The concert hall in the woods just outside Woodstock is fondly known as The Maverick. But its summer presentations are often rather traditional servings of chamber music and solo recitals. This Saturday night, pianist Pedja Muzijevic will present a program wildly varied enough to be described as mavericky. Along with Schumann’s “Carnaval” and some little sonatas by Scarlatti, there will be transcriptions of Wager and...

Tchaikovsky Spectacular Albany Symphony Orchestra, David Alan Miller, conductor with Joshua Roman, cello Palace Theatre, Albany, NY April 23, 2010 Spectacular. Advertising copywriters often use that adjective to describe concerts of Tchaikovsky, especially when his 1812 Overture is performed, with or without real cannons. The Albany Symphony Orchestra’s “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” Friday night at the Palace Theatre didn’t...

“A guerrilla is someone who is sacrificing his life… Without blood there is no cause… I use (the term) Gay Guerrilla in the hopes that I might be one if called upon.” – Julius Eastman After Julius Eastman’s never-fully explained death in 1990, his legacy was thought to be lost.   Four years ago he was rescued from obscurity by the release “Unjust Malaise” (New World Records)....

Big classical music institutions (i.e. symphonies and opera companies) have long been on the Stephen Sondheim bandwagon and the occasion of his 80th birthday year (which is today–3/22/10) has been a great excuse for them to further horn in on the musical theatre domain, where the composer has excelled. But one classical pianist, Anthony de Mare, has come up with a fresh approach to celebrating Sondheim.  About five years...

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...

Ten years ago pianist Christopher O’Riley needed something to play as filler for the “station identification” breaks during the first season of “From the Top,” the weekly syndicated radio show about young musicians.  He started dabbling with piano arrangements of songs by Radio Head, the alternative rock band.  His imaginative treatments of the music — ruminative, stirring and colorful — opened up an...

“The Other Mendelssohn” is the name of musicologist R. Larry Todd’s latest book, a thorough-going biography of Fanny Mendessohn Hensel that uncovers lots of unknown material, perhaps most importantly about the large number of her own works as a composer. If you’re currently busy surfing the web, then you may be like me and not have sat down, turned off the media and read a good music biography in more...

Macho star of the Bourne film franchise Matt Damon will play the gay lover of Liberace in a Steven Soderbergh film slated for 2012. As previously announced, Michael Douglas has been cast as the most flamboyant pianist in history. “God bless Matt. Hey, it’s easy for me – he’s in his prime,” says Douglas to Sun Media of Canada. “I said to him, ‘Matt, I love you, man. Boy, that Bourne must really...

“Horowitz once said that there were three types of pianist: Jewish, gay, and bad,” writes Stephen Hough on his blog for The Telegraph.  The entry was prompted by a a listener and psychologist who sensed gayness in Hough’s playing and delved deeper. Continues Hough, “Was the earlier age of repression and illegality – the fear of policemen waiting at the dressing room door – a reason for the loneliness...

Apparently Earl Wild lived up to his name.  The virtuoso pianist who died on January 22 at age 94 was out for most of his life, and promiscuous with music as well as men, though he is survived by a partner of 38 years Michael Rolland Davis. Wild’s repertoire was enormous and his performance style grandly romantic.  He transcribed all kinds of things for the piano and also composed.  And to those taken into confidence...