weekend linkage

1. Well, it's the weekend, and for once I have zero concerts to attend. But if you're in the Chicago area, you should be checking out Dal Niente's season finale on Saturday, with music by Ligeti, Feldman, Andriessen, Augusta Read Thomas, and a Drew Baker premiere. On Sunday, don't miss what is assuredly The Best Band in America, Northwestern University's very own Symphonic Wind Ensemble--some quality transcriptions and my main man Colin Oldberg playing Artunian's trumpet concerto. It's free at at Millennium Park, so pick up some Giordano's and consume deep dish and deep music in the great outdoors.

2. The Guardian's new "Artist's Artists" series asked pianists about their favorite pianists. The ever-insightful Pierre-Laurent Aimard cites Aloys Kontarsky, a formidable figure who premiered just about everything for keys in the Darmstadt/Donaueschingen heyday of the 1950s and '60s. His duo with his brother Alfons was essential for crafting the two-piano avant-garde repertoire of that time, a legacy more recently assumed by the pair of Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher (I saw their excellent rendition of Berio's Concerto in September as well as a scintillating performance of Zimmermann's Monologue in the winter; they have a great recording of Messiaen's Visions). The youngest Kontarsky, Bernhard, also conducted the Stuttgart production/recording of Die Soldaten, which you should buy. Above, the brothers play Monologue.

3. Although this is pretty old, I just saw it a couple days ago. William C. White's analysis is spot-on--all the info you need to know to get through a conversation with me. I'm pretty sure I've done the Mussorgsky Gambit at least a couple times.

4. Watch Joshua Frankel's video for Judd Greenstein's Change, which appears on his NOW Ensemble's new album.