STAFF PICKS: Friday Faves

Posted on June 3, 2016 by maestrobeats

Second Inversion hosts share a favorite selection from this Friday’s playlist. Tune in during the indicated hours below on Friday, June 3 to hear these pieces. In the meantime, you’ll hear other great new and unusual music from all corners of the classical genre 24/7!

Tyondai Braxton: Casino Trem; Bang on a Can All-Stars (Cantaloupe Music)

cover The composer Tyondai Braxton has been busy with some interesting projects. We hear of a lot improvised electronic music performances in Brooklyn, and a 2013 installation piece at the Guggenheim Museum that featured a quintet of musicians sitting cross-legged on sci-fi ovular pods – some interesting stuff. His Casino Trem from Bang on a Can All-Stars’ Field Recordings is a rich tapestry of every electronic color of the rainbow, and makes me feel like I’m in the middle of an installation just listening to it. – Geoffrey Larson

Tune in to Second Inversion in the 11am hour today to hear this piece.

Stephen Sondheim: Johanna in Space (arr. Duncan Sheik); Anthony de Mare, piano (ECM Records)

1444893095_cover This arrangement is born from Sondheim’s epic horror musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In the musical, a handsome sailor spies a young woman (Johanna) at her window and in song he declares his love, learns her name, and promises to come back for her. Later, Sweeney Todd (Johanna’s father) sings his own version of “Johanna” as he imagines what she’s like as a grown woman. In Sheik’s arrangement the two versions combine and take on an unearthly vibe created by the layering of dozens of guitar improvisations via a tape echo. It’s within this echo that Anthony de Mare’s delicate and sleek piano deftly drifts. – Rachele Hales

Tune in to Second Inversion in the 1pm hour today to hear this piece.

Nick Brooke: Chokoloskee (Innova)

826cover I absolutely love it when music conjures specific images. Nick Brooke’s Chokoloskee is one such piece. Written as a an alternate-reality “tableaux” on the town of Chokoloskee, Florida as part of the album Border Towns, the composer describes this work as “surreal Americana.” For me, this music is the sound of the memory of a legendary summertime party; not the objective sounds of the party in real-time, but what my recollection of the party sounds like, as experienced as an aural memory.

This piece incorporates radio samples, historical and field recordings, as well as “live” performance into a lively and pleasantly strange mashup. Aside from being riotously fun, this piece accomplishes the composer’s goal of “blurring the line between recording and live performance.”

All in all, Chokoloskee is a refreshing listen. I suggest using it to assist the planning of your next outdoor party. – Seth Tompkins

Tune in to Second Inversion in the 5pm hour today to hear this piece.

John Cage: Dream; Bruce Brubaker, piano (Arabesque Recordings)

51cEChNX7tL When you hear the name John Cage, you probably think of prepared pianos or philosophical musings, complete and utter sonic chaos, or maybe just 4’33” of silence. But Cage was actually a very thoughtful, introspective composer and thinker—and in few works is that made clearer than in his solo (unprepared) piano piece “Dream.”

Composed on a single treble clef staff (which is extremely unusual for piano), “Dream” features hardly any left-hand accompaniment at all. Instead, the utterly translucent melodic line drifts slowly and freely from one sustained note to the next, with pedal blurring all of it into a beautifully simple and ethereal dreamscape.

The piece was originally written as a piano accompaniment for a dance by choreographer Merce Cunningham, Cage’s life partner and frequent collaborator. Like so many of their cherished collaborations, “Dream” has since become a quiet, hidden Cagean gem—a soft and gentle reminder to immerse ourselves in the sounds around us, both in waking and in dreaming life. – Maggie Molloy

Tune in to Second Inversion in the 6pm hour today to hear this piece.

New Music Grammy Nominees 2016

Posted on December 8, 2015 by maestrobeats

We are thrilled that seven of our Albums of the Week received 2016 Grammy nominations! Here’s a recap of these awesome new music releases:

Seattle Symphony’s Dutilleux: Métaboles; L’Arbre Des Songes; Symphony No. 2, ‘Le Double’ (Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Instrumental Solo, & Engineered Album, Classical)

“The Seattle Symphony dances with precision and grace through the dense textures and intertwined solos of the first movement, the delicately colored timbres and haunting lyricism of the second, and finally the convulsive rhythms and fascinating orchestration of the third.” – Maggie Molloy (on Symphony No.2)

Roomful of Teeth’s Render (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance)

“The last piece on the album is the title track, also composed by Brad Wells, which was inspired by David Eagleman’s short story ‘Search.’ The ensemble’s voices ebb and flow in soft waves, gracefully gliding in and out of near-silence to create a serene and mystical sound world.” – Maggie Molloy

eighth blackbird’s Filament (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance)

“It goes without saying that the performance quality on this disc is top-notch, no less fine than any of eighth blackbird’s past albums. You’re luxuriously free to focus solely on the compositions themselves, all of which are worth contemplating at length. In an age when most albums’ connecting filaments are somewhere between ultrathin and nonexistent, it’s a pleasure to listen to a set of pieces with such close ties.” – Jill Kimball

Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields (Best Contemporary Classical Composition)

“Anthracite Fields is not an easy listen, but I don’t think Julia Wolfe wanted it to be. We Americans tend to gloss over unpleasant parts of our history when, in order to make peace with our past, we’d do better to confront it. In telling these miners’ stories through vivid music, Wolfe has brought an important but often ignored chapter of our country’s story to the forefront…. You’ll learn a little about life in late-1800s Pennsylvania, you’ll contemplate energy usage and workers’ rights, and if you’re like me, you’ll have a good cry.” – Jill Kimball

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In the Light of Air (Producer of the Year, Classical – Dan Merceruio)

“As a composer, Thorvaldsdottir is known for creating large sonic structures that reveal a vast variety of sustained sound materials—and both of these pieces are a perfect example of her visionary style. Throughout the album, her subtle timbral nuances, poetic textures, and lyrical gestures immerse the listener in austere, somber, and utterly spellbinding soundscapes.” – Maggie Molloy

ZOFO’s ZOFO Plays Terry Riley (Producer of the Year, Classical – Dan Merceruio)

“‘ZOFO Plays Terry Riley’ proves that the musical magic of piano extends far beyond a pianist’s 10 fingers. Through their exploration of Riley’s works, Zimmermann and Nakagoshi paint a vivid and colorful picture of the immense textural, timbral, and stylistic possibilities of piano duets. After all, it’s amazing what a pianist can do with an extra hand or two.” – Maggie Molloy

Anythony de Mare’s Liaisons – Reimagining Sondheim from the Piano (Producer of the Year, Classical – Judith Sherman)

“Having just a vision’s no solution, everything depends on execution. Anthony de Mare’s work on this project has, bit by bit and piece by piece, amounted to a thoroughly enjoyable collection that sounds like thirty-six composers having a musical conversation with America’s preeminent composer of musical theatre. Liaisons offers up something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone.” – Rachele Hales

LIVE CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: November 13 & 15

Posted on November 13, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

This week’s multihued, multidisciplinary music events blur the line between music and other artistic mediums.

The Frank Agency and Nonsequitur Present “People. Make. Awesome.”

[Paris Hurley]

Music and movement are mixing this Thursday at a multidisciplinary performance experience. The Frank Agency and Nonsequitur have teamed up to present a new interdisciplinary art project titled “People. Make. Awesome.”—a three-part series of artistic pairings exploring different aspects of sound.

This week’s event explores the space between sound and movement, pairing local composers with local dancers and performance artists. The featured artists are multidisciplinary dance artist Ezra Dickinson, multi-instrumentalist and composer Chris Credit, dance artist Karin Stevens, composer and pianist Michael Owcharuk, performance artist Paris Hurley, and composer and vocalist Hanna Benn.

With so many different types of artists and artistic mediums, the performance possibilities are endless—but one thing’s for certain: it will be awesome.

“People. Make. Awesome.” will take place this Thursday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

Anthony de Mare Presents “Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano”

For decades Stephen Sondheim has dominated the theatre stage with his music and lyrics in classics like “Sweeney Todd,” “Into the Woods,” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” However, his works have never graced the concert hall—until now.

“Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano” is a commissioning and concert project which celebrates and reimagines Sondheim’s music through unique contemporary music performances of his works. Conceived by renowned concert pianist Anthony de Mare, the project features Sondheim’s music reimagined by influential contemporary composers Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Adam Guettel, Mason Bates, Ethan Iverson, and countless others.

De Mare, who specializes in contemporary music, has performed these works throughout the U.S. This week, he is bringing the best of Sondheim to Seattle.

The performance will take place at the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center this Thursday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m.

Seattle Modern Orchestra Presents “Electro-Colors”

Seattle Modern Orchestra is putting pigment into pitches this weekend at their 2014-2015 season opener titled “Electro-Colors.” The performance features a colorful program with a broad spectrum of compositions.

The concert is the U.S. premiere of American composer Huck Hodge’s “Alêtheia” for large ensemble, a vibrant and dramatic composition which won the International Society for Contemporary Music’s League of Composers Competition earlier this year. The event will also feature Hodge’s “Zeremonie.”

The multihued program also features a composition by Pierre Boulez, one of the most influential avant-garde composers of the 20^th century. Boulez’s “Dérive 1” radiates with rich colors and melodies, creating a vivid rainbow of textures and timbres.

Seattle Modern Orchestra musicians will also perform a work by French spectralist composer Tristan Murail. The piece, titled “Treize couleurs du soleil couchant” (“Thirteen Colors of Sundown”), transports its listeners into a fascinating exploration of sound and color.

The performance will take place this Saturday, Nov. 15 in the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. There will be a pre-concert presentation at 7:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 8 p.m.