Tuesday trills

A couple of blog follow-ups:  According to the "Slipped Disc" blog of classical journalist Norman Lebrecht, the Redding, Connecticut country home of American composer, which I blogged about recently,  will be saved from demolition.  More to follow.

Also, critic, composer, conductor and pianist Matthew Guerrieri has another review of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music which I commented on from afar last week.  In place of my sister Julie, whom I had hypothetically attending the FCM and being unimpressed, Guerrieri describes a real-life couple, older folks probably in the area for the Boston Symphony concerts, really attending — and really walking out, a rather stark commentary on the gulf between the FCM and the rest of Tanglewood.  Guerrieri writes from and to the perspective of new music practitioners and serious devotees, and does so with considerable virtuosity.  What I would like to read more of, however, is the intelligent perspective of the audience members for whom new music is indeed something new.  These newbies may not know a hexachord from a harpsichord, but maybe they could help the performers and composers understand how their music sounds to the rest of us — the 99%, if you will.  I bet it would be highly instructive.

Speaking of living composers, we'll mark the birthday of one of the Baystate's best, MIT prof Elena Ruehr, with two very nice pieces today, "Shimmer" for string orchestra, and "jane wang considers the dragonfly" for flute and digital delay.  Lyrical, gentle on the ear, stimulating to the mind, Ruehr's music makes one want to hear more.  So, we'll keep playing her music for you.

And from the new release bin, an American pianist previously unknown to me, Michael Landrum, has just issued a 2-CD set called (and consisting of) "Nocturnes," containing 32 pieces in late-night mood from John Field (the first to apply the term "Nocturne" to such pieces) to Aaron Copland.  Sensitively played, imaginatively programmed, beautifully engineered, it's an album to dip into time and time again, as we will over the next several days on WFCR.