Stories for February 24, 2021
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Impulse! Records Celebrates 60 Years With Year-Long Campaign / AnalogPlanet
Posted At : February 22, 2021 12:00 AM
AnalogPlanet's Michael Fremer writes.....Impulse! Records, founded in 1960 by Creed Taylor and home to some of the greatest jazz artists of all time including John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Quincy Jones, among many others, this year celebrates its 60th anniversary. The orange-and-black imprint known as the "House That Trane Built" was a cultural beacon of progressivism, spiritualism, and activism throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the label thrives with a new vanguard of jazz artists including Shabaka Hutchings, Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, Brandee Younger, Ted Poor and others. Jamie Krents, EVP of Verve and Impulse! says, "Impulse! Records has an important and enduring legacy that we are proud to celebrate during this anniversary year. We are thrilled to unveil new music, visual content, merchandise, partnerships and more. The famous orange label has been the musical home to progressive artists that pushed the boundaries of music, thought, and culture. Impulse! continues this legacy with a commitment to our history, and our future with artists like Shabaka and Brandee, who both carry the torch and blaze new trails. We are proud to share the story of this remarkable label with the world in this, its 60th year." READ THE FULL AnalogPlanet ARTICLEHilary Hahn discusses 'Paris' with classical radio
Posted At : February 18, 2021 12:00 AM
Hilary Hahn's new recording pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of a city that has been close to her heart throughout her career. Set for international release by Deutsche Grammophon on 5 March 2021, Paris sees the American violinist resume her productive partnership with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director, Mikko Franck. The three-time Grammy Award-winner's album presents the world premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades, commissioned by Mikko Franck. It also includes Ernest Chausson's Poème and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923. HH made some time available TODAY!! to speak with radio stations about the new release. The list includes KDFC: San Francisco CRB: Boston WMBR: Boston WRCJ: Detroit Spokane Public Radio: WA WGTE: Toledo OH WCMU: Mount Pleasant MI WCPE: Wake Forest NC WMHT: Schenectady NY WQLN: Erie PA WOMR Provincetown MA Winnipeg's CLASSIC107: Canada Taintradio: Online
Harmonious World Podcast: UKHarmonious World Podcast interviews William Susman
Posted At : February 17, 2021 12:00 AM
A Quiet Madness features three piano pieces, a piano and violin duet, a series of seven scenes for four flutes and a solo accordion piece that was composed as a response to Hurricane Katrina. The album immerses the listener in a photorealistic sound world of understated beauty. At once calming and thought-provoking, it allows the ear and mind to make their own connections without feeling overwhelmed by thematic constraints. William Susman's precise harmonic and rhythmic languages invite us into a subdued, enchanting expression of madness that roams all over the map, akin to the mind wandering during a rainy day-or, perhaps clairvoyantly, akin to the strange passage of time spent in self-isolation during the collective trauma of COVID-19. Harmonious World Podcast's Hilary Robertson conducts her first podcast with William Susman and extracts from the composer's music. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT Support the showBSO MD - Andris Nelsons describes 'The Spirit of Beethoven' with 99.5CRB - Boston
Posted At : February 16, 2021 12:00 AM
CRB's BRIAN MCCREATH writes.....Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons describes the three online performances he conducts, each of them featuring Beethoven symphonies, and works inspired by them, written by composers of our time. In January 2020, Nelsons and the BSO were looking ahead to a concert tour of Asia, followed by the last chapters of the 2019-2020 season. The tour, however, was cancelled as the now world-wide pandemic took hold in the very countries the orchestra was to have visited. And eventually, those last dynamic chapters of the season, including Nelsons's return, were also stricken from the schedule. In a radically changed world, Nelsons and the orchestra were finally reunited to record three concerts for BSO Now, the Boston Symphony's online concert series. And in a remotely-produced interview, Nelsons described each concert, revealing the ways his relationship with Beethoven's symphonies have evolved, as well as how the impact of those symphonies is refracted through compositional voices of our time. I began by asking Nelsons to describe the feeling of returning to Symphony Hall after being gone for so long. LISTEN TO THE 99.5:CRB - Boston SEGMENTBenjamin Grosvenor learns Liszt from listening / The New York Times
Posted At : February 15, 2021 12:00 AM
The New York Times - David Allen writes....For his new album, Benjamin Grosvenor delved into historical recordings of the daunting Sonata in B minor. "This is music that's probably not supposed to be played cleanly," Benjamin Grosvenor said of Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor, the centerpiece of his new album. How do the great musicians prepare to play the great works? Each has his or her own methods, and tends to keep the strategy quiet, a secret key to success. One thing that distinguishes the subtle Benjamin Grosvenor, 28, from the rest of the pack of young star pianists is his extensive knowledge of historical recordings. This listening has paid off in a spellbinding Liszt recording out on Decca on Friday, crowned with a typically thoughtful account of the treacherous Sonata in B minor. "I almost feel like you should know the notable recordings of a work like this," Grosvenor said of the sonata in a recent interview. "More than anything, it helps you understand what works and what doesn't work. You react to some things positively and you react to some things negatively, and that fuels your imagination." What do you think about the opening bars of the sonata, which are so spare compared to what follows? It's foreboding, and mysterious, and a little bit threatening. It would be quite interesting to just line up eight recordings of the first bar. For someone who is a music lover but who is not that acquainted with putting a piece together, it might just be interesting to hear how two notes can essentially be interpreted in so many different ways. There are many valid approaches. What Vladimir Horowitz does in a large hall in his Carnegie recording, this kind of demonic thing, works very well. Cherkassky's is interesting; it sounds like he's improvising, like it's something that's just come to him in the moment, but it's obviously conscious because he executes it in the same way at the end of the slow movement as well. I was aiming for something mysterious, almost - so the notes are not too present. They're quite soft, very much like plucked strings, the bass more in it than the treble, like what Alfred Brendel does. So comparisons with orchestral sounds help you define what you are trying to achieve, even in a work as pianistic as this? As a pianist you've been playing the piano all of your life; you have a natural association with piano sound. So it's only when you're forced to put it into words that you try to make those associations. But it is an appropriate way to think, because, for most composers, the piano is always trying to imitate other instruments, because of its nature as a percussion instrument. Again, it's a line of thought that adds fire to the imagination, and the colors that you then draw out. One of the challenges in the piece is how to create tension over the whole, or even just over shorter periods of double octaves, or continuous fortissimo dynamics. You picked out a section near the start as an example. In this double-octave passage there is a lot of fortissimo playing, and you vary that in terms of dynamics, but the meter is the same for a while, with these continuous quavers. Horowitz, in the final rise and descent, just pushes through. There's lots of wrong notes, but it's raw. It's exceptionally difficult because of the octaves, but if you can push through it in that way I think it's very effective, all the way to the lowest note on the piano. So when you are playing the piece live, does atmosphere matter more than precision in passages like this? Yes, this is music that's probably not supposed to be played cleanly. Part of the struggle is, it is technically difficult, but that's what makes it exciting. Someone said of Horowitz that his playing is not exciting because he plays fast, but because he plays faster than he can. In this music there's an element of that. Lupu generates the tension in a different way; it's tension by holding back, by creating a limit that you're working against. Then the slow movement poses quite different challenges. It's magical music. The most incredible bit for me is this ascending line in the right hand, the scales after the climax. It's the most static point of the piece, and a groove needs to be found between static to the point of no motion, and finding the magic that's in it. Not to play it too casually. Claudio Arrau there is very special; it's such a wonderful moment with these triple pianissimos - finding that beautiful color, and where to take the time. Then comes the fugue, a moment when I'm always wondering how fast a pianist is going to try to play. Is this another place where aura matters more than accuracy? The counterpoint needs to be clear. So it's the point at which you can still characterize it, and that point is different for each pianist, as long as it builds and builds gradually to the right point. Intellectually speaking it's not necessarily correct, but I quite like the idea of treating the first five bars as a kind of fanfare. They don't carry enough to push forward out of the slow movement, so to me they inevitably sit somewhere in between if you are going to take it at that tempo. I like the change of pace there. The magic, and the music, of the slow movement return on the very last page. It's this final transition from darkness to light: the rumbling in the left hand, then the way that it ascends to the top of the piano. Those diminished chords are little shards of light, then it comes away to the very low notes, then these transcendent last chords. That's what the last page is about: transcendence. You can't help but think that the last note is an awakening from a dream. Close listening brought out the enormous range of possibilities in a work that presents an intellectual challenge of interpretation as much as a punishing test of technique. The piece is a Faustian struggle between the diabolical and the divine; the question is how to make it cohere over more than 30 minutes. Image“You react to some things positively and you react to some things negatively,” Grosvenor said, “and that fuels your imagination.” "You react to some things positively and you react to some things negatively," Grosvenor said, "and that fuels your imagination."Credit...Kalpesh Lathigra for The New York Times There is no single answer. The example of Radu Lupu points in one direction. "It has this great inevitability about it," Grosvenor said of Lupu's interpretation. "In terms of the way he controls the pulse it's quite symphonic, and also in the kinds of sounds he produces." Shura Cherkassky, a figure beloved of pianophiles whose impulsive, visionary performances were so idiosyncratic that Grosvenor said he would never dare imitate them, offers something else in a live recording from 1965. "Sometimes it feels kind of improvisatory and sometimes he doesn't quite do what's written in the score," Grosvenor said. "But he somehow makes this miracle of his own unique narrative from it." Perils lurk whichever way a pianist turns. "The danger in pursuing this symphonic, quite rigid, controlled outlook is that it could quite easily become something more of an academic exercise than the fantastical piece that it is," Grosvenor said. "And obviously if you go along the Cherkassky route, you could make it sound like something that doesn't make much sense." If Grosvenor successfully traces a course between those extremes, he also takes inspiration from how his forebears have resolved the many difficulties in a work of this scale. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Watch Peter Gabriel re-record 'Biko' with artists from around the world / RollingStone
Posted At : February 12, 2021 12:00 AM
RollingStone's ANDY GREENE writes......Peter Gabriel has re-recorded his 1980 protest classic "Biko" with help from 25 musicians from around the globe, including Beninese vocalist and activist Angélique Kidjo, Yo-Yo Ma, the Cape Town Ensemble, Sebastian Robertson, and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello. The video was produced by Sebastian Robertson and Mark Johnson as part of Playing for Change's Song Around the World initiative. The original song was written as a tribute to South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who was murdered in police custody in 1977, but Gabriel tells Rolling Stone that it still holds incredible meaning today. "Although the white minority government has gone in South Africa, the racism around the world that apartheid represented has not ," he says. "Racism and nationalism are sadly on the rise. In India, Myanmar and Turkey, Israel and China, racism is being deliberately exploited for political gain." "On the black/white front the Black Lives Matter movement has made it very clear how far we still have to go before we can hope to say we have escaped the dark shadow of racism," he adds. READ THE FULL RollingStone ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEOHoneywell Arts Academy - Artistic Director; Ranaan Meyer interviews with The Violin Channel
Posted At : February 13, 2021 12:00 AM
The Honeywell Arts Academy will launch in June of 2021 with three separate programs for double-bassists, pianists, and instrumentalists. The Violin Channel recently caught up with Ranaan Meyer, artistic director of the Honeywell Arts Academy. Here';s some Q&A Tell us about the Honeywell Arts Academy? When was it founded and what is its main mission? Auditions are happening now for the Honeywell Arts Academy which launches this June, and I am so proud to be artistic director. Thirteen years ago I started a bass camp with my buddies Hal Robinson of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Juilliard, and Curtis faculty, and Eric Larson of the Houston Symphony. That vision was completely ideal. The concept was - through a philosophy we follow called Sharing of Knowledge - to accept extraordinary bass players to come hang out with us for a week. We would swap ideas, play for each other, make music together, and push our musical boundaries. Thirteen years later, we are blown away by the people who have come to attend. They are now in orchestras like the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Concertgebouw, and more. Because of the success, we are launching the expansion of this program for all instruments called Honeywell Arts Academy. PHOTO: Amanda Reynolds READ THE FULL Violin Channel Q&ATop 10 for Feb
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Emile Mosseri :
Minari OMPS
Milan Records today announces the February 12 release of MINARI (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by award-winning composer EMILE MOSSERI (The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Kajillionaire). -
Paul Edward-Francis :
Blood of Zeus-Music From The Netflix Anime Series
Milan Records today releases BLOOD OF ZEUS (MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX ANIME SERIES) by composer Paul Edward-Francis. -
Tom Hodge :
The Mauritanian OMPS
Sony Music Masterworks today releases THE MAURITANIAN (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by acclaimed composer TOM HODGE. -
David Korevaar :
Lowell Liebermann - Piano Music Volume 3
The third volume in David Korevaar's highly acclaimed series devoted to Lowell Liebermann's solo piano music (MSR Classics MS1688) continues his journey of recording all of Liebermann's works for the piano. -
Jakob Bro - Arve Henriksen - Jorge Rossy :
Uma Elmo
With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist-composer Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. -
Keegan DeWitt :
Little Fish OMPS
Milan Records today announces the February 5 release of LITTLE FISH (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by composer KEEGAN DEWITT. -
Stephan Moccio :
Earned It
Grammy and Oscar-nominated songwriter and composer Stephan Moccio has released a brand new solo piano version of ‘Earned It', a track he co-wrote and co-produced with The Weeknd for the 2015 blockbuster film Fifty Shades of Grey. -
Andris Nelsons | Gewandhausorchester Leipzig :
Bruckner Sym. 2&8 _ Wagner Meistersinger Prelude
This brand-new recording marks the continuation of Leipzig's Bruckner Cycle with Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their award-winning Bruckner cycle. -
Drum & Lace + Ian Hultquist :
Dickinson -Season 2, AppleTV Original SeriesS-trak
Milan Records today releases DICKINSON: SEASON TWO (APPLE TV+ ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK) with music by Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist. -
Will Bates :
Bliss OMPS
Milan Records today announces the release of BLISS (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Fall On Your Sword founder WILL BATES.
Is Freaky Friday coming to TV? / LaughingPlace.com
Posted: May 4, 2017 12:00 AM | By: AdminDisney's Freaky Friday musical is apparently looking to leap from the stage to the small screen. Playbill reports that casting notice indicated that the show is being adapted for television and will shoot this fall. The book for the musical, which debuted in Arlington, Virginia last year, was written by Bridget Carpenter and the score was penned by Tom Kitt and Kevin Yorkey. Freaky Friday is currently playing the Cleveland Playhouse through May 20th and is slated to run at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas from June 2nd to July 2nd.
The cast recording on Walt Disney Records, features the book by Bridget Carpenter (TV's "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood") and the score by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning team of Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics), creators of the celebrated Broadway musicals Next to Normal and If/Then, Freaky Friday had its world premiere at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA in fall 2016. The production was directed by two-time Tony nominee (Rocky Horror Show and Memphis) and artistic director of the world-renowned La Jolla Playhouse Christopher Ashley and choreographed by Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys; On Your Feet!).
SEE THE LaughingPlace.com PAGE
Crossover Media Projects with Cast Albums
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Cast Albums
THE PROM - MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX FILM
Sony Music Masterworks today announces the release of THE PROM (MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX FILM), an album of music from the forthcoming Netflix film directed by Ryan Murphy and based on the hit Broadway musical from Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin, and Matthew Sklar. Available digitally December 4 and on CD December 18, the album includes all sixteen songs from the original musical written by Matthew Sklar and with lyrics by Chad Beguelin, each newly recorded by the film's star-studded cast including Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Andrew Rannells, Keegan-Michael Key, ArianaDeBose and newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman. Joining the songwriting team for the film adaptation are Adam Anders and PeerAstrom, both longtime collaborators of Ryan Murphy and known for their award-winning music for Murphy's hit television series Glee and American Horror Story.
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Cast Albums
Oklahoma
In 1943, Decca Broadway released the first-ever cast album of all time. The musical was Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking Oklahoma!. Fast forward 76 years, the newly-relaunched Decca Broadway, part of Verve Label Group, announces the release of the new cast recording for the revival of Oklahoma!
The 2019 revival of Oklahoma! is making history as the first time the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate has allowed new arrangements of the original score. The New York Times said of these new versions, "The well-known melodies have been reimagined – by the brilliant orchestrator and arranger Daniel Kluger – with the vernacular throb and straightforwardness of country and western ballads." Daniel Fish's reimagined revival of Oklahoma! officially opened April 7 at Circle in the Square Theatre. The cast is led by Rebecca Naomi Jones as Laurey and Damon Daunno as Curly and the cast album will be produced by Dean Sharenow and Daniel Kluger. -
Cast Albums
Tootsie
In 1943, Decca Broadway released the first-ever cast album of all time. The musical was Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking Oklahoma!. Fast forward 76 years, the newly-relaunched Decca Broadway, part of Verve Label Group, announces the release of the new cast recording of the hit musical Tootsie.
The new comedy musical Tootsie, adapted from the 1982 film, began previews on Broadway March 29, following an acclaimed out-of-town tryout in Chicago last fall. Variety called Tony-winner David Yazbek's score "strikingly over-the-top: You know something's right when the music itself feels witty." Meanwhile, The Chicago Tribune commented, "The sound has a movie-score quality… many of his tempos are arrestingly up – so much so…that they keep amping the pleasures of the piece." Tootsie officially opens at the Marquis Theatre April 23. Tony nominee Santino Fontana leads the cast as Michael Dorsey, a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until one show-stopping act of desperation lands him the role of a lifetime – as the star of a new Broadway musical.
TOOTSIE features an original score by Tony Award-winner DAVID YAZBEK (The Band's Visit, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), a book by ROBERT HORN (13; Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance), choreography by Tony Award nominee DENIS JONES (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas), and musical direction by ANDREA GRODY (The Band's Visit). TOOTSIE will be directed by eight-time Tony Award nominee and Olivier Award winner SCOTT ELLIS (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century).
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Cast Albums
RENT - Live FOXTV Event
Sony Masterworks Broadway announces today's release of RENT – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF THE FOX TELEVISION EVENT, featuring music from the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical RENT, as performed by the star-studded cast of FOX's television event, the soundtrack is produced by Stephen Oremus, executive-produced by Marc Platt and co-produced by Derik Lee.
The soundtrack features performances by actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens (Maureen Johnson), singer/songwriter Jordan Fisher (Mark Cohen), recording artist Tinashe (Mimi Marquez), actress Kiersey Clemons (Joanne Jefferson), newcomer and singer/songwriter Brennin Hunt (Roger Davis), R&B/Pop superstar Mario (Benjamin Coffin III), performer Valentina (Angel Dumont Schunard) and Emmy nominee and Tony Award winner Brandon Victor Dixon (Tom Collins). Additionally, Keala Settleperforms the iconic solo from "Seasons of Love."
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Cast Albums
The Prom
THE PROM – ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING is available on from Sony Masterworks Broadway. Produced by Scott M. Riesett and Tony Award Nominee Matthew Sklar, with music by Sklar and lyrics by four-time Tony Award Nominee Chad Beguelin, the album is also available to stream and download everywhere now. The Prom cast celebrated the release with two CD signing events – at the annual BroadwayCon fan convention and at Theatre Circle.
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Cast Albums
Head Over Heels
The producers of Head Over Heels, the new musical comedy featuring the iconic songs of The Go-Go's – the most successful female rock band of all time, and Sony Masterworks Broadway today release The Original Broadway Cast Recording. Included in the 20-track cast album is a true bonus from The Go-Go's themselves: an exclusive new recording of one of the band's most popular songs, "This Town," which marks their first studio recording in more than 17 years since their album God Bless The Go-Go's (2000). The track, produced by Scott Sigman, was recorded exclusively for the Broadway collection by members Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin. The album is produced by Scott M. Riesett and Tom Kitt with co-producers Louise Gund and Christine Russell, engineered by Isaiah Abolin and Lawrence Manchester, and was recorded at the DiMenna Center in New York City on August 26-28.
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Cast Albums
Desperate Measures
The Original Cast Recording from the hit musical comedy Desperate Measures is now available digitallyfrom Masterworks Broadway, with the CD set for release August 10. With music by David Friedman (Listen to My Heart) and lyrics by Peter Kellogg (Anna Karenina), the album is produced by 7 time Grammy and Tony NomineeRobert Sher (Patti LuPone's Gypsy, Daniel Radcliffe's How To Succeed…) with liner notes by Peter Filichia. The album is Executive Produced by Mary Cossette (The Will Rogers Follies; Woody Sez; Carol Welsman'sWhat'Cha Got Cookin'?) and Willette Klausner (The Band's Visit; Smokey Joe's Café; Latin History For Morons). Described by the Huffington Post as "a good old-fashioned musical comedy… a happy surprise of a show filled with enjoyable songs," Desperate Measures is currently playing at New World Stages in New York City and tickets are on sale at: www.DesperateMeasuresMusical.com