What I’m listening to
October 2023
Deep dive into the lovely world of Natalia Lafourcade. Virtually everything she has done in the last few years is terrific, but these three stuck out for me. What a voice, and what absolute love she has for her Mexican musical roots. And for all Spanish students (which I am) we can be reminded why we go to Mexico to learn from that most pure and elegant Spanish, and from the culture and history of the country.
Musas, the first of a series of albums based on Latin American popular songs and Mexican folk music; De Todas las Flores, her utterly gorgeous most recent album; and Hasta la Raiz, which unlike the first two is her own material — a bit more commercial, but her voice shines and it’s very seductive. And if you want the perfect introduction to this Mexican treasure, check out her NPR Tiny Desk Concert with Las Macorinas. It got me hooked. ¡Disfrute!
While we’re talking about Mexican music, it has been great to listen to the new Violin Concerto by Arturo Marquez for Anne Akiko Myers. When I was at the LA Phil this piece was just being thought about, and it’s great to hear it come to fruition. It’s an exciting and colorful journey, brilliantly played by Anne with Gustavo and the LA Phil.
I also encounted Lianne La Havas through her Tiny Desk Concert. Wow. What a voice. She’s an R&B singer/songwriter/produer from London. Check out Blood. Great songs, great production, upbeat, sensational singing.
Anthony McGill playing Brahms Clarinet Sonatas. Self-recommending. As a clarinetist I learnt these works in my teens, and they’re up there with Brahms’s greatest small-scale works. Anthony’s playing just speaks in such a narrative way, and draws you in to the intimacy of the music. Wonderful.
A new name to me: the young jazzz singer, Veronica Swift. This Bitter Earth is the album I’ve been listening to. Extraordinary jazz vocals — a combo of standards and her own material. Echos of many great singers from the past, like Ella and Sarah Vaughan. Check out the last track, Sing. And also great piano work here from Emmet Coen.
And more jazz vocals, the extraordinary Cecile McLorin Savant. I absolutely love her album The Window. Every song seems to get reinvented in front of you.
I’m a fan of Manfred Honeck. He’s so much more than might appear — not just a fine interpreter of “standard repertoire” but a conductor who is constantly searching for new ways of hearing the music. And he has the ability to execute the vision, and an incredible orchestra in the Pittsburgh Symphony. The Tchaik 4 has had amazing reviews for a very good reason.
A new Universal compilation of Bill Evans’ Riverside years just showed up, called On Riverside. I can’t find out much about it, but it’s a pretty definitive selection of the 12 CD set, which contains some of his greatest work. It has been a grounding background to some long hours in hotel rooms recently.
You can never predict what Sufjan Stevens is going to do next. Most recently he has been producing pretty esoteric albums of classical-adjacent compositions. But his first album of original songs for a few years, Javelin, just came out this week and it’s sublime stuff. I’m still digesting it, but it’s definitely a keeper. His musical imagination puts him in pretty elevated company.
I just discovered Eneida Marta, who comes from Guinea-Bissau. Her music is deeply West African but spiced with influences from Portugal, where she grew up. All her albums are haunting, but I like Nha Sunhu the most.
When it comes to the Goldberg Variations, I’m very loyal to András Schiff’s ECM recording, which is a desert island disc for me. But I have to admit the hot-off-the-press version by Vikingur Ólafsson blew my mind. I listened to it on two consecutive plane rides. It’s staggeringly virtuosic, but also playful, poetic, crystalline, and absolutely 21st century in conception.
Ending with more Baroque. I’ve always loved the Italian school of baroque performance. Giovanni Antonini, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Otavio Dantone, and Fabio Biondi are perhaps the most famous, and Biondi’s just-released disc of Vivaldi’s Concerti Per Anna Maria is as mediterranean, expressive, extrovert, and poetic as you would expect from these great musicians.
Hope you enjoy some of this varied menu!
