David Dalle
Thursday January 6th, 2022 with David Dalle
Anna Thorvaldsottir's "Enigma"; the latest from The Halluci Nation and Niger's Etran de L'Air; music from Ghana, Brahms, and some jazz.
Today we will hear a new recording from Icelandic new music composer, Anna Thorvaldsdottir. She composes primal music of rugged and spectacular beauty which could explode at any time, like the stark and desolate volcanic interior of her homeland. The latest recording features her 1st string quartet "Enigma" performed by the Spektral Quartet. "Enigma is simultaneously colossal and introspective, moving between heart-wrenching chord progressions and the scrapes and clicks of extended string techniques. A piece of profound, emotional magnitude, Enigma provokes considerations of our relationship to the vast cosmos that surrounds us--and the infinite universe within."
We will hear Thorvaldsdottir's wonderful new work in the second half of the program. We will start with new singles from The Halluci Nation and Niger's Etran de L'Air and the latest from Analog Africa as well as other music from Niger and Ghana.
| Stadium Pow Wow ft. Black Bear The Halluci Nation - Stadium Pow Wow - Independent 
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| Toubouk Ine Chihoussay Etran de L'Air - Toubouk Ine Chihoussay - Sahel Sounds
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| Dommo Mamar Kassey - Alatoumi - World Village |
| Odo Mframa Ernest Honny - Essiebons Special 1973-1984 - Analog Africa
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| Kruman Dey Ebo Taylor - Appia Kwa Bridge - Strut |
| Wonnim a Bisa Black Masters Band - Essiebons Special 1973-1984 - Analog Africa
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| You Can't Escape Death Fra Fra - Funeral Songs - Glitterbeat |
| Woro Dance Tony Allen - The Source - Blue Note |
| How Deep is the Ocean John Taylor, Marc Johnson, Joey Baron - Rosslyn - ECM |
| Enigma String Quartet Anna Thorvaldsdottir/Spektral Quartet - Enigma - Sono Luminus
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| Ending the show with a selection of Brahms' final pieces for piano from an upcoming release by English pianist Paul Lewis. Brahms' four collections of short lyrical pieces, Opuses 116-119, comprising twenty pieces in all, were explicitly intended by Brahms as his final utterances, an unbearably sweet and melancholic farewell to all things. This is unlike "final works" by many composers such as Mahler's and Bruckner's 9th symphonies, Beethoven's late string quartets, Mozart's Requiem, or Schubert's last piano sonatas. Those works were attributed as final farewells to this Earthly vale of tears by posterity and chance. Mahler and Bruckner were composing their 10th symphonies, Beethoven had sketches for future works, Mozart and Schubert did not expect to die so young...
These works range from sweet nostalgia and melancholy, but sometimes veer into despair such as the Intermezzo Op. 118 no. 6. Perhaps, the most dramatic is the final work of the fourth set, the Rhapsody in E-flat major. Of the twenty works, this one stands out in its defiant grandeur, with powerful and rhythmic chords on the piano reminiscent of his career-launching 1st Piano Concerto, composed as a young man. But truly shocking is that it does not end as a defiant fist raised to the heavens, it spirals off and ends traumatically in E-flat minor. This is vanishingly rare in three centuries of music for a piece in a major key to end in minor (while a piece in a minor key ending in a major is fairly common). This way to end was a deliberate choice by Brahms to complete his final utterances on the piano! A pessimistic ending, but Brahms was pessimistic in his later years, believing there was no afterlife for himself or his music, thankfully he was certainly wrong about the latter! |
| Intermezzo in a minor Op. 116 no. 2 Johannes Brahms/Paul Lewis - Late Piano Works - Harmonia Mundi
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| Intermezzo in A Op. 118 no. 2 Johannes Brahms/Paul Lewis - Late Piano Works - Harmonia Mundi
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| Intermezzo in f minor Op. 118 no. 4 Johannes Brahms/Paul Lewis - Late Piano Works - Harmonia Mundi
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| Intermezzo in e flat minor Op. 118 no. 6 Johannes Brahms/Paul Lewis - Late Piano Works - Harmonia Mundi
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| Intermezzo in E flat Op. 117 no. 1 Johannes Brahms/Paul Lewis - Late Piano Works - Harmonia Mundi
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| Rhapsody in E flat Oop. 119 no. 4 Johannes Brahms/Paul Lewis - Late Piano Works - Harmonia Mundi
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Listening along in bed. Feeling sick from the booster I got last night!
2:05 PM, January 6th, 2022