posted my review of Compositions of Isang Yun-3: Muak – Tänzerische Fantasie for big orchestra (1978). Pièce Concertante for chamber ensemble or small orchestra (1976) (Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Chamber Ensemble of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Hans Zender). Sonatina for two violins (1983) (Saschko Gawriloff & Akiko Tatsumi). Camerata 32CM-107 (1989)
Listened again to the Piano Trio and Sonata for Cello and Harp on Capriccio. Superb. That’s my next review.
Completed the list of composers for the Kronos Quartet’s “White Man Sleeps” (and listened again on the occasion).
And, hey, a small step for mankind but a giant step for me and this website: I found the plugin that will enable me to increase font sizes. I really needed that (among many other things). I can easily anticipate that, when I’ve imported my 2,5OO or some reviews from Amazon plus all the news ones that I will post until I get there, the alphabetical list of composers reviewed is going to be so overwhelming that it’ll border on the intractable. Sure, if the reader knows exactly what he’s looking for – “mmmhhh…. let’s see what he’s reviewed of Mahler” – fine, no problem, but just browsing through names of hundreds and possibly thousands of composers to see if something inspires? But there the great classics, Bach, Bartok, Beethoven, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Britten, Bruckner, and Byrd, and possibly even Babbitt, Balakirev, Barber, Bellini, Berio, Bernstein, Berwald, Biber, Bingen, Birtwistle, Bloch, Blow, Boccherini, Borodin, Boulez, Brant, Bridge, Bruch, Brumel, Busoni and Buxtehude, will be burried under the mass of van Baaren, Babadjanjan, Bach’s family close and distant, Bacewicz, Backhofen, Bacri, Badings, Baer, Baerman, Baird, Baker, Bakfark, Balada, Balakauskas, Balanescu, Balbastre, Balcy, Baley, Ballif, Balsis, Banchieri, Bancquart, Bandö, Banfield, Bank, Banks, Banshchikov, Barbirolli, De’ Bardi, Barkauskas, Barlow, Barnard, Barraqué, Barraud, Barrière, Barry, Bartholomée, Bartkevieiûté, Bashmakov, Bassani, Bassano, Batchelor, Bates, Bateson, Battistelli, Bauld, Baur, Bayer, Bax, Bazàn, Bazelon, Bazzini, Beach, Beaser, Bedford, Beck, Becker, Belmonte, Benda, Bengtsson, Ben Haïm, Benjamin, a number of Bennetts, Benson, Bentoïu, Berberian, Berger, Bergman, Bergsma, De Bériot, Berkeley father and son, Berlin, Bernaola, Berners, Bertali, Berton, Bertoni, De Bertrand, Besançon, van Beurden, Beveridge, a number of Beyers, Biggs, Bird, Blacher, Blackwood, Blanco de Nebra, two Blakes, Blank, Bliss, Blitzstein, Blomdahl, Blumenfeld, Bobylev, De Boeck, Boehmer, Boëllmann, Boëly, Boesmans, Boeuf, Boïeldieu, Bolaños, Bolcom, Bon, and Bon, Boni, Bonime, Bononcini, Bonporti, Professor Bor, Borisovas, Borkovec, Børresen, Borstlap, Bortnianski, Börtz, von Bose, Bossi, Bottermund, Bottesini, Boucourechliev, Boulanger, Bourgault-Ducoudray, Bourgeois, Boutmy, Boyce, Braam, Braun, Brégent, Brehme, Breuker, Brian, Brief, Brindus, Brizzi, Bronner, Broschi, Brouwer, some Browns and a couple of Brownes, Bruce, Bruneau, Brunyèl, Brusselmans, Bruszdowicz, Bryars, Buck, Bull, Buller, Buonamente, von Burck, Burgeon, Burgmüller, Burgr, Burleigh, Burton, Busby, Bush, Bussotti, Butterworth, and, ultimately, Byrne (no Byström having reached my shelves so far). What a bummer to be born a B and become a composer! B is a crowded field! Composers, take an alias in A, or E, or Y and Z! And don’t get me wrong: there are great composers in those “minor” names”. It’s just a matter of the importance given to them by posterity, and what a newcomer might first be looking for.
So I really need to be able to single out the “classics”, and now I think I’ve got what it takes to do it.