Excerpted from article by By David Weininger Globe Correspondent,
Reflecting back on the past year, the final Classical Notes column of 2022 brings together eight notable recordings by local artists, composers, and ensembles.
The origins of Eric Nathan’s “Missing Words” (New Focus Recordings) lie in Ben Schott’s book “Schottenfreude,” in which Schott coined new German words for otherwise inexpressible human conditions. (Example: “Leertretung” — “Stepping down heavily on a stair that isn’t there.”) Nathan, a composer on the Brown University faculty, took the act of translation one step further by writing instrumental pieces for a large selection of these new portmanteaus. The resulting large-scale composition, by turns witty and deadly earnest, demonstrates a more angular and expansive musical language than many of Nathan’s earlier works have shown, and makes for deeply compelling listening.
Read about Missing Words here
Listen to Missing Words here
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