RIFF MARKET

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Each contributor to the 12 DAYS OF SPIDERRIFFMAS was told: OK I'll let you jump on a record, but listen Kite Runner! You got 35 minutes max. Because I do not want no Bonfire of the Vanitas like last year. So the only rule was: Thou shalt not write more than 35 minutes--capito? Also if anybody knows what happened to my man Don Pollyanna get at me! Also if anybody knows a good dentist-- FANG.

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YEAR IN RIFFS: PETER NELSON
Classical Music in 2007

So I've been hearing some conflicting facts about classical music these days:

"Classical music is dead!"

"Classical music is more alive than ever!"

"So classical music is both dead and alive like some sort of vampire-zombie?!?!"

"Have you played Quake? You can only kill zombies with explosives."

What to make of all this? I've boiled down all the hubbub to the absolute core essentials:

-Over 19,000 new classical music releases this year alone.

-Pregnant women listening to Mozart will give birth to babies that look a lot like Mozart.

-Yo-Yo Ma is still alive.

Even though none of these things is true, it still makes me optimistic for 2008.

Plus, here's my all-time top five classical music albums (revised for 2007):
1. Amadeus Soundtrack
2. Amadeus Gold Soundtrack
3. Amadeus Special Remaster Soundtrack
4. Amadeus [listening to the DVD audio with the TV turned off]
5. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

In sum, I present you with some notable happenings of classical music's 2007:

-Philip Glass' new composition, The Book of Longing, was set to the poetry of Leonard Cohen.

-Electric violinist Tracy Silverman played concerts of John Adams' ethereal The Dharma at Big Sur.

-Dawn Upshaw sang again and received a MacArthur grant.

-Twenty-six year old sensation Gustavo Dudamel took the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

-New Yorker critic Alex Ross released his much-anticipated, expansive, and inordinately sage The Rest Is Noise.

-Choral composer Morten Lauridsen was recognized with a National Medal of Arts.

-Zarin Mehta announced the New York Philharmonic will be cultural ambassadors to Pyongyang.

-András Schiff played and talked about all 32 Beethoven sonatas for The Guardian, who released these lectures for free online.

-The passings of Stockhausen, Rostropovich, Sills, and Pavarotti were mourned.

97 S'FANGS

Labels: year-in-riffs-2007