Philip van Wilder News
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2024-04-23
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2024-04-01 03:30:00
Duruflé: Requiem; Poulenc: Four Lenten Motets (CD Review)
[…] admired something in Miles’s playing because Miles heard all these things, you know. He quoted a lot of beautiful melodies.SL: From Western Classical music?JM: Yeah. Oh yeah.SL: OK. I didn’t know that.JM: Oh yeah, man. All of those influences, you know?SL: And what about, I know you mentioned Stravinsky?JM: Oh, well of course. Yeah.SL: That goes without saying.JM: Yeah, and Bartok, you know, those guys. And there’s another guy that I liked a lot, Alec Wilder. This guy really touches me, man.SL: The tunes you wrote in the early 50s, they all have such a modern feel to them.JM: Uh huh.SL: You know, “Dr. Jackle,” “Little Melonae,” even this tune on that album with George Wallington…"Snakes.”JM: “Snakes,” yeah. Well, that was after I had listened to Stravinsky and them cats.
2023-12-25 02:05:00
Last month, I reviewed San Francisco Symphony playing Steven Stucky's orchestral arrangement of Stravinsky's great ballet score Les Noces. Stravinsky struggled over how, exactly, to orchestrate the work, and in 1923 eventually settled on four pianos and percussion. But before that, in 1917, he created a version for woodwinds, brass, strings, harp, piano, harpsichord & cimbalom. In the 1980s, Peter Eötvös recorded this version as well as the 1923 version.A friend was kind enough to lend me his copy - I'll probably buy it eventually - and it makes interesting listening. It is considerably more astringent and Stravinsky-like than Stucky's too-soft orchestration, and of course it's by Stravinsky and sounds and works better than the Stucky. It's not entirely successfully; the trumpet playing what eventually became piano glissandos just isn't as good as the pianos, for example. If you want to hear this version, and it is certainly interesting, someone has uploaded it to a […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2023-12-19 16:22:40
Locke’s List for 2023: Notable Operatic Recordings Plus
[…] Handel’s oft-performed Serse (i.e., Xerxes), entirely Italian, is treated this year to a splendid recording that features two utterly marvelous sopranos, Mary Bevan and Lucy Crowe, under the responsive baton of Harry Bicket. Other Baroque operas that proved entertaining and enlightening were L’Idalma by Bernardo Pasquini (best known for his “cuckoo” piece for organ, gloriously orchestrated by Respighi in the Ancient Airs and Dances), Cavalli’s L’Egisto (featuring two remarkable and distinctive tenors: the lighter Zachary Wilder—a favorite of Boston audiences—and the darker Marc Mauillon), Lully’s Psyché (which is full of colorful details, including music for giants hammering at anvils, two centuries before Wagner, though of course the percussion here is more modest than the actual anvils in the Ring Cycle), and Rameau’s Zoroastre, featuring astonishingly accomplished performances by Jodie Devos, Véronique Gens (again!), Gwendoline Blondeel, Mathias Vidal, and Tassis Christoyannis. Classic era: From the mid to late 1700s, we got […]
2023-11-17 05:00:00
Bainbridge, Lloyd, Simpson, Vaughan Williams, Welsh Favourites & Tuba Concertos (Horenstein, Penny, Tilson Thomas et al)
[…] Coastal Command. Suite [22'31]17 - 19 Three Portraits from The England of Elizabeth [16'20]RTE Concert Orchestra conducted by Andrew PennyMarco Polo 8.223665 [recorded November 1993; CD issued 2000][digital download; flacs, cover, booklet and inlay scans]Recording venue: National Concert Hall, Dublin, IrelandRecording engineer: Simon Rhodes; Producer: Chris CrakerTuba Concertos:01 - 03 Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Concerto for Bass Tuba in F minor [13'26]04 William Lovelock (1899-1986): Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra [13'59]05 - 10 Alec Wilder (1907-1981) (arr. Rosenthal): Tuba Suite No. 1 'Effie the Elephant' [13'10]11 - 13 Michael Kenny (1939-): Tuba Concerto [14'53]14 - 17 Christer Danielsson (1942-1989): Concertante Suite for tuba and four horns [13'05]Peter Whish-Wilson- tuba, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by David StanhopeABC Classics 4765251 [recorded April and June 2001; first CD issue 2006][digital download; flacs, cover and booklet scans - inlay from later reissue]Recording venue: Adelaide Town Hall, South AustraliaRecording Engineer: Wayne Baker; Producer: Kevin […]
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- timeline: Composers (Europe). Performers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): W...