CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE ..., 3
BIOGRAPHY: Richard Rivera,4
BRAVI TO ..., 4

An Interview with George Walker,  Duffie, 5

LEGATO NOTES
No Restin’ at the Westin: The Busy CMA Conference, 2004  Kaufman, 6

LIVE EVENTS
In Brevity There Can Be Wisdom McBride, 9
Cosi Fan Tutte? Non Piu   McBride, 9
Ending with a Bang!  Liechty, 10
U.S.-Antillean Echoes Back and Forth
     de Clef Piñeiro, 10
Myriad Musical Minds  Cleary, 11
Music Without “Reason”   Cleary, 12
O que Orquesta tan rica!  de Clef Piñeiro, 12
The Long and the Short of It  Cleary, 13
“Intruder” in the Musical Landscape  Kroll, 13
Putting Harrison into Context  Pehrson, 14
Fiddler on the Roof of Technology  BLC, 14

Scelsi: “All of the Above”  Pehrson, 15
Marriage, Murder and Masochism   BLC, 16
…and So…they Played   Liechty, 17

DOTTED NOTES from…
Frank Retzel; Jon Liechty; John de Clef Piñeiro; Mark Greenfest; Peter Kroll; BLC, 17

SPEAKING OUT
LETTERS, 19
OP-ED  BLC, 19

RECORDINGS
An Ancient Instrument in Today’s World
      Kroll, 21
From Britain and Britten et al with Love
      Mitrano, 21
Setting the Themes  BLC, 21
Sax Act  Mitrano, 22

CDS IN BRIEF & RECENT RELEASES
Luis Antonio Escobar: Canticas y Madrigales       BLC, 22
Igor Stravinsky: FIREWORKS
      BLC, 23

THE PUZZLE CORNER:
Another outstanding winner, 24

COMPOSER INDEX, 26

BULLETIN BOARD, 27

WEB SUPPLEMENT

Gala Announcement

Who Will Be the Next New Music Champion? The Envelope, Please!
Gala 2004 will feature three new awards and celebrate with music, music, music!

Festival

Dresdener Tage des Zeitgenössisches Musik

Fiddler on the Roof of Technology

by BLC ©2004

‘Interactive Arts Performance Series’- Mari Kimura, violin: Gemini (1993); ECO (1993); Guitar Botana (2004); Izquierda y Derecha (1998) • Jean-Claude Risset: Variants (1994) • Robert Rowe: Submarine (1997) • Tania León: Axon (2002) • Frances White: The Old Rose Reader (2004) • Conlon Nancarrow: Toccata (1980’s). Presented by New York University’s Department of Music, Performing Arts Professions, Music Technology Program. Frederick Loewe Theater, February 9, 2004.

The New York Times called one of her solo performances "chilling…gripping… charming…a virtuoso playing at the edge." Mari Kimura is to the violin what perhaps Henry Cowell and later John Cage were to the piano in the 1920’s and 30’s—taking it into the future with extended techniques and sounds. Of course, Cowell used his entire body to elicit music from the piano; Cage changed the sound of the piano with preparative manipulations. Kimura surrounds herself with "robots," which she commands with great concentration, yet somehow gets them to produce a diversity of styles and approaches.

Having said all that, it turns out the oddest selection this evening was actually the least avant-garde, Frances White’s The Old Rose Reader, a visual work in which a video screen has a big role to play, scrolling down and fading text in and out, while a man’s voice recites highlights from the text. The narrator (Hervé Brönnimann, Ms. Kimura’s husband), speaks softly, sometimes almost inaudibly, and one might question the need for narration when titles are legible, but Ms. White seems to have a marvelous instinct for overall effectiveness. Her long solo line for the violin, accompanied by the composer’s characteristic electronic whirr, underlined the emotions felt. "Reader" was the only work on the program that ran substantially more than ten minutes and yet it seemed to touch the audience the most. Ms. White’s obvious passion for .owers —they appear often in her titles—resulted in a collaboration with her husband, James Pritchett (text and video). Especially moving was the retelling of a legend about a woman who in a dream follows a crow to a vast eternal garden full of the most exquisite roses, coming in all shades, colors and aromas, where she finds peace and happiness. That story could have carried the day, but the video went on to list the names of hundreds of species of rose and several other anecdotes about them and their breeders, making it more than just an accompaniment to music.

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