Hlne Grimaud Transforms The Recital?

Hélène Grimaud transforms the recital?

Well I don’t know if she has or not but she’s certainly doing something very lovely and I don’t care whether it’s an innovation or not. From Medici, here is the blurb:

Hélène Grimaud transforms the genre of the recital, integrating a performance of solo piano works by Romantic and Impressionist composers with a multimedia experience. Her recital is interwoven with the recorded music of composer Nitin Sawhney, and set against the backdrop of visual artist Mat Hennek's photography. The film presented here takes the live experience to the next level by interpreting the original performance through the birds-eye view of the filmmakers, more directly connecting the viewer with the artists and their creations.

By giving full weight to the visual interjections (“transitions” they call them here), it brings to my mind something that is vital to the live experience. As I’ve long ago encountered and answered the question, via Gould, what is added in the event of live performance? Other than obviously a great majority (we must assume) of performers prefer it to the studio for the *joie de schwing* it brings to their playing, the human connection and all that booshwha. Well, unless (maybe) it’s a great grand orchestra in a great hall with three full choirs, my answer is: nothing. Or unless your only home sound source is a pocket radio (and with today’s technology even that doesn’t necessarily mean the sound is flat or tinny). I will grant the sanctification of the studied moment, the expressly non-multithreaded focus on an experience (never absolute, but intentional and respectful of the work and yourself), and grant too that this is not the same as putting on background music while you work at other tasks. But the theatre Ms Grimaud is staging here is of a different order, subtly, one that increases the spectacle while decreasing the spectacular. Sea change? Probably not. But she’s bringing the century-and-a-half old form into territory occupied mostly by newer music performance formats and, whatever the Hamburgers in the Elbphilharmonie might have thought, I think it’s delightful.

Today (Glenn Gould’s birthday!) is the release date for my new album, The French Suite Kit, vol. 1. You can stream it free from all major platforms (iTunes aka Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc), or support independent music and buy directly from my website! I'll be happy to include both vols. 1 and 4 as a two for one! Thanks for listening. (Make sure you click on the CD+Download button, otherwise I won't get your mailing address!) craigswanson.com https://www.instagram.com/p/CFkOVaYAgif/?igshid=eabkxo1u9tjz

This is sad beyond belief... I hope it backfires on them.

Atonal music to win the fight against German drunks?

Atonal music to win the fight against German drunks?

Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles 1948, photo by Florence Homolka

Schoenberg on the metro? It will soon be a reality in Berlin, but not to calm passengers’ nerves… or grate on them.

Drug dealers, drunks and the homeless are a problem in Berlin’s underground passages and Deutsche Bahn’s solution is to play atonal music to encourage them to leave. Schoenberg would have been disheartened – though…

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I suppose Scriabin’s 4th piano sonata is my favorite from the set, if you can call it a set, yes why not let’s call it a set. This fellow, Roman Rofalski, takes a fragment of the main tune and lets fly with his trio. Enjoy.

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Each to their own.

Aphex Twin’s swinging piano

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