Whitney Balliett

[Larry Kart]

The Corigliano I've heard sounded irritating. What should I hear?

That how his stuff strikes me, but his father, also John, was a good violinist, onetime concertmaster of the NY Phil. I know Corigliano Sr. from an excellent recording of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the NY Phil from 1959, conducted by Bruno Walter, with Leonard Rose and Walter Hendl (a tasty pianist -- didn't even know he played the piano professionally until I heard this recording).

[MomsMobley]

Oh, I'm surprised Chuck! Although I was cool to Corigliano at first too, having first heard his symphony. The movie is probably not our bag but for sheer orchestral mastery, "The Altered States" soundtrack (or excerpts) are unpimpeachable. The clarinet concerto is, I think, superb. The recent-ish Naxos issue of the string quartet also--

http://www.amazon.com/John-Corigliano-Snapshot-November-Friedman/dp/B000OQDRVO

The Dylan song cycle ** is ** very likely irritating to many but I think it's daft/brilliant. If you do modern (post-Berg) vocal/choral the Dylan Thomas settings are great.

The oboe concerto is a sleep in his work-- I'd recommend it and other of Corigliano to people who appreciate the full breadth of, say, Ernest Bloch-- not just the 'jewish' works & concerto grossi. Different idioms, mostly, of course, but both are not so easily categorized as might first seem.

Don't bother with Corigliano opera until you're a fan, or "Red Violin," which is a ringer.

For Stravinsky, Revueltas & Bartok lovers only--

Circus Maximus

Edited December 15, 2010 by MomsMobley

[AllenLowe]

I know Vito Corigliano.....

I used to like Balliett, but he doesn't age well, I think.....and I do not trust his interviews, entertaining as they are, there is just something very false about them, and apparently this has been confirmed by some of his subjects. Also, somewhere he called Miles Davis "a first rate second rate trumpeter." He also put down Jaki Byard once, which is (for me) and unforgivable sin; also I have found his descriptions of solos entertaining and colorful - but almost complete crap when one hears what he is writing about.

Too many flights of fancy.

[Christiern]

John Corigliano and I had a friendly falling out when he was my Music Director at WBAI. One day, he scheduled John Cage's "Cartridge Music" for the morning concert. I don't know if any of you are familiar with that work, but it is generated by dragging live phonograph styli across the studio floor. Imagine it—I know you can. People thought we were off the air and called to find out when our transmitter would be fixed.

I told John that I didn't care how acknowledged a composer Cage was, this particular piece was unsuitable for 7 AM broadcast. John told me that he had been planning to resign, because he wanted to write a piano or violin concerto while living on unemployment. We agreed to part amicably, and when the Dept. of Labor turned him down, I went to a meeting there and insisted that he had quit because we had an "unworkable" situation.

The bureaucrats were convince, John received his unemployment checks, and—a year or so later—I received an LP of his concerto in the mail.

Many years later, as he was preparing to fly west an pick up an Oscar, I told him that he should have dedicated his concerto to Cage.

For the love of Ivie, I can't tell you anything about Jourdan Anderson.

[thedwork]

I've just read about Whitney Balliett, and am thinking about getting a book of some of his reviews. Am wondering which one to get. Is his "Collected Works" the one to get? Or is there some other book that is a better collection/introduction? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

hey bol. i've had a Balliett book listed in my thread "CD Sale! Lots to choose from... mostly jazz/creative - but also pop, folk, classical, etc..." in the for sale/trade section of the forum for a while now. certainly seems like nobody's interested. pop over there and look at what i wrote about it, and if you're interested i'll get it to you for $2 plus shipping. a funny thing about the book: there's a photo on the back w/ the caption "The author with the Duke at the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival." but the photo looks to me to be of Duke and Strayhorn. i guess part of the back of someone's head that appears in the photo is Balliet's? kinda goofy. lemme know...

put me in the camp of not really enjoying Balliett's writing.

and also put me in the camp of feeling that "moms" is the worst kind of internet forum troll. just complete jive.

particular piece was unsuitable for 7 AM broadcast.

Edited December 15, 2010 by thedwork

[AllenLowe]

Moms is fine, back off, bub - he says what we can only think. One of the more creative uses of insult that I've seen of late.

[jlhoots]

Moms is fine, back off, bub - he says what we can only think. One of the more creative uses of insult that I've seen of late.

The race card is "creative"???

Edited December 15, 2010 by jlhoots

[AllenLowe]

let's say expressive......