Tag: Christmas

Christmas Break Reading List

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I’m presently quite absorbed by the new Harvey Sachs biography of Toscanini, but also in progress or waiting to be opened are Leonard Slatkin’s Leading Tones (which includes amusing anecdotes and astonishing stats on the premieres that man has given - what a contribution to the field!) and Fred Hersch’s Good Things Happen Slowly. Then there is the reading in prep for the grad course I will be doing next semester: George Perle, Douglas Jarman and Dave Headlam on Berg, and David Schiff’s unique The Ellington Century. I’ve been reading and re-reading Perle since I studied with him decades ago, always with pleasure and profit and not a little awe at his command of the material; but there is also much to learn from Jarman and Headlam.

Let me repost a couple of seasonal links:  a reminder to work on your eartraining at Christmas time, as well as a Christmas cookie recipe in the manner of the Roman Missal.

Within the Octave of Christmas

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No, not that kind of octave. We are presently within the Octave of Christmas, liturgically speaking. Therefore I am not too late with a couple of Christmas items:

- go here for the Christmas gift of a download from The Crossing.

- so how did you spend your Christmas Day? In 1952, you could have spent Christmas evening at Carnegie Hall with Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic, which offered the following as light holiday fare: a Sinfonia from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio; the Corelli Concerto Grosso “Fatto per la Notte di Natale”; and… the Bruckner 8th Symphony. You think I’m kidding? check out the program here.

One non-Christmas item: the Penn music department will be putting on a concert of music by Penn composers January 11, 8:00 pm, at Rose Recital Hall in Fisher-Bennett Hall, 34th and Walnut Streets, here in Philadelphia. The 8th Quartet of Richard Wernick will be featured, played by the Daedalus Quartet, as well as music by Jay Reise, Matthew Schreibeis, and Anna Weesner as well as myself. More details on performers and the pieces to be posted in the coming days; for now, a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year to all - see you in 2013.