I met Steve Beresford last week, although he only introduced himself as Steve and I didn't know who he was at the time: he was on his way into Broadcasting House with Michael Finnissy to record a review of John Tilbury's new Cardew biography. I didn't hear much of the broadcast as I was on the phone to my mum talking about my own 35 minutes of fame, but it can be Listened Again here I believe (I may do so myself later this afternoon, when I've finished spinning the already-uploaded recording of the new Wieland Hoban piece, in memoriam Witold Kiełtyka, that premiered last Friday in Freiburg with the composer himself doing the rather noisy honours on drumkit).

It's turning out to be a busy month for live concerts. I've already heard two deeply impressive Stockhausen concerts this weekend - report on Glanz and Orchester-finalisten to follow shortly on the appropriate thread - and plan to be back for more on Friday (Freude and Cosmic Pulses, plus the FURT which I didn't know about till now) and Saturday (Drei Lieder, Urantia and the complete chamber-orchestra version of Tierkreis), with a brief but eagerly-anticipated non-Stockhausen interlude for the much-vaunted Libra Duo at the Warehouse on Thursday.

Yesterday saw James Clapperton playing Ives' Piano Sonata no 2 ('Concord, Mass.') to my students, which seemed incredibly appropriate both in terms of fireworks and in terms of the US election. It was an amazing performance, and he was sweating buckets when he finished. I find it interesting to hear different details emerging from yesterday's performance that I hadn't heard before on Gilbert Kalish's recording (listened to obsessively 2002-3, and a regular disc to be spun since then), but where Kalish's performance tends (IMO) towards an impressionistic portrait at times, James's performance was more analytical. The end result was that sometimes I felt that the sense of flow and exuberance suffered (not helped by the piano, which has a heavy bass and a rather brittle treble register) BUT the sheer level of detail that came across was staggering, and the control over the texture came pretty near orchestration at times.

In the evening I went to see the Hebrides Ensemble playing Lutoslawski, Bucolics; Suckling, Aotromachd/Lightness (WP); Berio, Duetti (selection); Respighi, Il Tramonto; Benjamin, Three Inventions for solo violin; and Schoenberg, String Quartet no 2.
I'm familiar with the recordings of the Berio, but the last two they played (6. BRUNO (Maderna) and 24. ALDO (Bennici)) were particularly fine. I found myself incredibly excited listening to them get quieter and quieter in ALDO and felt myself swelling with happiness just to hear such a wonderful sound. The Suckling had some very very nice writing in it, but I think I'd have to hear it again before making any comment about how it all hung together. I hadn't heard the Respighi before and found it a bit over-long and under-varied. Pretty though. I enjoyed the Benjamin, and he's not my favourite composer. I have to say I was prepared to hate it but was pleasantly surprised, especially in the first and last movements. The Schoenberg was pretty good, but not my favourite performance that I've seen (that goes to the Ardittis with Claron McFadden). It does me good to remind myself what a wonderful piece it is from time to time.

Oh yes. We're hopefully getting him back next term.



You do RC.
He says that he particularly associates the Concord with Mikhashoff.

I believe so. We didn't have enough time to talk about it yesterday but his biog includes this paragraph:

Well I've had enough experiences with his music where I was prepared to like it but was unpleasantly surprised (does that Long Legged Fly piece ever end?)... It sort of colours one's expectations.

This afternoon I went to see Artur Pizarro play Book 1 of Debussy's Preludes and (with the SCO Ensemble) Schubert's 'Trout' quintet.
The Debussy was quite lovely - transparent. He had a lovely touch and a marvellous control of the pedal. There were a few moments where I think he was too precise and controlled but there were some nice structural articulations (and demonstrations of clear analytical thought) and an absolutely gorgeous pp. I did feel that the top end of the dynamic range was missing. He very rarely got anywhere near to ff, and La cathedrale engloutie underwhelmed me when it finally came to the surface. While all the pieces were extremely lucid and beautiful, the performance as a whole lacked (IMO) coherence. I was left wondering if the Preludes work as a concert item, or if this was just down to the pianist not having thought about them as a set.
The 'Trout' was a disappointment. All very well played, but it didn't really work for me. The violinist's instrument didn't have a tone colour that blended with the rest of the ensemble, and I just got the feeling that while their ability to play together was astounding (there were times when I thought that one player was double-stopping a passage, when in fact they were playing in rhythmic unison with another) but I couldn't feel any joy or energy coming from them. I think that there's an important distinction between a chamber music performance and playing the notes, and I really didn't feel that distinction was being made this afternoon. Which was a shame. I love the 'Trout' and remember how a group of my classmates played through the whole thing for a giggle when I was 18. I wouldn't say I go out of my way to hear it, but I was looking forward to hearing it and went away disappointed.

Oops. But I've never heard a pianist who's superb at everything.

For example the fact that the Mr Smith you're talking about and the Mr Smith autoharp is talking about cannot be the same person since the latter is very much alive.