Music and Recording Reviews

Ives Denk: The Violin Sonatas; The Piano Sonatas; Mendelssohn: Piano Trios 1–2; Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande; Verklärte Nacht; Sibelius: Violin Concerto•Serenades•Humoresques•Earnest Melodies•Suite; Brian Baumbusch: Polytempo Music.

Weird Of Mouth: Weird of Mouth; Andrew Hill Sextet Plus Ten: A Beautiful Day, Revisited; Ross McHenry: Waves.

Rex Orange County: The Alexander Technique; Still House Plants: If I Don't Make It, I Love U; Hinds: Viva Hinds.

I have a day job at a museum. One of my favorite things about working there is taking the elevator from my office down to one of the floors open to the public; I walk into the galleries through a discreet panel in the wall. This makes me feel like I'm in one of those horror-movie manors with a tunnel concealed behind a bookshelf. Sometimes I startle people, which I kind of enjoy.

Mostly I like spending time looking at art, especially in the early mornings when the galleries are empty. Lately, I've been watching art handlers hanging a roughly 100'-long tapestry depicting some manner of planetary jetsam—or maybe they are aquatic plants—by Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga. And I make regular trips to a small theater to watch mesmerizing footage of Orchard Street in working-class lower Manhattan, shot in 1955 by veteran filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Captured on warm, saturated 16mm film, the long-gone people on the screen appear as vividly alive as the museumgoers around me.

My favorite-ever thing at the museum, though, is a life-sized kitchen. Austrian architect Grete Lihotzky designed it for a Frankfurt housing complex in 1927.

Bruckner: Symphony No.4 "Romantic", Anima Eterna Brugge/Pablo Heras-Casado; Brahms: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra Nos.1 & 2; Works for Solo Piano Opp.116–119, Igor Levit, piano; Wiener Philharmoniker, Christian Thielemann, cond.; Dvorák: Symphonies Nos.7–9; Nature, Life, And Love, Czech Philharmonic/Semyon Bychkov; The Kurt Weill Album: Symphonies Nos.1&2; The Seven Deadly Sins, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz, cond.; Katharine Mehrling, vocals.

Giovanni Guidi: A New Day; Jordina Millà/Barry Guy: Live In Munich; Neta Raanan: Unforeseen Blossom; Misha Tsiganov: Painter of Dreams.

Pat Metheny: Bright Size Life; Bill Charlap Trio: And Then Again; Altus: Mythos; Brian Landrus: Plays Ellington & Strayhorn.