On This Day: Charles Ives

From the G. Schirmer (music publishers) website:

"Born in Danbury, Connecticut on 20 October 1874, Charles Ives pursued what is perhaps one of the most extraordinary and paradoxical careers in American music history. Businessman by day and composer by night, Ives's vast output has gradually brought him recognition as the most original and significant American composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, Ives sought a highly personalized musical expression through the most innovative and radical technical means possible."

Ives was a complex composer. He drew on a range of influences, particularly military music (his father was a US Army band leader). He also wrote for the church. This is a lovely setting for Psalm 135.

"Stop, stop, stop went my heartstrings..."

Hugh Martin, who wrote the music for the 1944 film "Meet Me in St Louis," has died at aged 96. In the movie were such classics as "The Trolley Song," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Boy Next Door." Here's his Playbill obituary.

Max Raabe Live - Unter einem Regenschirm am Abend

Everything about this song is exceptional and the audience loves it.

Jacques Brel - Ne Me Quitte Pas

Belgian-born singer Jacques Romain Georges Brel would have been 81 years old today.

Happy Birthday Wolfgang Amadeus

For your music pleasure: Die Zauberflöte!

Haiti Relief Benefit Concert - Saturday, January 23 at St Mike's

Haiti Relief Benefit Concert
Brahms Requiem.
hosted by Live From the Core and
The Green Mountain Mahler Festival
Nathaniel Lew, Conductor
Shyla Nelson, Soprano
Bread and Puppet Theatre

Saturday, January 23rd 2:00pm
Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel
Saint Michael's College, Colchester, Vermont

Free and open to the public.

Proceeds from a free will offering to benefit Partners in Health and Catholic Relief Services.

If you are a singer or instrumentalist who would like to perform on Saturday, register here.

Please spread the word. If you are in the Vermont & on Facebook, kindly repost the event details to your own pages to help get the word out. Please also forward this announcement to as many as you can, and thank you so much for your help.

Those of you who live far afield of the hills of Vermont can stay tuned, as the organisers do have camera crews coming in and plan to post excerpts of the performance on YouTube.

George Jellinek 1909-2010

The history of a people is found in its songs. - George Jellinek

R.I.P. George Jellinek
His contributions to our listening pleasure as well as informing us about opera and opera singers are what made WQXR an exemplary station in NYC and our nation!

WXQR obituary.

Jellinek created The Vocal Scene program in 1969, a year after he became WQXR’s music director. The weekly, one-hour show was devoted to opera and great opera singers. The show continued for 36 years, and was syndicated on classical stations around the country.

George Jellinek interviewed Virginia Zeani in 1993 for "The Vocal Scene." It's in three parts; here is Part I:

Sublime Music

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor, and his Ensemble Artaserse in concert in June 2009 in the Galerie des Glaces at the Château de Versailles. He sings Giacomelli's aria of Epitide "Sposa non mi conosci" from the Opera "La Merope." I just discovered Jaroussky after a friend on Facebook wrote that he had been to a concert last night in New York City. Truly an amazing artist!



More from the Galerie des Glaces





You can watch extracts of more Jaroussky performances here.

A Tuba Christmas

My friend Jay Kibby played in a tuba quartet performance of Christmas music on Don Weeks' WGY (Schenectady, NY) radio show this morning! His group is from the College of St Rose in Albany and is a chapter/member of the International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA). Enjoy the interview and velvet-smooth music here! They're performing at 7:30 P.M. at the College tonight (wish I could go!)

Celebrate Snow!

Today is Emile Waldteufel's birthday. Burlington has had its first real snow fall today, too. In celebration, here's Waldteufel's "Les Patineurs."

Best of Texas: Lyle Lovett

"Natural Forces," the new CD from Lyle Lovett is out. MadPriest has some more tracks from it.

"Yee Haw" it ain't

From The Texas Observer, a cool story about an up and coming talented Texas musician!

... The mixture of ancient Chinese symbols and modern American rock illustrate Yang’s uniqueness: he’s a rock guitarist and self-proclaimed Asian cowboy, a fan of barbeque, high school football and all things Texan, but also a lover of Mozart and Brahms, a violin virtuoso thriving in America’s most elite conservatory. While this rare blend of elements might seem contradictory, it’s actually the key to his exuberant personality. His versatility isn’t a shortcoming; it’s his chief attraction.

Yang’s exposure to classical music began in the womb—his mother played for the Austin Symphony—but his love for it was not congenital. “I hated it,” he says of his first few years. “I was 3-years-old when my mom shoved a violin in my hands, you know, it’s like the Asian rule, and I remember hating it and thinking, ‘Man, it doesn’t even sound good.’”

At his first recital, when he was 4, he turned and faced a corner while he played. “My ass was facing the audience the whole time,” Yang says. To get him to practice, his parents would bribe him with M&Ms. Even so, it was a struggle: “Past 30 minutes I’d always cry and shout, ‘Why do I have to do more?’”

Friday Music Groove: Lhasa

Montréal-based singer songwriter Lhasa, whose songs reflect her Mexican and American roots.

Weekend Music: YVES DUTEIL

From 24oranges

The city of Amstelveen, next to Amsterdam, has been playing host to an entire week of French cultural events.

And Yves Duteil played last Thursday. I googled him and found the above - wonderful - song on You Tube.

Friday Music Groove: Santana

Santana: Fried Neckbones and Home Fries

Sunday Morning Music: Ben Harper - Picture of Jesus

Ben Harper (with Ladysmith) - Picture of Jesus - video shows back streets of Brazil.



Lyrics:

It hangs above my altar
Like they hung him from a cross
I keep one in my wallet

For the times I feel lost
In a wooden frame with splinters
Where my family kneels to pray
And if you listen close
You'll hear the words he used to say
Ive got a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
We've got a picture of Jesus
And with him we shall be forever blessed

It has been spoken
He would come again
But would we recognize
This king among men
There was a man in our time
His words shine bright like the sun
He tried to lift the masses
And was crucified by gun

He was a picture of Jesus
With him so many prayers rest
He is a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
With him we shall be forever blessed

Some days have no beginning
And some days have no end
Some roads are straight and narrow
And some roads only bend
So let us say a prayer
For every living thing
Walking towards a light
From the cross of a king

We long to be a picture of Jesus
In his arms so many prayers rest
I long to be a picture of Jesus
With him we shall be forever blessed

Krystian Zimerman's Pro-Peace Speech

The world famous Polish pianist, Krystian Zimerman, last Sunday informed a California audience that he would no longer perform in the US.

"Get your hands off my country," Zimerman told the stunned crowd in a denunciation of US plans to install a missile defence shield on Polish soil. Some people cheered, others yelled at him to shut up and keep playing. A few dozen walked out, some of them shouting obscenities.

"Yes," Zimerman responded with derision, "some people when they hear the word military start marching."

When I initially saw this story, the Guardian's subheading read "anti-US rant." Probably after complaints, it has now changed it to "anti-US tirade," but has not acknowledged the change.

A nice principled, virtuoso stand from Zimerman against the Bush "missle defence" shield (now being implemented by Obama), but the writer of the Guardian article linked above clearly is not pleased and focuses on the audience's storming out of Disney Hall. He calls Zimerman's "ranting" personal: "Shortly after 9/11, his piano was confiscated by customs officials at New York's JFK airport, who thought the glue smelled funny. They subsequently destroyed the instrument." A trademark of Zimerman's tours is his own piano, which he takes to every concert venue.

LABEL: UNINTENTIONAL HUMOUR

For your immediate reflection, from the Guardian - "Is the recession David Bowie's fault?":- Who is to blame for the recession? Forget all that stuff about out-of-control bankers, negligent governments and sleepwalking regulators; instead, according to the BBC's Evan Davis, it's time to point the finger at David Bowie - a pioneer not only of experimental rock music and what used to be called "gender bending", but exactly the kind of financial sophistry that got us in this mess.

In yesterday's Daily Mirror, Davis laid out his theory as follows. In 1997, Bowie needed millions of pounds to buy back the rights to his songs from a previous manager. With the help of a financier named David Pullman, he thus created the so-called "Bowie Bond", through which investors would receive a share of the royalties from 287 Bowie songs over the next 10 years (£55m worth of them were sold to the Prudential Insurance Company).

VENEZUELAN HIGH SCHOOL MUSICIANS

BLOSSOM DEARIE, R.I.P.

Blossom Dearie died on Saturday at age 82.