Open City: Dusty sweets, bit parts (excerpts) (2006)

Open City (California Noise Ten-LP Set)

Hector Berlioz: Les nuits d’été: La spectre de la rose (1834/1856)

Victoria de los Angeles S / Boston Symphony Orchestra / Charles Munch cond (Victor LM-1907)

Open City: Dusty sweets, bit parts (excerpts) (2006)

Open City (California Noise Ten-LP Set)

Hector Berlioz: Les nuits d’été: Absence (1834/1856)

Victoria de los Angeles S / Boston Symphony Orchestra / Charles Munch cond (Victor LM-1907)

Elliott Carter: Enchanted preludes (1988)

Harvey Sollberger fl / Fred Sherry vc (Bridge BCD 9044)

Elliott Carter: Con leggerezza pensosa (1990)

Charles Neidich cl / Rolf Schulte vn / Fred Sherry vc (Bridge BCD 9044)

Elliott Carter: Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi (1984)

Rolf Schulte vn (Bridge BCD 9044)

Egon Wellesz: Sonata for violoncello solo, op. 31 (1920)

Robert Sylvester vc (Desto DC-7169)

Arthur Honegger: Prélude, arioso, et fuguette sur le nom de Bach / Prelude, arioso, and fughetta on the name of Bach (1932)

Jürg von Vintschger pf (Turnabout Vox TV-S 34377)

Arthur Honegger: Souvenir de Chopin / Memento of Chopin (1947)

Jürg von Vintschger pf (Turnabout Vox TV-S 34377)

Leoš Janáček: V mlhách / In the mists (1912)

Rudolf Firkušný pf (DGG 2721251)

Vally Pick Weigl: Songs of Remembrance (Emily Dickinson)

Blanche Abram Mz / Naomi Drucker cl / Deirdre Kingsbury pf (Leonarda LE 329)

John Zorn: Forbidden Fruit

Kronos Quartet / Christian Marclay turntables / Ohta Hiromi voice (Elektra/Nonesuch 79181)

Karol Szymanowski: String quartet no. 2, op. 56 (1927)

Silesian Quartet (CD Accord ACD 037)

Karol Szymanowski: String quartet no. 1, op. 37 (1917)

Silesian Quartet (CD Accord ACD 037)

George Crumb: Sonata for solo violoncello (1955)

Robert Sylvester vc (Desto DC-7169)

Charles Koechlin: Les Bandar-Log, op. 176, conclusion (1939)

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Antal Dorati cond (Angel S 36295)

Michael Torke: Monday (1992)

London Sinfonietta / Lothar Zagrosek cond (Ecstatic Records ERO 92204)

Dmitri Shostakovich: String quartet no. 15, op. 144 (1974)

Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips vn / Kim Kashkashian vla / Yo-Yo Ma vc (CBS MK 44924)

Judith Lang Zaimont: A calendar set: November (1978)

Joanne Polk pf (“Zones,” Arabesque Z6683)

Broadcast #761 — a prime number, by the way — marks the return of one of our prime anti-warhorses from the earliest years of classics without walls, the Wellesz cello sonata. This magnificent piece alone — which in the course of 13 minutes encompasses the depth of spiritual crisis and its resolution in ecstatic dance — should be enough to prove that the obscurity of Wellesz has been a scandal of the first order. Fortunately, after several decades during which this out-of-print LP by Robert Sylvester was the only recording of his music available, a flood of releases in recent years have made much more of his work accessible. Many thanks to Bill & Judy Cartmel of Memories Inc. in Lewiston, Maine, for ending a 15-year search for this LP.

Somei Satoh: Birds in warped time II

Margaret Leng Tan pf / Frank Almond vn (New Albion NA008)

Egon Wellesz: Sonata for violoncello solo, op. 31 (1920)

Robert Sylvester vc (Desto DC-7169)

Maurice Delage: Quatre poèmes hindous / Four Hindu poems (1912-13)

Dawn Upshaw S / Lynn Chang, Nai-Yuan Hu vn / Nardo Poy va / Bruce Coppock vc / Marcia Butler ob / Fenwick Smith, Laura Gilbert fl / Thomas Hill, Mitchell Weiss cl / Barbara Allen hp (Elektra Nonesuch 9 79262-2)

Sofia Gubaidulina: Rejoice! sonata: “Your joy no one will take away from you” and “Rejoice with joy”

Gidon Kremer vn / Yo-Yo Ma vc (CBS MK44924)

Gustav Mahler: Symphony no. 5: IV, Das himmlische Leben (1901)

Gustav Mahler pf, Welte-Mignon roll, rec. 1905 (Telefunken HT18, Berühmte Komponisten spielen eigene Werke)

Ned Rorem: Snake (Theodore Roethke)

Gianna d’Angelo S / Ned Rorem pf (New World 229, rec. 1962-63)

Ned Rorem: My Papa’s waltz (Theodore Roethke)

Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (id.)

Ned Rorem: I am Rose (Gertrude Stein)

Regina Sarfaty Mz / Ned Rorem pf (id.)

Ned Rorem: To you (Walt Whitman)

Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (id.)

Ned Rorem: Early in the morning (Robert Hillyer)

Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (id.)

Ned Rorem:
I am Rose (Gertrude Stein)
Now sleeps the crimson petal (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
Opus 101 (Witter Bynner)
Sonnet (Witter Bynner)
The wintry mind (Witter Bynner)
The sowers (Witter Bynner)
I strolled across an open field (Theodore Roethke)
Ferry me across the water (Christina Rossetti)
That shadow, my likeness (Walt Whitman)

Susan Graham Mz / Malcolm Martineau pf (Erato 8573-80222-2)

Arnold Schönberg: Erwartung / Expectation (Richard Dehmel) (1899)

Phyllis Bryn-Julson S / Ursula Oppens pf (Music & Arts CD-650)

Arnold Schönberg: Jesus bettelt / Jesus begs (Richard Dehmel) (1899)

Phyllis Bryn-Julson S / Ursula Oppens pf (Music & Arts CD-650)

Gustav Mahler: Um Mitternacht / At midnight (Friedrich Rückert) (1901)

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bar / Berlin Philharmonic / Karl Böm cond (DG 138 879)

Beth Custer: Bernal Heights suite: Scary monster string trio (2006)

Beth Custer voice / Left Coast Chamber Ensemble: Anna Pressler vn / Kurt Rohde va / Leighton Fong vc (BC Records BC-9)

Judith Lang Zaimont: A calendar set: October

Joanne Polk pf (“Zones,” Arabesque Z6683)

George Tsontakis: Ghost Variations (1991)

Stephen Hough pf (Hyperion CDA 67005, New York Variations)

Steve Reich: Drumming, part one (1971)

James Preiss, Gary Schall, Richard Schwartz, & David Van Tieghem tuned drums (Orange Mountain Music 0015, From the Kitchen Archives: New Music, New York 1979)

Philip Glass: Dance no. 4 (1978)

Philip Glass eorg (Orange Mountain Music 0015, From the Kitchen Archives: New Music, New York 1979)

John Schott: In these great times: Preface (1996)

John Schott egtr (Tzadik TZ7115)

Thelonious Monk: Brake’s sake (1955)

T J Kirk: Will Bernard egtr / John Schott egtr / Charlie Hunter 8-string egtr / Scott Amendola drms (Warner Bros. 9 46262-2, If four was one: T J Kirk plays the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, rec. 1996)

Ned Rorem: Piano sonata no. 2 (ca. 1952)

Julius Katchen pf (Philips 456 856-2 Great pianists of the 20th century: Julius Katchen I)

Ned Rorem: Early in the morning (1945)

Donald Gramm bar / Ned Rorem pf (New World 229, rec. 1962/63)

Miriam Gideon: Ayelet hashakhar / Morning star: songs of childhood on Hebrew texts (1980)

Lucille Field S / Harriet Wingreen pf (Cambria CD-1037, Lucille Field sings songs by American women composers, rec. 1987)

John Cage: Sonatas and interludes for prepared piano: Sonatas I, II, III, IV, First Interlude (1946 – 48)

Boris Berman pf (Naxos 8 559042)

Joaquin Turina: Album de viaje (1916)

Pierre Huybregts pf (Centaur 2026)

I rarely comment on stuff like this, but if you thought the brazen exploitation in Chevy’s “our country” truck ads was shameless, brace yourself for the polyphonic-Amen “IE7 is here” radio ads from Microsoft. Don’t bother asking “how do these people sleep at night?” — or “look at themselves in the mirror,” or any of the other figures traditionally spoken by those who retain the ability to be astonished at the depths to which human beings can sink. Quite easily they sleep, you can be sure. These are The Hollow Men, the whisper of whose dried voices are indeed as

rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

James Booker: Black minute waltz

James Booker pf (Rounder CD 2118)

Sir Malcolm Arnold: Concerto for piano duet and strings, op. 32

David Nettle & Richard Markham pf / London Musici / Mark Stephenson cond (Conifer Classics CDCF 228)

Sir Malcolm Arnold: Recorder sonatina, op. 41

Judith Pearce fl / Ian Brown pf / The Nash Ensemble (Hyperion CDA66172)

Sir Malcolm Arnold: The Inn of the Sixth Happiness: Orchestral suite

London Symphony Orchestra / Richard Hickox cond (Chandos 9100)

Sir Malcolm Arnold: Four Scottish dances, op. 59

Grimethorpe Colliery Band / Elgar Howarth, Sir Malcolm Arnold cond (Conifer Classics 74321-16848-2)