It’d probably be easier to list the venues pianist Stewart Goodyear has not played than the ones he’s played — it seems the young phenom has already done it all. A composer, concerto soloist and recitalist, Goodyear is one of the most talked-about pianists in the world, and deservedly so…
18-year-old composer prodigy and current Southern Methodist University freshman, Chase Dobson, sees his Piano Concerto No.1 receive its professional orchestral debut in an event full of debuts. Performed by the daring, well-traveled pianist Lucille Chung –– an SMU lecturer who was something of a prodigy herself –– Dobson’s piano concerto…
For better or worse, I eat this stuff up. Dark, depraved, macabre, mysterious in that delicately frightful manner, I delight in music that takes me somewhere else, especially if that somewhere is both alien and shadowy. I’m not alone. There’s a particular legion of listeners–largely social outliers, closet weirdos, lifetime…
Distinctively Russian, uniquely Tchaikovsky, the composer’s first symphony, Winter Daydreams, remains one of the most fascinating and influential symphonic outings in history. It would forever change Russian musical culture. Its ambition would ruffle feathers and ignite spirits. It nearly drove the upstart Tchaikovsky to madness, almost to his grave. The…
Betrayal, madness and suicide are the themes of this concert. For the second installment of the Nasher’s Soundings series, it will offer up two string quartets, each an exploration in human darkness. First, composer/violist Brett Dean’s String Quartet No. 2 (“And Once I Played Ophelia”), a five-movement character study in…
Dallas Symphony Orchestra, in something of a reverse sequel to last year’s performance of his Piano Concerto No. 2, presents Brahms’ grand Piano Concerto No. 1. Undoubtedly, the composition deserves a mighty player, and in the robust Yefim Bronfman the work finds a fitting suitor. Beautiful and subtle one moment,…
A year ago it wouldn’t have made sense to make a list like this.It would have been quite difficult to number off 10 local record stores, much less 10 good ones, much less ten great ones. But now our city is in the midst of a record store resurgence of…
As the relevance of vinyl records continues to grow, so do the number of documentaries about records and record collecting culture. The most recent example is Records Collecting Dust: a documentary film about the music and records that changed our lives. Written and directed by San Diego musician and filmmaker…
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra finishes out a strong month with yet another fantastic program. The evening begins with Prokofiev’s suspenseful Symphony No. 3, a work primarily sourced from the composer’s long-delayed opera The Fiery Angel. After a short intermission, the DSO welcomes accomplished pianist Peter Serkin to perform Mozart’s sinewy…
Amidst all the recent talk of a “vinyl resurgence” and the renewed admiration for physical media in music, one niche seems to miss its fair share of the attention. Countless reissues, think pieces and brick-and-mortar retail stores have sprung up in favor of re-emphasizing the importance of tangible music formats;…
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra settles into form with a program stacked with beloved classics. The evening begins with Bach’s legendary Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 and closes with Beethoven’s relatively conventional Symphony No. 1, which grants a subtle glimpse into the composer’s radical and ambitious middle-period, while revealing his many debts…
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra opens the new year with a deep program that includes Rachmaninoff’s final composition for piano and orchestra, the riveting Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Newly appointed artist-in-residence, Conrad Tao — a prodigious pianist, violinist and composer — is set to bring the virtuosic concerto to…
Rungs of records balance on every flat surface, coils of electronic cables stretch every which way, threatening to snatch at your ankles. A studio’s worth of musical gadgetry frames the room, flirting with certain free fall. But I’m more concerned with what hangs on the wall. I try to shake…
FKA twigs With Boots Trees, Dallas Friday, November 28, 2014 Some see FKA twigs as the savior of R&B. At the very least, some kind of futurist shape of the genre. Others see her as simply a revamp of trip hop, an anachronistic innovation come full circle. And at least…
“The Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents ‘The Golden Age of Jazz’” reads the program. Truthfully, there’s something strange about the DSO presenting jazz, a musical form whose very maturation was dependent on deconstructing the aesthetic assumptions of European music. Although jazz initially borrowed heavily from classical music, especially melodically, and despite…
Coinciding with the DMA’s Concentrations 57: Slavs and Tatars exhibit (a high/low art investigation of the geopolitics of language and culture), The Fine Arts Chamber Players present an afternoon of folk-informed musical performance. Held at the DMA’s Horchow Auditorium, the concert includes Khachaturian’s trio for clarinet, violin and piano (performed…
Wails, bellows, purrs, barks, hisses, laughter, gurgles, screeches, yelps, retching, squeals, gurgles, screams, grunts and groans. No words. Just clusters of prickly, spindly instrumental spattering, and the human voice reduced to animalistic expression. If John Cage had aimed his sights at prepared vocal chords instead of pianos, this is what…
Regarded as the founder of the art music tradition in America, Charles Ives is arguably the most important composer the U.S. ever produced. Which means that anytime the man’s work receives a stage, especially locally, it deserves attention. Despite being one of the modernist’s less radical pieces, Ives’ “Symphony No…
Deep Ellum’s newest bar-slash-record-store, Off The Record, stays busy. Apart from the luxury of drinking cocktails where you can also buy records, Off The Record offers an ever-growing list of social and cultural events too. It seems every week sees OTR add another installment to its High Fidelity series, which…
Take notice Dallas avant-garde fans, we don’t get chances like this very often. Aventures and its slightly more structured “sequel” Nouvelles Aventures are amongst Gyorgy Ligeti’s most fascinating works. Composed for three singers and instrumental septet, these miniature anti-operas (what the composer termed “mimodramas”) are equal parts haunting, hilarious, and…
In a month marked by pioneering modernism, concert standards take a backseat to rarely performed masterpieces by the likes of Charles Ives, Gyorgy Ligeti and Bela Bartok (yes, more Bartok, again!). The nights are now longer, and the air is taut with its first chills of the season–it’s just the…
The fifth anniversary season of The Nasher’s Soundings concert series begins with cellist Alisa Weilerstein in recital., and the offering is really something special. Before Bach’s six cello suites, there existed exactly zero compositions for solo cello. They remain some of the finest pieces of music Bach — or anyone…
