It's day two of my seven day free Rhapsody trial. Music on demand on the iPhone is great. Selection on Rhapsody is great. The website is woefully inferior to lala, has no social features of note, and plays aren't "scrobbled" to my last.fm account. Overall, I'm still enthused.
After Philip Glass yesterday, this evening it's Ned Rorem. Browsing Rhapsody by genre, Classical / 20th/21-st Century / Twenty-First Century gets me a list of key albums, including Ned Rorem's Symphonies on Naxos. To be honest, I'm surprised this is listed as such a notable album for the decade.
Rorem is an 85-year-old composer; I'm not sure he is still composing or writing although Wikipedia suggests he is writing a sax concerto for Branford Marsalis. The composer on the movements in his third symphony:
I is a Passacaglia in C, a slow overture in the grand style. II was written originally for two pianos eight years before the rest, and incorporated as the second movement of the symphony. It is a brisk and jazzy dance. III is a short, passionate page about somnambulism, full of dynamic contrast, and coming from afar. IV is a farewell to France. V is a long and fast Rondo, in itself a Concerto for Orchestra.
Hmm, I wonder if his Paris Diary is available on Kindle so I can re-read it?
aworks: rhapsody mind expansion. lala: symphonies. last.fm: recent "scrobbled" listens. rhapsody: key 21st century albums. wikipedia: ned rorem.
symphony no. 3 tags:
c-works. 
symphony. 
fifties. 
flutey. 
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