'General Music' Category
BOLUS – debut release
What happens when Penny Goring and I collaborate on a words and music project? BOLUS, that’s what. Penny is, as any of you who know her work from her blog and the Year Zero Writers website, a pretty extraordinary writer – and her spoken word delivery marvellously detached and deadpan. I’ve wanted to do more [...]
A quick piano post
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on Feldman’s Palais de Mari at the moment. As my phone was to hand while I was looking at the beginning of the piece this evening, I recorded a bit. All the usual disclaimers about sound quality apply! I also posted this on Audioboo last night – an ad [...]
Indie-pop fun
If you like your indiepop fast, jangly and slightly lo-fi, you might enjoy Trevor Sensitive and the Locals - their debut album is out now, called Sensitive and is getting lots of play in these quarters. They’ve also got a session on Mark Whitby’s show this month on Dandelion Radio.
Out with the Glass…
Investigation of some of Feldman’s shorter piano pieces from the ’50s has left me convinced that Glass’s Mad Rush is completely out of place in my recital programme. So, in its stead, I shall be playing the first two Intermissions, the Three Piano Pieces, Extensions 3, Vertical Thoughts 4, and Piano Piece To Philip Guston. [...]
Indiepop galore
Just discovered that Birmingham’s indiepop sensations Trevor Sensitive and the Locals have launched their new website sensitivemusic.co.uk with artwork by Manda Rin which looks pretty spiffing if you ask me. The blog page claims that their debut album will be out next week, and if the sample’s anything to go by it should be well worth a listen…
A black metal find
Aficionados of black metal, drone metal, doom metal, “griefcore” and whatever other metal genres have sprung up in the last fifteen minutes might like to investigate Vasculum. The group/artist’s page has a few songs for download – I like it very much, but then I would. The Vasculum manifesto is, apparently, no audience engagement – [...]
The Ravel L.H. concerto and reflections on posture
Seeing Bavouzet perform Ravel’s Concerto pour la main gauche at the Proms last Friday was an immensely inspiring experience. His technical assurance was such that he made the flashier, more mercurial runs and fiendish final cadenza seem like a spontaneous outpouring. I had some serious goose-bumps several times during Bavouzet’s performance, which more than made [...]
The Liszt B minor sonata and time management
The bulk of the Liszt sonata is now (sort of) back in my fingers, but I’m facing a bit of a problem with available time. If I’m lucky I manage to spend about an hour practising per day. This, clearly, is not enough to maintain a healthy repertoire, or to conquer a piece like the [...]
Battling the Liszt Sonata
I’ve been working on the Liszt B minor Sonata for the first time since about 2000 or 2001. I wanted to demonstrate vaguely to my girlfriend that I used to be able to play the majority of it up to the hectic fugato section; when I did, so little of it was left readily-available in [...]
Getting to grips with Carter, part 3
My intuition regarding Caténaires proved to be right – at least where my brain is concerned. I’ve returned to Caténaires after letting it lie fallow for a while. Now, I’ve by no means mastered the other short Carter pieces that I’ve been looking at, but they’ve been ticking along quite nicely, and I’ve become comfortable [...]