Set and Setting It was Wednesday, early October. I had borrowed a friend’s kitchen to make 100 servings of strudel for my six-year-old son’s school event, and I was listening to John Cage’s “Music of Changes,” which takes form through chance operations and the wisdom of the I Ching. Earlier in the morning, I’d made […]
Tag: Weird & Wonderful
Posted inReport
“A Call To Action, Disguised As A Symphony”
At the Barbican Centre in early May, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), the City of London Choir and London Voices premiered a 49-minute piece titled “Lim Cosmic Rhapsody.” Their recording of the piece, which featured pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, had just been released on Decca Classics, and the performance marked the first outing for score, published […]
Posted inEssay
The Long and Winding Road
It didn’t take long for a planning fail to become a planning win. As an American who’s lived in the UK for almost 13 years, booking trips to visit family should have been second nature, but I’d screwed up my return flight booking between Austin and Glasgow, and had no choice but to rebook entirely, […]
Posted inEssay
The Sounds of Smiling
When I’m anxious, I calm myself by listening to Satie’s “Gymnopedies.” When I’m looking to focus, I turn on András Schiff’s rendition of “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” Lately, I’ve been looking to escape the tumult of life in Trump’s America—can it only be April?—longing for a simpler time. And so I’ve found my way back to […]
Posted inInterview
“Like ‘The Archers’ On Speed”
It’s been a decade since Jennifer Walshe described “The New Discipline” in a program text for Borealis Festival. This was not a school or a style, but a way of working that she saw shared across music she was witnessing, “where the physical, theatrical and visual aspects are as important as the sonic.” The text […]
Posted inPlaylist
A Classical Kink Playlist
What does kink sound like in music? After posing the question to myself, I felt slightly paralyzed, so I set out on a walk with a friend, who sometimes sends me links to iconoclastic piano pieces. I thought he could be a kind of kinky music sensei. “Have you listened to any ‘kinky’ music lately?” […]
Posted inRankings & Roundups
Crisp Dinner
Picture the scene: Work finishes at 5, 5:30, maybe later. The concert starts at 7:30, and could go on for hours. What are you doing about eating? We asked people in the business of attending concerts exactly that. On the Whole Problem John Andrews, conductor Personally, I get ridiculously hangry if I don’t eat. I […]
Posted inRankings & Roundups
The Ten Most Annoying Musical Clichés, Ranked
Lord knows there’s plenty to complain about in the classical music “scene”: dorky advertising, pretentiousness, complacency, self-seriousness, and the sexy dances of opera. (Also, coughing in the quiet parts, filming the concerto on your iPhone, intermission selfies in flattering concert-hall mirrors, and clapping discourse.) But what about the musical things that bug us most? Here […]
Posted inPlaylist
An Actually Romantic Classical Music for Valentine’s Day Playlist
Every year, when stores clear their shelves of Christmas kitsch and bring out Valentine’s Day paraphernalia, I feel what must be post-industrial existential dread. Paper plates send out X’s and O’s. Companies I’ve never heard of peddle plaques, keychains, and jewelry that can be “personalized.” My social media feeds suggest romantic dinners and getaway experiences […]
Posted inBreaking
The Rest Is Silliness
“And they’re off! It’s very exciting—the beginning of a symphony is always very exciting. I can’t tell if it’s slow or fast yet because they keep . . . stopping.” It’s 1997, I’m six years old, and my family has just pulled into the driveway of our home. The local public radio station is playing […]