Alm

"When the ci-hitty gets into a bu-hoys sy-hist-em, he loses his a-hankerin' for the cou-huntry." So intones W.C. Fields in his Yukon-based Victorian absurdist two-reeler The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933). However, if the city you lived in was Salzburg, Austria, the idea of "a-hankerin' for the cou-huntry" was a popular one, and Salzburg's court composer Johann Michael Haydn paid tribute to it through these two little "Abbey operettas" written not for a civic theater, but for the theater at the Benedictine University in Salzburg. Haydn's singspiel Die Hochzeit auf der Alm (The Wedding on the Alpine Pasture, 1763) was intended as a mere opener to Salzburg scribbler Florian Reichssiegel's ponderous five-act Latin tragedy Pietas conjugalis in Sigismundo et Maria; however, it was the singspiel that won the day.

Norio Sato - KO-THA (Maderna, Donatoni, Scelsi etc) (1990) {ALM Records Japan ALCD-35}
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© 1990 ALM Records Japan | ALCD-35
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Chamber Music / Guitar

The winner of 1971 Tokyo International Guitar Competition, Norio Sato has been the leading figure in the field of contemporary music in Japan, both as a guitarist and as a conductor, giving world premieres of numerous works in Japan and abroad. He formed Ensemble NOMAD in 1997, and became its Music Director. He has made appearances at major contemporary music festivals around the globe, and has been awarded the Kyoto Prize, Kenzo Nakajima Prize, and Asahi Prize for Contemporary Music. He is currently teaching at Toho Gakuen College of Music and Drama and Nihon University College of Arts.

Morton Feldman - Triadic Memories - Aki Takahashi (1989) {ALM Records Japan ALCD-33 rec 1983}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 211 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 144 Mb
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© 1989 ALM Records / Kojima Recordings Japan | ALCD-33
Classical / Modern Classical / Avant-Garde / Minimalism / Solo Piano

Avant-garde music professor Morton Feldman casts the listener into a black web of trigonometry in this Japanese import, recorded in 1981. Heavily influenced by John Cage and abstract-expressionist painter Philip Guston, the composer typically spreads out a blanket of notes in a pointillistic style, giving the performer the additional challenge – or privilege – of putting their self-expression on the line. It's said that Shakespeare sinks or swims depending on the skill of the actor, and pianist Aki Takahashi is just such a performer.