Notes from all over:
Itzhak Perlman is a terrible neighbor, according to the Onion‘s Leonard Cooke:
“I remember our conversation quite clearly. I said, “Hey, Itzhak, I don’t know if you’re busy dazzling millions of people with your prodigious interpretations of Stravinsky or whatever, but I’m going away for a few days, and if you could feed [my cat] Boswell I would really appreciate it.” And Itzhak said, yes, he’d love to feed Boswell. He even said that he would clean out his litter box.”
I won’t ruin the jokes, but suffice to say I cackled, repeatedly.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra will announce James Levine’s first live recordings with the orchestra tomorrow, in high-quality downloads on their BSO Classics label. The first release will be Daphnis and Chloe, others will be announced Thursday.
Speaking of which, CSO Resound [GRAMMYS] now has lossless downloads, available through HDtracks.com. CD- and SACD-quality sound without the hassle of, you know, owning an ridiculously cumbersome CD or SACD.
Thomas Quasthoff can be heard in several Haydn arias with the New York Philharmonic through its radio broadcast stream. There’s a sweet Brahms First Serenade to close; Riccardo Muti conducts all of it.
Seeing Quasthoff and the Boston Symphony Orchestra so close reminds me of a story. I went to Carnegie Hall in 2000 for the first time, when Boston was playing Britten’s War Requiem. As a dedicated trumpet-player, I didn’t know anything about singers or voices, but I did know brass. (Principal trumpet and principal trombone in the BSO at the time? Charles Schlueter and Ronald Barron.) My roommate in Indianapolis, a tenor, flipped out when he read the program and saw the Ian Bostridge and Thomas Quasthoff sang. I don’t remember the soprano.
Finally, go watch this stop-animation video about a group of Allied soldiers fighting Nazi-engineered dinosaurs in Antarctica. It was the best part of my day. “WIR HABEN DINOSAORIEREN”