Modern Notebook for February 23, 2020
Photo: Composer and vocalist Kate Soper (Photo credit: Jim Gipe)
Coming up on Modern Notebook this week, Tyler Kline shares two hours of music inspired by the written word, including a work by Zosha di Castri named after Italian author Italo Calvino’s story The Form of Space. Also a movement from Kate Soper’s Voices from the Killing Jar, called May Kasahara, which examines a character from Haruki Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Featuring performances from Wet Ink Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, pianist Eunmi Ko with the McCormick Percussion Group, bassoonist Rebekah Heller, and more.
Hour 1
- Music by Andrew Norman inspired by a Shakespeare sonnet: Confounded to Decay.
- Zosha di Castri‘s La forma dello spazio.
- …and also a fountain, music for bassoon, percussion, and speaking voice (all performed by one person) by Marcos Balter, with text by Gertrude Stein.
- Baljinder Sekhon‘s Death is an Advisor, which takes its name from a chapter in Carlos Castenada’s book Journey to Ixtlan.
- May Kasahara, the prelude to Kate Soper‘s Voices from the Killing Jar.
Hour 2
- The Last Question, solo cello music by Nicholas Britell, titled after the Isaac Asimov short story of the same name.
- Eliza Brown‘s On-dit, for soprano and harp, which sets text by Voltaire.
- The Diamond by Vijay Iyer, based on the Buddhist Diamond Sutra.
- Music by Mary Kouyoumdjian performed by pianist Nicholas Phillips.
- Christopher Rouse‘s Prospero’s Room, which could have been an overture to an unwritten opera based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death.
Recent Shows
On the final episode of Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Hideaki Aomori’s Split stretches the bass clarinet to its limits, exploring the full breadth of its sound world. This hour also features Baljinder Sekhon’s Drifting Seeds for cello and harp, along with music by Anna Mieke, Vivian Fung, and more. Then: chamber music by Jessica Ackerley called Spark Surge — one of the highlights of the final hour. You’ll also hear Fumiko Miyachi’s piano duo Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange Charm , alongside music by Shirish Korde, Oliver Knussen, and others. Also in this episode: music by Tania León performed by pianist Isabel Dobarro; Claire Victoria Roberts performed by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain; Judd Greenstein performed by NOW Ensemble; Justin H. Bush performed by saxophonist Timothy McAllister and pianist Liz Ames; and flutist Tessa Brinckman performing music by Shirish Korde.
Photo: composer Aart Strootman (photo courtesy of the composer's website).
Photo: composer and cellist Andrea Casarrubios (photo credit: Titilayo Ayangade).
Photo: composer Ellie Wilson. (Photo credit: Dimitri Djuric)
Photo: Les Percussions de Strasbourg (photo credit: Christophe Urbain)
Photo: composer Daniel Thomas Davis (photo credit: Melissa Rivard).
