Stories » How 'Youth' Composer David Lang Snuck Classical Music Into Oscar Race / The Wrap

Stories for February 20, 2020

  •

    Gabriela Montero begins BSO:artist in residence tenure / DAILY ECHO
     
    Posted At : February 20, 2020 2:37 PM

    She is the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's artist in residence, the latest in a succession of supremely talented musicians to have held that post, including Sunwook Kim, Johannes Moser and Nemanja Radulovic. In a move that signals that she is different, Gabriela Montero began her tenure with an impromptu piano performance on Bournemouth Pier last October. The term ends on February 26 with a recital with the BSO principals at the Lighthouse. The other dimension to her being different is her unique improvisational gift. It has given her a devoted following around the world. She can take any melody and just run with it, as many audiences have discovered. Montero is a fascinating and intriguing interviewee even from three thousand miles away. Our conversation ranged from power and politics, to human rights, the state of her native Venezuela and music as a force for good. Picture:Shelley Mosman READ THE FULL DAILY ECHO ARTICLE

  • Jake Shimabukuro is unique among ukulele players / Elsewhere
     
    Posted At : February 20, 2020 12:00 AM

    It has been 12 years since I picked up the album Gently Weeps album by the Hawaiian ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro, largely to see what he did with the George Harrison title track. You can make up your own mind on that here, but for me that was all the impetus I needed when this album (with bassist Nolan Verner and guitarist Dave Preston) turned up. Let's just say Shimabukuro is unlike any other ukulele player you will ever have heard. In fact you'd probably be surprised to learn that it is ukulele at all on most of these tracks where he brings out a lute-like quality (Lament with Pink Floyd-like atmospherics), something akin to an acoustic guitar (the more MOR Summer Rain) and on the furious hard rock opener When the Masks Come Down with Preston off the leash and the gritty, fist-tight tension of Twelve this is to ukulele what Rodrigo y Gabriela are to flamenco. READ THE FULL Elsewhere REVIEW

  • Pacific Symphony announces more guest artists and world premieres in 20-21 / SFCV
     
    Posted At : February 19, 2020 12:00 AM

    Pacific Symphony is keeping on with programming that works. Today, the orchestra announced its 2020–2021 classical series, underwritten by the Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation. On the schedule: lots of guest artists, plus a continued commitment to signature events. The biggest name coming to Orange County next season is Lang Lang, who plays Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto with the orchestra on Oct. 4. Longtime Music Director Carl St. Clair conducts the one-night-only concert. As of now, tickets to this performance are only available to season subscribers. Guest soloists for 2021 include Emanuel Ax, who plays Mozart, Jan. 14–16; James Ehnes, soloing in the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Feb. 25–27; and Rachel Barton Pine, who performs the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, May 6–8, her first appearance with Pacific Symphony. READ THE FULL SFCV ARTICLE

  • The Bad Plus confirm their 2020 spring tour / NYSMusic
     
    Posted At : February 19, 2020 12:00 AM

    The American jazz trio The Bad Plus confirmed their 2020 spring tour following the release of their second album, ACTIVATE INFINITY, which was released in October of 2019. The spring tour will include a multi-show residency at Village Vanguard in New York City for six consecutive days. The tour will begin on March 19th in  Kenosha, WI at the Bedford Concert Hall and will wrap up on April 12th in Washington, DC at the Blues Alley. The tour will include multi- show residencies not only in New York City but also in Oakland, CA and Washington, D.C. as well. The New York City residency is taking place at the Village Vanguard on March 24th through the 29th. The Oakland, CA residency will take place at Yoshi's on April 3rd and 4th. Washington's residency will take place at the Blues Alley on April 10th through the 12th.  The Bad Plus is made up of bassist Reid Anderson, drummer Dave King, and pianist Orrin Evans, hailing from Minneapolis, MN. Their newest album ACTIVATE INFINITY was produced by The Bad Plus themselves and engineered and mixed by Andy Taub at NYC's Brooklyn Recording back in May of 2019. SEE THE DATES via NYSMusic

  • Sheku Kanneh-Mason releases; the Elgar Cello Concerto / New Classical Tracks
     
    Posted At : February 19, 2020 12:00 AM

    He performed at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Two years earlier, at the age of 17, he won the BBC's Young Musician Competition. And he's appeared on Britain's Got Talent with his six musical siblings. Yet, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who is just 20 years old and still studies at the Royal Academy of Music, is grounded in the music he loves. He's just released his second solo recording. It features Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor and other pieces that are close to his heart. "What I'm always searching for is the most convincing and expressive way to play the music that I'm playing. There are lots of pieces of music that I really, really want to learn. I think meaningful playing is what I practice for." READ & LISTEN TO MPR: New Classical Tracks: 

  • Take a look at Johann Johannsson's trailer for 'Last and First Men' and tell us you're not intrigued / Vanyaland
     
    Posted At : February 19, 2020 12:00 AM

    One of the greatest losses to both avant-garde music and cinema in the past decade was the tragic death of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Known best for his score for Mandy and his work with Denis Villeneuve on films like Sicario and Arrival, Jóhannsson's work became quickly beloved by cinema-heads the world over, which made his passing at 48 even more bitter; he had a lot of life yet to live and a lot more work to do. This included a burgeoning directorial career of his own - a year before his passing, the composer premiered his first film, an adaptation of Olaf Stapleton's sci-fi classic Last and First Men (which influenced the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, C.S. Lewis, and Arthur C. Clarke, and which you should really check out given that it's available for free online), in a work-in-progress exhibition at the Manchester International Film Festival, which he scored live alongside a narration done by Tilda Swinton. Well, a completed version of Last and First Men will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival next week, and it already has a trailer ready to go. Take a look at this and tell us that you aren't intrigued. READ THE FULL Vanyaland ARTICLE

  • Benjamin Grosvenor chats with classical radio about new Chopin PC recording
     
    Posted At : February 19, 2020 12:00 AM

    British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor presents a new recording of two concerto favorites: Chopin's Piano Concertos Nos.1 and 2, released on Decca Classics. Recorded with Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the record marks Benjamin's fifth album on Decca Classics, following the hugely successful Homages in 2016, and is his first orchestral album since 2012. These works have been an active part of Grosvenor's repertoire since his early teens: "Chopin was the first composer to whom I felt a strong connection as a child. I have always been drawn to his music, and his piano concertos are among some of the finest in the repertoire." Of the new recording, which came to fruition following a successful performance of the Piano Concerto No.2 with Elim Chan and the RSNO in 2018, Benjamin notes: "I am delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Elim and the outstanding musicians of the RSNO." Benjamin appears this spring in the US performing the Piano Concerto No.1. In conjunction with this new release, BG has made some time available TODAY!, February 29 to speak with classical radio in the US. Watch for our tweets throughout the day

Top 10 for Feb

How 'Youth' Composer David Lang Snuck Classical Music Into Oscar Race / The Wrap

Posted: January 9, 2016 12:00 AM | By: Admin
Bookmark and Share

Like Frank Zappa, Yale professor David Lang is a highbrow composer with a taste for the bizarre, and an artist who has smuggled difficult work into mass culture. "Paradoxically, people are willing to hear stranger things in film than in the real world - film audiences are more open to music than a music audience is," said Lang, whose art song "Simple Song #3" in Paolo Sorrentino's "Youth" is a contender for the Best Original Song Oscar.

Instead of coming in at the end of filming, like most composers, Lang wrote the tune beforehand. The idea was to define the entire life's arc of Michael Caine‘s character, himself a composer, from lovestruck youth to rueful age. "The movie is saying the song is a character, almost, like a time capsule for him," said Lang, 58, who projected himself into the 80-something character as passionately as any Method actor.

READ THE FULL Wrap INTERVIEW 

Crossover Media Projects with Soundtracks

  • Soundtracks

    Valley of the Boom

    Valley of the Boom explores the dot-com era during Silicon Valley's unprecedented tech boom of the 1990s and subsequent bust. The six-part limited series tells the wildly true stories of the epic browser wars and the companies that shaped the internet.  Starring Bradley Whitford, Steve Zahn, Lamorne Morris, John Karna, Dakota Shapiro, Oliver Cooper and John Murphy, Valley of the Boom makes its debut on National Geographic Sunday, January 13.  

    Created, directed and executive produced by Matthew Carnahan, Valley of the Boom is National Geographic's newest American docudrama. 

  • Soundtracks

    Roma

    Sony Music, Netflix, Participant Media, and Esperanto Filmoj present the Motion Picture Soundtrack of ROMA, which is available through all digital platforms, on the same day that the film premieres on Netflix.

    Curated by the director Alfonso Cuarón and the soundtrack producers Lynn Fainchtein and Randall Poster, the soundtrack of ROMA brings us back to the sonic Mexico of the 1970s, when the famous XEW, a reference of Mexican radio, transmitted English pop and rock, while gradually introducing the new Mexican pop, through performers like José José, Juan Gabriel, and Rigo Tovar, musical icons that in the present, have remained as references of Mexican and Latin American music.

  • Soundtracks

    Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

    Drawing nearly 10 million viewers, NBC's highly anticipated special event "Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert" received rave reviews for its production, calling it "genuinely thrilling" (The New York Times), "truly transcendent" (Hollywood Reporter) and "the best live TV musical yet" (The Daily Beast). Today, Masterworks Broadway is excited to release the Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert – Original Soundtrack of the NBC Television Event, which features lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, via all digital service providers. 

  • Soundtracks

    Call Me By Your Name

    Madison Gate Records and Sony Classical proudly announce the release of CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), a mix of 80s pop, classical compositions & songs by singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens, including two new songs written specifically for the film. The soundtrack to the new film by Luca Guadagnino will be released on CD on November 17. The film will be released in the U.S. on November 24.

    54 TOTAL
    SYND:     The Score, Afropop Worldwide, The Romantic Hours
    Direct: MOOD, Stingray
    Markets include: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Portland, St. Louis, Tucson, Barcelona MI(Statewide)
    INTER: Canada, UK, Spain Romania
    Online: Vogue, New York Times, The New Yorker, Music To Heal the Heart, Bustle, Jezebel, Out, Pitchfork, Jazz From Gallery 41, Vulture, theguardian, independent

  • Soundtracks

    A Bad Mom's Christmas

    A Bad Moms Christmas follows our three under-appreciated and over-burdened women as they rebel against the challenges and expectations of the Super Bowl for moms: Christmas. And if creating a more perfect holiday for their families wasn't hard enough, they have to do all of that while hosting and entertaining their own mothers. By the end of the journey, our moms will redefine how to make the holidays special for all and discover a closer relationship with their mothers.

    15 TOTAL
    SYND:     The Score
    Direct: SiriusXM, MOOD
    Markets include: Wash DC, St. Louis, Portland, Claremont, Cupertino CA, Marquette, Astoria OR, Abilene TX, Fairbanks AK
    INTER: Canada, Romania
    Online: Music To Heal the Heart

  • Soundtracks

    The Breadwinner

    Sony Classical proudly announces the release of THE BREADWINNER (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with an original score by Academy Award®-winning composer Mychael Danna and Emmy nominated composer Jeff Danna. The soundtrack will available digitally and on CD November 17. The film will also be released in the U.S. on November 17th. The Breadwinner tells the story of Parvana, an 11-year-old girl growing up under the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. When her father is wrongfully arrested, Parvana disguises herself as a boy in order to support her family. With dauntless perseverance, Parvana draws strength from the stories her father told her, and ultimately risks her life to discover if he is still alive. Equal parts thrilling and enchanting, The Breadwinner is a timely and inspiring tale about the transcendent power of stories, and their potential to unite and heal us all.

    27 TOTAL
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Louisville, Sacramento, Reno, Honolulu, CA(Statewide), Canada
    Online: CalmRadio, Musicas Imaginadas, Global Roots and Culture, Soundtrack Geek  

  • Soundtracks

    Murder on the Orient Express

    Sony Music proudly announces the release of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with an original score by Academy Award®-nominated composer Patrick Doyle, including a song performed by Michelle Pfeiffer with lyrics by Kenneth Branagh. What starts out as a lavish train ride through Europe quickly unfolds into one of the most stylish, suspenseful and thrilling mysteries ever told. From the novel by best-selling author Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express tells the tale of thirteen strangers stranded on a train, where everyone's a suspect. One man must race against time to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again.

    18 TOTAL
    SYND:     The Score
    Direct: SiriusXM, MOOD, Stingray
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Portland, Detroit, Albuquerque, San Antonio, El Paso, MI(Statewide), AL(Statewide), Canada
    Online: GURU