I'm listening to...

Obviously the title caught my eye when I saw A Fool in the Forest had a new post from the Carlsbad Music Festival entitled "Penelope." I clicked over to read what it was about, which was a live performance of a piece created by lyricist Ellen McLaughlin and composer Sarah Kirkland Snyder, the recording of which topped author George M. Wallace's best albums of 2010. In a bit of fortuitous timing, it turns out some of the performers of the piece are from the Calder Quartet, which I'm seeing on October 2nd.

Wallace has an excellent review of the recording here. I looked it up on MOG and found it. It's a disarming, entrancing album, and works extremely well as a companion piece to the other album which has ensnared my attention these past weeks, Laura Marling's "A Creature I Don't Know." I heartily recommend both of them.

Speaking of recommendations, I've also been listening WTC 9/11, the new Steve Reich composition performed by Kronos Quartet. Disturbing, thoughtful and respectful, its use of recorded voices and music reminds me of the interesting work Joe Frank did in the 80's with "Work in Progress." It's an entirely more appropriate artistic response than the piffle of Heart of a Soldier, currently underway at San Francisco Opera.

Kronos will perform the local premiere of the work as part of an all-Reich program on October 9th. Both the Calder and Kronos programs are presented by Cal Performances and take place on the UC Berkeley campus.

All three recordings can be listened to on MOG.