A lovely memory, on Charles Ives’ birthday: The program to a recital given last year at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium of all four Ives Violin Sonatas, played by Stefan Jackiw and Jeremy Denk. I don’t have a recording of the concert, but the performers toured with the program, and the Sonata No. 1 – the most “Romantic” of the four, and the one Ives published last – has been posted to YouTube, with Denk’s spoken introduction. It’s not quite the same as being there, of course, but I hope you will enjoy it even a fraction as much as I did. Thanks, Alex Rainer, for the photo!
Tag: Princeton University
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Gardiner Resigns from Monteverdi Choir?
EDIT, 12:18 p.m. EDT: PLEASE NOTE:
There seems to be some discrepancy as to what aspect of the Monteverdi Choir’s directorship John Eliot Gardiner may have resigned. It could merely be from some facet of its management, but NOT its artistic directorship — in which case, presumably, from a performance standpoint, everything will continue as before. The first rule of the internet is: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. I will certainly be following-up on this as confirmation becomes available.
I am stunned to learn that Sir John Eliot Gardiner has resigned as director of the Monteverdi Choir. Gardiner has led the ensemble since its founding in 1964 – 56 years!
In 2000, for the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, Gardiner and his choir undertook an extensive Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, performing and recording most of the cantatas in 60 historic churches.
The two programs they presented at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorum, of Bach’s cantata “Christ lag in Todesbanden” and motet “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied,” and Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” (in 2014), and Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” (in 2015), were among the most memorable of my concertgoing career.
Gardiner has a reputation for being a little prickly, but when I had the privilege to interview him in 2014, he was nothing if not patient and gentlemanly.
Gardiner will turn 77 on Monday. As of 2014, he was also running an organic farm inherited from his great-uncle, the conductor and composer Balfour Gardiner.
It’s the end of an era.
About Gardiner’s connection with Princeton philanthropist William H. Scheide:
https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2014/06/sir_john_eliot_gardiner_to_con.html
Gardiner leading his choir in a performance of “Dixit Dominus”:
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Claudio Spies Princeton Composer Dies at 95
Princeton University professor emeritus Claudio Spies has died. Born in Santiago, Chile, Spies was on the faculty of the Princeton University music department from 1970 to 1998. Prior to that, he taught at Harvard, Vassar, and Swarthmore. He also taught at Juilliard from 1998 to 2010. His own teachers included Nadia Boulanger, Harold Shapero, and Irving Fine. Conductors Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch were also early mentors. His friendship with Igor Stravinsky facilitated the premiere of Stravinsky’s “Requiem Canticles” at McCarter Theatre in 1966. Spies was 95 years-old. Learn more about this remarkable man here:
PHOTO (left to right): Claudio Spies, Lukas Foss, Harold Shapero, Esther Geller, Verna Fine, Irving Fine, and Leonard Bernstein, at Tanglewood in 1946
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Westminster Choir Celebrates 100 Years
Every year at this time, Westminster Choir returns, following an extensive tour, to reunite with the Princeton community through its annual Homecoming Concert. What makes this year stand apart is that the choir really is going home.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ensemble, in addition to its tour of the western United States – with stops in Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Garden Grove and La Jolla, California – and its traditional concert at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, the choir will travel to Westminster Presbyterian Church, in Dayton, Ohio, where it was founded in 1920.
That pilgrimage will take place in April. The same program, presented under the title “Appear and Inspire,” will be sung at Richardson Auditorium, on Monday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. Westminster’s director of choral activities, Joe Miller, will conduct.
If you can’t make it to the hall, the concert will be simulcast over WWFM – The Classical Network at 89.1 FM and online at wwfm.org.
Learn more about it, including a condensed history of the choir, the foundation of Westminster Choir College, and some of its very impressive credentials, in my article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today.
https://princetoninfo.com/westminster-choir-celebrates-100-years/
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Radiohead’s Muse Princeton Composer Celebrates
“I was a crummy student. I never really did what my teachers told me.”
That independent streak has served Paul Lansky well. Lansky was on the faculty of Princeton University from 1969 to 2014. He chaired the music department there for nine years, from 1991 to 2000.
A French hornist who became a pioneering composer of computer music, he caught the ear of the experimental rock band Radiohead and formed a fruitful association with guitarist David Starobin. Starobin’s Bridge Records, Inc. continues to document Lansky’s post-electronic works for standard acoustic instruments.
When he retired from Princeton after 45 years of service, it was never Lansky’s plan to stop composing. In fact, he remains as busy as ever, with the past few years being a remarkably fertile period.
Some of his recent music will be heard on a special tribute concert, to be presented in honor of his 75th birthday, at Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium, in Alexander Hall, on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Read more about it in my article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today. It’s the first time I ever used the word “fart” in print.
https://princetoninfo.com/a-composer-celebrates-with-wit-and-human-touch/
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