Aisle Be Seeing You

Lang Lang reviewed in Boston Globe

David Weininger reviews Lang Lang's recital of this past Sunday afternoon for today's Boston Globe:

"It may seem premature to wonder about development or maturity in a musician as young as the 24-year-old pianist. But his ascent to the top of the music world has been exceptionally rapid. If proof were needed, it lay in the fact that Sunday's recital was his second in Symphony Hall, a place only the upper echelon of recitalists can fill. Now he finds himself too old to be a prodigy, much too young to be an elder statesman. That's why it was worth listening for signs of what kind of musician he's becoming."

Read all of Showmanship shines, sometimes too brightly

Giant Steps via robotics

Chilling? Cool? Stupid? Creepy? Apocalyptic? Awesome? Music?

A Japanese robot plays John Coltrane's immortal jazz solo on Giant Steps. No, really.

I was immediately haunted by visions of a computerized voice chanting in a monotone, "A Love Supreme...A Love Supreme..."

Thanks to Tears of a Clownsilly.

Lang Lang's encores

Lang Lang's 3 encores this afternoon at Boston's Symphony Hall were as follows:

1. Chopin, Etude Op. 10. No. 3

2. Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor
3. Alexandre Desplat, selection from soundtrack of The Painted Veil

4. Rimsky-Korsakov, Flight of the Bumblebee

Lang Lang: "Refined Playing of Considerable Taste"

Pianist Lang Lang

Here's a review of Lang Lang's Vancouver recital from The Vancouver Sun. The program reviewed is the same as he will play this coming Sunday at Symphony Hall:

"...Lang Lang has visited Vancouver repeatedly since his first recital in 1999. His performance Tuesday night at the Orpheum was a measure not only of his astounding popularity but also of his continuing growth as an artist."

Read all of Refined Playing of Considerable Taste.

Dawn Upshaw's program and pianist

Soprano Dawn Upshaw has two items for us. First she has announced the program for her February 25 recital, which features works by no less than 13 composers and second, she has announced that her piano accompanist will be the great Gilbert Kalish. Ms. Upshaw goes onstage in 32 days. Don't say I didn't give you any notice...

"Violinist Hahn plays in a more intimate venue: A tavern"

In case you were wondering what violinist Hilary Hahn has been up to in the nearly two weeks since she tore it up at Jordan Hall, she has taken a page out of cellist Matt Haimovitz's book by playing The Tractor Tavern in Seattle. She'll get a good deal more than my praise for the effort, too, by the sound of it. Here's a whiff of the review from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"It was just after midnight. Immediately the crowd reduced its chatter to no chatter. The audience knew what was before them and paid attention.

Something she rarely does in more conventional venues, she talked, with easy charm and a touch of irreverence. Her first offering was Bach's Chaconne, both virtuosic and moving, which was not surprising because Hahn has been playing Bach since she was 8. The second was a transcription for solo violin of a celebrated Schubert art song, 'Erlkonig' ('Erlking'), a novelty to be sure but an evocative one."

Read all of Violinist Hahn plays in a more intimate venue: A tavern.

Susan Graham reviewed in The Boston Globe

Jeremy Eichler reviewed Susan Graham's Sunday afternoon recital of songs by French composers for today's Boston Globe. Psst...it was as good as he says it was...

Quality of Life on Earth Takes Another Hit

A 77 square-foot apartment - formerly a storage room - in London's exclusive Knightsbridge neighborhood is on the market for an asking price equivalent to $335,000 (Boston.com article). This puts me in mind of the Tokyo hotel (or maybe hotels by now) where the rooms are only large enough to lie down in and are stacked like the cells of a beehive. London is morphing into Tokyo, perhaps? Just thinking about it makes me want to stick my head out the window in search of fresh air.

Susan Graham's encores

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is impressive (and not least because she seems as tall as that other classical Texan, Van Cliburn). As she stood backstage yesterday afternoon having tea and waiting to go on, the stage manager finished her amplified announcements to the audience (turn off cell phones, muffle your steam turbines, no singing along, etc.). She turned off her microphone and asked the crew backstage, "I got everything, right? Basically no noisemakers."

"Right," quipped Graham cooly, and with admirable timing, "I'm the only noisemaker on stage."

The program, a tour through the wild variety of French composers and composing, was developed by pianist Malcolm Martineau. The pair wrapped up the afternoon with two encores:

1. Reynaldo Hahn, "A Chloris"

2. Noel Coward, "There's Always Something Fishy About the French"

Regina Carter: Taking jazz violin on a trip back in time

Jazz violinist and MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner Regina Carter

Regina Carter was featured in The Boston Globe this weekend in a piece by Siddhartha Mitter. Carter talks about "I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey," and related projects, the death of her mother, who inspired the recording, as well as her MacArthur "Genius" Grant. Carter proves again that as musically reliable as her playing is, she is is a multi-faceted musical and cultural explorer. What I'm trying to say is, the MacArthur folks were right to support her efforts, because she is smart, soulful and doesn't stand still. This line from the Globe article caught my attention, especially since my enduring image of her is that of her buring up the stage at Symphony Hall on Wynton Marsalis' "Blood on the Fields" tour:

"'I grew up watching the Lawrence Welk show,' Carter says by way of example. 'It's almost a nostalgic sound, with the clarinet and the accordion.'"

Read all of Taking Jazz Violin on a Trip Back In Time.

And, as if one remarkable musician wasn't enough, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater joins Ms. Carter's great band this Saturday (something not happening elsewhere on this tour, I might add).