Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'

“Curt Cacioppo: ITALIA” now available

March 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Uncategorized

“ITALIA” is the title of Curt Cacioppo’s latest release. This is the composer’s 10th disc, and features exclusively music that he has written either in Italy or in response to Italian inspiration. The first work is “Impressions of Venice” (“Impressioni venexiane”), performed by the ensemble that commissioned it, the Quartetto di Venezia. Next is a […]

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2 new CD releases

March 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Congratulations to the Quartetto di Venezia on their new Decca 3 disc set of the complete Cherubini string quartets. These neglected works deserve much attention and study. Beethoven and Brahms were both correct in their esteem for this composer. And these performances are superb. It’s Decca 476 3604 – a long awaited contribution to the […]

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Charles Cacioppo on CD

December 25th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

It is a pleasure to announce the release of Charles Cacioppo’s “Piece for Unaccompanied Clarinet (2003)” performed by Ikuko Arai on the new Beauport Classical CD “GHOSTS.” Of the nine composers represented on the disc, Chuck is the youngest, this being his debut recording. For order/download info, go tohttp://www.cdbaby.com/cd/beauportclassical6 and visit Chuck’s My Space page […]

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Audience members respond to “Orchard Dances”

December 13th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Here are some audience responses to the Carnegie Hall premiere of “When the Orchard Dances Ceased” received by email: “Your piece was absorbing and I particularly enjoyed the way you got so much out of the orchestra in terms of coloration and mood.” “We enjoyed the piece enormously – your chanting, too! We didn’t know […]

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Debra Harder on “Lenape Refrains”

November 25th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

One of the most haunting compositions I heard last season was Curt Cacioppo’s “Lenape Refrains,” a large-scale orchestral work premiered by the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Karl Middleman, artistic director. Refrains is a deceptively mild term for this eight-movement work, which depicts the celebration, dances, and fate of the Lenape people, who are native to the […]

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Alejandro Cardona on “Ancestral Passage”

November 6th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Last week I got your CD “Ancestral Passage.” I have been listening to it for days now. Really great music. The “Coyoteway” quartet is incredible. What I really like is that all the native references/material have become like a very natural part of your music, so it’s not like you’re “working with” these elements, it’s […]

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An artist’s visual interpretation

August 18th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

The artist Vladimir Tamari, who is based in Tokyo, recently did a visual interpretation of my American Indian inspired music.  Like the Navajo painter David Chethlahe Paladin, Tamari “channels” the music and paints directly as he listens.  He has produced a whole “painting the music” series representing composers from Bach and Vivaldi to Copland and Takemitsu.  His […]

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Gravity and Shadow

August 17th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

During this heat wave in the Delaware Valley, I am keeping cool by practicing a new piece by the Italian composer Franco Cavallone entitled “Ombre allungate,” which he graciously dedicated to me.  Inspired by winter shadows cast by the pine trees on the mountainsides of the Dolomites, it draws its harmonic processes from the theories […]

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More on Inspiration & Creativity

June 23rd, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Two entries paraphrasing remarks on inspiration and the creative process, apropos of what I said and quoted in earlier posts.  The first from Ian Frazier, from an online reminiscence about his mentor, conductor William Appling.  The second from Johannes Brahms.      Frazier: To be an artist is hard. Unlike mastering a subject or a […]

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More on Diabelli

June 23rd, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

A few more comments on the Diabelli Variations, following up on my post of April 1.  Katherine, the musicologist/protagonist in Kaufman’s play, is more affected by the maestoso aspect than the martial.  For her the variation regally announces embarking on an odyssey that will demand courage.  Let us think of another situation in which Beethoven […]

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