Earshot Jazz presents Tord Gustavsen Trio at Town Hall: Feb 18 | "Manfred Eicher: The 'ECM Sound' Man" | The Guardian

The contemporary Scandinavian jazz scene that epitomizes what has become known as the "ECM Sound" is embodied by such players and ensembles as the Mats Eilertsen Trio, Thomas Strønen, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble, Tord Gustavsen Trio, and Keith Jarrett's Quartet with Jan Garbarek. Next month, Earshot Jazz continues their decades-long tradition of importing these sounds to the west coast with next month's concert at Town Hall, featuring the Tord Gustavsen Trio performing from their most recent set of recordings, "Opening". In Jazz Times' overview, "Tord Gustavsen: Quiet is the New Loud", the magazine maps the journey of his music as it draws listeners into an encompassing atmosphere of rapt contemplation, but this deceptively soothing aspect reveals a more nuanced depth, in the trio's emotional exposure. A sound expressed through the finesse and dynamics of Gustavsen's piano playing, alongside longtime percussionist Jarle Vespestad, and new bassist for this contemporary lineup, Steinar Raknes. By way of introduction to foundational developments of this scene, there is probably no better document than Johannes Rød's, "Free Jazz and Improvisation on Vinyl 1965-1985", published by Norwegian vanguard imprint Rune Grammofon. Tracing independent free jazz and improv labels between 1965 and 1985, from the beginning of ESP-Disk through to the current era of vinyl revival and ascendant digital formats. With some 60 labels covered in the volume, and forewords by Mats Gustafsson and label founder, Rune Kristoffersen, the edition perfectly encapsulates this particular brand of what The Guardian's Richard Williams calls, "Norwegian Blues". 

 

The significance of the ECM label to the extended Scandinavian scene and its embracing of classical, jazz, improvisation, and chamber music experimentation, can't be overstated. Co-founded by producer Manfred Eicher, Manfred Scheffner and Karl Egger in Munich in 1969, the label's prestige has been meticulously constructed over five decades of "The Pristine Empire of ECM", bearing their distinctly refined aesthetic. Dana Jennings "ECM: CDs Know that Ears Have Eyes" for the New York Times mines ECM's ensuing decades following those detailed in Rød's chronicle, focusing specifically on the imprint's meeting of sound, material, image and "Manfred Eicher's Search for the Sublime". ECM's convergence of sound and visual aesthetics was also the focus of the Okwui Enwezor and Markus Müller curated "ECM - A Cultural Archaeology" for the Munich Haus der Kunst in 2013. The objective of the exhibition's presentation of the history of the label, as Okwui Enwezor states in his essay “Big Ears", was that it should be made comprehensible through more than just documents, archival material and artifacts. The major concern was to instead present the work of Eicher and ECM’s relationship to different artistic disciplines. These ranged from the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Theodor Kotullas, Theo Angelopoulos, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Peter Greenaway, to the concerts of Keith Jarrett and The Art Ensemble of Chicago; from the performances by Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Arvo Pärt, to the graphic design of Barbara Wojirsch and photographs by Dieter Rehm, Roberto Masotti, and Deborah Feingold. Photo credit: Maarten Mooijman

Julius Eastman's "Three Extended Pieces for Four Pianos" released: Jul 16 | Alex Ross on "Julius Eastman’s Florid Minimalism" | The New Yorker

Not unlike some of his African American contemporaries such as Olly Woodrow Wilson Jr. and George E. Lewis, Julius Eastman remained in the margins of his respective facet of the contemporary classical world for the majority of his lifetime. A member of The Creative Associates, a prestigious body of classical music academics at SUNY Buffalo's Center for the Performing Arts, Eastman was also a founding member of the S.E.M. Ensemble in the mid-1970s, alongside composer Petr Kotik. Often overlooked in the histories of modern composers and the avant-garde, features spanning the last few years, like The New Yorker's "The Genius and the Tragedy of Julius Eastman", and "Minimalist Composer Julius Eastman, Dead for 26 Years, Crashes the Canon", for the New York Times, go some way to offer corrective consideration of Eastman's contribution to 20th century classical music. The Guardian details how it was that when the composer and pianist died homeless in 1990, and it appeared that his music would die with him, it was listeners and one tireless researcher who refused to let that happen, “Julius Eastman: The Groundbreaking Composer America Almost Forgot”. Which brings us to 2018 and the release of a small abundance of Eastman's work on labels such as Blume and the compositions that comprise what Eastman called "The Nigger Series". Released in short succession after Frozen Reeds edition of "Femenine", this revival of sorts has led to an overdue scenario in which, “28 Years After His Death, a Composer Gets a Publishing Deal”. The summer of 2021 sees two releases on Belgium's longrunning experimental label, Sub Rosa, including "Three Extended Pieces For Four Pianos", and of "Femenine", in new performances by ensemble 0 and Aum Grand Ensemble.

Alex Ross writes in the New Yorker on the ongoing canonization of what many consider to be Eastman's masterpiece, “Julius Eastman’s Florid Minimalism: The Composer’s Thunderous, Propulsive 'Femenine' is Becoming a Modern Classic", and in the pages of the New York Times, the meditative, sprawling composition is being explored in performances around the world, 31 years after his death, “From a Composer’s Resurgence, a Masterpiece Rises”. Alongside the preservationist work of Rocco Di Pietro, American minimalist composer Mary Jane Leach has proven herself to be Eastman's most tireless advocate. In interview with The Guardian, Leach traces this back to 1998, when Leach began teaching composition at Cal Arts. Attempting to track down an Eastman piece for 10 cellos she’d seen him conduct in 1981, Leach encountered a series of dead ends: “It gradually dawned on me. All his music was missing.” As a consequence, Leach became “an accidental musicologist”, hunting for Eastman’s lost works. “My analogy is like coming across an accident,” she says. “I couldn’t walk away and hope someone else would show up.” This would begin a decades-long endeavor of discovery, revival and preservation “In Search of Julius Eastman", which she maps for New Music. Leach herself becoming a point of discussion around the shepherding of Eastman's legacy, writing an editorial for Art News on Julius Eastman, she inquires, "How to Talk About History? A Composer Wonders How to Handle Incendiary Titles by Composer Julius Eastman". Equally complex in its nuance, and touching on correlative questions related to the avant-garde, Bradly Bailey's "In the Shadow of Ideals", for Sound American acts as an insightful companion read.

Bang On A Can Marathon: Jun 14 | Kathy Hinde and Igor Levit Performan Erik Satie's "Vexations": May 30 & Jun 12 | Alex Ross "Music During a Pandemic" & The Guardian's “'Quarantine Soirées': Classical Music and Opera to Stream at Home”

With concert halls and opera houses closed, organizations and musicians across the world are presenting content online, opening their digital archives to the public or live streaming new or recently performed concerts. The classical music world has particularly taken to the opportunity, with pieces like the New York Times', “The Coronavirus Hasn’t Slowed Classical Music”, detailing the calendar hardly less busy than before the conditions of the pandemic prevented the scale and volumes that classical music commonly demands for its successful live realization. Two exceptional resources for navigating this abundance can be found in The Guardian's “Quarantine Soirées: Classical Music and Opera to Stream at Home”, and Alex Ross’ ongoing and regularly updated Music During A Pandemic listings. For further reading, Ross' New Yorker piece, “Coronavirus Concerts: The Music World Contends with the Pandemic”, drawing attention to the Berlin Philharmonic positioning themselves at the head of the charge. As Ross recounts, early in the month of March the Philharmonic went ahead with its scheduled program, performing works by Luciano Berio, and Béla Bartók, in a hall devoid of attendees and streaming the event online as one of the first events of its kind. In their case the facilities were already in place; Berlin’s Digital Concert Hall, with its transparent sound and elegant cinematography, had already established a place of notoriety in the classical music world. Ordinarily there would be a performance fee to stream the event, but the Philharmonic offered this concert without charge, and for the following month, opened its entire archive free of charge to all. Not limited to Berlin, the Paris Philharmonic have also outdone themselves. Among numerous other offerings from their archives, including significant performances available in their Concert du Jour, the audacity of their staging of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Samstag aus "Licht", can't be overstated. As only one of the seven days of this conceptual opera cycle by Stockhausen, this particularly massive undertaking is as bewildering as it is rare in its realization. Much in the same way as both of the above institutions, The Metropolitan Opera have opened their archives of past performances. Their existing video on demand rentals are an abundant resource, as are the free-of-charge Nightly Met Opera Streams. Running for 24 hours only, on June 20th and 21st, The Met will be presenting their 2019, and 2011 performances of Philip Glass' "Akhnaten" and "Satyagraha" respectively. A opportunity for a wider audience to experience what The New York Times claimed from it's original performance, "Akhaten Puts You on Philip Glass Time".

The BBC have also opened up their coffers, though not as broadly, with scattered offerings like the Aurora’s landmark Orchestral Theatre staging of Hector Berlioz’s "Symphonie Fantastique" at the 2019 BBC Proms, and the Chamber Music Highlights from Switzerland series. Which includes the Swiss Chamber Soloists performing Arnold Schönberg's stunning "String Trio", among a set of four other arrangements of chamber works. BBC have also relaunched their Live from Wigmore Hall weekly concert series, streaming on their site and BBC Radio 3. Regionally, we have offerings like Seattle Symphony's weekly streaming of performances from their archives. Which to date have included notable performances from the past year. A trio of which, Gustav Mahler’s "Symphony No.1", Alexander Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy", and Igor Stravinsky’s astounding "The Rite of Spring", were a pleasure to return to after having seen them performed live in the previous season. Incontestably inspiring the durational and indeterminant works of his contemporary Marcel Duchamp, and the later 20th century explorations of Morton Feldman and John Cage, Erik Satie's "Vexations", has always loomed as the insurmountable holy mountain of minimalism. This past month sees two intrepid explorers looking to tackle its peak. Audiovisual artist Kathy Hinde has chosen to parcel the composition's load, organizing it's 840 iterations onto a body of performers scattered around the world. Randomly selected from 76 different contributors recorded over the months of April to May. As close as anything could be called to dauntless and downright swashbuckling in the classical music world, German-Russian pianist Igor Levit, who Alex Ross called "Like No Other Pianist", is to tackle the work single handed. The Guardian's interview with "Igor Levit: 'These Concerts Were Life-Saving for Me'", following his monthlong series of Hauskonzertes, performed every day, spanning March 14th through April 20h, was a rehearsal of sorts in stamina for the phenomenal undertaking to come. Again we have Alex Ross writing on Levit's herculean undertaking “Live Stream: A Pianist’s Marathon of “Vexations". Which was presented through The Gilmour's mission in developing and promoting world-class keyboard musical experiences, wherein Levit performed "Vexations" solo as a 22 hour marathon on May 30th.

Another extended duration performance spanning a more reserved 7 to 12 hours, (though they have stretched it to over 24 hours in the past), is the annual ritual of the Bang on a Can Marathon. The New York ensemble have been the locus of the New Music movement for some decades now, largely centered around late 20th and 21st Century American composers as the highest profile contemporary ensemble with "A Quarter-Century Of Banging, and Still as Fresh as Ever". Their status enhanced for not only tackling some of the century's more notoriously difficult composers, but also pieces of exceptional duration in their marathon performances. To quote from the Bang on a Can site; "Since the marathon's inception in 1987, it has included an astounding range of revolutionary music and musicians. From John Cage to John Zorn, from minimalism's godfather Terry Riley to Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, from the 30-voice Finnish shouting choir Huutajat to the hyper-mathematical brutalism of Iannis Xenakis, from the political sophistication of pianist Frederic Rzewski, to the high energy strumming of Japan's Kazue Sawai Ensemble, from the eastern European minimalism of Arvo Pärt, to the brainy rituals of Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the turntable manipulations of artist Christian Marclay". Again, it is not at all unexpected that Alex Ross has been following the marathon performances from their early years. His reporting as the classical columnist for The New Yorker, in pieces like "Very Big Bang" from 2007, "Bang Theory" from 2013, and more recently including them in his "Concerts in the Void", often acting as the wider introduction to their modus operandi. Bang on a Can's focus most clearly expressed in the cross-genre-and-disciplinary nature of their marathon incarnation, with each iteration mapping new byways to, "Bang on a Can Marathon Fuses Classical, Experimental and Rock". The duration of these daylong performances is less of what distinguishes them, but instead it is the diversity of their annual selections on offer, "From Roars to Rhythmic Mallets, a Day for Savoring Exploration". Streaming again June 14th, this year's iteration tackles the added complexity of the necessity of separate locales, and contributes an additional layer to “The Bang on a Can Marathon, Still Lovably Scruffy Online”.

John Luther Adams' “Become Desert” & Kanchelli, Smetana and Schnittke at Seattle Symphony: Mar 29 - 31 | Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time" at St. Mark’s Cathedral: Mar 25

Composed while a captive German prisoner of war, Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" resonates with thematic expression of his wartime experience. In the preface for the chamber piece's score, the late expressionist composer cited excerpts from the Book of Revelation in reference to the war's effect on the historic continuity of Europe, as detailed in Alex Ross' "Revelations: Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time". The piece predating his Modes of Limited Transposition, which he abstracted from the systems of material generated by his early compositions and improvisations. Messiaen's output in this mode defies the conventions of forward motion, development and a often a rejection of the conventional cadences found in western classical music. His two great inspirations originate particularly from the music of Claude Debussy and his use of the whole-tone scale (which Messiaen referred to as Mode 1 in his modes of limited transposition). As well as from his great admiration for the music of Igor Stravinsky, particularly the use of rhythm in earlier works such as The Rite of Spring, and the composer's use of tonal color palette. As described in his multi-volume theory treatise "Treatise of Rhythm, Color and Birdsong", the importance of color is linked to Messiaen's personal synesthesia, which he said caused him to experience perception of colors when he heard or imagined music. The treatise also sheds light on the composer's other great passion and source for much later musical inspiration; Ornithology. While predating the Messiaen's ornithologically-focused works, in this month's performance of the chamber quartet at St Mark's Cathedral, the groundwork can be heard for his development of the later Modes of Transposition. In many ways the work remains a striking representation of form and a precursor to, "Messiaen: A Life of Finding Salvation in Birdsong", by this notable 20th Century composer.  

While 2019 will mark the final year of his tenure as conductor and programmer at Seattle Symphony, since his arrival in 2011, Ludovic Morlot has launched a number of significant modern music initiatives. Alex Ross positing that from the week of his debut, the conductor not only stepping out with a strong start musically, but a reshaping of the orchestra's image, effectively in many ways, the "Symphony’s New Leader Took Seattle by Storm". Not least among his accomplishments, the late-night [untitled] chamber music series which brought contemporary works back into symphony's lexicon, after almost a decade of being remiss in the frequency of their performance. Morlot brought a higher profile and further prestige to the city with his commissioning of "John Luther Adams Pulitzer Prize Winning 'Become Ocean'" which was recorded with the Seattle Symphony in 2013. This month sees the conductor's hand at work in a night of chamber works by Giya Kanchelli, Bedrich Smetana, and Alfred Schnittke, as well as Adams' continuation of the cycle, with the premier of "Become Desert". Yet the seasonal [untitled] program may prove to be Morlot's greatest work during his tenure in Seattle. The series' installments cumulatively reading as a who's-who of 20th/21st Century avant-garde and modernism, including in its breadth the works of George Crumb, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Terry Riley and Giacinto Scelsi. Other high points include 2015's performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's groundbreaking electro-acoustic, "Gesang der Jünglinge", and the series' initiation with the realization of Olivier Messiaen's rarely performed, massive symphonic work, "Turangalîla".

Arvo Pärt Festival at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Kaul Auditorium Reed College, Studio 2 & Northwest Film Center Portland: Feb 5 - 12

This month, the Portland ensemble Capella Romana presents the first-ever North American Festival dedicated to the work of Sacred Minimalist and Estonian Orthodox composer, Arvo Pärt. As a professional vocal ensemble that performs early and contemporary sacred classical music, the ensemble is known especially for its presentations and recordings of medieval Byzantine chant, Greek and Russian Orthodox choral works, much in the way of Pärt's regular collaborators, The Hilliard Ensemble. The form of the larger percentage of Arvo Pärt's work came after a period of creative crisis and reflection following his 1968 "Credo", and transitional "Symphony Number 3". Previous to this 1971 orchestral work, Pärt had explored a range of styles influenced by the early 20th Century Soviet era works of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók. A brief period of exploring Serialist and Twelve-Tone methods informed by the techniques of Arnold Schönberg was to follow. These shortly proved to be both a creative impasse, as well as drawing undesired attention from the Soviet authorities, as detailed in "Oxford Study of Composers: Arvo Pärt" by the composer's biographer, Paul Hillier. His course out of this impasse came in the study of Plainsong, Gregorian Chant and the emergence of early Polyphony in the European Renaissance. From this the creation of Pärt's defining tintinnabuli style (from the Latin for “small ringing bells”) was generated. An approach which the composer has described: “I work with very few elements – with one voice, with two voices. I build with the most primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of the triad are like bells. And that is why I call it tintinnabulation”. The creative breakthrough enabled him to resume composing and a stream of what are considered his masterpieces followed, with "Tabula Rasa", "Fratres", "Spiegel im Spiegel" and the "Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten", written in rapid succession in the mid-to-late 1970s. These all finding a home in the west on the groundbreaking Nordic jazz and contemporary classical label, ECM. Dana Jennings "ECM: Albums Know that Ears Have Eyes" for the New York Times, mines the ensuing four decades of output from the label, including the vast majority of Arvo Pärt's catalog of recordings.

While this month's event marks the first domestic festival dedicated exclusively to his music, there have been numerous performance series and showcases of the Estonian composer's work stateside. Notably a series in Manhattan at the time of the extensive New York Times Magazine feature of 2010, "Arvo Pärt: The Sound of Spirit". New York again hosting 2014's Carnegie Hall week of performances comprising the Arvo Pärt Project by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Which was covered in The Times feature, "His Music, Entwined With His Faith: At Heart of Arvo Pärt’s Works, Eastern Orthodox Christianity". One of the great chroniclers of 20th Century classical music, Alex Ross, host of The Rest is Noise, produced an exceptional overview of the composer's life and work for The New Yorker, "Consolations: The Uncanny Voice of Arvo Pärt". Ross also present at the Pärt's 80th birthday celebration throughout the city, which included a 24 hour marathon on New York's WQXR and New Juilliard Ensemble concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Outside of New York, other notable events have included, "A Symphony for Los Angeles, Just One Otherworldly Delight" presented in Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mozart & Pärt Festival of last year. The United Kingdom has played host to some of his most significant works, including 2015's Manchester International Festival. Wherein the composer collaborated with Abstract Expressionist painter, Gerhard Richter producing a work grappling with differences in art’s direct messages and allusions, "History is Everywhere and the Present is Fleeting". Alex Ross again playing a pivotal role in London Southbank Centre's 2013 The Rest is Noise Festival featuring Pärt among a set of Eastern European composers in a showcase titled, "Late 20th Century Politics and Spirituality", on the changing political and social landscape of the 1970s and 80s shaping of the era's mood and music. Pärt's home country of Estonia is no stranger to his works, this past year saw the release of "The Lost Paradise", a documentary on the famously media-averse composer's collaboration with director Robert Wilson. Framed around the staging of “Adam’s Passion” featuring three key works by Pärt in Tallinn's Noblessner Foundry, a former submarine factory. Its creation is followed in documentarist Günter Atteln's account of their time together during the many months of the project's genesis and development, "My Year with Arvo Pärt: He is a Man of Courage, Humility and Authenticity".

Bang on a Can Marathon with Eyvind Kang, Shabazz Palaces, Jherek Bischoff, Scrape and Red Fish Blue Fish Ensemble performing Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" and Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" at Henry Art Museum & The Moore Theatre: Feb 14 - 15

The renowned day-long modern composer performance series comes to Seattle next week at Henry Art Museum and The Moore! What's come to be known as the New Music movement largely centered around late 20th and 21st Century American composers, Bang on a Can have been it's performance locus as the sound's highest profile contemporary ensemble with "A Quarter-Century Of Banging, and Still as Fresh as Ever". Their status enhanced for not only tackling some of the Century's more notoriously difficult composers, but also pieces of exceptional duration in their marathon performances. To quote, "Since the marathon's inception in 1987, it has included an astounding range of revolutionary music and musicians, from John Cage to John Zorn, from minimalism's godfather Terry Riley to Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, from the 30-voice Finnish shouting choir Huutajat to the hyper-mathematical brutality of Iannis Xenakis, from the political sophistication of composer/pianist Frederic Rzewski to the high energy strumming of Japan's Kazue Sawai Ensemble, from the eastern minimalism of Arvo Pärt to the brainy rituals of Karlheinz Stockhausen, to the turntable manipulations of artist Christian Marclay".

No surprise to see the champion of all things modern classical, Alex Ross author of the excellent "The Rest is Noise" has been following the marathon performances from their first year, at the time his "Very Big Bang" was the larger public's introduction to their distinct modus operandi, as was his reporting as the classical writer for The New Yorker in pieces like "Bang Theory" from last year. The focus often being the cross-genre and disciplinary nature of their live incarnation, "Bang on a Can Marathon Fuses Classical, Experimental and Rock" the duration aspect of the day-long performances being less what distinguish them than the diversity of their selections, "From Roars to Rhythmic Mallets, a Day for Savoring Exploration". For Seattle's performance at The Moore the night's 6 hour program will feature the music of Eyvind Kang, Shabazz Palaces and Jherek Bischoff with Scrape in addition to Red Fish, Blue Fish and Bang on a Can's realizations of seminal New Music works including the quietly groundbreaking "Music for Airports" by Brian Eno and Steve Reich's landmark "Music for 18 Musicians". Photo credit: Ayumi Sakamoto

Morton Feldman Marathon at SAM / Alex Ross at OTB / Helmut Lachenmann in Vancouver : Jan 26 - 27 / Mar 29 - Apr 2

The Northwest is abundant with the Modern Composers concerts and series this Winter/Spring!
Some of you may know of Alex Ross from his column in the New Yorker covering classical music
and modern composers and his much lauded book that was published last year on the history of
20th Century Classical & early Electronic Music:

Link to "The Rest is Noise" site

And he's in Seattle at On The Boards as the curator for this night of New American Chamber Music:

Link to OTB "World in Collision" site

Of greater interest and rarity - the following day at Seattle Art Museum is the performance of many
of the major dedicated works of one last century's greatest pre-minimalist composers and
compatriot of John Cage; Morton Feldman. In the for of the "Morton Feldman Marathon":

Link to Seattle Art Museum "Morton Feldman Marathon" site

And lastly, Vancouver's New Music series is bringing Helmut Lachenmann to BC in late March/
Early April for a concert series. With Lachenmann in attendance:

Link to NewMusic Vancouver Concert Series site

Along with a rare series of performances by pianist Frederic Rzewski.
Follow the 'Performance Series' link there for more infos.

Alex Ross & "The Well-Tempered Web" : Downloading is doing THE OPPOSITE OF KILLING classical music

Link to The New Yorker "Well-Tempered Web" article

"If, as people say, the Internet is a paradise for geeks, it would logically work to the benefit
of one of the most opulently geeky art forms in history."

Thanks Alex Ross at The New Yorker for further shattering the illusion that digital file transfer,
paid downloading and/or sharing of music is KILLING anything other than the sh*tty commercial
music industry and that people don't want to pay for lame major-label 'as seen on this weeks car ad'
albums just to get that 'hit single'. So yes, I'm an advocate of DISCREETLY sharing musics online
and making individual judgements based on the particulars of the availability of the release, the
artists in question and how large/who in its audience its going to - on a album by album basis.
Looks like its working out just fine for the classical music community.

And it appears our well-informed gentleman Mr. Ross here has a newly published book on 20th Century
Composers too in the event you were ever wanting to get with the more knowledge on the subject:

Link to "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century" Book / Official site