"There's enough beauty in the world," declared David Lang in a recklessly unguarded moment prior to the New York premiere of his new, hour-long work love fail,  written for the vocal quartet Anonymous 4. But what does the world need if not beauty? What this singular composer is ready to supply, though, seems to be something for which the right words haven't been invented. … [Read more...] about David Lang: Living in pain with great beauty

November snow was still piled up on the foot path of the Brooklyn Bridge one recent Friday, but not enough to stop a pair of guys from stomping through the slush on a midnight, across-the-bridge run, for which they were both, incongruously in 30-degree weather, shirtless. The rules are up in the air now.  Weather events that once seemed specific to different seasons (like … [Read more...] about Music for Unspeakable Acts, Part II: Mies Julie, Wozzeck and vocalises from Latvia

Time and again in the weeks since the Metropolitan Opera opening of The Tempest, post-concert gatherings longer than five minutes soon get round to the question, muttered semi-intelligibly with a vague air of shame. “What did you think of The Tempest”? One British critic had said that this, Thomas Adès's second opera, was the most important British event of its kind since … [Read more...] about Tempest Phobia: You aren’t the only one who dislikes it

Reprinted from the Philadelphia Inquirer, first published on Nov. 8. For the time being, Elliott Carter, who died Monday in New York, will be known as the composer who worked the longest. Well into his 104th year, he composed intricately and conscientiously, each piece seeming to be all that it could be, with little decline in inspiration. Of course he did. He frankly … [Read more...] about Elliott Carter: Maybe he wasn’t radical?

“Had the election gone the other way,” said Peter Yarrow, formerly of Peter Paul and Mary, the evening would’ve felt very different. As it was, the Nov. 9th benefit concert for the environmental Clearwater foundation at New York City's Symphony Space was a quirky, gloriously whacked tribal reunion of nearly every lefty folksinger you ever admired but feared was dead. You … [Read more...] about Amram-ing at Symphony Space with prayers from our youth