My favorite piece of tonight was Amérique by Varese. It was really colorful and exciting. Full with Energy. I actually did not like Absolute Jest so much. The work had not a real goal for me. It was like huntung for Beethoven fragments. But the performance was great. I found the Cowell quite interesting and colorful. The Cage was interesting to see but was quite aimless. It was an experience. Not more and not less.

It was a unique evening. I have never heard the concerto of Cowell before. It is a very interesting piece. I could definaterly hear to influence of Liszt on it although the language was very different from Liszt. The Copeland Variations were also interesting piece and it was interesting to hear the orchestration of the piano piece. The piece by Mason Bates had for me clear connections also to techno music and it was interesting how those elements were incooperated into the piece. The Harrison Concerto for Organ and Percussion Orchestra clearly showed the affinity of the composer for asian instruments and ton language from asia.

Robert Lepage’s Anderson Project is an evening of excitement and fun. I enjoyed every minute of it. The scenery changed permanently. The music range was from classical music to French rap. So a lot of change happened on this level too. Also the technical accomplishment was really great: everything was so fluently on stage. And of course the actor Yves Jaques is phenomenal in his roles.

The concert was wonderful! Great balance and expressive playing. The maverick Beethoven came clearly out in the E Flat major quartet where Beethoven brings his crazy Scherzo. Also in the F minor quartet with a lot of interesting harmonic progressions. The quartet op.18 was maybe less maverick and stood still under the traditional classical influence of Haydn. And idea probably would have been the finish the concert with the Great Fugue where Beethoven is completely a maverick.

I enjoyed the performance a lot! There was always something going on which kept my attention. I thought the lights played a very important role as the lightning guided my attention. The dancers were all excellent. I really loved the atmosphere at the beginning. And then I was surprised about the music after that. Mayby it would have been even better to bring the music of the beginning back to have a strong closing at the end.

The concert with the Talis Scholars was a unique concert in the Maverick and Renegade Series at UMS. It was that because the music we heard was by far the oldest music in this concert row. The place in which the event took place was the catholic church. This place is the best place this music can actually performed as all the music stems from catholic composers. One thing I am thinking could have been deliberated: to turn of lights so that the audience sits in the dark so that oneself is alone with the music. This would have given me a more intense experience I think. The performernce was very clear and I could hear the phrasing very clearly. It was a very satiesfying evening as a whole.

The performance was excellent. It was colorful and convincing. Messian’s music is so interesting. That was the positive point of the performance today. I am not all to enthusiastic about the video, in fact: I did not like it. It did not support the music in my opinion. It actually draw my attention away from the music and disturbed me while listening. The best moments for me were as I had my eyes closed. The idea of Landau to make a counterpoint to the music did not work for me.

I was very impressed by all the performers. They all kept the work going. I could see that every detail was planned out. If you watched around you could see that everybody of the persons on stage was doing something to keep my attention. The scenes to which I probably played the most attention was the scene about the “Prematurly air-conditioned supermarket”. The words “the beach” finally hypnotized me to some extent. And then the image of the atomic bomb was also kind of fascinating to watch. I keep thinking about the couple in the last scene: for me they could be the last survivors of a nuclear war. But I also must admit that I sometimes thought that it is too long. Sometimes I expected that we move on to the next scene and then the music started again over and over again. So I needed definately my breaks. It was not a surprise to me that I saw people to fall asleep. All in all it was an interesting experience. For me at had the taste of a drug trip. Something you can do sometimes but not too often.

I think it is very true for music too: one must understand the traditions also to be able to challenge them.