The Essential Igor Stravinsky

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Contents: Fireworks, op. 4; The Firebird (excerpts); Petrushka (excerpts); Part 1 from The Rite of Spring; Suite no. 1 for small orchestra; Ragtime for 11 instruments; Marche Royale and Petit Concert from The Soldier's Tale; Piano Rag Music; Pulcinella (excerpts); I. Sinfonia, from Octet for Winds; III. Allegro, from Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments; Part 1 from Symphony of Psalms; IV. Capriccio, from Concerto in D for violin and orchestra; Pastorale; "First deal" from Jeu de cartes; I. Tempo giusto, from "Dumbarton Oaks"; III. Allegretto, from Symphony in C; The Star-Spangled Banner (arr. Stravinsky); I. Intrada, from Four Norwegian Moods; Circus Polka; Scherzo a la russe; III. Con moto, from Symphony in Three Movements; I. Allegro moderato, from Ebony Concerto; Epilogue, Act II, Scene 3, from The Rake's Progress; Tango; Greeting Prelude; II. Ma tu, cagion di quella, from Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum; Elegy for J.F.K.; Fanfare for a New Theatre; Requiem Canticles (excerpts); The Owl and the Pussycat; Stravinsky in his own words (narrated by John McClure).

Man Man: Rabbit Habits

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Contents: Mister Jung stuffed — Hurly burly — The ballad of butter beans — Big trouble — Mysteries of the universe unraveled — Doo right — Easy eats or dirty doctor galapagos — Harpoon fever (Queequegs playhouse ) — El Azteca — Rabbit habits — Top drawer — Poor Jackie — Whale bones.
Crystal Nicholson wrote in the Village Voice: "The Philadelphia band Man Man is known more for its onstage fashion stylings — mostly white tennis outfits and war paint — than for the (debatable) listenability of its albums, both of which have often been compared to Captain Beefheart or the late, great Frank Zappa. Taking experimental music to its lab-destroying conclusion, Man Man rode the rodent path to fame by opening for Modest Mouse in 2007. Expect this indie quartet to give you, at its most harmless, the grinding erraticisms of a dying circus, and, at its most manic, horn-fueled paranoia coupled with the vocal wanderings of a kindergarten Rain Man on a sugar high" ("Who's the Man Man?," 4/9-15/08).

Chopin: 24 Preludes (Grigory Sokolov, pianist)

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Michael Kimmelman wrote in the New York Times: "BERLIN — On Tuesday evening the Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov played, as he does dozens of times a year throughout Europe, to an ecstatic, sold-out house. It filled the Kammermusiksaal here. … He's a star on this side of the Atlantic. … Classical music is supposedly universal. Language may still be a cultural barrier for writers and actors. Even visual artists, depending on the subjects they choose, won’t necessarily translate abroad. That Mr. Sokolov, whose talent is beyond dispute, disproves this notion should remind us not only of our persistent parochialism but also of our delusions about technology. The Web, on which he can be found on YouTube, giving astonishing performances, clearly doesn’t substitute for hearing him live. Neither do discs, which, as a perfectionist, he stopped issuing in 1995 (this partly explains his American situation), although years ago Mr. Sokolov’s recordings sent me hunting for a chance to hear him in person. On one of those discs he played Chopin’s 24 Preludes with great sensitivity" ("When Fame Can't Cross the Atlantic," 4/17/08).

Rickie Lee Jones: Rickie Lee Jones

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Contents: Chuck E.'s in love — On Saturday afternoons in 1963 — Night train — Young blood — Easy money — The Last Chance Texaco — Danny's all-star joint — Coolsville — Weasel and the white boys cool — Company — After hours (Twelve bars past goodnight).
Sample lyrics: "Every time, he don't stutter when he talk/ And it's true! it's true!/ He sure is acquired a cool and inspired sorta jazz when he walk. … Chuck E's in love."
Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin wrote in the Huffington Post: "Singer-songwriter and two-time Grammy winner Rickie Lee Jones was born in Chicago, one of four children. Jones has described her family as 'lower-middle-class-hillbilly-hipster.' She is reported to have been a solitary child with a deep imagination, whose father taught her to sing. When you listen to her, you have to turn off your cell phone, your BlackBerry, your iPhone, the TV, and listen, just listen. 'The Last Chance Texaco' is a gift. Her 1979 debut album, Rickie Lee Jones, produced by Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman, is astounding" ("Dog Ears Music: Volume Seventeen," 4/11/08).

Imani Winds: The Classical Underground

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The Westport Minuteman wrote: "Imani Winds includes Valerie Coleman, flute; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe; Mariam Adam, clarinet; Jeff Scott, French horn; and Monica Ellis, bassoon. One of the many unique aspects of the Imani Winds is that two of the musicians are also highly regarded composers. … Ms. Coleman (b. 1970) is the resident composer, founder and flutist of Imani Winds and is on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music Advancement Program. Jeff Scott (b. 1978) frequently composes for the group, as well as creating original transcriptions, arrangements and adaptations for the quintet. Since 1997, Imani Winds has been enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire with European, American, African and Latin American traditions. These unabashedly adventurous musicians have carved out a distinct presence in the classical music world with their dynamic playing and culturally poignant programming. Their excellence and influences have been recognized with numerous awards including the 2007 ASCAP Award" ("WAC Presents Imani Winds, Composers Project," 4/24/08).

Disfear: Live the Storm

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Contents: Get it off — Fiery father — Deadweight — The cage — The furnace — Live the storm — Testament — In exodus — Maps of war — Phantom. Recorded, engineered and mixed by Kurt Ballou at Godcity July/August 2007.
Zach Baron wrote in the Village Voice: "In 1989, four Swedish teenagers with a shared love of Discharge, the pioneering English hardcore band, and of D-beat, the galloping musical style that Discharge helped invent, formed a band of their own, calling it, in homage, Disfear. Throughout the ensuing lineup changes — including the addition of Tomas Lindberg, the former vocalist of the legendary death-metal band At the Gates — and the recent death of their longtime producer, Mieszko Talarczyk, the band has persevered. Disfear’s fifth studio album, Live the Storm, came out in February and was dedicated to Talarczyk. The record’s palpable fury is a more-than-fitting elegy for their fallen friend: After nearly 20 years, the band’s never sounded fiercer or more alive" (4/9-15/08, p. 47).

Finzi: Dies Natalis; Romance for Strings

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Contents: Gerald Finzi: Romance for string orchestra, op. 11; Dies Natalis, op. 8: Intrada, Rhapsody (Recitativo stromentato), The Rapture (Danza), Wonder (Arioso), The Salutation (Aria); William Walton: Sonata for string orchestra (1972). Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London, 13 October 2007.
Personnel: Scottish Ensemble, Jonathan Morton, artistic director; Toby Spence, tenor.
Gerald Larner writes in the accompanying booklet: "[W]hile the Intrada could be interpreted as [a] loving tribute to the West Country, the rest of Dies Natalis transcends the contemplation of a favourite landscape to reflect a vision of nature seen in enchanted innocence by the eyes of a child unaware of sin and untainted by cynicism. Based on the writings of the seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Thomas Traherne — whose major works, the Poems and the prose Centuries of Meditation, were discovered only at the end of the nineteenth century — the four vocal movements were assembled over a period of more than a dozen years" (pp. 3-4).

The Raconteurs: Consolers of the Lonely

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Personnel: The Raconteurs (Patrick Keeler, Brendan Benson, Jack White III, Jack L.J. Lawrence); with additional musicians. Produced by Jack White III and Brendan Benson.
Contents: Consoler of the lonely — Old enough — The switch and the spur — You don't understand me — Salute your solution — Hold up — Many shades of black — Carolina drama — These stones will shout — Rich kid blues — Pull this blanket off — Attention — Five on the five — Top yourself. Recorded Feb. 2008 at Blackbird Studio D, Nashville, TN onto magnetic tape.
"[Coffeepot:] Kernal, I think this new Raconteurs ceedee is better than their first. … [Wild-eyed man:] I'd have to agree with you, my reliant appliance friend … in fact, it's one of the best to come out this year, and it's been an astonishing year thus far! The music industry may be in a slump, but it sounds as if the musicians are having a ball! Jack White and Brendan Benson put on twin guitar clinics. …" ("Stripwax: The World's First and Only Comic Record Review," New Haven Advocate, 4/3/08, p. 37).

Hilary Hahn: Schoenberg, Sibelius Violin Concertos

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Personnel: Hilary Hahn, violin; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Ms. Hahn writes in the accompanying booklet: "Schoenberg's musical language … intrigued me with its expressive range. I asked about solo pieces and learned of a violin concerto … legendary for its unplayability. … Typically, when I buy a new score, I save it for a rainy day. In this case, I didn't want to wait, and it's a good thing I didn't. This was unlike any other piece I'd studied. It was, physically speaking, quite demanding; to play certain passages, I had to train my hands to adopt positions completely new to me. Excited by both the novelty of the writing and its musical possibilities, I proposed this recording to my record company. My first performances were still a couple of years away; it took me all that time to be able to play the piece comfortably up to Schoenberg's tempi — to the oft-ignored tempi printed in the score, that is. At the time of my first performance, I knew that the concerto would speak well for itself, but I didn't know what the public reaction would be. As it turned out, in the 21st century, the Schoenberg was a hit."

Joe Jackson: Rain

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Dave McKenna wrote in the Washington Post: "Joe Jackson began changing his pose from an angry nerd to a romantic nerd in the early 1980s. Fans cheered for both personas at the 9:30 club on Thursday. Most of the set came from either Jackson's new disc, 'Rain,' or his early '80s commercial peak, 'Night and Day.' Now 53, Jackson flaunted his multiple personalities by carving a medley out of the old and bitter 'Cancer' (with its what's-the-use hook: 'Everything gives you cancer / There's no cure / There's no answer") and his new 'King Pleasure Time,' a tune that preaches the gospel of fun. He described the late-model 'A Place in the Rain' as being 'angry and humorous and romantic all at the same time.' Jackson, who sat behind a grand piano throughout the roughly 90-minute set, is touring with a duo that he and his audience know well: He's played with bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton since his breakout 'Look Sharp!' tour in 1979 (though Houghton did take a 22-year leave of absence from the gig beginning in 1980)" ("Music: Joe Jackson," 4/12/08).

Tony Scherr: Twist in the Wind

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Christopher Arnott wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "He’s a veteran jazz bassist, a longtime member of both Bill Frisell’s band and Sex Mob who also used to be one of John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. Now he’s got a second career as a guitar-based singer-songwriter. … Scherr’s brother Peter … is a noted composer and bassist. … [I]n New Haven in the 1970s … [the] brothers had a garage band 'under many names.' … [H]e credits his Connecticut upbringing, including hours spent listening to FM album rock on the once-revolutionary WPLR, for inspiring the direction his own music’s taken. … On Twist in the Wind, he does Cheap Trick’s 'I Want You to Want Me' in a soft, gentle acoustic style reminiscent of Joao Gilberto. He intones the lyrics with reverence: '"I’ll shine up the old brown shoes. Put on a brand-new shirt. I’ll get home early from work if you say that you love me." That’s a Brazilian love song if I ever heard one.' Scherr’s own songs call to mind the similarly scratchy vocals and scratched souls of artists like Freedy Johnston, Joe Henry and Randy Newman, but with plenty of lyrical surprises and uncompromising arrangements."

Featured Book: Genre in Popular Music by Fabian Holt

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Mr. Holt writes in Chapter Two, "Roots and Refigurations": "O Brother did indeed boost the popularity of musics that were largely unknown to younger generations. The soundtrack went platinum and was on both the country and pop charts for years. In 2002 alone, it sold 2,736,000 copies, making it the no. 10 album in sales in the United States that year, and by the spring of 2003 it had passed 7,000,000. Fan Web sites, newsgroups, commercial vendors, record labels, magazines, and newspapers devoted a lot of attention to the film and the soundtrack. A publicity Web site for the soundtrack was set up by the label at http://www.obrothermusic.com/, and that was of course accompanied by other forms of publicity produced by the corporate apparatus of Universal. The soundtrack was released on Mercury in Nashville and moved in 2001 to the new label Lost Highway Records, which is based in Nashville and also owned by Universal. … This was not the first time a film had jump-started a revival of musics of the white southern working class. Bonnie and Clyde (1967), for instance, also gave bluegrass a new image" (p. 38).

Handel: Messiah

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Contents: George Frideric Handel, Messiah, Foundling Hospital version (1754). Recorded at St. Jude-on-the-Hill, London, and released in 1990.
Performers: Judith Nelson, Emma Kirkby, sopranos; Carolyn Watkinson, contralto; Paul Elliott, tenor; David Thomas, bass; Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; Academy of Ancient Music; Christopher Hogwood, conductor.
Anthony Hicks wrote in the accompanying booklet: "By happy chance this first recording of Messiah with original forces can be accompanied with a note taking account of newly discovered correspondence between Handel's librettist Charles Jennens and his friend the classical scholar Edward Holdsworth. … ("Origins and the Present Performance," p. 6).
Allan Kozinn wrote in the New York Times: "My favorite recording of Handel's 'Messiah' is Christopher Hogwood's, with its spare textures, period instruments and a boys' choir. …" ("Not Highfalutin, but Highly Satisfying Indulgences," 2/8/08).

Megadeth: United Abominations

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Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "Dave Mustaine, the guitarist, singer and leader of the metal band Megadeth, has written a lot of songs with two guitars in mind, and he’s been through 10 or so other guitarists during the band’s 25 years. The newest, Chris Broderick, formerly of Jag Panzer and Nevermore, is on tour with the band for the third installment of Gigantour, the no-nonsense, five-band metal caravan with Megadeth as the headline act. Mr. Broderick is a good one. … Otherwise, Megadeth is Megadeth. Long ago it opened up its basic thrash wide enough to bring in a dark, dramatic pop sensibility and to encompass Mr. Mustaine’s wordy cynicism, which goes beyond metal’s generalized, horror-fiction, life-is-pain stance into international politics and specific daily inequities. Its most recent album, from last year, is 'United Abominations' (Roadrunner), whose title song goes after the United Nations mercilessly. From that record, the band played 'Gears of War,' an ultraviolent song that appears to promote nonviolence, and 'Burnt Ice,' about methamphetamine withdrawal" ("Thrash …," 4/24/08).

White Out: China Is Near

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Brad Cohan wrote in the Village Voice: "Tom Surgal, drummer for the improvising avant-gardists White Out — a duo completed by his significant other, multi-instrumentalist Lin Culbertson — insists that although myriad clubs they've played are now history (including the Cooler, CBGB, and, most recently, Tonic), it's not their fault. 'I wouldn't label Lin and me the kiss of death of the New York club scene,' Surgal asserts. 'There are a slew of venues that cease to exist which I can assure you we never played in.' The two met in 1986, introduced by actor (and original Sonic Youth drummer) Richard Edson outside CBGB during a Big Black show. Fittingly, White Out now stand as Big Black's antithesis, a free-jazz deconstruction devoid of niche, with a seismic ambience and atonal serenity that's made the group a vital, if overlooked, part of the downtown scene. Surgal insists that he's guilty of 'never playing a beat in my entire life,' but WO's records — Red Shift (1995), Drunken Little Mass (2001), and China Is Near (2005) —damper his claim" ("Life in a Post-Tonic Universe," 4/9-15/08, p. 106).

Bach: The Art of Fugue

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Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano.
Contents: Contrapunctus I — Contrapunctus II — Contrapunctus III — Contrapunctus IV — Contrapunctus V — Contrapunctus VI, a 4 in style Francese — Contrapunctus VII, a 4 per augmentationem et diminutionem — Contrapunctus VIII, a 3 — Contrapunctus IX, a 4 alla duodecima — Contrapunctus X, a 4 alla decima — Contrapunctus XI, a 4 — Contrapunctus XII.1, a 4 — Contrapunctus inversus XII.2, a 4 — Contrapunctus inversus XIII.1, a 3 — Contrapunctus inversus XIII.2, a 3 — Canon alla ottava — Canon alla decima in contrapuncto alla terza — Canon alla duodecima in contrapuncto alla quinta — Canon per augmentationem in contrario motu — Contrapunctus XIV (Fuga a 3 soggetti).
Mr. Aimard states in the accompanying booklet: "I'd always been determined to explore Bach's music more intensively at some point in my life, and the Art of Fugue … has haunted me for a long time. … Bach's music is of such richness that it requires you to take your time" (p. 3).