Delia Casadei has a fine piece on George Crumb in the LA Times. It is especially nice to see the Songbooks getting such high profile performances, particularly by Upshaw and Hampson. (Nothing against Tony Arnold, who is quite fabulous and deserves the kind of recognition Upshaw and Hampson have achieved.) Dawn has narrowed down her list of composers a bit in recent years (as I know all too well), good to see George is still on that list. And Hampson’s advocacy of American music has tended toward more conservative composers.

It will be interesting to see what Sellars does in staging the pieces. A performance of one of these Songbooks involves a huge array of percussion that is already quite arresting, visually; I don’t know the Ojai stage, but I wonder how much room there will be – literally and psychically – for a staging.

I previously posted about George’s American Songbooks here. (photo: Peggy Peterson/Bridge Records)