#michael tilson thomas

[tallicafanpage]

S&M2 - September 2019 © Anton Corbijn

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Playing

George Gershwin RHAPSODY IN BLUE [SECOND RHAPSODY FOR ORCHESTRA WITH PIANO]

Michael Tilson Thomas Los Angeles Philharmonic

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas during a benefit concert at Wortham's Cullen Theater Photography by Ben Desoto for The Houston Chronicle March 26, 1990

[randomnessoffiction]

I wish this recording was back in print!

[clamarcap]

La guida del giovane all'orchestra

La guida del giovane all’orchestra

Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695): Rondeau dalle musiche di scena composte nel 1695 per una rappresentazione del dramma Abdelazer or The Moor’s Revenge (1676) di Aphra Behn. Taverner Consort Players, dir. Andrew Parrott. Benjamin Britten (1913 - 4 dicembre 1976): The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell op. 34 (1946). YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, dir.…

[mitjalovse]

The facets of John McLaughlin's opus may be too numerous to mention in our very own discussions. True, I can try to achieve this as much as I can, though I must admit his collaboration with Katia Labèque surprises me the most. I mean, I get why they worked together, the reasons for that belong in the category of McLaughlin's personal life, which is not a theme I'm interested to discuss, so let us check the music they did. I mean, they sort of mixed jazz and classical, which does make sense. Both of these idioms continue to be cherished more often for their pasts despite the fact their presents keep having more power than many are willing to admit. The Mediterranean succintly present that by providing us with another set of sounds, where Mr. McLauglin found himself functioning well.

[landrysg]

Music for a Monday evening from The Hammock Papers:

Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 6 in A minor

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the WDR Symphony Orchestra

https://thehammockpapers.blogspot.com/2024/06/mahler-symphony-no-6-in-minor.html

[doyoueverstopandthink]

umbrella academy characters as music on my playlist of my favorite classical pieces

luther: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 “Pastoral”: II. Szene am Bach: (Andante molto mosso) - Ludwig Van Beethoven (performed by Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique with John Eliot Gardiner as the conductor) 

fits season three luther the best

this is the lightest movement of the symphony, which i think fits in with him falling in love with sloane and working on growing through his childhood trauma

the last phrase of the piece is viewed as two birds taking flight. that’s literally him and sloane. 

diego: Träumerei (Kinderderszenen, Op. 15) - Gemafrei - Robert Schumann (performed by Ronny Matthes)

also fits season three diego best

this is from a collection of schumann writing pieces that highlight his life (this one is from his dreaming during childhood)

he now has a child (in stan and in his and lila’s biological child) and is essentially dreaming of all the ways he’s going to do better at raising his kid than his dad did for him

allison: Piano Sonata No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 28 - Sergei Prokofiev (performed by Matti Raekallio)

this is a piano sonata that doesn’t have actual movements separating it into chunks, just a vibe difference throughout different parts of it

the most technically demanding of prokofiev piano sonatas and he said it was “pretty, interesting, and practical” (which fits allison pretty well) 

klaus: Otello, Act 4: “Ave Maria” (Desdemona) - Guiseppe Verdi (performed by Cristina Gallardo-Domas, Maurizio Barbacini, and Das Münchner Rundfunkorchester)

desdemona’s last moments on stage before getting murdered by her husband, and she’s essentially saying “i love this man with my whole heart and i need to prove that to him before something drastic happens” 

klaus is very much so the same due to his whole “i love dave with my whole heart and i need to prove that to him before he dies in a war that uselessly killed a shit ton of people” 

they’re also both characters that are unapologetically in love

five: String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110: 1. Largo - Dmitri Shostakovich (performed by the Borodin Quartet)

if the second movement is five in seasons one and two, the first movement is five in season three

he’s pissed off with the world around him, yet he’s stuck with this bone deep tiredness that he can’t get rid of

he just wants all the difficulties in his life to fade away so he can go back to living as close to a normal life as he can

ben: Act 3: LII. Juliet’s Death - Sergei Prokofiev (performed by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko as the conductor)

ben is dead in season one and two, but the audience knows that he’s still capable of interacting with others due to klaus’s powers, and the audience knows juliet isn’t actually dead, but romeo thinks she is

this movement is one of the most heart-wrenching in all of classical music 

the movement that follows is juliet’s actual death, ending on an even sadder note that this movement began with (similar to ben fucking dying again)

viktor: Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36: I. Andante sostenuto - Moderato con anima - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (performed by San Francisco Orchestra with Michael Tilson Thomas as the conductor)

it’s believed that tchaikovsky composed this when he was pissed off at the world for his inability to be openly queer and he just ended up being tired of everything

follows viktor’s storyline of coming into your true identity and trying to find a sense of confidence with it

lila: Piano Trio in G Major, L. 5: III. Andante espressivo - Claude Debussy (performed by Bertrand Chamayou)

very little is known about the history of the piece (which fits lila)

there’s a lot of emotion present with a lot of vibrato present in the stringed instruments, giving an additional sense of longing

the climax of the piece is very accented, giving it a sense of almost sadness and keeping that longing present

[madamspeaker]

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi are seen during a dedication ceremony of Michael Tilson Thomas Way (15th December, 2023)

[sloshed-cinema]

Tár (2022)

If Mahler stated that a symphony should be the world, then Lydia Tár’s professional symphony is crumbling around her.  This is a story of grooming and professional corruption, about using power to take advantage of others and exploit them for what you desire.  Yet Todd Field resisted the urge to make a simple Harvey Weinstein type story, opting instead to use the incredibly specific and incredibly dense palette of classical music and the orchestral industry as his palette.  The movie doesn’t hold the viewer’s hand in the least; from moment one, references and nods are flying fast and loose, calling out everyone from Furtwängler and Karajan to Marin Alsop and Michael Tilson Thomas.  Hildur Guðnadóttir plays a clever double-role, mentioned by name alongside peers such as Jennifer Higdon but also furnishing elements of the diegetic and non-diegetic soundscape.  Extended rehearsal sequences in Tár’s pidgin German play out free of subtitles.  The minutiae of orchestral union proceedings are debated time and again.  All of these references, all of this time, all of this vocabulary is necessary to establish the zealous obsession that surrounds the craft for Tár.  She has crafted her whole identity around being the next soothsayer of the Western canon, the protégée of Bernstein himself.  More importantly, it’s a veneer of legitimacy.  It’s clear from the start that the maestro is less than “politically correct”: a dressing-down of a Juilliard student regarding his opinions on contemporary art music and views on Bach steps beyond the pale of a misguided tough love approach and more into the territory of personal attack.  But this is a pattern.  Fields approaches the everyday administrative details of Tár’s life with the same meticulousness.  Insidious little instances begin to float to the surface, indicating a predatory tendency that others notice and become increasingly intolerant toward.  The camera lingers on Lydia’s assistant Francesca as she lip-syncs her boss’s plaudits during a public interview, casts furtive glances or begins to wonder why she’s being asked certain things.  Even the matter of handing over a laptop becomes a dangerous prospect.  And the conductor’s wife and colleague, concertmaster Sharon Goodnow, becomes increasingly disillusioned with Tár’s actions as a new affair begins to become apparent in newcomer cellist Olga.  In this sense, the deliberate and clinical handling of camera in many scenes begins to build a case against the maestro, feeling in beats almost akin to The Assistant.  A specific event involving a fellow for a program Tár started for women conductors lingers in the shadows, eluded to but never fully elucidated.  Krista Taylor had no prospects in the field after Tár torpedoed her career.  The maestro insists this was due to Taylor’s mental instability, but other evidence suggests that there was a revenge aspect to this.  The fantasy life of private jets and book talks can be ripped away so quickly.

And yet the fantasy of it all does have its place in the tapestry of this narrative.  As with music, there is room for ambiguity here, space to interpret.  Especially in the back half of the film, Field calls into question Tár’s state of mind through her troubled dreams and strange nocturnal discoveries.  Distorted images of the women in her life haunt her, intertwined with moments in the Amazon recalling her past ethnomusicological work.  Yet as things begin to unravel and Tár loses the thread, the nature of objective reality becomes more tenuous.  As with the scandal reveal, it’s subtle at first.  In her rehearsal home, the maestro is haunted by a persistent doorbell sound, which heartbreakingly later turns out to be the elderly woman next door in distress.  The legacy of Krista Taylor’s fallout and eventual suicide comes in the form of labyrinthine drawings which appear in gift book inscriptions, metronome faces, or formed in clay in her adoptive daughter’s room.  Just where these come from or who makes them is never made explicit, but that doesn’t make them any less haunting for Tár.  As she courts Olga, or seduces her, the cellist becomes ever more disillusioned with Tár just as she becomes more elusive.  At one point, Tár chases Olga into the seemingly abandoned building where she perhaps resides, only to find the cellist vanished, seemingly a figment of her imagination.  Descending into the basement, she instead finds a fox or a wolf, her predatory nature turning back on her.  Ghosts haunt the periphery. By the time it has all fallen away, she rushes onto the stage mid-performance, attacking her impostor, claiming the score for herself.  It’s her work, she alone can interpret it.  Utterly fallen from grace, the final sequences play out like a sort of bizarro-world fantasy.  New York is no longer a place of glamour, but an ugly outer borough rail station, everything drab and grey and muddy.  Her final gig is the coup de grace.  She is engaged to perform a Japanese work for a Southeast Asian concert hall.  The final shot is a bitterly funny punch in the gut: she’s at the bottom of the barrel, performing video game music for a rapt audience of cosplayers.  Goodbye haughty, lofty concert halls.  

Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, and Sophie Kauer all turn in strong, nuanced performances.  But Cate Blanchett is the obvious powerhouse here.  She’s fun as the haughty, dismissive maestro who knows just how it’s all done.  This makes her fall all the more pathetic, not even able to see her daughter.  It’s a late scene which cements just how hard this has all hit her, and a brilliant piece of acting from Blanchett.  Sitting alone at her old family home in New York with a childhood field hockey medal around her neck, Tár watches a recording of one of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts where he describes how music can be used to communicate ideas words cannot.  Her face says it all: this is her whole world still, but now she no longer can access it, by her own hand.  She controlled time with her baton, but she cannot control others in the same fashion.

THE RULES

PICK ONE

Select either MAHLER FIVE or the ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO and sip whenever that work is mentioned.

SIP

Someone name-drops a composer or conductor.

The narrative transitions to a new city.

Lydia calls someone a robot.

A scene contains a language other than English spoken in dialogue.

BIG DRINK

A labyrinth is drawn on something.

Tár cuts off the orchestra during rehearsal.

[therecordchanger62279]

THE RECORDCHANGER YEAR-END EDITION 2023

       My annual year-end review of my favorite records and books.

 TOP NEW ALBUM RELEASES

     Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos – Yuja Wang & The Los Angeles Philharmonic

     I Inside The Old Year Dying – PJ Harvey

     The American Project – Yuja Wang with The Louisville Orchestra

     Hackney Diamonds – The Rolling Stones

     Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? – Galen & Paul

     Relentless – Pretenders

     The Future Is Now – The Chick Corea Elektric Band

 TOP REISSUES/ARCHIVE RELEASES

     Evenings At The Village Gate – John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy

     Anthology – Charlie Watts

     Hollywood Blues Summit-Live At The Ash Grove – Muddy Waters

     Live At Mabuhay Gardens – Romeo Void

     Grrr Live! – The Rolling Stones

     All Around Man: Live In London – Rory Gallagher

     A Night In San Francisco – Missing Persons

 FINDS OF THE YEAR

   (Catalog titles that slipped under my radar when first released)

     Yesterday’s Wine – Willie Nelson (1971)

     Let England Shake – PJ Harvey (2011)

     Concerto In B. Goode – Chuck Berry (1969)

     Live In Bremen 1975 – Gary Bartz NTU Troop (2021)

     Cool Heat: The Best of CTI Records – Various (2017)

     Force Majeure – Doro Pesch (1989)

     Bound For Hell On The Sunset Strip – Various Artists (2022)

 THE YEAR IN REVIEW:

     If anyone had told me that 2023 would see new releases from both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, I’d have suggested a sanity check. But a live archive release from The Stones early in the year was followed by the all-new Hackney Diamonds in October, while The Beatles released one more song, Now and Then, to cap their career once and for all. Of course, both were bittersweet. Hackney Diamonds was the first Stones release of new material following the death of original drummer Charlie Watts in August 2021. And though Watts appeared on two tracks finished in 2019, Steve Jordan took over the drum chair for the band with mixed results. The Beatles resurrected yet another John Lennon demo first attempted for their Anthology project in 1995, but left unfinished then because of technical issues. New technology allowed them to finally finish the track in 2023, but guitarist George Harrison had passed in 2001. That left Paul and Ringo along with late producer George Martin’s son Giles to complete the recording. So, these releases are really in name only because both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones we all came to know and love had already left the building. Still, both projects were successful, and well-received, and while The Beatles claim their record is indeed the end, The Rolling Stones are already back on the road, and promising another album of new material (and one last Watts recording) as early as next year. (I wouldn’t put any money on that, however, unless you can afford to lose it.)

     For those of us who took Charlie Watts’ passing to heart, there was some comfort in the release of the Charlie Watts Anthology this year that collected some of the drummer’s best Jazz recordings. And once again, some master sleuth managed to unearth a previously unheard, and unreleased recording by the late John Coltrane. Evenings At The Village Gate with Eric Dolphy, a rehearsal for a 1961 date at the Village Gate transcends less than perfect sound to remind everyone that 1961 was John Coltrane’s year, and that everything he touched that year turned to gold.

     The musical event of 2023, as far as I’m concerned was Yuja Wang’s marathon performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic of all four Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos in one go in February, released a few months later. The genius pianist also released The American Project, a new work by composer Teddy Abrams with the Louisville Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. She toured sold out venues all around the world, and continues to push the envelope by making innovative, and fresh choices in her repertoire to draw more attention to the Classical music genre in the 21st century. As Classical musicians go, Yuja Wang is a Rock star.

     One of the year’s best surprises was the return of Clash bassist Paul Simonon as part of a duo working under the name Galen & Paul. Galen is Galen Ayers, daughter of the late British singer-songwriter Kevin Ayers. Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day recalls the music Serge Gainsbourg made with Jane Birkin in the late 1960s. Sophisticated, smart, charming, and funny, and the last thing I’d have expected, but it works, and was one of my favorite records of the year. The new Pretenders album, Relentless, was another welcome addition to their catalog, and my collection. And PJ Harvey’s latest, I Inside The Old Year Dying, her first new album in seven years, re-establishes her as an artist who continues to move forward, and challenge listeners by constantly reinventing herself.

     Finally, a great new live album from Chick Corea’s Elektric Band, prepared for release by Chick before he passed in 2021 paved the way for the reissue of the band's five studio albums for GRP in new digipak editions with excellent sound. Candid did the honors.

     Closer to home, vinyl and cassette prices continue to rise while the availability of CDs continues to make buying a physical copy of almost anything a genuine headache. I waited three months for an online seller to supply me with Yuja Wang’s Rachmaninoff Concertos CD, and on the day of release, I visited eight retailers online or in store before I could find a copy of the new Rolling Stones album on CD. The store was 40 minutes from my house, and it dampened the excitement of getting the band’s first album of new material in eighteen years. I guess the record industry doesn’t need long time collectors any longer now that vinyl and cassettes are a hit with twenty-somethings with deep pockets. If CDs disappear completely, I’m finished buying music because I refuse to rent it.

     I did, however, manage to find one vinyl record I wanted this year that was actually reasonably priced and available from a reliable online seller. Chuck Berry’s Concerto In B. Goode is kind of a “wild card” in the Berry catalog. His last release for Mercury in 1969 before he returned to Chess, the album has four new originals on side one, but side two features the title track only – eighteen minutes of Berry’s trademark licks and lines. There’s nothing else like it in Chuck’s catalog, and for that reason alone, it was worth getting. It’s hardly a masterpiece, but it is a great listen, and the pressing on Elemental is pristine.

     Another great find this year was Willie Nelson’s 1971 album Yesterday’s Wine. I’d never heard it. I only knew it by reputation. But it was even better than I’d heard – easily as good as Shotgun Willie, Phases and Stages, and even Red Headed Stranger.

     I’ve always (until this year) been behind on PJ Harvey releases, but this year I caught up with Let England Shake, released in 2011. It’s the best album in what has become one of the most impressive catalogs of any contemporary Rock artist.

     Gary Bartz’s Live In Bremen 1975 with the NTU Troop was issued in 2021. I was looking for something interesting from that period, and stumbled on this one. Five years removed from his time with Miles Davis’s electric band, this lands between stints with Kenny Burrell, and Donald Byrd. Free Jazz with a Funk and Soul influence, and the politics of the day are what Bartz’s band was all about, and they are in fine form here. The music just washes over you like a soul cleansing shower.

     All in all, not a bad year for good music – if you could find it, and if you could afford it. The future doesn’t look too bright for collectors like me, but I’m not ready to hang it up just yet – no matter how bumpy the road gets.

     In closing, I’ll mention briefly that I read 40 books this past year, and several were among the worst I’ve ever read. I won’t waste your time discussing those. Instead, I’ll recommend the last one I read which happens to be a music memoir. Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Sleater-Kinney guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder Carrie Brownstein is one of the most engaging books I’ve ever read by a musician. Her honesty and candor are disarming, and while most memoirs are not usually what you would call “page turners,” this one certainly is. I read it in just two days, and I expect to read it again one day. Very highly recommended, and you don’t even need to be a fan of the band (though you might become one by the time you finish).

     Most of the best books I read in 2023 were the crime novels of Ross McDonald featuring his sleuth Lew Archer, and Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. I also read a couple of books by Rock writer Gene Sculatti. For The Records and Tryin’ To Tell A Stranger ‘Bout Rock and Roll were great fun to read, and after the garbage I encountered through most of the year, welcome relief.

If you like what you see here, hit the ‘follow’ button, and then the ‘like’ button when the spirit moves you. Thanks for reading The Recordchanger. I hope you found it worth your time.

[tallicafanpage]

S&M2 - September 2019 © Anton Corbijn

[wretcheddthing]

I got tagged by @pricemarshfield to list 5 songs I actually listen to so here is a list of some recents

• White Noise by Will Wood

• Raven’s Flight by Amon Amarth

• Carmina Burana: O Fortuna as performed by Carl Orf, Cleveland Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas

• Karma Chameleon by Culture Club

• Free Animal by Death From Above 1979

I’m tagging whoever wanna do it but also @olliesaurus-rex @saintvalentinex @willows-waves

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn and Michael Tilson Thomas 1990

[miamiclasica]

MTT y Denève, emocionante final de temporada

Con cada regreso de Michael Tilson Thomas al escenario de la New World Symphony es imposible no pensar en el ave fénix. De hecho, MTT lo es y ovaciones inevitables se suceden antes de que la música comience. Esta oportunidad, su despedida de la temporada 2023-24 con la que cumplió gallardamente, reunió el repertorio francés con el ruso, con el que tiene afinidad poderosa y ancestral, gracias a…

[clamarcap]

Crudele nostalgia di riso e pianto

Crudele nostalgia di riso e pianto

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 - 17 novembre 1959): Bachianas bra­si­lei­ras n. 5 per soprano e otto violoncelli (1938-45) su testi di Ruth Valladares Corrêa (1904 - c1963) e Manuel Bandeira (1886 - 1968). Renée Fleming, soprano; Kenneth Freu­dig­man (solista), Sofia Zappi, Alexander East, Pamela Smits, Damon Coleman, Robert Vos, Brad Ritchie e Eran Meir, violoncelli; dir. Michael Tilson Thomas. I.…