I'll be out and rambling about for the next week. So "The Well-Tempered Blog" will enjoy a "well-earned vacation". Lots of interesting things to share when I return. Or so I hope. In the meantime visit the WTB's "Blogs of Distinction". Also check out my Guest Map. Not everyone that visits has left a link, and please do if you have a blog, but there are some mightly interesting sites to visit listed on the map (for example the "Celebrity Series Blog").
And, if you're heading to New York City, make sure you check out "Classical Domain". It's really a fantastic website, one that truly lives up to it's billing as "A Comprehensive Guide to the Classical Music and Opera Concerts in New York City." Whoever is behind it deserves big kudos!
And check out Classical Domain's links to "Blogs" you'll find some familiar friends (blush) and links to new bloggers to visit (such as "A Solo Keyboard" and "Nectar and Ambrosia").
See ya...
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Toy Piano Festival
From Alex Ross' blog I found out about this marvelous event: The Extensible Toy Piano Project and Festival.
From the website: "It has a deceptively simple mechanism--plastic hammers hitting steel rods. Yet, the toy piano produces a rich and quirky sound palette. John Cage brought the instrument from a treasured plaything to a bona fide musical instrument with his Suite for Toy Piano (1948). Our aim is to bring the instrument into the 21st Century. To that end, we're offering the electroacoustic composition community a complete set of high quality recordings of a classic Schoenhut upright toy piano.To encourage the creation of electroacoustic compositions that use both live and pre-recorded toy piano, we're sponsoring a composition competition. The project will culminate in a festival in November 2005 with concerts that will feature the winning compositions, and a symposium."
Read all about it here.
Even more fun, visit their audio archive here.
I'm there already.
From the website: "It has a deceptively simple mechanism--plastic hammers hitting steel rods. Yet, the toy piano produces a rich and quirky sound palette. John Cage brought the instrument from a treasured plaything to a bona fide musical instrument with his Suite for Toy Piano (1948). Our aim is to bring the instrument into the 21st Century. To that end, we're offering the electroacoustic composition community a complete set of high quality recordings of a classic Schoenhut upright toy piano.To encourage the creation of electroacoustic compositions that use both live and pre-recorded toy piano, we're sponsoring a composition competition. The project will culminate in a festival in November 2005 with concerts that will feature the winning compositions, and a symposium."
Read all about it here.
Even more fun, visit their audio archive here.
I'm there already.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Música Latinoamericana para Piano
While the piano literature is a rich and varied one, most pianists and listeners are really only familiar with a very narrow segment of it for one reason or another. So it's always rewarding to find something that's off the radar, something that opens the door to new treasures. Enter the "Latin-American Piano Music Laboratory" a true labor of love website from Japan. The site is in both Japanese and English.
The website is focused on composers and piano music from Latin America (Mexico, Boliva, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala and rest). It is well researched with biographical notes, discography, and links to publishers. There you find composers such as Teresa Carreno, Pedro Allende, Juventino Rosas, and Luis Calvo.
You'll find it right here.
And to round out your travels have visit with "Educación musical". It's today's blog pick and going straight to the WTB's "Blogs of Distinction" roster. It's from Spain and provides interesting links and information. Also visit it's sister site "Weblog de Musica", how can you not love a blog with posts on Kristeva, Rothko, and Scelsi.
The website is focused on composers and piano music from Latin America (Mexico, Boliva, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala and rest). It is well researched with biographical notes, discography, and links to publishers. There you find composers such as Teresa Carreno, Pedro Allende, Juventino Rosas, and Luis Calvo.
You'll find it right here.
And to round out your travels have visit with "Educación musical". It's today's blog pick and going straight to the WTB's "Blogs of Distinction" roster. It's from Spain and provides interesting links and information. Also visit it's sister site "Weblog de Musica", how can you not love a blog with posts on Kristeva, Rothko, and Scelsi.
Calling All Music Bloggers
Join the blogerati and consider hosting the "Carnival of Music". It's really a great idea, I had fun hosting it, and it's a swell way to introduce your blog to new readers and to discover what others in the blogosphere are up to. I have long had a fancy that one or more of regular readers of "The Well-Tempered Blog" overseas would give it a whirl.
It's really quite simple. TexasBestGrok has the details. Give it a try folks. You won't regret it.
It's really quite simple. TexasBestGrok has the details. Give it a try folks. You won't regret it.
The Other Chopin
While you're out and about the web this weekend, spend a little time with that other Chopin: Henri Chopin , one of the more intersting cul-de-sacs of the French avant-garde.
Listen to some of his sonic poems here.
May I also recommend spending some time here listening to some sonic sculptures. "Introduction" is particularly ear tickling. Perfect for "Shocktober".
But what's been tickling my ears this morning is this
Listen to some of his sonic poems here.
May I also recommend spending some time here listening to some sonic sculptures. "Introduction" is particularly ear tickling. Perfect for "Shocktober".
But what's been tickling my ears this morning is this
Chopin Competition Prize Winners
The prize winners for the Chopin competition have been announced. Blechacz take 1st prize. The only real surprise: No 2nd or 3rd prize awarded. Much to say but really to what end about that, it's largely fodder for flunkies. BBC details here.
What little I heard of no.1's playing was singularly pleasant, if ultimately, forgetable playing of a 20 year old pianist. I'll keep my ears open though for further persuasion. So I look forward to this CD. More news from the Chopin can be found on their website. On a related note, I did get a chance to hear Wunder's playing. Wow!
What little I heard of no.1's playing was singularly pleasant, if ultimately, forgetable playing of a 20 year old pianist. I'll keep my ears open though for further persuasion. So I look forward to this CD. More news from the Chopin can be found on their website. On a related note, I did get a chance to hear Wunder's playing. Wow!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Bach for the MTV Generation.
The suits just don't get it. Latest tack promoting piano thumper Martin Stadtfeld.
"The bosses at Sony were suitably impressed with [Martin]Stadtfeld's recording. It wasn't long before the CD took the number one spot on Germany's classical music charts, and Stadtfeld was being toasted as a "sensation" and "the new face of classical music."
"The bosses at Sony were suitably impressed with [Martin]Stadtfeld's recording. It wasn't long before the CD took the number one spot on Germany's classical music charts, and Stadtfeld was being toasted as a "sensation" and "the new face of classical music."
Sony wanted Stadtfeld to do for classical music what Josh Groban did for opera and Michael Bublé did for jazz -- attract a whole new target group to the genre. And indeed, a noticeable number of young fans can be seen in the concert halls where Stadtfeld appears."
Read the rest of this map of misreading here.
The "art critic" and Mozart: Jailarity ahoy
"A man who said he vandalized a modern statue honoring composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in order to protect society from such art may face jail time for his action, a prosecutor said Monday." Details.
Speaking of Chopin
"While classical musical organizations increasingly struggle to draw people into the concert hall, and Broadway has more or less resigned itself to being a purveyor of "products" that happen to be musicals, Felder has developed a hybrid form. He is one of those rare performers who can hold an audience in rapt silence while playing the most intimate Chopin nocturne or prelude, and then bring that same audience together to sing "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," the 1940s standard whose melody is based on Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu in C# Minor."
All about Monsieur Chopin