Thursday, December 20, 2007

Puhutko Suomea?

'Twas a good day for Finnish music.

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus, Symphony no. 5, Anadyomene (Adoration of Aphrodite), On the Last Frontier
Kaija Saariaho - Cinq reflets, Nymphea Reflection, Oltra Mar
Magnus Lindberg - Clarinet Concerto
Joonas Kokkonen - Symphony no. 4, Requiem

And because you simply can't have a Finnish music day without Sibelius...

Kullervo, Op. 7.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Stockhausen est mort

Karlheinz Stockhausen died last week. It's interesting that I didn't find out about it until Sunday. Anyway, there's a good obit from the LA Times here. You can also check out Alex Ross' blog entry here.

Stockhausen the man came with a lot of personal baggage. But if one can separate the man (and the cult of the man) Stockhausen from the composer one can recognise that he was an incredible force of creation. Admittedly I don't know as much of his music as perhaps I should. And I'm not sure I would begin to think about appropriating (for fear of misunderstanding) many of his ideas about music for quite some time. If ever.

I've been planning for awhile now to know more of his music. I suppose there's no time like the present. I also need to return to the music I have heard and listen to it again for the first time.