Grant Chu Covell

Managing Editor Grant Chu Covell works in the Boston area. He once worked for a global technology company that made hardware which Xenakis and Babbitt used to good effect. He was the publisher of the brilliant but forgotten The Periodic Journal of Bibliography (1990-95), and his music reviews have appeared in EAR Magazine and InMusic. His instrumental and electroacoustic music has been performed in the U.S. and abroad, and he has shared many CDs of his music with family and friends (one piece was recorded in a refrigerator). A short article about a composition he wrote for piano and tape can be found in the Csound Magazine. Two electroacoustic works have appeared in commercial compilations: Presence III and The Door Project. A recent CD can be found here, and another is in preparation. A long departed family dog’s name was taken from a character in Wagner’s Ring.

String Theory 3: Viols and Violas

What are the odds that we’d have two shakes at one Aperghis opus?

String Theory 3: Viols and Violas

What are the odds that we’d have two shakes at one Aperghis opus?

Mostly Symphonies 14.

Independently wealthy Gouvy wrote amiable, conservative symphonies while the rest of France dallied with operas and ballets. As one would expect, he had more successes in Germany.

Mostly Symphonies 14.

Independently wealthy Gouvy wrote amiable, conservative symphonies while the rest of France dallied with operas and ballets. As one would expect, he had more successes in Germany.

EA Bucket 12.

As a sometime electroacoustic practitioner, I listened to this set as other than as critic. While all composers are critics, the obverse is not necessarily true — a discussion for another day.

EA Bucket 12.

As a sometime electroacoustic practitioner, I listened to this set as other than as critic. While all composers are critics, the obverse is not necessarily true — a discussion for another day.

Mostly Symphonies 13. / Italian Vacation 8.

Well before Rota hit his stride as film scorer, he wrote two symphonies in the late 1930s, sparkling quasi-Romantic works in traditional four-movement design.

Mostly Symphonies 13. / Italian Vacation 8.

Well before Rota hit his stride as film scorer, he wrote two symphonies in the late 1930s, sparkling quasi-Romantic works in traditional four-movement design.

Christian Marclay at the Whitney

I visited Christian Marclay’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum and was charmed by the older work and annoyed by the new.

Christian Marclay at the Whitney

I visited Christian Marclay’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum and was charmed by the older work and annoyed by the new.

Piano Factory 6.

Played in keeping with the epoch, Casals renders Blasco de Nebra’s unexpected dissonance and striking rhythms as the more exciting.

Piano Factory 6.

Played in keeping with the epoch, Casals renders Blasco de Nebra’s unexpected dissonance and striking rhythms as the more exciting.

Piano Factory 5: Haydn Sonatas

Coming off a Haydn year (2009), we’re awash in the man’s music. The piano sonatas are numbered according to Christa Landon’s ordering of the extant 62.

Piano Factory 5: Haydn Sonatas

Coming off a Haydn year (2009), we’re awash in the man’s music. The piano sonatas are numbered according to Christa Landon’s ordering of the extant 62.

Pièces de Clavecin 5.

It’d be pleasure enough merely to listen to this 1751 Jean-Henri Hemsch doing anything. As it happens, Haas offers perhaps the best, newest Le Grand on the market.

Pièces de Clavecin 5.

It’d be pleasure enough merely to listen to this 1751 Jean-Henri Hemsch doing anything. As it happens, Haas offers perhaps the best, newest Le Grand on the market.

EA Bucket 11.

Wind and water provide the background for Lotis’ dreams. Most of the music operates in the treble range and uses precisely positioned pitched sounds, rarely with noise or distortion.

EA Bucket 11.

Wind and water provide the background for Lotis’ dreams. Most of the music operates in the treble range and uses precisely positioned pitched sounds, rarely with noise or distortion.

Piano Trios

Compared with the string quartet, contemporary piano trios are in short supply. After Ravel, Ives, Shostakovich and perhaps Schnittke, few 20th-century works have become staples.

Piano Trios

Compared with the string quartet, contemporary piano trios are in short supply. After Ravel, Ives, Shostakovich and perhaps Schnittke, few 20th-century works have become staples.

String Theory 2: Violoncellos and Basses with Support

Canonici produces vivid playing, a wonder to behold. However, these modernist solos with their brutal snap pizzicatos, soaring harmonics, low growling and frenetic tremolos tend to blur together.

String Theory 2: Violoncellos and Basses with Support

Canonici produces vivid playing, a wonder to behold. However, these modernist solos with their brutal snap pizzicatos, soaring harmonics, low growling and frenetic tremolos tend to blur together.

Der kranke Pierrot

As important as the thrice-seven poems of Op. 21 have been to my musical development, I can no longer sit still through Pierrot lunaire.

Der kranke Pierrot

As important as the thrice-seven poems of Op. 21 have been to my musical development, I can no longer sit still through Pierrot lunaire.