Newness

Not at all unusually (for a composer, especially), I exult in seeking out music which I’ve never yet heard, to listen to: keeps the ears supple. And honestly, I just find that it is great fun.

So what has been “new” this week?

Ginastera’s two cello concerti, which sound both wonderfully his own, and as if he picked up where the second Shostakovich cello concerto left off.

The last four of the Op.4 La Stravaganza concerti of Vivaldi’s (I had started listening to the set late last year). In a nutshell: there's more where Le quattro stagioni came from.

Making my (very) gradual way through all the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti.

The Opp. 4, 8 & 14 Романсы (songs) of Rakhmaninov. The Op.4 songs were written when the composer was from ages 17 to 20 or 21, yet they are entirely finished, and his mature style is right in there.

And a “new” performance of a piece I’ve long known: Maurizio Pollini playing Prokofiev’s Seventh Piano Sonata, Op.83. Revelatory.

And the year hath but begun . . . .