Last night we went to see Jeremy Denk play Bartok with the CSO, with a guest conductor, Sir Mark Elder. And gosh, the program was all full of nice stuff about Denk; how he got a MacArthur genius grant, and writes for the New Yorker and lots of other publications, and how his blog is going to be archived at LoC … but his schedule’s only up to January 2016, and the last blog post was in 2013. Comforting to a chronically behind blogger like me …. Oh, I see the source of all that nice stuff is Denk’s official bio for the 2015-16 season. So maybe comforting, but Denk can make up for his behind blog posts by being such a great performer – I don’t have as good an excuse. The CSO also has a long and storied history with Bartok, so extra fun to see it performed.
At the third annual Grammy ceremony on April 12, 1961, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta received the award for Best Classical Performance–Orchestra. Fritz Reiner had conducted the RCA release.
Anyways, it was a good way to celebrate Phil Lesh’s birthday, because, as the only member of the Grateful Dead with any formal musical training (well, Lesh and Tom Constanten) – he took at least one class with Luciano Berio at Mills College – Phil has always liked and supported modern classical composers. I think Lesh’s fave is Charles Ives, but in his autobiography, and many interviews, Lesh mentions Bartok, Stockhausen, Boulez, Henry Cowell – who wrote a book about Ives, that Lesh read.
In 1996, Lesh and other members of the Dead played a tribute to Cowell with the San Francisco Symphony.
Phil Lesh and Friends Live at Davies Symphony Hall on 1996-06-16
by Phil Lesh and Friends
Published June 16, 1996 (check for other copies)
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas conducts
An American Festival
Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Vince Welnick, (Bob Bralove,)
and Michael Tilson Thomas (on MIDI piano):
“Space” for Henry Cowell
PS – here’s the show Phil played that night: