Peter Mondelli

This holds up pretty well, actually.

Takeaway: I shouldn't make the playlist for your party.

YouTube video by Analog Aria Archive José van Dam: "Was duftet doch der Flieder" (Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg")

José van Dam (1940-2026) Tribute Post #3
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILB...

YouTube video by MusicHorama - asia&curiosa - Music & Culture DON QUICHOTTE, chansons à Dulcinée, de RAVEL (1932) - José Van Dam - Dalton Baldwin - 1981

José van Dam (1940-2026) Tribute Post #2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=orG0...

YouTube video by Meyerbeer Smith Giuseppe Verdi - DON CARLOS - "Elle ne m'aime pas" (José Van Dam)

José van Dam (1940-2026) Tribute Post #1: This is easily one of my favorite recordings of any aria from any opera.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsuc...

Nazgul: "Fools! No man can defeat me!"
Eowyn: "This is the women's team cross country sprint..."
Nazgul: "Oh oops. Can I still get a belly rub?"

This is a painting. Ivan Shishkin, 1887.

Requiem Of Reconciliation - In Memory Of The Victims Of World War II

In commemoration of Helmuth Rilling (1933-2026) - when I ran WKCR's Bach festival for a few years, his recordings were of course indispensable. I think it's worth remembering that he was also an advocate of the music of his time. It's also worth remembering how horrible some of those times were.

Well Macbeth is screwed.

I know I'm a year late to this party, but DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is a damn good album. If you know (or have written) a deep dive article on what Bad Bunny is up to (esp. re. merging various Puerto Rican genres) I'd love to read it.

Harry Burleigh - Songs and Spirituals

My favorite spiritual arranger, Harry Burleigh! open.spotify.com/playlist/72y...

For Black history month, Florence Price's orchestral works! (In chronological order, because I'm still a nerd.)
open.spotify.com/playlist/1c9...

Questionable idea of the day - An educational song about Pharaoh Akhenaten, sung to the tune of "Rockin' Robin"

Mahler - Walter and Klemperer

I think the direct connection to Mahler comes through in these recordings. I also thing it's important to share work by musicians who were blacklisted 90 years ago.
open.spotify.com/playlist/1t9...

The Kennedy Center reno plans, probably.

YouTube video by Christopher Tin Yuma Kagiyama - "Turandot: Christopher Tin Finale" Free Skate

Because friends don't let friends skate to the Alfano ending at the Olympics, here's Yuma Kagiyama skating to a new finale by Christopher Tin. (Prepared for competition in Milan, on the opera's centenary.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOoP...

Backstory - Yannick Nezet-Seguin led a performance at the VPO new year's concert of an arrangement (by Wolfgang Doerner) of Florence Price's "Rainbow Waltz." Except that the arrangement sounds nothing at all like ANY of Price's pieces. Michael Cooper's analysis is cutting.

THE SINCEREST FORM OF INSULT: Florence Price’s Rainbow Waltz and the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s ConcertIt’s been a while since I’ve had time to blog because work on the world premiere of Margaret Bonds’s late musical on the li...

Here's a specialist's take on an important classical music news item. cooperm55.wixsite.com/jmc3/post/th...

I drove my mom to a lot of medical appointments in the last year of her life. We listened to this. Good memories, so I made it public as a little tribute to her.
open.spotify.com/playlist/21w...

I was in NYC last week and caught a performance by Igor Levit of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" at Carnegie Hall. A foreign pianist opting to perform the latter piece on Billionaire's Row was a statement. I was glad I could show up for it.

So in a sense I'm starting over. I've got my eye on some of the "facile" rep: Beethoven op. 49 and Farrenc op. 50 to start. The goal is to get it clean, musical, and memorized, then move on.

2026 Resolution #2 - I'm brushing up my piano skills. Mostly for me. For the last 20 years, I haven't needed to play anything clean (except for some organ sub work) and most of my practice had been oriented toward work in the classroom. In the last 18 months, I've barely touched an instrument.

Amy Beach's chamber music is awesome. There wasn't a good playlist, though. Until now...
open.spotify.com/playlist/4dB...

"Each nation has been made to look with an invidious eye upon the prosperity of all the nations...and to consider their gain as its own loss. Commerce, which ought naturally to be...a bond of union and friendship, has become the most fertile source of discord and animosity." - Wealth of Nations

...not that that was better. I'm just wondering what happened to the party of Adam Smith and prosperity through trade?

Exclusive | Trump’s Hint to Oil Executives Weeks Before Maduro Ouster: ‘Get Ready’ The U.S. president now wants oil companies to grow Venezuela’s production.

Collusion with private oil execs (and NOT with congress) confirmed in reporting in the WSJ:
www.wsj.com/business/ene...

YouTube video by Philharmonie Luxembourg Mahler N° 6 | Hammer Tutorial

Is the baby powder A) dramatic and mysterious, or B) a little too on the nose for the composer of the Kindertotenlieder?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_byO...

Tonight's installment of "composers you probably haven't heard of" is Laura Netzel:
open.spotify.com/playlist/1iq...
Really, really good stuff. Elsa Dreisig's recording of op. 61 is a solid starting place.

2026 Resolution #1 - I've unplugged from here and elsewhere out of necessity for a while. I've been feeling more compelled to share lately, though. And connect. And to speak out!

We had a weed in the front yard that we missed. Then it got big. Then it started growing tomatoes? Pretty good for accidental gardening, right?