The article mentions my Bird opera, which is deep in rehearsal here at Bard College, and all going very well. The other half of the programme is Virgil Thomson's 4 Saints in 3 Acts, which from the bits of rehearsal I've seen is one strange piece - it seems to be trying to out-Satie Satie. The composer himself described it as 'seriously obscure' in this fascinating article on the piece in the NY Times from 1986 http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/06/reviews/thomson-saints.html
"Stage directors are thrown by the very idea of it." Thomson says, but at Bard, director Doug Fitch is bringing it all marvellously, zanily and suitably surreally to life.
I'm delighted to have just been awarded this year's Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, for "composers of exceptional talent and integrity". The fund was set up by the great French teacher Nadia Boulanger, in memory of her Prix de Rome-winning sister Lili, who died tragically young. Past winners have included Derek Bermel, George Benjamin and Per Norgard, so it's quite an honour; and I'm of course especially grateful to Osvaldo for nominating me.
Melissa Wegner (who premiered Piosenki, and who is one of the narrators in the piece) kindly recorded some of the on-going vocal rehearsals - it's a very curious feeling to hear a recording of an as-yet-unheard composition which took place without you on the other side of the Atlantic! But it all sounds like it's shaping up very nicely and its comforting to be reminded of the fantastic standard of musicianship they have at Bard.
I'm just reading a book of interviews with Borges, from throughout his life and, as much to aid my own appaling memory as anything else, I'm going to write down some of the best quotes from this fascinating fellow. Make of them what you will.
"I don't believe that any writer should search for themes or choose them, it's convenient that the themes look for him and find him"
"If there's one moral defect that's usually obvious in a work, it is vanity...The reader ought never to feel that the writer is skillful. A writer ought to be skillful but in an unobtrusive way."
"I write for myself, and perhaps for half a dozen friends. And that should be enough. And that might improve the quality of my writing. But if I were writing for thousands of people, then I would write what might please them. And as I know nothing about them, and maybe I'd have rather a low opinion of them, I don't think that would do any good to my work."
Here is a video of Little Tich, a musical hall clown whose movements apparently inspired the 2nd of Stravinsky's three pieces for String Quartet. I've just been reading about him in Richard Taruskin's fascinating if somewhat heavy-going Defining Russia Musically
The CD features old-time violinist Gheorghe Covaci and cimbalom player Arprad Toni, gypsy musicians who had regularly played in Jewish groups before the war. According to Muzsikas these players are one of a very small number of surviving links to a whole Hungarian-Jewish tradition of playing that got decimated during the war. Together they attempt to recapture what that music would have sounded like.
Hungarian folk-music is normally my least favourite of all the Eastern European folk traditions (which means I still like it, but not as passionately as other regions), but probably because of the klezmer influence, this disc has some very special music, of both the hauntingly mournful and the foot-stomping varieties.
Some of New York's best chamber players have been corralled by the energetic young conductor Andrew Cyr to form the Metropolis Ensemble. They've just announced their spring concert which will take place this April 10, in another great looking American venue - the Times Center, part of the New York Times building designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, and situated in the heart of the Times Square District adjacent to The New 42nd Street.
The concert will end with my arragement of Satie's Sports et Divertissements specially commissioned by the Ensemble. They are a wonderful set of pieces, and I think and hope the orchestration adds an extra layer to their wit and colour.
2008 is already shaping up to be a busy year. Along with A Bird in your Ear which receives its premiere at BARD college in March, I was thrilled to get an email from Jeremy Geffen at Carnegie Hall, offering me a new commission to write for the clarinettist Todd Palmer and the St Lawrence String Quartet, who will give the premiere in Carnegie's Zankel Hall next October. I know these performers principally from their wonderful recording of Golijov's grammy-nominated Yiddishbbuk CD - it's hard to believe I'll be writing something for the same players.
A few days later I got a call from Andrew Lucas at the Lake District Summer Music Festival whom I met earlier in the year at the 4x4 Composer Residency. They've also kindly offered me a commission for next year's festival.
Finally, I understand that New York's up-and-coming Metropolis Ensemble are planning to do my Satie arrangements in a concert in the city next April.
A huge thank you to Matthew Schellhorn and the wonderful people of Hertford who gave my piano piece Berimbau a great performance and reception at the premiere yesterday afternoon. Matthew also gave a scintillating performance of Messiaen's Petites esquisses d'oiseaux, along with Daquin's Le Coucou - food for thought for my 'Bird Opera'.
Not quite so much thanks go to the Hertford council whose multi-story car park closed down at 5pm leaving my car inside overnight!
