Matthew McCright‘s advocacy of American piano music has brought him into collaboration with lots of composers and his standard bio starts with this list: Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, August Read Thomas, Paul Dresher, and Michael Gordon – some experimental and free thinkers, to be sure. So it was an interesting departure for McCright that his latest recording project was of music by Gene Gutche (1907-2000), a German immigrant who wrote some rather vivid works but did hew to a rather old school tonal idiom.  So I asked McCright to tell the story of how he became connected to Gutchë’s...

Two years ago I interviewed conductor Jeannine Wager and subsequently wrote on this site what seems to still be the only complete account of the last years of composer Eleanor Hovda (1940-2009).  During our conversation Wager, her companion of 20 years, was forthcoming but obviously still grieving. She told me that she would soon be leaving their Arkansas home and was planning to begin archiving Hovda’s studio in New York City and that a series of CD releases was planned. Having spent several years calling on and attempting to assist the heirs of composers who died of AIDS, I knew that...

Close Encounters with Music, the chamber series in the Berkshires, is in the midst of its 20th anniversary season and has six more concerts between now and the early summer. The line-up of programs is typically thoughtful and varied with a healthy sampling of mainstream classics from the Romantic era performed by the ensemble members, plus a guest appearance by the fine young Dedaelus Quartet on May 19. There are also several intriguing thematic events, like “Trade Winds: From China with Love” on April 21 and “The Roaring Twenties: Berlin, Paris, New York” on June 2. Cellist Yehuda Hanani,...

Pianist Anthony de Mare has been a champion of contemporary music of many sorts. Yet his trademark is the amazing things he can do at the piano besides play the keys, namely talking. The pinnacle of his accomplishments, in what might be considered a new genre of works, is Frederic Rzewski’s “De Profundis,” an amazing setting of portions of Oscar Wilde’s letter from prison that de Mare commissioned and premiered in 1992.  It’s a 30-minute masterpiece, encompassing plenty of tricky piano playing, but also lots of talking, plus percussive rhythms on the body (of the...

Lou Harrison Scenes from Cavafy: Music for Gamelan (New World) I was lucky enough to spend some time with Lou Harrison in the year or two leading up to the premiere of “Rhythms with Silver,” the score he wrote for Mark Morris. Two of the gayest artists I’ve ever known, they had a natural affinity. Though he’s one of the most musically smart and sensitive choreographers out there, Morris seldom commissions new scores and so it was an especially great thing that he got Lou to write something for his company. While the commission and the premiere were in the offing, I remember Lou saying...

Nico Muhly “A Good Understanding,” Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon conductor (Decca) “I Drink The Air Before Me” (Decca/Bedroom Community) New music’s Boy Wonder Nico Muhly. It’s not enough that he landed a commission from the Metropolitan Opera while still in his 20s (Two Boys, premieres in London in June at the English National Opera and shows up in New York in the 2013-14 season), but now he’s also made a double debut on a major label. These two discs present varied sides of his music – choral works and a chamber score written for an evening of modern dance. null “A...

“Rapid Fire” is the name for a flute solo from early in the career of composer Jennifer Higdon, the recent Pulitzer Prize-winner. It’s also an apt description of her characteristic style. Two major works by her recently appeared on CD and though the performing forces on each are large, she still whips them into a frenzy. Higdon won the Pulitzer for her Violin Concerto, which was written for Hilary Hahn, who performs it on a new Deutsche Gramophone disc with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The three-movement score is grandly romantic in shape and form. But the opening movement,...

Music of the late Yvar Mikhashoff is being remembered. Fitfully and occasionally. But those who knew Yvar are surely grateful. And based on the stunning performance by Winston Choi in this new CD on Albany Records there are also new generations finding beauty and power in the music. Let me admit that I enjoyed the notes by Nils Vigeland, Yvar’s former student, a pianist and a director of the Mikahshoff Trust, as much as the music on the CD. Vigeland explains the pairing of Ravel’s “Gaspard de la Nuit” and Yvar’s most important composition, “Elemental Fragments.”...

Where would church music be without the centuries of contributions from gay men? Actually where would the church itself be, including the priesthood… but that’s another discussion. Virgil Thomson wrote his share of sacred music and a big batch of it is included in the new collection “Heaven is Music,” (Albany Records).  The performances by the Gregg Smith Singers are from throughout the choir’s long history, presumably drawn from both concerts and recording sessions. In the back of the CD booklet there’s a little caveat the about the mixture of digital and analog recordings. While...

One morning a month or two ago I was in the car and “The Writer’s Almanac” with Garrison Keillor came on the radio.  After the list of birthdays and such, the short segment ended, “And here’s a poem by Ricky Ian Gordon…” I wanted to shout out, “Wait! He’s a composer! He’s ours!” But the plain spoken sentiment, as well as the unique name, meant it had to be the same guy.  (“The Tulips,” the poem that Keillor read, is available on the Writer’s Almanac site.) More evidence of Gordon’s activity as a poet comes with the new disc of “Green Snakers” (Blue Griffin Recordings), ...