Most of Alexander Mosolov's music is filled with raging passion and dark colors, sadness, despair, longing, resignation, no resolution, and no triumph. Mosolov's reputation in the West rested, until quite recently, on a handful of orchestral works, in particular the 1928 Zavod (in English, The Iron Foundry) which Stokowski championed and Toscanini introduced to New York audiences, and whose hammering rhythms cast the composer as the "machine music" man, the very embodiment of Russian Constructivism. The characterization worked against Mosolov in his own, troubled, lifetime and has continued to obscure the diversity of his music.

The primary aim of ONCE’s founders—Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, George Cacioppo, Roger Reynolds, and Donald Scavarda—was to create a forum for the presentation of cutting-edge music. To this end they were phenomenally successful. Performers and composers—whether little-known or renowned—embraced the endeavor, demanding almost nothing in return. Perhaps most important, however, ONCE acted as a creative stimulus for its organizers. Scavarda describes the adventure as an explosion of pent-up energy: “Suddenly we could write anything we wanted and have it heard.” And they did. The ONCE composers—and many guest artists—wrote a host of new works, some experimental, others more traditional.

This album is dedicated to those who are inclined to branch out and explore new sounds but are hesitant to make the leap of faith. As a world-class percussionist, Evelyn Glennie's complex and meaty nature will appeal to the open-minded, and its moodiness and overall proficiency make it worthwhile for anyone else. Moods vary from dark and brooding to exhilarating and light (but never in-between, and always with an avant-garde edge). Not for all tastes for sure, but a compelling listen nonetheless.

On a lesser note, I regret to inform you that all my previous publications have gone up in flames with the demise of FTP2Share. This is a repost of one of the previous publications. Enjoy!

This important reissue of Babbitt, which was previously released on Koch label, is a very shrewdly, if not ideally, selected introduction to one of the most forbidding composers of the 20th century avant-garde movement.

John Cage is one of the giants of 20th century contemporary music. His composing, performing and philosophy are intertwined, and Cage has influenced innumerable composers and performers in classical, jazz and rock music. Cage has made a life's work out of music-as-sound and sound-as-music. This disc is a re-release of two albums from the mid-'60s of pieces Cage wrote in the late 1930s. Yuji Takahashi (himself a composer) plays "sonatas" for "prepared piano," an innovation by either Cage or Henry Cowell, where the piano has small objects inserted within to alter the sound. These pieces are short and sparse, with the piano producing tones similar to an mbira (African thumb piano) or a koto. The music is reminiscent of Erik Satie's piano music, but darker and more percussive, with a haunting, questing quality. Cage, with his (then) radical conceptions, "liberated" the piano from all the established notions of how it should sound, and open it―and music in general―to limitless possibilities.

The labyrinth-like density of the counterpoint juxtaposed by the complexity of the thematic relationships and the extraordinary logic with which everything is developed from the opening bar was ever to be the recurring theme of the la nuova scuola di Vienna. Yet the appeal behind their respective masterpiece is derived from the tension created by the co-existence of the bold and passionate contents and the self-effacing rigor of the form, the concentrated thematic invention and the austerely meditative lyricism. The expressive intensity of their work clearly reflects the tastes of the first decade of the 20th century.

For over fifty years Arthur Berger's output consisted of sturdily crafted pieces that reflected the mixed lineage of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Copland. Born in 1912 and raised in the Bronx, he first studied at City College and New York University, later at the Longy School of Music and at Harvard. ...

John Adams becomes more popular by the year with his compositions for large orchestra (Naive and Sentimental Music, On the Transmigration of Souls) and operas (Doctor Atomic and in a way El Nino) gaining justly increased performances, but Adams has another side―chamber works. ...

Nominated for 2007 Grammy Nominee as the Best Contemporary Composition, this highly anticipated recording presents first recordings of four major Elliott Carter compositions conducted by the distinguished British conductor, Oliver Knussen.

Grand Pianola Music (1982) is scored for a small orchestra of winds, percussion, sopranos, and two pianos, and has a light-hearted, humorous, and, at times, sharply parodistic edge. The work is something akin to a musical ex¬orcism: In it John Adams has brought together a variety of elements from his musical past, including the marches and band music he played in his youth, a touch of Gospel, some Beethovenian piano writing-and even a patently diatonic theme that is reworked until it becomes an archetypal minimalist figure. Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint, dedicated to Betty Freeman, is scored for three alto flutes, three flutes, and three piccolos, plus two solo lines in each of which the soloist plays, one at a time, all three instruments. For this recording, Ransom Wilson taped all nine ensemble parts plus one solo line, and then added the "live" solo line as the final touch.