Matthias Röder
Rhapsody.com still not useful for classical music listeners
As some of you may already know, rhapsody.com has added a mp3-store to its portfolio recently. While I welcome this move, especially since the mp3s are DRM-free, the main drawback with the service, namely its poor user interface, still remains an issue. The problem as I see it is a lack of a sufficient search-engine […]
The Future of Music Making
Surfing the web today, I came across a very interesting talk by our music colleagues from the MIT Media Lab. In this video talk Tod Machover, Adam Boulanger, and Dan Ellsey give a quick overview on their work on new musical instruments and the impact that their research has on society. What I find most […]
German Radio
For all you radio junkies out there check out the WDR RadioRecorder. This neat tool lets you record the streams of the WDR radio station to your computer. The big plus of this software is that you can select specific programs you wish to record via a clean interface. The program will then save the […]
Mantra at Harvard
Yesterday we heard Stockhausen’s Mantra at Harvard. Frank Gutschmidt and Benjamin Kobler captivated their audience in a late-night performance that was colorful, precise, groovy, and overwhelmingly lucid. What I liked most about their interpretation was the sense of unity that they created; at times one had the feeling that all the music came from one […]
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007)
Karlheinz Stockhausen “On Thursday, December 13th 2007, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. it will be possible to personally say farewell to Karlheinz Stockhausen in the chapel of the Waldfriedhof in Kuerten (Kastanienstrasse).” — (http://stockhausen.org/stockhasuen_passes.html) I wish I could go. Interesting video to go along with KONTAKTE. Stockhausen lecturing:
Word Creations #3
On Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in New York: “The Adagio of the Ninth was a classic Berliner tour-de-force: the extreme polish of the playing in every section created a fabulous mirage of music as three-dimensional space.” — Alex Ross, New Yorker, December 3, 2007, p. 107
Skype, Facebook, YouTube = Fun Evening
Earlier on today I was chatting with a friend from Munich who seemed to have a lot of fun with the YouTube videos of the Mozart Karaoke that I put on this blog a while back. By accident I came across an interesting video on facebook today that I wanted to share with you. Remember […]
Elliott Carter in Boston
Elliot Carter, Jose-Luis Hurtado, and Yehudi Wyner at Harvard University Elliott Carter who will turn 100 next year, has visited Boston for the premiere of his newest work, a horn concerto. The concerto was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on November 15 in a program that featured Haydn’s London Symphony and Mahler’s 1st Symphony. […]
Schubert and Brahms on David Lewin’s Piano
Yesterday night, Seda played a short concert with Schubert’s Sonate in a-moll D. 784 and Brahm’s Sechs Klavierstücke op. 118 in the Lowell House library at Harvard University. I love this pensive program. It is full of deep emotions, thorough thinking, and rhythmic complexities.Seda played on the piano that once belonged to David Lewin, the […]
Exploring the Boston Scene
The Boston Scene After a couple of weeks without concerts and opera I am finally starting to explore the Boston music scene (again). So far, most of the non-campus events were disappointing: 1) Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine played Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto (with Christian Tetzlaff) and Mahler’s 9th Symphony. This concert was a […]
Walter Kempowski: 1929 – 2007
Walter Kempowski (1929 – 2007)
Salzburg Wrap-up
Ok, this year’s festival was a short one for me. I saw only a couple of performances but some of these were really excellent!
Coraggio!
Just to remind all of us how great the Vienna Philharmonic and Christine Schäfer are… and of course that nothing can kill a good song! And this one only of you are really bold! Watch it until the end, there is a great tremolo coming…
Because once is never enough!
Almost exactly one year after I heard Claus Guth’s Figaro in Salzburg, I had the chance to hear that same production again yesterday (again in the Orchesterhauptprobe). The impression it made on me was even better than last July. It’s a very intelligent staging and the cast consists of truly great singers, amongst them Gerald […]
Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques in Salzburg
This was an amazing concert. The Basel Sinfonietta under Stefan Asbury and Geneviève Strosser (viola) performed Gérard Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques at the Salzburg Festival. Having thought a lot about an aethetics of spacial music listening I found yesterday’s concert to be a perfect stimulus. It was incredible to hear this piece in its entirety […]
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