The greatest regeneration. Time Out Chicago, August 23, 2007. Anybody who digs the Andrews Sisters will dig the Puppini Sisters, who do a swell job of updating the sister-group act for our era. This is also MG in fey, club-hopping voice, not high-road-aesthete voice.
The Anat Cohen Quartet. They will be here in one week.
The Silk Road Ensemble and Chicago Symphony have a new CD. That disc includes Osvaldo Golijov's Night of the Flying Horses transcribed for the Silk Road Ensemble. An orchestral piece of music, with soprano, intended to evoke Gypsy music has now been transcribed for an Eastern/Western amalgam of instruments. Therefore, it's a copy of a copy of an unnotated Gypsy original, if I have the chronology correct. Wrap your multicultural head around that.
This weekend, I put put on my cabaret critic attire, which includes spats and a cane with a silver tip, to hear model/singer Erin Gipson, the Puppini Sisters, and Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone, together again, as well as the much-covered Mark Morris Dance Company's Mozart Dances. (Working our way up the ladder of fame chronologically among the singers.) Gipson has appeared on the TV reality show "Beauty and the Geek," which somehow escaped my notice, but after hearing a couple songs, she sounds as if she and her teeny voice may have some potential. She also teaches voice at the Chicago Center School of Music.
Playlist
Los Angeles Philharmonic Ravel (Left-Hand Concerto), Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet), Salonen (Helix). Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (DG)
Dan Kaufman/Barbez Force of Light (Tzadik, available September 23)
Luba Mason Collage (PS Classics)
Brian Sacawa American Voices (Innova) (And congratulations on that engagement!)
Peabody Trio Beethoven: Piano Trios. Violaine Melançon, violin; Natasha Brofsky, cello; Seth Knopp, piano (Artek)
Available August 28:
Kate Royal Debussy, Canteloube, Granados, more (EMI)
Evgeny Kissin Mozart: Concerto No. 23, Schumann: Piano Concerto. London Symphony Orchestra; Sir Colin Davis, conductor (EMI)
Available September 11:
Isabelle Faust Beethoven: Violin Concerto and "Kreutzer" Sonata. Prague Philharmonia, Jiri Belohlavek, conductor; Alexander Melnikov, piano (harmonia mundi)
Katia and Marielle Labèque Stravinsky and Debussy works for piano duo, with videos by Tal Rosner (KML CD + DVD)
Olga Kern Brahms: Variations, Opp. 21, 24 (Handel Variations), 35 Books I and II (harmonia mundi)
Marc-André Hamelin Alkan (Hyperion)
Available October 23:
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Brittania: Elgar, Maxwell Davies, Turnage, Britten. Donald Runnicles, conductor (Telarc)
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Symphony No. 6 ("Pathetique"). Paavo Järvi, conductor (Telarc)