settling in

I'm settling in to summer in New York--haven't seen Indiana Jones yet, but I'm doing all the rest of my favorite summer things, or the ones that I have time for. There's still a lot of work to do. In addition to practicing, I'm finishing edits on the John Musto disc, and also ICE's disc of pieces for guitar and ensemble for New Focus.

That said, I'm hoping to bike around Prospect Park this weekend; it's an activity that, for me, belongs to summertime. I'm also dreaming of the sea, and spending a little bit of time at the shore--was it coincidental that during my gym workout today I was listening to Debussy's La Mer? The great recording with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony almost makes you smell seawater.

out of the woods

After two and a half nonstop months, I have a bit of a break. ICE's Tres Generaciones festival was a big success and an education for all involved. Residencies at Columbia University and NYU have come and gone with great results, and the Stravinsky concerts--as present as all that amazing music still is in my head--seem in the fairly distant past. (Here's our great review in the New Yorker.) Anyway, now I can get back to work on Kurtag. Tony and I leave for Germany in a little less than two months.

Julio Estrada, the grandfather of experimental composition in Mexico and a student of Messiaen and Xenakis, was a joy to work with during the festival. A gifted teacher and a hysterically funny man, he "acted out" his piano and percussion piece for me and ICE's percussionist David Schotzko. It's amazing how working with a composer gives you insight that is only hinted at on the musical page. In working with an experimental tradition that I've only had slight prior experience with, it was invaluable to have Estrada on hand. There's been talk of a recording; I really hope it happens soon. The piece, "yuunohui'tlapoa," from Zapotec words for "fresh clay" and "calculation," is one of the most demanding scores I've ever worked on.

Today I'm editing the George Crumb disc for Bridge, which is due out at the end of the summer. It's exciting music to revisit.

points of light

Last night was the first of ICE's Stravinsky concerts at the Morgan Library. I'm so proud of the group--everyone played with great finesse, and we got a wonderful reception from the crowd. The Septet was the only piece with piano, and I grew to love the piece's angular beauty and emotional reserve. Next week: the complete songs! Tony Arnold flies into town this weekend and we resume our work on some of Stravinsky's great songs for voice and piano.

counterpoint

I'm dealing with many aspects of my professional life these days in a complex counterpoint: managing educational promotion for ICE, playing concerts, and teaching. It's a big effort. But I'm glad that the days are getting longer, even with the continuing cold. Last night's Close Range concert, rescheduled from February, tied together diverse areas of my recent solo work: the crispness of Haydn's well-known D major sonata and the expansive range of Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasie, coupled with Takemitsu's Rain Tree Sketches, which reflect both aspects of the earlier composers. The program closed with Schubert's great sonata in A, which has always been one of my favorites for its contradictions of character.

Later this week I play Szymanowski for the Bloomingdale School, and then a chamber piece with ICE for our short Binghamton residency focusing on young Latino composers and their teachers.

back in the saddle again

There's an enormous amount to do before the end of the month, and things are just warming up. Mostly I'm preparing for events in March, but there is one more Close Range concert at the end of February: Haydn, Chopin, Takemitsu, and Schubert, a real grab bag. But all pieces that I love, some of which I've played for a long time.

Also, editing for the new ICE disc, a general sorting-out of my schedule for the rest of the spring, and hopefully, some composing too. The dozen or so projects which, up to now, have only been in my head have to bust out sometime onto staff paper.

I was inspired during my brief time in San Francisco last week by the Schoenberg second string quartet, and its ecstatic, transporting finale with soprano: "Ich fuehle Luft von anderen Planeten"--I feel the air of other planets. Not coincidentally, my asthma lifted as soon I as got to the west coast. Happy Valentine's, everyone.

winter scrambling

This is the last stretch for my January business, and then I have some blessed time off at the beginning of February. My WFMT broadcast was a success--it was unfortunately not archived, but good reports came from all around. On to the next Close Range concerts this month and next, which feature some more old favorites.

A web feature that I wrote for the Bloomingdale School of Music on Janacek's piano music is live on the school's site. It includes some excerpts which I recorded, and it's a general discussion on Janacek's wonderfully eccentric output for the piano. Many lesser-known pieces are also included.

northern lights

My friend, the great sound designer J. White, was in town over the new year. We had a great time drinking and talking, among other things, about teleological genesis in the songs of Paul Simon. I was making some point about "Kodachrome," but I'm not sure what it was...J., who was happy to be in New York if only briefly, is starting new projects and making rare appearances as a ukulele virtuoso in San Francisco.

It was a nice new year here in the city spent with friends, and I'm looking ahead to a busy few months. I continue to improve my German in anticipation of time next summer in Darmstadt, followed by time in Frankfurt and Berlin. It's a nice motivation. The Debussy preludes from Book II which will appear on the next Close Range concert are very present in my mind--I've written about them before, but they've only gained meaning for me in the year since I've played them. "The Fairies are Exquisite Dancers" has a pointillistic intensity to it, with delicate and ravishing harmonic turns. I think also in that piece about the concentration of a slow, chromatically winding melody--how abstract something like that can seem, but also how harmonically suggestive. The music is so free, but there's not a note wasted. I wish only that I could be half as eloquent in my life; now there's a thought for the new year.