New Stuff for 7/30/11

CDs

Kurt Weill – Street Scene (CD 8511)

The Goodbye Girl (Original Broadway Cast) (CD 8515)

Stan Kenton – The Innovations Orchestra (CD 8516)

Dmitri Tymoczko – Beat Therapy (CD 8510)

Marimolin – Combo Platter (CD 9350)

Shostakovich – Concerto for Piano, Trumpet, and Orchestra, Op. 35/Symphony No. 12 (CD 8737)

 

New Facsimile Score

Dvořák – Konvert pro violoncello, Op. 104 (ML 96.5 .D98 C6 2011)

Heartwarming story about the classical/pop rift

Just a little fun for Friday.

Fresh CDs – Lots of new contemporary music

Since 2006: The Saxophone Music of Allan Blank (CD 5960)

Donald Crockett – Tracking Inland (CD 5961)

Marya Martin Plays Eric Ewazen (CD 5977)

The Music of George Edwards (CD 5994)

Fire in Heaven and Earth: Music of Theodore Wiprud (CD 6358)

Jason Robert Brown – The Trumpet of the Swan: A Novel Symphony (CD 7047)

The Newstead Trio – Mendelssohn (CD 7521)

What does a hit song cost?

NPR’s Planet Money team recently tallied up all the costs associated with writing, recording, and promoting a major pop single, using Rihanna’s “Man Down” as an example. Not surprisingly, it’s an absurdly inefficient and expensive endeavor.

The audio for the story is HERE

and a blog post with the numbers and analysis is HERE.

John Hodgman settles the burning musical controversies of our day

Humorist, John Hodgman recently addressed a pair of music-related complaints on his Judge John Hodgman podcast.

CASE 1:Ob-Law-Di, Ob-Law-Da

Pat and Joe come before the court with a case about that famous rock band, The Beatles. Pat claims that The White Album is one of The Beatles’ worst albums and has a scattered approach. Joe argues that the album benefits from its variance and is one of their best works.

STREAM CASE 1

Case 2: The Battle of the Baton

When Jake listens to his favorite classical music, he finds himself conducting furiously and with abandon.  His wife Erica, an accomplished concert musician, says his flamboyant conducting makes a mockery of her life’s work. Must Jake cease his carefree conducting style?

STREAM CASE 2

Brass Quintet Music

Hello Brass players! You are gonna love what just came in!

• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring from Cantat No. 147 – J.S. Bach (M559 .B1186 BWV147 1994)
• Girl with the Flaxen Hair – Claude Debussy (M559 .D42 P7 1994)
• The Rejoicing from the Royal Fireworks - George Frideric Handel (M559 .H18 M871 1991)
• Suite from the Royal Fireworks – George Frideric Handel (M559 .H18 M87 1994)
• Rhosymedre – Ralph Vaugh Williams (M559 .V38 R5 1997)
• Water Music Suite – George Frideric Handel (M557.4 .H18 W3 1994)
• My Spirit Be Joyful – Johann Sebastian Bach (M559 .B1186 W59 2003)
• Clair de Lune – Claude Debuss (M559 .D42 S84 1994)

America’s Birthday comes with new stuff!!

CDs

• Works for Cello and Piano – Alisa Weilerstein (violoncello) & Vivian Hornik Weilersterin (piano) (CD 5838)
• Dimitri Mitropoulos in New York – Unissued Live Performances 1951-1953, Bach, Weber, Beethoven, Brhms, Berlioz (CD 5854)
• Hayden – Symphonies No. 82 (Der Bar), 83 (Die Henne), & 85 (La Reine) (CD 5846)
• Die Van Vulpen- Orgel der Pfarrkirche St. Stephan, Andernach, Christoph Anselm Noll (CD 5828)
• Bach – Orgelkonzerte & Orgelfuge, Scheidegger (organ) (CD 2921)
• Bach – Grosse Orgelwerke Vol. II, Bleicher (CD 5810)
• First Impulse – The Creed Taylor Collection, 50th Anniversary (CD 9349)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff - Vassily Primakov (piano) (CD 5862)
• Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run (CD 5934)
• Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (CD 5923)
• Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (CD 5941)
• Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (CD 5950)
• Johannes Brahms – Complete Organ Works (CD 5958)
• The Book of Mormon – Original Broadway Cast Recording (CD 5883)
• Uniko – Kronos Quartet (CD 5887)
• György Ligeti – Keyboard Works (CD 5904)
• Arlene Sierra – Volume 1 (CD 5878)
• Sketches of Spain - Miles Davis (CD 5908)

Playbutton is the new, wearable music format/gimmick

A cool, new entry in the annals of music gimmicks, Playbutton is the album you wear.

Each 4.5cm button contains one album’s worth of music, and has basic playback controls and a headphone jack. You can’t change the music on the button or the playback order, which makes it essentially a crippled MP3 player with a nice looking case and a pin back. This may be exactly the thing that attracts you to it, if you have a soft spot for the formats of the pre-CD era.

The pins aren’t exactly cheap at about $22 plus shipping, but it might be worth it to have a unique artifact for a band you love.