Perfect music to cook by tonight
In the latest New Yorker, classical critic and The Rest is Noise blogger Alex Ross on Carnegie Hall's run of diverse orchestras in early 2010:
Perhaps, in this cost-conscious time, it makes economic sense to stick with the warhorses, yet one of the loudest ovations of the month went to the New York Philharmonic, when it presented the American première of Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto. The Finnish clarinettist Kari Kriikku gave a transcendent virtuoso performance, raucous and rhapsodic by turns, and Alan Gilbert and the orchestra supported him avidly. Afterward, there was a surprised buzz in the auditorium as listeners confessed to loving a sometimes furiously dissonant piece. It was auspicious to see the formerly backward-looking Philharmonic embracing new music amid a slew of greatest hits.
This blog never claims classical music knowledge, but the breeze from outside, the steam from the pumpkin inside and the sun setting on the neighborhood trees, bare but not for much longer, tell me everything I need to know tonight. A clarinet's fitful range makes spring inevitable.
