ligeti and a blue cavalier

last night i saw cat cantin (my flute professor in paris) play at palais garnier (opéra national) - GET THIS - the boulez sonatine with pierre-laurent aimard. basically, awesome. no one plays this piece, um, ever because it's SO hard. wild stuff. i was able to get in for an astonishing 10 euro. the sunday night concerts are not at all expensive, and even though i arrived a little late, i was able to sneak in during the debussy cello sonata (cyrille lacrouts). then susan graham sang debussy trois poèmes de mallarmé, ravel chansons madécasses (terrifying, even though she has a light soprano), and i missed her last set of ives songs (sue me, i was tired and hadn't eaten dinner).

immediate plans: tonight, bang on a can all stars at théâtre de la ville (near chatelet), one of my *free* cupa spectacles; wednesday (possibly), 18h, at a bar called le cavalier bleu, a jazz trio that a harmonica player named yvonne is playing in.

today in XXe siècle langage musicale we studied #6, 7, 8 of ligeti's 10 pieces for wind quintet. here's to the obies who rocked miller theater fall 2005 with the violin concerto with jennifer koh and mysteries of the macabre! lovin it. i announced several concerts in class today, trying to bolster the enthusiasm of the 50-some-odd students for contemporary music...particularly for ensemble intercontempo because they're playing some GREAT concerts here in the coming weeks. can't wait!!