matt pond PA: The Dark Leaves

"Since the release of their first album, Deer Apartments, in 1998, matt pond PA has witnessed several incarnations and a largely transformed music industry. Yet, throughout all the change, the band's eponymous founder continued to write his songs of reflection and redemption, and this past April, released one of his best records to date, The Dark Leaves. As with many of matt pond PA's albums, The Dark Leaves emerged from personal struggle. In a soft voice, one wholly different from the fog-washed tenor that has won him acclaim, Matt Pond explains: 'The record came from my most down musical time; a depressed personal time not just with the ladies, but with friends and where I lived. Most of the songs I write, I write to myself, and I was trying to convince myself that things were better than I thought. ...' The Dark Leaves' tight arrangements belie the fact that Pond's band has seen twenty-two members come and go since its inception" (Ben Evans, "The Perpetual Matt Pond," Huffington Post, 11/3/10).

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Antony and the Johnsons: Swanlight

"'This is how it must feel to be an ovum,' the singer Antony Hegarty said with a tone of gentle amusement as latecomers flooded down the aisles of Alice Tully Hall during the concert he presented there on Saturday night. It was the second time this singer, who goes by his first name, stopped to let stragglers find their seats. Earlier he had abruptly cut off a song just started — 'Ghost,' from his rapturously lovely new album, 'Swanlights' — then tried to smooth over an awkward silence by whistling Satie’s 'Gymnopédie' No. 1. Where Antony is concerned, contradictions and unlikely transformations come with the territory. A hulking figure with a round, cherubic face and a curvilinear build, he has effected over the last decade an unlikely metamorphosis from drag-queen performance artist to imperious concert-hall presence via the artful chamber pop he has made with his band, Antony and the Johnsons" (Steve Smith, "Fluid Voice with a Fluid Persona Firmly Attached," New York Times, 10/31/10).

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Great Operatic Arias (Gerald Finley, baritone)

"As the visionary, impeccably tailored nuclear physicist, polymath and father of the bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, in [John] Adams’s 'Doctor Atomic,' Mr. Finley came to the notice of intellectuals, scientists and policy makers far beyond the usual opera crowd. ... Oppenheimer’s greatest moment, heard at the end of Act I, is a setting of John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV, 'Batter my heart, three-person’d God,' included on Mr. Finley’s dizzyingly eclectic recital album for the Opera in English series on Chandos, released in February. Among that CD’s many surprises are rare Weber, 'Some Enchanted Evening' and bristling appearances by two of opera’s most vicious scoundrels: Scarpia, from Puccini’s 'Tosca' (an opera Mr. Finley has never sung), and Iago, from Verdi’s 'Otello' (which he has recorded in concert ...). An excerpt from Wagner’s 'Meistersinger von Nürnberg' foreshadows his debut in the marathon part of the cobbler and poet Hans Sachs" (Matthew Gurewitsch, "A Long Way from Boy Chorister," New York Times, 11/7/10).

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Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

"The Montreal band seems to run on a wringing emotional intensity. ... Fronted by husband-wife duo Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, the group has established a balance between its sincerity and sense of theater. ... The tunes are among the most musically diverse the band has recorded so far, with buoyant piano pop undercut by an air of melancholy on the opening title track, glittering beds of synthesizers on 'Sprawl II,' churning, punk simplicity in the guitars on 'Month of May' and a propulsive rhythm driving 'Half Light II (No Celebration),' layers of vocal harmonies and moaning strings floating atop the relentless beat. Through it all, the band muses about the lost vistas of its youth, literal and figurative: the ever-changing geography of new roads leading into new subdivisions, say, or the spiritual effects on children who grew up where uniformity is an asset, and, for many, escape is the goal -- subjects that arise on 'Cities With No Children' and 'Suburban War'" (Eric R. Danton, "CD Review," Sound Check, 8/2/10).

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Kyle Eastwood: Metropolitain

"MR: I think it's a pretty smart jazz album, and for those not acclimated to your music, you are categorized as a jazz bassist among other things. ... What went into Metropolitain's track list? KE: Well, I composed them, more or less, over the period of about a month before we went into the studio in Paris -- I live most of the time in Paris and work with my band in Europe. We wrote off and on for a few weeks, and then just got together and started playing a little bit. Then, we went right in the studio and kind of knocked them out in a few days. It pretty much was my working band in Europe, with a few guests here and there, a few French musicians. ... MR: And you've got Camille singing. ... You said you live mainly in Europe, but do you also live in the U.S.? KE: I come over to the States, and when I work with my father, I obviously work in Los Angeles on his films, so I'm there for a few weeks or a month at a time. I do, though, live in Paris most of the time" (Mike Ragogna, "A Conversation with Kyle Eastwood," Huffington Post, 11/5/10).

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Merrily We Roll Along: Original Broadway Cast Recording

"My midlife obsession with Stephen Sondheim began on a Friday night in April 14 years ago, when my daughter Kate persuaded me to take her to her school’s spring musical ... something called 'Sweeney Todd.' ... His songs and shows became central to my life, insinuating themselves into my heart and mind. ... [M]y cravings for his music ... were rekindled in the last few weeks as I read his newly published book, 'Finishing the Hat.' ... It’s a memoir, really, disguised as a book of lyrics, a Sondheim devotee’s dream. The book quickly put me back into my old Sondheim mode. I wore earphones as I paged through it, listening to the songs as I read about each show. Here was 'Losing My Mind,' from 'Follies,' a song, in its own way, about obsession: 'The sun comes up / I think about you. / The coffee cup / I think about you.' Here was 'Like It Was,' from 'Merrily We Roll Along,' a powerful meditation on the fraying of friendship, and the way nostalgia can mislead" (Joe Nocera, "Hearing with the Heart," New York Times, 11/7/10).
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Sibelius: Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra (Christian Tetzlaff, violin)

"Mr. Tetzlaff ... opened his season-long Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall. ... He directed performances of Schoenberg’s 'Verklärte Nacht' and Haydn’s Symphony No. 80 in D minor. ... But Mr. Tetzlaff the virtuoso soloist also showed up, in ... Sibelius’s Suite for Violin and Strings (Op. 117), a seldom-heard miniature that Mr. Tetzlaff has recorded for Virgin Classics. Strange to say, the suite must be considered a late work of Sibelius, though it was written in 1929, almost three decades before his death in 1957. It was perhaps the last work he finished before he quit composing, and he suppressed it throughout his life. It is certainly not a late work in any profound sense, with, say, lofty summing up or reflection. After two movements of pastoral melody, 'Country Scenery' and 'Evening in Spring,' it arrives at 'In the Summer,' a breakneck display piece for skittering violin over pizzicato strings" (James R. Oestreich, "Sibelius, Faster than Speeding Bee," New York Times, 10/31/10).

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Aaron Neville: I Know I've Been Changed

"MR: Joe Henry produced it ... And you feature Allen Toussaint on piano — Toussaint, of course, being another New Orleans legend. AN: Well, not just that, but he's also my first producer, and we had like a fifty year anniversary. ... MR: Would you describe I Know I've Been Changed as, basically, a stripped down gospel album? AN: I think I would. It's like old time gospel stuff. There are a couple of things that I heard a long time ago, and some of it was new to me. ... One of the Sam Cooke things I did was 'I'm So Glad,' and that was one of the songs my boys and I would do walking down the streets in New Orleans as teenagers. We might have been going to get into mischief or whatever, but we'd be singing 'I'm So Glad (Trouble Don't Last)' trying to sound like Sam and The Soul Stirrers. 'I Am A Pilgrim' — I think Sam and them did that too back in the day, but I like the version that I'm doing on this record" (Mike Ragogna, "A Conversation with Aaron Neville," Huffington Post, 11/1/10).

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Brahms: Piano Works (Murray Perahia, pianist)

"It is hard to keep up with the fortunes of Murray Perahia’s hands, apparently as trouble-prone as they are gifted. Mr. Perahia, with problems in his past, canceled a Carnegie Hall recital recently because of a hand injury. But everything was obviously working superbly in June, when he recorded these works: the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, the two Opus 79 Rhapsodies and two sets of Klavierstücke (Opp. 118, 119). You can only hope for his quick recovery and, selfishly, a Brahms sequel" (James R. Oestreich, "Holiday Gift Guide," New York Times, 11/23/10).

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The Coathangers: Scramble

"'I think at this point in reality, if you’re an aware being, you can’t help but to be a feminist,' Candice Jones, keyboardist for The Coathangers, tells me over the phone. But the all-female rock band makes a point of avoiding any overtly political stance, despite their suggestive name. 'We’re not trying to preach to anybody or anything like that,' Jones says. 'We just do what we want to do.' ... It can be difficult, though, to ignore the message of female empowerment that the band’s lyrics, image and sound send. These four women from Atlanta ... offer a sound that is reminiscent of fellow Georgian band the B-52s. ... Listening to the band’s dynamic mix of sounds and beats, as in 'Bobby Knows Best' (off 2009’s Scramble), you feel like Alice in Wonderland, trapped in a[n] absurd(ist) world — one which their lyrics encourage you to face head-on. Armed with tongue-in-cheek humor and a bring-it-on attitude, The Coathangers aren’t afraid of anything" (Adriel Saporta, "Music," New Haven Advocate, 11/11/10, p. 41).

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Higdon & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (Hilary Hahn, violin)

"Have we discussed the genius of Hilary Hahn's programming yet? … Because lately she does this thing where she puts together one household-name violin concerto with a concerto nobody ever plays: Paganini/Spohr, Sibelius/Schoenberg, and now the Tchaikovsky concerto paired with a concerto written personally for Hahn by Jennifer Higdon. … She's got a terrifically powerful left hand, and she wants you to know it—every note's ringing. ... Vassily Petrenko ... along with Hahn somehow makes the Tchaikovsky concerto sound more Tchaikovskian than any interpreter I've ever heard. ... Really, I'm not sure why I've been so disinclined to seek out the music of Jennifer Higdon in the past. ... The first movement seduced me immediately. … The pitch materials, the actual music-stuff, are pretty engaging, and just as importantly, it's a fine showcase for the soloist. But it's the gestural language that hooked my ear" (Daniel Stephen Johnson, "Get Your Hahn On," Unpop!, 10/8/10).

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Counting Crows: Hard Candy

"MR: I remember seeing you play 'Big Yellow Taxi' at one of your concerts. … AD: The one that came out on the radio wasn't the one we actually recorded. We were in London doing Hard Candy, and we did fourteen songs in one weekend ... all these covers we wanted to play. I had this idea for sort of this hip-hop, acoustic version with drums, upright bass, a couple acoustic guitars and me. It's just like four or five of us in the band doing 'Big Yellow Taxi.' Everybody loved it so much that they wanted to remix it. Pharrell took a shot at it that didn't quite work, and then Ron Fair ended up doing a version that I thought was pretty cool. I like the idea of people taking our music and doing totally different things. So, we took and put it as a hidden track on the record, and that ended up getting all over the radio. … It ended up being a big hit, but that's not the version we did" (Mike Ragogna: "Augustana & Beyond: A Conversation with Counting Crows' Adam Duritz," Huffington Post, 8/4/10).
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Rosanne Cash: The List

"In a backstage room a couple of hours prior to showtime, [Cash and husband John Leventhal] are poking at a container of warm chicken and a bowl of limp salad. 'These shouldn’t be in here,' Cash says. 'It’s in my rider: No cucumbers.' She laughs, then adds, 'I’m serious. I hate cucumbers.' Sitting down to eat, Cash says she wants to start tonight’s show with 'What We Really Want,' a song from the highly personal Interiors. Leventhal is against the idea, preferring to go with their usual opener, 'I’m Movin’ On,' a jaunty Hank Snow number that appears on Cash’s 2009 album, The List, a collection culled from a handwritten list of 100 great American songs that Johnny Cash gave his daughter when she was an 18-year-old neophyte. Leventhal, who produced The List and came up with its impeccable arrangements, makes his case: 'I’m serious, sweetie. Why would you mess with a good thing?' Speaking of 'I’m Movin’ On,' he says, 'it always goes over, it’s fun, it’s not all that serious'" (Jim Windolf, "Country in the City," New York, 8/9/10).

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John Mellencamp: No Better Than This

"It’s his first album for Rounder Records, the independent roots label, and it is, on the surface, a marked departure from his other recordings, a spare folk-blues record that bears little resemblance to the arena-friendly rock that carried him to stardom. The album is drenched in historical significance. The songs, performed by Mellencamp and a small band, were recorded in mono, on a nineteen-fifties Ampex 601 portable machine. Even more notable is where they were recorded: Mellencamp committed his new compositions to tape at three landmark locations—Sun Studios, in Memphis, where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others helped invent rock and roll in the mid-fifties; the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, one of the oldest African-American congregations in the United States; and the Gunter Hotel, in San Antonio, where Don Law recorded the Delta blues legend Robert Johnson in 1936" (Ben Greenman, "Pop Notes: Cougar Town," New Yorker, 8/16-23/10, p. 18).

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Sting: Symphonicities

"Even a seemingly straightforward and potentially middle-of-the-road album of orchestral music presents challenges, said Rob Mathes, a composer and arranger who produced 'Symphonicities' with Sting. On the one hand, Mr. Mathes said, such a record could end up being nothing but ballads, 'where it’s all lush and warm, beautifully voiced chords. …' Or, he said, the music could be overwritten, 'being as much about the arranger’s record collection as it is about Sting’s songs.' Mr. Mathes said that 'Symphonicities' tried to avoid those sand traps by including unexpected songs — the Police’s angular punk rock 'Next to You'; Sting’s 'We Work the Black Seam,' about a British coal miners’ strike — and dressing up familiar numbers like 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' in new clothes. (For that song, Mr. Mathes said, 'I decided to write it as if Gustavo Dudamel was going to conduct it with the L.A. Phil.') " (Dave Itzkoff, "From the Police to the Met: A Renaissance Man," New York Times, 7/12/10).

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Rhys Chatham: A Crimson Grail

"Mr. Chatham, who has been writing for electric-guitar ensembles since the late 1970s, composed 'A Crimson Grail' for an all-night festival at the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Paris in 2005 and reworked it in 2008, for Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The recording comes from a 2009 performance at Damrosch Park. In this three-movement work’s outer sections, Mr. Chatham expands his guitar army from a small ensemble to a roaring swarm, in which the sound of 200 picks on amplified steel strings creates a tactile, prickly surface. In the opening movement, overtones and shifting balances create an illusion of faint melodies. Mr. Chatham gives listeners more to work with in the finale … and his central slow movement is built of a wave of guitar chords that fade in and out in a hymnlike progression. … Yet the work’s greatest allure is in passages where melody, harmony and rhythm are virtually absent, when all you hear is the visceral roar of plucked strings" (Allan Kozinn, "Especially for the Inner Ear," New York Times, 10/31/10).
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