Used Bin Troll Tweets UU.

Ethelbert Nevin

[December 2020.]

“Kate Amrine: This is My Letter to the World.” Gemma PEACOCKE: Skin (2016/18)¹. Kate AMRINE: What We Are Doing to Ourselves (2019)²; Waiting? (2020)⁵; We are Women (2020)¹⁰. Kevin JOEST: Thoughts and Prayers (2017)³. Niloufar NOURBAKHSH: My Body My Choice (2019)⁴. Jacob TER VELDHUIS: Close Fight (2015)⁶. Inti FIGGIS-VIZUETA: Linger (2019)⁷. Ruby FULTON: I’m sorry not sorry (2016)⁸. Jay RIZZETTO: This is My Letter to the World (2019)⁹. Howie KENTY: It Wasn’t Something that We Could Control (2019)¹¹. Roberta Michel², Leanne Friedman⁵ (a-fl), Ford Fourqueran^7,11 (b-clar), Kate Amrine^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11} (tpt), Alia Kuhnert⁹, Maddi Lusby⁹ (trp, voice), Carrie Frey² (vla), Amanda Gookin² (vlc), Kate Barmotina⁸ (vln, voice), Kyra Sims¹⁰ (narrator). Innova 042 (1 CD) (www.innova.mu).

A politically smart and timely collection of eleven works for trumpet with instruments, voices, electronics, manipulated newscasts, etc. YES.

“Music with no Edges.” Samuel ANDREYEV: Vérifications (2012); Stopping (2006); Cinq pièces (2010); Passages (2005); Music with no Edges (2004); Strasbourg Quartet (2014/15). HANATSUmiroir. Kairos 0015025KAI (1 CD) (www.kairos-music.com).

Bustle without style disguises an absence of purpose and a bankrupt aesthetic. The measures may be filled with notes, but they are empty. NO.

“Orchestral Works: Vol. 1.” Hans ROTT: Hamlet Overture (1876); Scherzo and Finale from Suite in B-flat major (1877); Orchestra Prelude in E major (1876); Prelude to Julius Caesar (1877); Prelude and Langsam from Suite in E major (1878); Pastoral Prelude in F major (1880). Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Christopher Ward (cond.). Capriccio C5408 (1 CD) (www.capriccio.at).

Thin orchestral curiosities from Mahler’s short-lived contemporary and flatmate, whose language cumbersomely blends Wagner with Elgar. MAYBE.

Antonín REJCHA: Requiem (ca. 1802-08). Věnceslava Hrubá-Freiberger (sop), Anna Barová (alt), Vladimír Doležal (ten), Luděk Vele (bass), Jaroslav Tvrzský (org), Prague Philharmonic Choir, Dvořák Chamber Orchestra, Lubomir Mátl (cond.). Supraphon SU 3859-2 (1 CD) (www.supraphon.com).

Composed in Vienna, a link between Mozart and Berlioz’s Requiems, fugal and majestic, missing for years, but lovingly recorded in 1988. YES.

“Third Sound: Heard in Havanna.” Spencer TOPEL: Details on the Strasbourg Rosace (2014). Kati AGÓCS: Microconcerto from Immutable Dreams (2007). Ingrid ARAUCO: Fantasy-Quartet (2001). Christopher Wendell JONES: a crowd of twisted things (2011). Kai-Young CHAN: Mieko (2014). Jeremy GILL: Paean, Epitaph, and Dithyramb (2008). Amadeus REGUCERA: Inexpressible (2013). Michael HARRISON: Radians Phase II (2015). Cindy COX: quietly urgent from Wave (2009). Jennifer HIGDON: Smash (2006). Third Sound: Sooyun Kim (fl), Romie de Guise-Langlois (clar), Karen Kim (vln), Michael Nicolas (vlc), Orion Weiss (pno), Patrick Castillo (dir.). Innova 990 (1 CD) (www.innova.mu).

Documenting a 2015 concert in Havana, and like any well-intentioned delegation, a mixed bag. I came back to the Regucera and Harrison. MAYBE.

J.S. BACH: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (1741). Lang Lang (pno). Deutsche Grammophon DG 481 9701 (4 CDs) (www.deutschegrammophon.com).

DG doubles down for their star, but Lang Lang has no talent for Bach. Twice he prances and preens through BWV 988’s cabbages and turnips. NO.