Friday Miscellanea

A very brief miscellanea today--I was up late for some reason!

Way back in the 1980s I read a book that has stuck with me ever since: Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin.

There is a new edition and there is a lot of current interest in Robert Irwin's work. The Wall Street Journal has a full-length article on him: "The Artist’s Artist: Robert Irwin Continues to Create and Inspire." His work is so subtle that for decades he refused to allow it to be photographed, but has recently relaxed that ban. Here is a acrylic column from 1970-71:

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Here is a piece on the connections between the Beatles' Revolution Number 9 and Stockhausen: "Crackle goes pop: how Stockhausen seduced the Beatles" --just discount the headline a bit.

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The Guardian's Andrew Clements lists his top ten classical CDs for the year. Numbers one, two and three are Lutosławski, Berg and Steve Reich.

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Anne Midgette of the Washington Post gives her 2015: The year in classical music. She notes that even pop artists see the symphony orchestra as “the artistic symbol of civilization.” Now if only we could hope for the same from musicologists!

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And since it is a New Year and we love you, here is one of the most delightful piano performances ever, from Victor Borge, in 1968:

And for something completely different, Mahler arranged for guitar quartet:

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I think my choice of album of the year would be the wonderful collection of the music of Henri Dutilleux that was just released:

Here is his Symphony No. 1 with Roger Albin conducting the Orchestre National de l'ORTF: