aworks :: "new" american classical music

Mirabai Songs (1982). John Harbison /old first/

I just subscribed to a podcast produced by Rick Bahto for the San Francisco-based Old First Concerts, an excellent source of chamber and recital concerts.

I used to attend once or twice a year but somehow lost the habit (and fell off the mailing list). Hearing these podcasts will probably do more to remind me of this venue than all of those fall arts brochures I'm receiving combined.

I'm listening to Korean music right now to be followed by music from the likes of John Harbison and Marin Marais and performers such as the Del Sol Quartet and Kay Stern.

Quintet for Winds (1979). John Harbison.

Elizabeth Silsbury writes about an Adelaide concert including Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 5 "ear catching" and John Harbison's Quintet for Winds "embraced with gusto."

November 19, 1828 / John Harbison. (1988)

The inaugural Music@Menlo chamber music festival will have one concert (August 17 and in Palo Alto on August 18) focusing on contemporary music, including John Harbison's "November 19, 1828" for piano and string trio (1988).  Other works:

- Fancy on a Bach Air for solo cello (1997). John Corigliano.
- Four Movements for Piano Trio (1990). Bright Sheng.
- "Yiddishbuk" Inscriptions for string quartet (1992). Osvaldo Golijov.
- Aftermath for medium voice, violin, cello, and piano (2002). Ned Rorem.

Performers include Gilbert Kalish, Wu Han, Jorja Fleezanis, Ani Kavafian, Geraldine Walther, Carter Brey, David Finckel, the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Nathaniel Webster.