William Bolcom - Piano Concerto No. 2 The Concerto is a twenty-minute long parade of old-fashioned and outdated tropes. Seth Colter Walls, a freelance writer and music critic, recently published a piece in The New York Times drawing attention to the premiere of William Bolcom's Second Piano Concerto (read the article here ). While making some interesting observations, Mr. Walls gives too much credit to an aging composer. The article, aptly titled Decades Later, a Composer Revisits the Piano Concerto , notes how it has been over forty years since Bolcom finished his first Piano Concerto , but neglects to mention that musically, the Second Concerto  sounds as though it was composed the subsequent year. Premiered by pianist Igor Levit and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra led by Elim Chan, Bolcom's Second Piano Concerto  was commissioned for the 2022 Heidelberger Frühling Music Festival. The festival, primarily dedicated to older Classical music, likely commissioned Bolcom as a safe...

Michael Fiday - The Force for Good Fiday's inventive scoring is the highlight of the work, allowing all members of the ensemble to present the music with high levels of virtuosity and excitement. In  The Force For Good , Michael Fiday revitalizes the traditional concept of variation form with energetic rhythms, captivating scoring and wild, contemporary jazz harmonies. The piece was written for and premiered by the next music quartet Hypercube , comprised of electric guitar, saxophone, piano, and percussion. Fiday describes the work as "a set of variations... based on the well-known chord progression from John Coltrane's Giant Steps ." While not always evident as a primary source, which is by no means required of contemporary variations, Coltrane's chords come in and out of focus as the music unfolds throughout the piece. Fiday's inventive scoring and combinations of the players is the highlight of the almost twenty-minute long work, allowing all four members...