New Classical
-
Gianluca Piacenza has nothing to hide. At least not on his exquisite new disc The Road to Home. Improvised and then honed for piano – and on one piece a softly recorded string quartet – the Italian pianist and composer has delivered a resonant, expansive collection of works that feel unusually intimate. Piacenza performs on…
-
France’s Pierre Boulez was a giant of avant-garde music in the period following the Second World War. He is part of a conversation that includes greats like Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. His “Le Marteau sans maître,” “Pli selon pli” and “Répons” (premiered in 1955, 1960 and 1981 respectively) all count as major…
-
Cindy (formerly Gordon) Sharp’s name doesn’t figure prominently in the history of alternative pop music. It might have, but the Scottish vocalist, musician and producer turned down multiple invitations to join Duran Duran in the band’s very early days after meeting John Taylor at a Japan show in London. Sharp was unimpressed by the young…
-
An old friend of mine, who makes part of his living as a ghost writer, once shared a story about a client he’d completed an assignment for getting into hot water. An attentive reader had spotted a passage in the piece that was a bit too much like something he’d read elsewhere. As you can…
-
Despite its proud political and intellectual history, its moderate climate and breathtaking landscape, Greece is a difficult place to call home. A debt crisis near the end of the last decade transformed the country from a tourist mecca that delivered its citizens a comfortable lifestyle into an economic pariah. Ten years later, the national unemployment…
-
Deservedly, this past Valentine’s Day saw more awe-struck sharing of pictures, video and stories about Tamar Kvesitadze’s extraordinary piece The Statue of Love. If this bit of sculptured beauty hasn’t found its way onto your Facebook feed yet, it is a kinetic piece based on Ali and Nino, a traditional Georgian love story. The artist…
The Moderns 