The Big City

Adventures in Radio

gtra1n — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:23:19 +0000

Listen to Poland, a country with an extraordinary musical heritage (and that would hold true if the only composers who came from there were Chopin and Lutoslawski). Starting January 16 and running through January 22, Q2, the online radio arm of WQXR, is featuring music from Poland: Muzyka Nowa. Heavy on 20th century music, the …

Sight(s)

gtra1n — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:53:11 +0000

Bear with the site, as I’m about to undertake a substantial revision. The goal is to maintain the same content, but simplify, simplify, simplify .…

Winter Music

gtra1n — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:24:06 +0000

In a January without snow, there’s not much excuse not to get out of the house. And after what amounted to a long, languid pause from Christmas through the first week of the new year, there are enough enticing events to plan for that no one, myself included, will be able to make it to …

Links and Kinks

gtra1n — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:41:35 +0000

The miscellany of the intertubes … my post on Mahler brought up a ping-back that led me to this good article on Mahler’s orchestration … quite often, the web is like high school, full of people who’s experience and thinking are limited, and since they can’t see beyond the walls of their own enclosure, they …

Paul Motian, Selected Discography

gtra1n — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:17:24 +0000

On Broadway, Volume 1 - Still a lovely record and the beginning of Motian’s long, late period purple patch. Bill Evans — The best of the JMT discs, strikes a great balance between straight-ahead playing and expressive thinking, without a hint of sentimentality. Trio at the Village Vanguard/Sound of Love - The studio records of …

The Year in Mahler

gtra1n — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:33:07 +0000

After a particularly generous sesquicentennial of Mahler’s birth last year, with essential collections and vital new thinking about the composer, this has been a relatively subdued centennial of the composer’s death. David Zinman’s solid, beautifully played and recorded but slightly anodyne cycle concluded with a strong Symphony No. 10, and Valery Gergiev finished up his …

Listicles

gtra1n — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:12:39 +0000

Now that I’ve got all my lists up, check out some others, especially Seth Colter Walls’ well-argued one — the argument is the best part — Steve Smith’s ecumenical one, Hank Shteamer’s and the Avant Music News one … and one for cassettes!

2011 Year’s Best Classical

gtra1n — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:16:22 +0000

Because it was a good year, another Baker's Dozen ...

2011 Year’s Best Pop Styles

gtra1n — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:21:21 +0000

2011 best pop music of the year ...

Space Christmas

gtra1n — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:35:01 +0000

The Doctor Who Christmas show isn’t until tomorrow, but NASA has got something for us all: And did you know NASA had a radio station? It’s almost self-parody: NASA’s mission of discovery and exploration will be showcased in a custom-produced Internet music radio station that is crafted specifically to speak the language of …