From the Jan 1 – Jan 8, 2003 issue

Music

Classical & Jazz

New Year's Resolutions

by Christopher DeLaurenti

I suck at Top 10 lists. While I do devour huge helpings of live and recorded music, I can't hear everything, so compiling the best classical, jazz, and avant performances of last year would be a woefully incomplete and highly subjective exercise. And how to explain my unusual choices? Last September, I sat stock still in a Chinese laundromat in the heart of Manhattan listening to washers and dryers croon and churn against a tinny cacophonous duet of two transistor radios. While those 40 minutes were one of my favorite musical experiences of 2002, that would take 750 words to explain why.

Instead, in the spirit of self-improvement, I decided to make a musical new year's resolution and attack one of my deep-seated musical prejudices. After years of dissatisfaction with the music of Dmitri Shostakovich--and disbelief that some rank him alongside Igor Stravinsky--I resolve to revisit several symphonies and a chunk of chamber music by this revered Russian composer. I also resolve to delve into the nether reaches of baroque music and refrain from grumbling about Vivaldi.

May I suggest some resolutions for local musicians? The straight-ahead jazz crowd needs a thorough, unbiased, web-based gig calendar similar to the Tentacle website (www.tentacle.org), which caters to experimental music. Someone needs to corral a half-dozen volunteers to make this happen so folks know that there is more to straight-ahead jazz in town than Jazz Alley and Tula's. Also, I would love to hear music of the European avant-garde (Nono, Xenakis, Ligeti) and their descendants (Ferneyhough, Sciarrino, Lachenmann) performed live. An especially bold soul should organize an ongoing series devoted to electro-acoustic music. If there is even one acoustic musician daring enough to add one or two electro-acoustic works to their concerts, then I will have a happy new year indeed. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI

chris@delaurenti.net

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