Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Jeremy. Here’s your hint: this composer composed the original theme for The Twilight Zone, but after the first season it was replaced by the now more recognizable theme. No Googling!
As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at classicalgabfest@gmail.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing.
Last Week’s Results
CGF Newsletter 22
John Alden Carpenter, Adventures in a Perambulator (1914)
Up until yesterday, we had just one entrant into this week’s NTT, first-time guesser Listener Tammy (Tamiroquai in the house??) who weighed in with Respighi and Strauss, both of which were excellent guesses. Since then, Joey has bandwaggoned thrown Rimsky-Korsakov and Howells into the mix. As I used to say often on the podcast, if you multiplied these composers together, you’d basically come out with the right answer.
A little about the actual piece: John Alden Carpenter (1876–1951) was an American composer who was actually pretty successful in his day, having had major works commissioned, performed, and recorded by the likes of the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. A “perambulator” is a stroller (whence the British derive their word “pram”.)
Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!
Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.
Dudamel to NYC
If you’re reading this newsletter, it is incredibly unlikely that you have not heard the news about Gustavo Dudamel being appointed the new music director of the New York Phil, but like, I couldn’t not mention it.
This seems like a positive outcome for everyone involved. After a weirdo, a dud, and an ogre, the Phil really needs a new Bernstein figure, and that’s Dudamel. This is a major coup for Deborah Borda, the NYP’s soon-to-retire President, basically her “revenge dress” to upstage the old guard NYP administrators who forced her out during her first tour of duty in the 90s.
Dudamel will stay in LA through the end of the ‘25-’26 season, rounding out a tenure of 17 years there, a highly respectable tenure in the world of orchestral music. (Perhaps even Alex Ross would approve! Though he doesn’t like Dudamel because he didn’t burn his bridges with the Maduro government.)
And now the game of musical chairs continues. Who’s in line for the LA Phil? Guesses in the comments section.
Classical Grammy Roundup
Best Orchestral Performance
"Works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Valerie Coleman" (New York Youth Symphony / Repper)
"John Williams: The Berlin Concert" (Berlin Phil / Williams)
"Dvořák: Symphonies Nos. 7-9" (LA Phil / Dudamel)
"Sila: The Breath of the World"
"Stay on It" (Wild Up and Christopher Rountree)
A youth orchestra beats John Williams — the David & Goliath story of the classical 2020s!
Best Opera Recording
Blanchard: Fire Shut Up In My Bones (Met / YNS)
Aucoin: Eurydice (Met / YNS)
Davis: X - The Life And Times Of Malcolm X (Boston Modern Orch Project)
Much like how there were no rules about a dog being excluded from playing basketball in the Air Bud universe, there is no rule that excludes jazz from being considered for an operatic Grammy.
Best Choral Performance
Born (The Crossing / Donald Nally)
Bach: St. John Passion (English Baroque Soloists / Monteverdi Choir / Gardiner)
Verdi: Requiem (Met / YNS)
Nice to have an actual choir win this award.
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Shaw: Evergreen – Attacca Quartet
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Volume 2 - The Middle Quartets – Dover Quartet
Musical Remembrances – Neave Trio
Perspectives – Third Coast Percussion
What Is American – PUBLIQuartet
I hope Joey is happy. (Joey’s note: I am.)
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
Letters For The Future (Time for Three / PO / Xian Zhang)
Abels: Isolation Variation (Hahn)
Bach: The Art Of Life (Trifonov)
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations (Uchida)
A Night In Upper Town - The Music Of Zoran Krajacic (Mak Grgić)
I hope Alex Ross is happy.
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
Voice Of Nature - The Anthropocene (Nénéé / YNS)
Eden (DiDonato)
How Do I Find You (Sasha Cooke)
Okpebholo: Lord, How Come Me Here? (Will Liverman & J’Nai Bridges)
Stranger - Works For Tenor By Nico Muhly (Nicholas Phan)
I wish Sasha Cooke had won.
Best Classical Compendium
An Adoption Story (Starr Parodi and Kitt Wakeley)
Aspire (JP Jofre & Seunghee Lee)
A Concert For Ukraine (YNS)
The Lost Birds (Voces8)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Kevin Puts, Contact
Andy Akiho, Ligneous Suite
Derek Bermel: Intonations
Sofia Gubaidulina: The Wrath Of God
Carlos Simon: Requiem For The Enslaved
I hope Kensho is happy.
RIP Georg Solti’s Grammy Record
At a meta-level, classical music took a real beating Sunday night when popular artist Beyoncé Knowles won her 32nd career Grammy for Best Dance / Electronic Album, making her the all-time most awarded Grammy recipient in history. Unfortunately, the previous record-holder was conductor Sir Georg Solti, whose 31-Grammy record stood for 25 years.
It looks exceedingly unlikely that a classical artist will retake this record in any of our lifetimes. Beyoncé is only 41 years old and she’s a powerhouse who is likely to continue racking up Grammy wins for decades to come. After Solti, the classical artists with significant Grammy wins are Pierre Boulez (26), John Williams (24), and Yo-Yo Ma (18). Boulez is dead, Williams is ancient, and Ma is way too far behind to mount a charge.
The Grammys are so obviously stupid, fake, illogical, and pointless and yet... this makes me sad! I doubt Beyoncé is in line for a knighthood anytime soon, so at least we can hold on to that.
Joey’s Concert Review: Leif Oves Andsnes
On Tuesday, January 31, I (Joey) went to a piano recital at Carnegie Hall. Norwegian pianist Leif Oves Andsnes was the performer, on tour to promote his 2022 album of Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures, op. 85.
It was a great concert, and Andsnes showcased his singular, excellent sound. Even from the third balcony of Stern Auditorium (it’s pretty funny that piano recitals are held there at all — but it was nearly sold out!) I could hear his lovely melodic tone very clearly. He chose repertoire that highlighted this strength; almost everything on his program could be described as highly melodic and featuring colorful soundscapes. This isn’t to say it was an easy program by any means — in particular, some of the Dvořák pieces seemed beastly difficult.
The program began with a series of three pieces, with a clear program pertaining to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Starting with a Russian composer (Alexander Vustin), he then moved to Janáček’s masterpiece Sonata 1.X.1905 about the murder of a demonstrating young laborer, and finished with a bagatelle by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. Though the note makes clear that the programming is about the war in Ukraine, we audience members were left to our imaginations concerning the particulars of the message.
To end the first half, Andsnes played a somewhat half-hearted Beethoven Pathétique that was out of place in the rest of the program, and comparatively the weakest point by a large margin. The second half was the enormous, underplayed, 13-piece set of Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures, and this was predictably the highlight of the concert.
In short, Andsnes sounded like he had just gotten out of the studio — he executed devilishly tricky, spiritedly, and, more often than not, note-perfectly. Though listening to 53 minutes of these very attractive, but rather conservative pieces got slightly monotonous at times (I think pianists should program these in selection), this made a wonderful second half to the program.
Andsnes treated us to two encores: a pointy and loud piece by his fellow countryman, Harald Saeverud, and a mazurka of Chopin that ended the night in an understated manner. *chef’s kiss*
[Will’s follow-up: I first heard about this album on a recent episode of NPR’s “New Classical Releases” podcast, which is generally a pretty good show.]
Classical Mixtape
Kurt Weill, Der Silbersee Overture
There’s a new album of Kurt Weill’s two symphonies plus some cabaret stuff by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by HK Gruber (of Frankenstein! fame) and it’s occurring to me that I do not talk about Kurt Weill’s music anywhere near commensurate with my admiration for it.
Weill has an unerring melodic gift and a wicked sense of harmony. He knows how to make music sound trenchant, biting, and satirical better than anyone else. His The Seven Deadly Sins is a desert island piece for me, and his songs have been mainstays in my own lounge act since I was a teenager. Not surprisingly, his music has had a decisive influence on my own works as a composer.
This little overture is well performed and recorded, and a great entré into Weill’s sardonic musical world.
CGF Newsletter 23: Start Spreading the News
Obviously, Maestro Will is in line for the LA Phil job. They just have to work around his Harmonia schedule.
My guess is Ludovic Morlot.
Ron Schwizer