Singing to the Soul: The Magic of Art Song on Record
It felt as though everyone had stopped breathing, so intent was their focus. I was in an exhibit room at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2018. I doubt that anyone present spoke German, but after soprano Sandrine Piau's recording, with pianist Susan Manoff, of Carl Loewe's "Ach Neige, Du Schmer-Zenreiche" (ah, incline, you who are laden with sorrows) began to fill the space, the silence was so deep that you could almost hear hearts beat. as Piau intoned words by Wolfgang von Goethe that spoke of a loss so painful that it pierced the heart and bore into one's bones, everyone present felt the emptiness and loss in Piau's voice and Lizst's setting.
Solo Sounds: The Power of One
While it hasn't always made money or hit records, the music business has never been short on ideas. Most are nonsense, but every once in a whilethe gramophone, onstage monitors, Les Paul's overdubbingthe biz comes up with a winner.
Many of the craziest ideas I've heard in 30 years of writing about music have been expounded on at the South by Southwest Music Festival, held each year in Austin, Texas. At SXSW, hope springs eternal. Secrets are whispered. Buzz bands gain momentum. Rumors ripple through crowds. Everyone has visions of morphing into a mogul. There's an intoxicating energy to it all.
Some Joy for the New Decade
As the decade draws to a close, many of us choose to gather with people we love so that together we can celebrate and give thanks for our blessings. In that spirit, I offer a new hybrid SACD/Download of a perennial favorite, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor. Op. 125 “Choral” (BIS 2451), whose memorable finale celebrates the joy of oneness with humanity and the divine.
Sonny Rollins: A Titan Has Left Us
Photo by Tim Dickeson
The jazz world is accustomed to losing its greats too soon. Charlie Parker was gone at 34. John Coltrane at 40. Clifford Brown at 25. Rollins was, wonderfully, not one of them. He lived to 95.Steve Albini: Serve The Servants
Notoriously opinionated and obstinate Steve Albini, a guy ever vigilant and vocal about the wicked ways of the music business, showing up in Austin, Texas, at the annual South by Southwest festival? This I had to see. After a near-miss at his Austin hotel, we spoke the next morning on the phone.
"It was unspeakable on all levels, as bad as I imagined, and in some ways worse."
Any notion that he'd somehow softened, somehow accepted the music biz as it
Wait. What the hell am I thinking?
Steve Earle: A hardcore troubadour celebrates Jerry Jeff Walker
Steve Earle was born in 1967. Well, that's not exactly true. Earle was in fact born on January 17, 1955, in Fort Monroe, Virginia, but the singer, songwriter, and master interpreter's musical awakening came in 1967, when he was 12 years old, growing up in his acknowledged hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
Steve Earle: Hardcore Troubador
To write about music, you must first come to terms with your fanboy urges. You must brush off the fairy dust and see your heroes for who they really area picture that in many cases is all too human. Yet that first blush of idolatry is an experience you never quite forget, no matter how many times you interview a person.
There was a time, back in the St. Elmo's Fire 1980s, when Steve Earle's first album, Guitar Town, was an object of abject slobbery for a generation of rock critics. Turning a near-mint LP copy of that album over in his hands, Earle begins to reminisce about a record that changed Nashville and country-rock music and, for many, remains his undisputed career masterpiece.
Stilling Heartbreak from Weinberg
Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla's (b. 1986) rendition of Polish-Jewish composer Mieczysław Weinberg's (1919–1996) final symphony, which is dedicated "to the memory of those who were murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto," has all the earmarks of a life-affirming Record to Die For. Rarely have I heard such hallowed silence, absolute control, and reverence for life and beauty from a conductor so young. For those willing to explore the mysteries of exquisite sadness amidst suffering, this recording cries out.
Streaming Salvation for the Sequestered--UPDATED 5/5!
Specific Live Streams (Scroll down for ongoing series):
- Thursday, May 7 10pm EDT: The Noe Music Listening Club features composer Jake Heggie discussing and performing his music and that of his music heroes. Sign up here.
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The Metropolitan Opera streams live performances for 25 hours. This week’s schedule is:
May 6 Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin
May 7 Strauss’s Capriccio
May 8 Puccini’s La Bohème
May 9 The Opera House
May 10 Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
More...
Studio Confidential Interview Series, Part 1: Chuck Ainlay
If you really want to know how your favorite albums came to be, you can't go wrong talking with the men and women who are in the studio day in and day out with the artists—i.e., the producers and engineers. So we're doing exactly that. In Part 1 of our Studio Confidential interview series—there will be three parts this week, with perhaps more to follow—Mike Mettler talks with Chuck Ainlay, who has worked with Peter Frampton, Mark Knopfler (and Dire Straits), George Strait, and many, many others—about his production philosophy and who inspired him to get behind the board in the first place.