Got home tonight in the mood craving for somebody abuse me. Flipped the amplifier switch (not even Milq!) and put the Stravinsky in use. It did not work. An abuse shall have some class. Stravinsky does not do it to me – he was too much lost in his “originality” and was in many instances loosing eyes on the ball. Thankfully I found on my shelf an album by Stephen Hartke.

Stephen Hartke. Was one of my of my FM discoveries: another day I hear on WHRB his mesmerizing “Gradus”, a  composition for Bass Clarinet, Vibraphone, Piano, Violin, Cello, and Doublebass and I was hooked. Today I was playing his Naxos 8.559201  CD with a Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra – what s great new American composer!

http://www.stephenhartke.com

Mr. Hartke writes symphonic, chamber, vocal music and has one opera that I am contemplating to buy.  Where this guy got so smart and so elegant from? Come on, he is from New Jersey! :-(