Classical

This week has got a few good offerings, but after this weekend's glut of good shows it's ok to have a lighter week.

Monday
Breeders, Muslims @ the wiltern $25
After this weekend's host of shows, it's probably best to settle into the week with some familiar familiar and comfortable. So why not hit up one of the bigger, cushier venues for some of the Breeders classic rock. Young local upstarts the Muslims open up.

Today's entry in the My NY series comes courtesy of film-maker Matt Wolf, who has received many accolades this year for Wild Combination, his lovingly-rendered documentary about the inscrutable icon Arthur Russell. Out this week on DVD via Plexifilm, Wolf heps us to a few of his favorite things...

With his youth, virtuosity, good looks, and dramatic flair, 26-year-old Chinese pianist Lang Lang is as big a star as the classical-music world produces these days. He's spending the weekend in Chicago and playing several concerts at Symphony Center, of which the most intriguing is perhaps on Saturday night: he'll perform material from his album Dragon Songs (Deutsche Grammophon, 2006), a sparkling collection of recent compositions from his homeland.

Seeing as it took nearly a decade after his death from AIDS in the early 90s for the Arthur Russell renaissance to start, that a dreamy, melancholic film portrait of the man took the better part of this year to move from the film festival circuit to movie theatres seems like a short wait indeed. Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, the debut effort from filmmaker Matt Wolf, screens this week at IFC Center, and one hopes that it can hang around beyond that one-week window. The film is less bio-pic and more an impressionistic drift study of the man who floated between downtown's avant-garde, rock, and disco scenes in the late 70s and early 80s, beholden to none, save the musical world swirling inside his own head. There's a dearth of actual footage to draw on, but Wolf is canny enough to expertly make do with what he has. That the film de-emphasizes the platinum-standard of Russell's disco singles is a small point to haggle, as this brief glimpse at this enigmatic man will no doubt spur greater appreciations of the man.
@ IFC Center 323 Sixth Avenue through October 7. Check website for showtimes.

On Wed., Oct. 1 Lukas Ligeti returns to Atlanta to play Eyedrum in support of his latest CD, Afrikan Machinery (Tzadik). Lukas is the son of renowned 20^th Century avant-garde composer György Ligeti. Much like his father, the younger, Brooklyn-based Ligeti thrives on the fringes of experimental musical ideas and practices, but his compositions focus on percussive experimentation and crafting rhythms and drones that land in the realm of post-minimalism. Electronica, jazz and indie rock in some form or another have fallen into his repertoire from time to time as well, but his work has very little to do with Western pop music by any means.

Afrikan Machinery is a swirling collection of polyrhythms and ethnic sounds that are mashed, chopped and screwed into varying tempos and sensory slurring constructs that on the surface defy a sense of order. But there is an underlying structure that weaves in and out of each number.

How to fill your iCal accordingly:

Mauricio Kagel, one of the most important composers in contemporary classical music, died yesterday in Cologne, Germany, at the age of 76, according to his music publisher. He had been ill for some time, but the cause of death was not disclosed.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1931, the self-taught Kagel moved to Germany in 1957, where he spent the rest of his life. He explored a wide range of approaches over the decades, from electronic music to pieces that used Renaissance instruments. During an era when new music was grimly serious, Kagel injected a refreshing absurdist humor into many of his compositions. He also was one of the first modern composers to meaningfully incorporate improvisation into his pieces.

In the 21st century, the early 80s downtown composer/ cellist/ and disco auteur Arthur Russell received a critical and commercial reappraisal, nevermind that he succumbed to AIDS back in 1992. While it was the strength of his disco sides (seek "Kiss Me Again," "Tell You Today," and "Let's Go Swimming" for a taste of such sublimity) that brought about such a sea change, he's since been revealed to be an adept at uncanny minimal composition (First Thought, Best Thought) and keening electro-pop (Calling Out of Context). The forthcoming archival release of Love is Overtaking Me will next investigate his ways with folk and cowboy songs (!).
What such a renaissance has also wrought is the re-emergence of his work with other similarly neglected composers, including Peter Zummo's exquisite Zummo With An X. The cache of Arthur's name no doubt helped rescue fellow composer Elodie Lauten's early 80's  minimalist opera, The Death of Don Juan, from the memory hole. His turn on cello (and murmurs on "Vision") would stand out in any session, but Lauten's deft use of Fairlight, harpsichord, and her own invention, the trine (an electric lyre of sorts) makes this a singular listen and their duet on "Death as a Woman" sounds unlike anything in their respective works. This reissue sets The Death of Don Juan firmly in the same epoch as Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach, as well as alongside the similar operatic moves made by both Robert Ashley and Laurie Anderson at this time.
Lauten continues to write and perform and tonight, she will be performing her solo works tonight as part of the annual Howl! Festival.
Tuesday September 2nd, at the opening of the Art Loisaida "Wild Life" Exhibition at the Theater for the New City Gallery. 155 First Avenue between East 9th and East 10th St. @ 7pm.