on deck
On deck in the next two weeks: Claire’s sure-to-be-amazing Avery Fisher debut, and ICE’s Mostly Mozart concert–with a fantastic program that includes Harrison Birtwistle’s Slow Frieze. Much excitement ahead.
August 6, 2010
July 4, 2010
thinking about Varèse
This Wednesday at 7 on WQXR 105.9, I’ll be playing on the radio with other members of ICE–an exciting preview event for ICE’s Varèse concert at Lincoln Center on July 19. The program will include a New York premiere of the composer’s two-piano, eight-hand version of Amériques, his first grand orchestral score. Check out the ICE Varèse blog here.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this amazing composer, whose influence will prove incalculable. In 1937, after most of the works for which Varèse would be known were already written, he said in an interview, “My work is the future. I’ve barely begun.” For Varèse, imagining the future was everything—and not just the subject of his music. The composer believed that it was one’s artistic duty to constantly invent. In the words of Feruccio Busoni—a fellow musical futurist, whose dictums Varèse committed to memory—“The function of the creative artist consists in making laws, not in following laws already made.”
This is what moves me most about Varèse’s music. I love to think about Varèse’s great successes as a composer alongside those projects that obsessed him but which he ultimately failed to realize. I love them both equally—to imagine the cello theremins of Ecuatorial as they might have been used in his constantly-reworked, unfinished science fiction opera (alternately called The Astronomer, The All-One-Alone, or Espace). Or hearing the fascinating, charged texts by Anaïs Nin in Nocturnal merged with the haunting sounds of Poéme Electronique. All these pieces, completed or not, represent a romantic vision of the future which is particular to Varèse. The man who reinvented himself and his music upon his journey to New York City in 1915 realized that America was just one frontier of many—a feeling thrillingly captured in Amériques, which for me is the ultimate hymn to adventure. Americas, plural—which America? There are so many new roads to take. Again from Busoni: “Music was born free and to win freedom its destiny.” Varèse imagined, he heard—and moved music forward.
June 11, 2010
summer of love
ICE will rule my summer, which is a great thing: there are a lot of incredibly exciting projects ahead. First up, a preview of the group’s upcoming tour to Darmstadt, on June 29 at (Le) Poisson Rouge. I’m not joining them on tour, but I’m playing for the preview event with the already-legendary JACK Quartet, suitably titled ICE/JACK.
But before that, we start rehearsals on Monday with Steven Schick conducting us for our upcoming Varése love-fest at Alice Tully Hall. This, especially, is a dream project for me–playing alongside not just the great brass and winds of ICE but also So Percussion, one of the greatest percussion bands on the planet. I’m already feeling Varése’s futurist energy as I practice these pieces, and better yet, I’m sharing his wonderment at New York City, as if I too were fresh off the boat.
April 25, 2010
good words
Thanks to the great Steve Smith for his Times review of Claire’s New York debut solo concert at Weill on Thursday night, in which I was honored to take part. The Boulez that night was one for the books, and I’ve never heard Claire do the Bach-Sciarrino transcription of the D-minor Toccata and Fugue better. Much partying afterwards.
April 14, 2010
showcase
For all you tri-staters: with Claire Chase and harpist Bridget Kibbey, I’m being broadcast this evening at 9 PM on WQXR radio’s Young Artist Showcase. I’m just playing on Claire’s Bach sonata, but there are very nice interview segments with us all and you get to hear Claire and Bridget’s brilliant playing. I also get a plug for Solitary and I talk for a bit about ICE education. After the broadcast, it’ll be archived here. Enjoy!
March 25, 2010
on the road again
I’m halfway through my tour week, and it’s been a really good, interesting one, with brilliant playing as usual from Claire. Tomorrow we’ll be playing at St. Bonaventure University in western New York state. It was great playing for high school students in Harrisburg, PA yesterday, and we enjoyed the radio chat on the hilariously named station WITF, which is here. (That’s me, “Jacob Greenberger.”) Thanks so much to all for hospitality and great comments through the week.
March 11, 2010
thanks to all
…for great feedback on Solitary. I’m thrilled that I got this one in the can finally.
I’m entering into the busiest period of my spring season. There’ll be a CD release event, very low-key, at the Park Avenue Christian Church next Thursday the 18th at 8 PM, and following that are solo concerts, my recital tour with Claire, and much else. All wackiness will ensue. But for now, back to practicing those Chopin Nocturnes.
February 5, 2010
NFR site
My solo disc is now available for pre-ordering. Oh happy day! The actual release date will be February 17; release event at the Park Avenue Christian Church shortly to follow, TBA. Please go to the New Focus site to order.
January 22, 2010
…and counting
I’m finally able to move on a bit here: the solo disc is done, and will be printed in the next few weeks. At Brandeis University next week, where Claire and I will give our first performances of Franco Donatoni’s piece Fili (Threads) for flute and piano. Also, happy to be enjoying some borderline-spring weather in Brooklyn.
January 7, 2010
on the fast track
Excited about being in Pittsburgh this weekend with ICE. We’re doing a concert at the Warhol Museum, and a residency at U of Pittsburgh with graduate student composers. It’ll be nice to get a change of pace.
Which is to say that the holiday wasn’t terribly relaxing. My solo disc is on the fast track towards completion in two weeks, with a lot of work still to be done on my end, and then I’ll just have to wait for the product to be mastered and shipped. My final session at Smith, this past Monday, was a busy one, and I’m busy editing as I write this.
