Marvin Rosen's 21st century marathon

I appeared on Marvin's Rosen's 21st century music marathon on Classical Discoveries Saturday morning. The mp3s of the entire 24 hour-show may be heard here. I show up in the 10:00 - 11:00 hour at about 42:00 minutes, right after a beautiful piece for contrabass flute and recorded whale song by Alex Shapiro. I talk too fast, and too high, and I repeat myself and say "kind of" too often, but at least I make all of the points I intended to make when I walked into the studio.

It was a beautiful winter day in Princeton, with snow falling and outlining the branches of the trees. After leaving WPRB I spent some time at the Princeton Record Exchange and the Labyrinth Bookstore (resisting the temptation to spend money at each). Then I returned to the station, where I met up with Marvin, his wife, Beate, and his other guests, the composers Christanne Lane and Daniel Dorff, and Daniel's significant other, Cindy Broz a flutist. We were all in the booth when Marvin signed off with a public service announcement about the dangers of sleep deprivation. At this point, he has been awake for about 34 hours.

He was more hungry than sleepy, however, and he wanted pasta. At his invitation, the six of us met up again at the Olive Garden on Route 1. I had the minestrone and the linguini marinara, and the portion was so large that I didn't have to eat again until noon the next day. Beate and Cindy carried the converstation while Marvin slowly collapsed into himself like an inflatable lawn ornament. For reasond known only to her, Beate insisted on intermittently taking photos of his deterioration. Perhaps she intends to embarrass him with them later.

In any case, I thank Marvin for having me on his show once again, and for agreeing to play Alisa Weilerstein's recording of the Cello Concerto.

Oh, and Happy New Year.

Once more into the breach

Hi, there: It looks as though I'll be appearing again on Marvin Rosen's radio show on Saturday, Dec. 29. Marvin will be doing a 24-hour marathon on 21st-century music Dec. 28 and 29, and he's invited me on to introduce Alisa Weilerstein's wonderful new recording of Elliott Carter's Cello Concerto - written in 2001, so it qualifies as 21st-century. He is planning to play the piece about 10:30 a.m. I'll only be on for a few minutes. I'm told that during these marathons - scheduled to take advantage of the Christmas break, when all the student DJs are on vacation - Marvin invites previous guests of the show to drop by the studio to keep him company, and to keep him awake. His devotion to the cause of new music is boundless.

For those of you in the Princeton broadcast area, WPRB is at 103.3 on the FM dial. The rest of you may tune in at wprb.com. Marvin also archives his shows temporarily at classicaldiscoveries.org.

Or better yet, just buy the damned CD.

Alisa Weilerstein interview

Alisa Weilerstein, who performs Elliott Carter's Cello Concerto on her new CD, will play the other big piece on the disk, the Elgar Concerto, next week with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a last-minute thing, I got to interview her last Thursday. She spoke to me by phone from Ireland. The article may be seen here. As a bonus, I have included the Carter video at youtube, although Mr. Carter is not really the focus of the piece. 

Elliott Carter dies at 103

At last, this little life could no longer contain him. He required the larger space of history.

Carter's was one of the great lives of our time, longer and more productive than most. He truly used all of the time he was given, which was both an inspiration and a rebuke, and he left a body of work that will nourish me for the rest of my life. There is more here to celebrate than mourn, I suppose, but still, I can't help feeling a little cheated today. When a man lives long enough, I somehow expect him to live forever.

I'll miss Mr. Carter's preconcert talks, the interviews, the birthday festivals. Most of all, I'll miss looking forward to each new composition, and to the surprise and delight each one afforded. The store is now closed. The work is finite.

I'll always be grateful that the last time I spoke with him, at his 103rd birthday concert, was the one time it seemed we really connected. He was smiling and outgoing and seemed genuinely tickled with all the attention he was getting.

By happy coincidence, I received Alisa Weilerstein's beautiful new recording of Mr. Carter's Cello Concerto the very day he died. I listened to it this morning as I was sending out emails, and I will get back to it just as soon as I can.

Thanks to Colin Green for sharing this link:

You want to know what ticks me off about the Philadelphia Orchestra?

I can sum it up in two words: Alisa Weilerstein.

Alisa Weilerstein is a cellist (and one of those classical string babes) who is about to release this CD:

As you can see, the CD will contain the concertos of Edward Elgar and Elliott Carter. It will be the third recording of recording of Carter's wonderful concerto. I have preordered it at Amazon. It is scheduled to be released at the end of the month and will be my 55th birthday present to myself.

Now, Alisa Weilerstein is slated to appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of December. She will be playing one of these two concertos. Guess which one. Go ahead. Guess.

Now, after 35 years of following the orchestra, waiting and hoping to be thrown the occasional bone, I have managed to make other arrangements other arrangements to satisfy my modernist jones. You have to, really. Once in a while, though, the frustration of missed opportunities returns to slap me in the face.

More Carter in the pipeline

Decca Records announced yesterday it has signed the young cellist Alisa Weilerstein to a recording contract. Her first release will consist of a warhorse (Elgar's Cello Concerto) designed to mover product, coupled with a contemporary work (Elliott Carter's concerto) designed to show off her range. Not a bad way to debut, from a marketing standpoint. The orchestra will be conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it. Anyone who knows me knows I operate in a manner opposite from that of most listeners. The producers expect us to buy Weilerstein's CD for the Elgar, then explore the Carter when we're feeling adventurous. But I don't think I've ever heard the Elgar, and a new Carter CD will furnish me with the perfect excuse to acquaint myself with it.

This will make the third commercial recording of Carter's Cello Concerto, an unusually high number for an atonalist orchestral work that is only about 10 years old. (It was completed in 2000.) The usual pattern for contemporary music a premiere recording followed by dead silence. Chamber works and solo pieces have a better chance, of course, since they rely on only few dedicated performers. The record for recordings of a modernist piece must be held by Carter's own Night Fantasies for solo piano, which has been recorded commerically by:

Ursula Opppens (twice)
Paul Jacobs
Charles Rosen
Winston Choi
Stephen Drury
Aleck Karis
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Florence Millet
and
Louise Bessette


On the subject of Elliott Carter: I am afraid the run of masterpieces may be coming to an end at last. Mr. Carter is 102, and he seems to have stopped composing. Boosey and Hawkes, Mr. Carter's publisher, lists no pieces completed in 2010 on its website, although a Boosey press release from last October said he was working on a double concerto for piano and percussion. I have not heard that the piece has been completed. I think A Sunbeam's Architecture, on poetry of E.E. Cummings, may have been completed last year as well, although performance has been delayed pending the resolution of copyright problems. This may truly be it: no matter how old Mr. Carter gets, the end of his long creative life may be in sight. It is a sad prospect.