Sorabji returns to the spotlight with the premiere recording of his Third Toccata, a modest (by Sorabji standards) two-hour piano tome that we’ve distilled into 30 tidy minutes to sample alongside Lachenmann’s My Melodies (noise music meets Boulez), Josh Modney’s Ascending Primes (which reminds us of Nancarrow and Carla Bley) and Alice Coltrane’s 1971 Carnegie Hall concert (in its first complete recording). We honor Gerhard Samuel for his 100th birthday with a backward-looking orchestral requiem, and revisit historical gems by Jeanne Lee and Joe McPhee through our “50 years ago in the avant-garde feature”. New and unusual instrumentational configurations from Langham Research Centre (with John Butcher), Pasquale Corrado (channeling Dante), Rhodri Davies (interpreted through Scottish Smallpipes) and David Leon’s Bird’s Eye trio (featuring sax, drums and gayageum), plus the first recording of Cage’s Music for Three by a horn trio, rounds out this ambitious playlist.
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Flotation Device 2024-04-21: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell (PART ONE)
Intro and SET 1: Old and new [0:00]
1. [1:35] David Leon: Nothing Urgent, Just Unfortunate. From Bird's Eye (Pyroclastic, 2024) with David Leon (soprano and alto saxophones), DoYeon Kim (gayageum), Lesley Mok (drumset, glockenspiel), Ryan Streber (recording engineer)
2. [9:47] Rhodri Davies: Sealbh an Fhortain air an Each Bhuidhe. From Relics of the Horsehair Harp (Amgen, 2024) with Brìghde Chaimbeul (Scottish smallpipes, recording engineer)
3. [12:02] John Cage: Music For Three. From Music For Three (CAvi-music, 2024) with Přemysl Vojta (Horn), Ye Wu (violin), Florence Millet (piano), Enrique Foedtke, Stephan Hahn (recording engineers). NOTE: First recording of this piece for horn trio, arranged from the materials of Music For … (1984–87)
4. [14:15] Helmut Lachenmann: My Melodies (excerpts)- Eröffnung. From Musica Viva #43: My Melodies (BR-Klassik, 2024) with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Matthias Hermann (conductor), Norbert Ommer (sound director), Klemens Kamp (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2016–18, revised 2023
5. [20:55] Jeanne Lee: Yeh Come t'be. From Conspiracy (Seeds, 1975, reissued 2021 by Moved-By-Sound) with Jeanne Lee (voice), Jan Rathbun (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded April–May 1974
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SET 2: Cherry, Appleton, Nancarrow and their progeny [28:02]
1. [32:09] Joe McPhee, John Snyder: Shadow Sculptures. From Pieces of Light (CjRecord, 1974, reissued 2005 by Atavistic) with Joe McPhee (trumpet, modified Nagoya harp, wind chimes), John Snyder (Arp synthesizer), Craig Johnson (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded April 1974 at CRJ studios, West Park, New York City
2. [35:45] John Butcher, Langham Research Centre: A Thousand Small Deliberations. From Six Hands at an Open Door (Persistence of Sound, 2023) with John Butcher (saxophone), Langham Research Centre: Iain Chambers, Robert Worby (tape recorders, oscillators, shortwave radio, small amplified sounds), Dave Hunt (recording engineer)
3. [40:25] Josh Modney: 11 Event Horizon - II. Passacaglias. From Ascending Primes (Pyroclastic, 2024) with Anna Webber (tenor saxophone), Nate Wooley (trumpet), David Byrd-Marrow (horn), Dan Peck (tuba), Josh Modney, Eddy Kwon (violins), Joanna Mattrey (viola), Mariel Roberts, Lester St. Louis (cellos), Cory Smythe (piano), Kate Gentile (drums), Ryan Streber (recording engineer)
4. [51:24] Conlon Nancarrow: Study No. 36 for player piano (Canon 17/18/19/20). From Player Piano 5 (MDG-Scene, 2007) with Bösendorfer Grand Piano with 1927 Ampico Player Piano Mechanism, Jürgen Hocker, Jörg Borchardt (restoration). NOTE: Recorded 2005
5. [55:07] Outro with Jon Appleton/Don Cherry: Human Music and Richard Teitelbaum/Anthony Braxton: Time Zones
6. [59:39] Pasquale Corrado: Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona. From Works for Ensemble (Kairos, 2023) with Syntax Ensemble: Valentina Coladonato (soprano), Laura Faoro (flute), Marco Ignoti (clarinet), Francesco D'Orazio
Flotation Device 2024-04-21: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell (PART TWO)
SET 3: Gerhard Samuel (1924–2008) [1:05:37]
1. [1:07:28] Gerhard Samuel: Requiem for Survivors "and suddenly it's evening…". From The Orpheus Oracle (Vienna Modern Masters, 1998) with Wataru Sato (saxophone), Stacy Simpson (trumpet), José Mangual (trombone), Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra, Jindong Cai (conductor), Thomas Haines (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 1974
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SET 4: Prodigious pianos [1:25:50]
1. [1:28:40] Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: Toccata Terza (excerpts). From Toccata Terza (Piano Classics, 2024) with Abel Sánchez-Aguilera (piano), Julio Gómez (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 1955, premiered March 7, 2022 by Sánchez-Aguilera. Premiere recording
2. [1:55:21] Outro with Alice Coltrane: The Carnegie Hall Concert
Photo credits: John Cage by Marion Kalter, Jeanne Lee by Irene Kubota, Toccata Terza by Kaikhosru Sorabji, Cage: Music for Three by Daniel Haeker, Brìghde Chaimbeul by Camille Lemoine, Conlon Nancarrow and Jürgen Hocker via MDG Scene, Kaikhosru Sorabji by Joan Muspratt, Alice Coltrane by Jeff Dunas (Verve Records), John Butcher by Ariele Monti, Helmut Lachenmann by A.T. Schaefer, Bird’s Eye (David Leon, DoYeon Kim, Lesley Mok) via PostGenre, Pasquale Corrado via the artist, Gerhard Samuel by Betty Freeman