Classical Music Notes from All Over

I did not set out to write an entire blog about the current classical music scene at all, but one thing led to another:

I’m listening to a CD of Gloria Cheng performing world premieres of late 20th century solo piano works by Steven Stucky (born 1949), Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), and Esa-Pekka Salonen (born 1958). So right away, for one thing, I am hearing, for possibly the first time, “classical” music written by someone who is younger than me.



Such horror aside, the CD, Piano Music Of Salonen, Stucky, And Lutoslawski, won the 2008 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (without Orchestra)." Stucky and Salonen both studied under the Polish composer Lutoslawski. (Salonen, probably, better known to most as the Music Director of the L.A. Philharmonic & principal conductor of the London Philharmonia). From what I’ve heard of them, modern Polish composers favor the lyrical more than most others, especially more than a lot of 20th century Americans. I think that rubbed off on Stucky and Salonen a little, although some by the latter are more atonal. This piano music is more something I would happily sit down and listen to than some other modern works. Stucky compares it to Debussy, which I can see, and Stravinsky, which, not so much....


Speaking of piano music, the Van Cliburn Foundation has graciously posted on YouTube quite a few (maybe all) performances from the 2009 Van Cliburn competition and, in fact, streamed the whole competition live at http://www.cliburn.tv/, a fact which, sadly, I didn’t learn until just now.

BTW, the winners were announced today: Gold Medalists (tie for first): Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20 (Japan) and Haochen Zhang, 19 (China) and Silver Medalist: Ms. Yeol Eum Son, 23 (South Korea).

The YouTube URL is http://www.youtube.com/user/VanCliburnFoundation

Finally, I think I may have mentioned this performance when I first heard it several months ago on a California radio station. Recently on Performance Today they’ve replayed it: Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov's delightful work, Azul, performed by Yo-Yo Ma with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Kahane.

This was one of the best Performance Today shows I’ve heard and it included another finalist in the Van Cliburn Competition, Bulgarian Evgeni Bozhanov, who plays the Third movement from Piano Quintet in F Minor by Cesar Franck. You can hear all of this week’s episode of Performance Today at:

http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/

(I like to show the actual URLs so people know where they’re going.)

Getting back to Golijov’s Azul, if there is one thing I’ve mentioned here that you should listen to, that is it. It is very beautiful, creative, and entertaining! It has a lot of cool percussion that reminded me of one of my all-time favorite jazz pieces, Pharoah Sander’s
"Astral-Travelling," which was on his album, Thembi. Fortunately, this song is on YouTube!

Conan Leno Letterman Ferguson Fallon & Kimmel

I don't think Letterman has to worry about his ratings. Hard to say how Conan will do. I think Leno was very lucky to have Kevin Eubanks as both a very talented band leader and a very likable sidekick of sorts, whereas I can't stand Paul Shaffer. Max Weinberg is a great musician, and they did some funny things with him, but he was not a real sidekick. I like Andy Richter, but they definitely need to tone him down a lot. I thought the cross-country bit was generally pretty funny, though long. I didn't think the monologue was terribly funny....

I like Conan OK, but his monologues have always been very short, and the bits that followed were very uneven. I very seldom watch the guest segments. (And I don't like Will Ferrell, so I turned it off at that point and got back on with Pearl Jam--who were pretty good.) I'll probably watch Conan from time to time, but I may well just tape Leno and watch him then, I dunno.

While I'm on the subject, I still really haven't watched Fallon at all. But from what little I have seen, I wonder if he has a dynamic enough personality to pull it off. From what I've heard, at least the writing is pretty funny. And I still can't believe he got The Roots! But I do like Ferguson best. It amazes me what he does with what little they give him.

I just never got in the habit of thinking about ABC late nights. I don't even know when Jimmy Kimmel is on. I like him, but you can only watch so many talk shows. However, I do think, of all the people I've seen, he would be the best replacement for Regis. I don't know if there would be more money in it for him there or not.