10-01-19 | Songs for Listening | Scott Lindroth
Scott Lindroth, a composer, professor of music, and vice provost for the arts at Duke University, picked songs for Tuesday, October 1 at Songs for Listening.
Here's Scott's picks, along with his annotations:
'Simple Song' by John Paul White from 'Southern Family'
"Simple on the surface but the sentiments are unflinchingly realistic without being mean-spirited. I like the way JPW alludes to old-timey music but introduces modern touches in harmony. His stripped down performance really gets to me."
'Little Match Girl Passion' by David Lang, performed by Theatre of Voices
"David's music is always fresh, uncompromisingly rigorous, and, in this piece especially poignant. For many composers, these qualities get in each other's way — rigor compromises freshness, for example — but in David's hands these forces work in tandem to make musical expression that much more vivid. Hans Christian Anderson's story works amazingly well as a vehicle for a passion story. Lang's music gently and unerringly deepens our experience of the contradictory emotional threads within the story."
'L'escalier du diable' from 'Piano Etudes, Book II' by Gyorgy Ligeti, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
"This tour-de-force features go-for-broke virtuosity that conveys exhilaration, danger, and a determination to transcend what a piano (and pianist) can do. Despite the blizzard of detail and complexity of texture, Ligeti never loses sight of the big picture in this piece. The overlapping ascents from the bottom of the keyboard to its upper reaches feel like a force of nature — thrilling and demonic."
Prior to arriving at Duke in 1990, Scott earned degrees in music composition from the Eastman School of Music and the Yale School of Music. Scott's work as a composer has centered on instrumental and vocal media, including compositions for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, and Bang on a Can All-Stars. Recordings of Scott's work are available on CRI, Equilibrium, and the Centaur labels. Recent works include 'Cadences', commissioned by the Electric Earth Concerts as part of a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Powers and 'Piano Roll Prosody' which was premiered by pianist Donald Berman. Current projects include a piano trio, a solo cello composition for cellist Ashley Bathgate, and a work for soprano saxophone and string quartet.
'Simple Song' by John Paul White from 'Southern Family'
'Little Match Girl Passion' by David Lang, performed by Theatre of Voices, conducted by Paul Hillier
'L'escalier du diable' from 'Piano Etudes, Book II' by Gyorgy Ligeti, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
