Considering the singularity of Dmitri Shostakovich’s voice, it is no surprise to find a chamber music work like the Piano Trio No.2, op.67 (1944) clothed in his typical coat of many colors: somberness, simple folkishness, diabolical urgency, satirical stridency, anger. The somberness is particularly appropriate here, for the Trio No. 2 was composed in the summer of 1944 in memory of one of Shostakovich’s closest friends, Ivan Sollertinsky, who had died the February before. The tribute to his friend is not by any means all a maudlin affair, but bereavement is apparent in the first movement’s elegiac introduction, and, particularly, in a bleak third movement. -- from notes to the LA Philharmonic . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Michael Daugherty has created a niche in the music world that is uniquely his own, composing concert music inspired by American popular culture. He first came to international attention in the 1990s with a series of witty, dark-humored, brilliantly-scored pieces inspired by 20th-century American icons such as Superman, Jackie O, Elvis, J. Edgar Hoover, and Rosa Parks, and places such as Route 66, Niagara Falls, and Sunset Strip. With compositional originality and ingenuity to match his subject matter, Daugherty became one of America's most frequently performed and commissioned living composers. The London Times has described Daugherty as "a master icon-maker" and hailed his "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear". His music has the uncanny knack of speaking everybody’s language at once while retaining the ability to surprise, move, stimulate, inspire and amuse. His idiom bears the stamp of classic modernism, with colliding tonalities and blocks of sound; at the same time, his melodies can be eloquent and stirring. Listen to Michael Daugherty talk about his life and music . . . it's this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.

While it’s true that Destination Moon kicked off the burst of sci-fi moviemaking activity that was among the most distinctive pop-cultural features of the 1950’s, that movie wasn’t quite the first one out of the gate. Mind you, it was the first one put into production, but you take certain risks when you make as big a deal of a movie in the works as Eagle-Lion did with Destination Moon - namely, that some rinky-dink independent is going to throw together a low-budget knockoff of your big, prestigious film, and get it out into the theaters while your project is still in post-production. Roger Corman is probably the most famous practitioner of this particular ploy, but he by no means invented it. Some five years before Corman had produced so much as a demo reel, Robert Lippert, the eponymous head of Lippert Studios, stole Destination Moon’s thunder by bringing Rocket Ship X-M to the screen almost before Eagle-Lion even knew what hit them. And if you believe the rumors, Lippert would have stolen more than just his competitor’s thunder; according to the gossip-mongers, the only reason the rocketship of this movie’s title fails to reach the moon as planned is because Eagle-Lion’s lawyers wrote producer/director/screenwriter Kurt Neumann some pissed-off letters. (Scott Ashlin/1000misspenthours.com). Watch Rocket Ship X-M (1950) with a score by Ferde Grofé (composer of the famous Grand Canyon Suite) . . . it's this week's PYTHEAS SIGHTING.

In addition to being one of Hungary's most well known composers, Zoltán Kodály was also a well respected and successful educator in the field of music. His veritable crusade to provide all young people with a sound basic musical education resulted in a great body of work for schools and choirs. He lectured, conducted, taught - often involving his advanced pupils as well. He published, wrote as a critic and laid the foundations for a universal musical education system where singing as a group activity ensures that children become musically literate, learn to co-operate and understand the need for verbal as well as musical communication. The Kodály Method is now his permanent legacy, used and respected world-wide where the value of producing musical literacy among the young is recognized. Kodály was one of this century’s true musical renaissance men. His many-sided interests musical, linguistic, folk and broadly cultural, and educational were all informed by the strong backbone of his ethnic consciousness. Much of his music is imbued with Hungarian folk idioms, though none sacrifices its musical integrity to it. Watch a performance of Kodály's Esti Dal (Evening Song) by the King's Singers . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music