a nice touch, the trumpets played on rotary instruments. The opening call seemed a little tentative, but the slightly darker sound and gentler pitch transitions that the rotary trumpet allows were very nice.

In other DePauw news, Eric Edberg has been Noised.