Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Robert Taub, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine. “Late in Babbitt's 2nd Piano Concerto, (mm. 507-510) a swirling chaos of notes seems somehow to magically coalesce into C# Major, so strongly that the passage seems to be the "climax" of the work. At another point in this piano concerto, (mm. 203-204) there is a series of what sound like chromatically descending clusters, with the pitches distributed around the ensemble, in the midst of other activity--this chromatic descent, as something vaguely familiar or simple to me, is what I ‘grab onto’ in this part of the piece. Originally, I heard this moment without knowing its scored representation. In fact, the process of finding this moment in the score was quite difficult--it doesn't "look like" what it sounds like at all, due to the fact that the descent's pitches are distributed between horns, piano, marimba and clarinets, all of which look, on the score, as if they are doing their own thing. There are no visual clues that the instruments might coalesce in this way. I enjoy the feeling, while listening, of not knowing quite what to do or what to grab onto, mentally and emotionally, in what I'm hearing. These experiences were probably not intended by the composer (though Babbitt's music in particular is filled with triadic arpeggios and other tonal puns, which are so numerous and ubiquitous that intention seems inevitable).” (Adapted from Christopher Bailey's essay "Serial Structures as Fragmentation of the Familiar")
Milton Babbitt was born in Philadelphia to Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin. He was Jewish. He was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and began studying the violin when he was four but soon switched to clarinet and saxophone. Early in his life he was attracted to jazz and theater music. He was making his own arrangements of popular songs at seven, and when he was thirteen, he won a local songwriting contest Babbitt's father was a mathematician, and it was mathematics that Babbitt intended to study when he entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1931. However, he soon left and went to New York University instead, where he studied music with Philip James and Marion Bauer. There he became interested in the music of the composers of the Second Viennese School and went on to write a number of articles on twelve tone music, including the first description of combinatoriality and a serial "time-point" technique. After receiving his bachelor of arts degree from New York University College of Arts and Science in 1935 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, he studied under Roger Sessions, first privately and then later at Princeton University. At the university, he joined the music faculty in 1938 and received one of Princeton's first Master of Fine Arts degrees in 1942. During the Second World War, Babbitt divided his time between mathematical research in Washington, D.C., and Princeton, where he became a member of the mathematics faculty from 1943 to 1945. In 1948, Babbitt returned to Princeton University's music faculty and in 1973 became a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School in New York. Among his more notable former students are music theorists David Lewin and John Rahn, composers Michael Dellaira, Laura Karpman, Paul Lansky, Donald Martino, John Melby, Tobias Picker, and J. K. Randall, the theatre composer Stephen Sondheim, and composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski. Milton Babbitt was the recipient of many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize (special lifetime citation) and the Life Time Musical Achievement Award of The Max Reger Foundation of America.
During Milton Babbitt’s lifetime he was the lendallpitts channel’s favorite living composer. The lendallpitts channel pioneered in bringing his music to YouTube. This strikes us as a particularly luminous work. We hope you enjoy it. The thumbnail for this video is a photograph of Milton Babbitt with Igor Stravinsky.
Robert Taub, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine. “Late in Babbitt's 2nd Piano Concerto, (mm. 507-510) a swirling chaos of notes seems somehow to magically coalesce into C# Major, so strongly that the passage seems to be the "climax" of the work. At another point in this piano concerto, (mm. 203-204) there is a series of what sound like chromatically descending clusters, with the pitches distributed around the ensemble, in the midst of other activity--this chromatic descent, as something vaguely familiar or simple to me, is what I ‘grab onto’ in this part of the piece. Originally, I heard this moment without knowing its scored representation. In fact, the process of finding this moment in the score was quite difficult--it doesn't "look like" what it sounds like at all, due to the fact that the descent's pitches are distributed between horns, piano, marimba and clarinets, all of which look, on the score, as if they are doing their own thing. There are no visual clues that the instruments might coalesce in this way. I enjoy the feeling, while listening, of not knowing quite what to do or what to grab onto, mentally and emotionally, in what I'm hearing. These experiences were probably not intended by the composer (though Babbitt's music in particular is filled with triadic arpeggios and other tonal puns, which are so numerous and ubiquitous that intention seems inevitable).” (Adapted from Christopher Bailey's essay "Serial Structures as Fragmentation of the Familiar")
Milton Babbitt was born in Philadelphia to Albert E. Babbitt and Sarah Potamkin. He was Jewish. He was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and began studying the violin when he was four but soon switched to clarinet and saxophone. Early in his life he was attracted to jazz and theater music. He was making his own arrangements of popular songs at seven, and when he was thirteen, he won a local songwriting contest Babbitt's father was a mathematician, and it was mathematics that Babbitt intended to study when he entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1931. However, he soon left and went to New York University instead, where he studied music with Philip James and Marion Bauer. There he became interested in the music of the composers of the Second Viennese School and went on to write a number of articles on twelve tone music, including the first description of combinatoriality and a serial "time-point" technique. After receiving his bachelor of arts degree from New York University College of Arts and Science in 1935 with Phi Beta Kappa honors, he studied under Roger Sessions, first privately and then later at Princeton University. At the university, he joined the music faculty in 1938 and received one of Princeton's first Master of Fine Arts degrees in 1942. During the Second World War, Babbitt divided his time between mathematical research in Washington, D.C., and Princeton, where he became a member of the mathematics faculty from 1943 to 1945. In 1948, Babbitt returned to Princeton University's music faculty and in 1973 became a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School in New York. Among his more notable former students are music theorists David Lewin and John Rahn, composers Michael Dellaira, Laura Karpman, Paul Lansky, Donald Martino, John Melby, Tobias Picker, and J. K. Randall, the theatre composer Stephen Sondheim, and composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski. Milton Babbitt was the recipient of many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize (special lifetime citation) and the Life Time Musical Achievement Award of The Max Reger Foundation of America.
During Milton Babbitt’s lifetime he was the lendallpitts channel’s favorite living composer. The lendallpitts channel pioneered in bringing his music to YouTube. This strikes us as a particularly luminous work. We hope you enjoy it. The thumbnail for this video is a photograph of Milton Babbitt with Igor Stravinsky.
![Renè Koering, Sonate - Michaël Levinas, piano [part 2 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JMz1q6nEoFg/mqdefault.jpg "Renè Koering, Sonate - Michaël Levinas, piano [part 2 of 2]
Ecrite en 1974, elle fut créé au Festival de Royan et donnée quelques jour plus tard à Boston per Herbert Henck. Maurice Fleuret, que y voyait la grande sonate romantique après Berg na sy trompait guère, puisque je voulais écrite une sonate dont les racines étaient chez Berg et qui de là rencontrait le languate qui était naturellement le mien : celui de la grande 2e Sonate de Boulez.
Les différents « moments » de le œuvre simposaient tout naturellement comme par exemple le fugato au début de lœuvre dont multiples voix allaient se résorber dans les « étoiles » du scherzo de la fin. Un autre élément que je ne voulais par éviter, st celui de la virtuosité pianistique, qui appliquée avec un certain sadisme, fait évoluer souvent la phrase dans un sens non prévisible.
Nombreux sont les passages qui, rédigés ou distribuées autrement aux deux mains du pianiste, lauraient amenée vers dautres possibilités sonores ce choix né du tumulte me fait parfois penser à ce que lon appelait autre-fois « un programme ». Sans me lavouer, ce programme préexistait mais quel peut-il être ?
A la musique de répondre.
René Koering
Né à Andiau (Alsace) en 1940, René Koering étudia la musique à Darmstadt dans les années Soixante. En 1961, création de sa première œuvre, commande des « Musiktage » de Donaueschingen. En 1967, il se voit attribuer le Prix de la « Fondation de la Vocation » et le Premier Prix de la Fondation Maeght. Ses œuvres (musique symphonique, concertos, œuvres électroaccostiques, musique de chambre et opéras) furent données dans divers festivals. Depuis 1971, il enseigne à lEcole des Beaux-Arts. Vice-Président de la Société Internaitonal de Musique Contemporaine, il occupe pas ailleurs dimportantes fonctions au sein de Radio France.
Michaël Levinas
Son père est le philosophe Emmanuel Levinas. Après des études au Conservatoire de Paris (Yvonne Loriod, Olivier Messiaen) où il obtient de nombreux premiers prix, Michaël Levinas effectue des stages au GRM, suit des cours à Darmstadt (Xenakis, Stockhausen, Ligeti) et, en 1974, devient co-fondateur puis responsable de lensemble lItinéraire. Pianiste concertiste international, il enseigne lanalyse au Conservatoire de Paris depuis 1992.
Dès les premières œuvres, en marge du sérialisme, Michaël Levinas développe un style singulier dune extraordinaire puissance expressive.")
