LPR Live

Despite being one of relatively few chamber music pieces in his catalog, John Adams’s 2008 String Quartet stands among the composer’s most compelling works and has been solidly adopted into the chamber-music canon.

This episode features a live performance of the titanic two-movement piece, performed live at Le Poisson Rouge by the Attacca Quartet. Joining Adams's on-stage introduction of the piece are violinist Keiko Tokunaga and violist Luke Flemming of the Attacca Quartet. You’ll hear them recount the trial-by-fire circumstances of their first performance, the details of a late-night phone call and how to temper performance anxiety and just groove. 

This performance of John Adams's String Quartet by the Attacca Quartet features Amy Shroeder and Keiko Tokunaga on violin, Luke Flemming on Viola, and Andrew Yee on cello.

Listen to the complete concert at www.q2music.org.

John Adams’s String Quartet was featured by permission from Boosey & Hawkes. Visit Boosey on the web at www.boosey.com.

If you're a composer and you at least partially acknowledge the musical history that came before you, you're left in a tough position. How can you even put pen to paper when so much profound music already exists? Do you disregard it? Build upon it? Scrawl graffiti on its pages or bow in reverence?

In this episode we hear music that does a little bit of each. Three movement from the solo piano suite Parlour Diplomacy by Brooklyn-based composer Ted Hearne. The composer is joined by pianist-composer Timothy Andres for whom the piece was written. They discuss the anxiety of influence the manipulation of source material by Johannes Brahms and compositionally speaking, how to disassociate completely.

Special thanks to Ted Hearne and Timo Andres for their use of "Excerpts from Parlour Diplomacy".

David Lang's music hangs beautifully in the balance between head and heart. Despite the intricate mathematical undercurrents of his musical language and the rigorous construction of his forms, Lang's music is always primarily concerned with expression.

This episode of LPR Live features two movements from Lang's Memory Pieces for piano, one of the composer's most personal and intimate works. Each movement is a sort of musical memorial – a recollection or conversation with a close friend, distilled into a brief musical moment.

But, as Lang explains, it's not all gloom, doom and nostalgia. He describes charming encounters with composer John Cage and pianist Yvar Mikhashoff, the profundity of being asked to write a memorial for someone still alive and the mystery of musical expression.

Join us backstage with the composer and in the audience at Le Poisson Rouge to hear pianist Andrew Zolinsky perform the Memory Pieces "Cage" and "Spartan Arcs."

Discover the dynamic best of today's classical music 24/7 on Q2 Music from New York. Download the WQXR app and hit play: www.wqxr.org/mobile/

Simply put, the vast majority of classical music performance features the work of dead composers. Performers don't have the chance to ask a work's creator for advice; can't inquire about phrasing, articulation, or dynamics; and almost never were these pieces written specifically for them.

For this episode of LPR Live, however, quite the opposite is true. You'll hear the world premiere performance of Canadian-born composer Vivian Fung's Harp Concerto, the fruit of a close collaboration with New York City-based harpist Bridget Kibbey, heard here live at Le Poisson Rouge on April 6, 2014 with conductor Andrew Cyr leading the Metropolis Ensemble.

Throughout the collaborative process for this tailor-made concerto, Kibbey and Fung were in constant contact, with Fung catering her writing to Kibbey's singular musicianship while Kibbey provided input for idiomatic – ;and sometimes un-traditional – approaches to the instrument. The result is a vividly colored exploration of style and sonority that showcases the virtuosity of both performer and composer.

In conversation before the performance, Kibbey and Fung are joined by Metropolis Ensemble director Andrew Cyr to discuss the dynamics of their close-knit collaboration, the thrills of live performance, and what it took to turn the harp from angelic arpeggiator to virtuoso protagonist. 

Discover the dynamic best of today's classical music 24/7 on Q2 Music from New York. Download the WQXR app and hit play: www.wqxr.org/mobile/

One of America’s most revered experimentalists, Terry Riley turned 80 years old in 2015. Somehow, he remains eternally youthful and effortlessly hip, continuing to compose and perform at an invigorated pace. For decades now Riley has furthered the musical traditions he helped start in the '60s while serving as an inspiration to newer and younger generations of composers and performers.

This episode of LPR Live tips a hat to this musical maverick with live performances by the California-based pianist Sarah Cahill. In addition to the music of Riley included on this homage to the composer at Le Poisson Rouge, Cahill intersperses works by a younger generation of kindred spirits. One of our favorites is Samuel Adams, the current composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony, who wrote Shade Studies, a piece for piano and resonators, specifically for these celebratory performances. Riley’s Keyboard Study 1 and Adams’ complementary work is preluded by Cahill and Adams describing their close relationship with the composer, the mesmerizing spell cast by Riley’s piano writing, and the uniquely resonant sounds you hear listening to music from underneath a piano. Listen to the complete show on www.q2music.org.

Samuel Adams’s Shade Studies was commissioned by Russ Irwin for pianist Sarah Cahill. The first performance was given by Sarah Cahill in the recital hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on January 16, 2015. Thanks to Associated Music Publishers, Inc. and BMI for the use of Terry Riley’s Keyboard Studies.

Christopher Cerrone is one of those “on-the-brink” artists. The Brooklyn-based composer, riding an impressive wave of accolade and acclaim for his opera Invisible Cities, can seemingly not be heard enough, accumulating important commissions and performances across the country.   

This episode of LPR Live offers a bird’s eye view of his work for string quartet and string orchestra, High Windows, and features a performance by Quartet Senza Misura, Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr. Cerrone’s music strikes that elusive balance between intense emotion and meticulous craft, and combines ornamental dissonance with luminous triadic harmony in a singular language.

You’ll hear from Cerrone and the Metropolis Ensemble director Andrew Cyr about High Windows’ unlikely source material, the pitfalls of writing string orchestra music, and, for Cyr, what it feels like to literally be in the middle of such intense music.  This concert was recorded live at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on April 7, 2014. 

Christopher Cerrone’s High Windows was used by arrangement with Schott Music Corporation, New York.

On paper John Cage and Domenico Scarlatti—the experimental American composer and the late-Baroque keyboard maverick—make for an odd juxtaposition. But where some might hear contrast in the sonatas of this unlikely couple, pianist David Greilsammer hears complement.

This episode of LPR Live features the Israeli virtuoso live in performance of four sonatas, two each by Cage and Scarlatti. These performances are extracted from a larger recital by Greilsammer at Le Poisson Rouge that mirrors his 2014 Sony Classical release, “Scarlatti : Cage.” 

This episode features Domenico Scarlatti's A-minor Piano Sonata K.175, A-Major Piano Sonata K.492, and John Cage's Prepared Piano Sonatas No. 5 and 12 performed by David Greilsammer on pianos, with interviews from pianist David Greilsammer, and archival WNYC interview recordings from composer John Cage. This concert was recorded live at at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on May 27, 2014. Hear the complete show at www.q2music.org.

John Cage’s Sonatas for Prepared Piano were featured by permission of C.F. Peters Corp, all rights reserved.

LPR Live, a new podcast from WQXR's Q2 Music showcasing music recorded live at Greenwich Village's Le Poisson Rouge, launches with a throwback to Steve Reich's seminal 1988 Different Trains for string quartet and tape, performed by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME).

Steve Reich undoubtedly stands as one of America’s most influential composers. He also admits to being one of the most influenced musicians of his generation, combining the disparate sounds of jazz, African drumming, American experimentalism, and more. In Different Trains, written in 1988 and scored for string quartet and pre-recorded tape, Reich adds a deeply personal narrative to this melange of musical influence and creates one of his most affecting musical statements.

This episode features performances by Caroline Shaw and Ben Russell, violinists; Nadia Sirota, violist; and Clarice Jensen, cellist, and interviews with Jensen, Shaw and Reich himself. The music was recorded on September 11, 2012; hear the complete show at www.q2music.org.

Steve Reich’s Different Trains was featured on LPR Live by permission from Boosey & Hawkes. Visit Boosey on the web at www.boosey.com.