Addio Argento

Addio Argento

One month ago, on February 20, 2019, we lost master composer Dominick Argento. The affection I felt for the man and the respect I had for his art can’t be neatly summarized, but here is an appreciation adapted from words at a concert of his music at Hill House in...
The Untold Story

The Untold Story

How one American embraced, forsook, embraced, forsook, and ultimately EMBRACED… …the tonal processes that drive us all! Sylvester Stallone is cast against type as the mild-mannered Copland. With Harvey Keitel as the inscrutable Roger Sessions, and as Nadia Boulanger…...
Editors Wanted

Editors Wanted

At a recent Schubert Club concert… Barry Kempton and I agreed about the Howells Clarinet Sonata: as a piece it is not quite satisfactory. Barry mentioned a recent conversation with pianist Michael McHale in which McHale compared editors of music and the word. Writers...
Forgetting Boulez

Forgetting Boulez

When I heard of Pierre Boulez’s death the other day, I realized that I had already begun to forget him—Boulez the composer, that is; his recordings as a conductor are everywhere. Boulez once figured ever so slightly in my musical geography. I’ve lived in four cities,...