Record Highs (Beyond U.S. Weather And The London Olympics)

The number of jobless in the 17 countries of the single currency bloc rose to 17.8m, or 11.2 per cent, in June – roughly the population of Austria and Portugal combined – Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, said on Tuesday. That compares with 10.2 per cent in June last year.

Financial Times

Aide Memoire: Attended U.S. Premiere By Philadephia Orchestra With Maurizio Pollini And Claudio Abbado Of Luigi Nono's "Como una ola de fuerza y luz" On February 16, 1973

But missed the American premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy on September 29, 1972 -- being away in Berlin with my youth orchestra (and hearing the Moscow Conservatory Orchestra perform Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9).

[UPDATE:  Just heard on CD the Philadelphia Orchestra performing Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 as recorded on October 4 and 5, 1972 at Philadelphia's Scottish Rite Cathedral.

World premiere recordings made by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy's baton included:

• Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 10. Columbia, November 1965. First commercial recording of all five movements, using Deryck Cooke's performing version;
• Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky, Jennie Tourel (mezzo-soprano), Westminster Choir. RCA Victor, May 1945;
• Prokofiev, Symphony No. 6. Columbia, January 1950;
• Prokofiev, Symphony No. 7. Columbia, April 1953;
• Dmitri Shostakovich, Cello Concerto No. 1, Mstislav Rostropovich (cello). Columbia, November 1959.

Ormandy also conducted the premiere American recordings of Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony, Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina, Shostakovich's Symphonies 4, 13, 14, and 15, Carl Nielsen's Symphonies 1 & 6, Anton Webern's Im Sommerwind, Krzysztof Penderecki's Utrenja.]

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Ginestera Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam op. 43 (1974) 60'
for three Gregorian singers (T,B,BBar), boys' (or treble) choir, chorus, and orchestra

Music Text
Vulgate and Liber Usualis (L)

Scoring
2.picc.3.3(III=Ebcl,bcl).2.dbn(=bnIII)-4.4.4.1-timp.perc(4)-harp- pft(=cel)
-organ-strings perc1:flexatone/t.bells/xyl/5bongos/5cowbells/3susp.cym/
maracas/whip/tamb perc2:glsp/
6gong/5tom-t/guiro/ratchet/5wdbl perc3:3tam-t/large wooden dr/ratchet/whip/tamb/perc4:crot/2cyms/tgl/ratchet/3tpl.bl/BD

World premiere by the Philadelphia Orchestra in March 1975 [check]

American premiere of Nicholas Maw's "Arias and Scenes" by the Philadephia Orchestra in late Sept 1974. [A month before Ives's Holidays Symphony?]

Philadelphia Orchestra 75th Anniversary Season [1974-75] included works by Maw, Ives, Panufnik, Berger, Henze, Ligeti, Ginestera, and Schoenberg. [The Philadelphia Orchestra was commemorating Schoenberg's 100th Anniverary.]

Krimsk, Russian Federation (Katrina's Shadow)

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Associated Press

Washington Post Photo Gallery

Photo credit:  (c)  Ignat Kozlov and Associated Press 2012.  Copyright controlled.

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My wife's relatives in the region are now finally reported safe, although their home was destroyed.

Week In Review

Credit:  CIMSS Satellite Blog, University of Wisconsin.

Wanted: Economic Truth And Reconciliation

And Those Promised Links To The Five Podcasts To George Steiner's Fall 1974 CBC Massey Lectures On "Nostaglia For The Absolute"

Five Podcasts To George Steiner's Fall 1974 CBC Massey Lectures On "Nostaglia For The Absolute"

In a 1974 interview, Joan Miró stated:

"You want to know if I am interested in comic strips? Certainly. And first of all in strips as strips, very long strips, like scrolls. There is a scroll of this kind in Zurich, for example. And I also did a very large strip on silk for Lyon. These scrolls allow you to follow a formal rhythm." (from Yvon Taillandier, "Miró: Now I Work on the Floor" in Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, ed. Margit Rowell. Boston, 1986: 283–284.)

Pan Cogito And Those Pesky Undergraduate Music Comprehensive Exams

Pierre Boulez Miles Davis Cage's Home Country Chaichovsky's Home Country Vertical Thoughts Year of "Pierrot Lunaire" Klangfarbenmelodie Theremin The Notre Dame Mass Which Russian composer foreshadowed the Neoclassic movement by writing a Classic Symphony? Benjamin Britten Ernst Krenek John Corigliano Milton Babbitt Indeterminacy Pointillism What was a forerunner of Stravinsky’s Neoclassic period? Olivier Messiaen Luigi Dallapiccola Lotte Lenya Kalevala Pastiche Igor Stravinsky Who was the main developer of serialism? Who did the earliest scientific study of folk music? Gian Francesco Malipiero Ballet Russe Jean Sibelius Carl Orff Erik Satie Cavatina Samuel Barber Le Tombeau de Couperin Who was one of the pioneers in compiling and publishing folk songs for children? Who was one of the most influential composition teachers of the 20th century? Byroit [Pan Cogito puts down his pen ...] Quotation and Collage What compositional technique was a trademark of Vaughn Williams music? Atonality Les Noces Stochastic music New Orleans Jazz Name four aspects of late-nineteenth century American musical life that spawned ragtime L'Histoire du Soldat What is the (technical) difference between composing songs and “concert music”? Societe Nationale de Musique Les Six What are four versions of the tone row used in the formation of the 12-tone matrix?

Image Credit: Joan Miró Head of a Catalan Peasant, 1924 Gift of the Collectors Committee 1981.9.1 Copyright © 2012 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape May 6–August 12, 2012

Former Argentine dictators Videla and Bignone convicted of stealing babies from kidnapped, tortured, and killed dissidents in 1976-1983

Washington Post

UN Appoints Human Rights Investigator on Belarus

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. body has expressed "grave concern" over the human rights situation in Belarus and appointed an investigator to look into allegations of torture, poor treatment of prisoners and other abuses. The 47-nation Human Rights Council announced its decision on Thursday.

Aide Memoire: Pulitzer Music Prizes 1973, 1974, 1977: Carter SQ #3, Sessions Life, Martino Nocturno, Wernick Visions

Aide Memoire: Harrison Birtwistle The Triumph of Time World Premiere June 1, 1972

Curtains: The United States Economy Needs To Change

Concluding Statement of the 2012 Article IV IMF Mission to The United States of America