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In Appreciation of Musical Marathons

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This past weekend, the Metropolitan Museum of Art staged the first full presentation of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klang in the U.S. The 21-hour piece (it had been envisioned to encompass all 24 hours of the day, but the composer died before its completion) was staged in the museum's three branches: chamber works largely took place at the medieval Cloisters, electronic loops at the Breuer and the majority of the works at the main branch's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. 

Reviewers around the city area tested their stamina — Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times seems to have hung in the longest, logging 17 hours. 

This feat led us to think about other durational music events: 

  • Stockhausen's seven-opera cycle, Licht, (one opera for each day of the week) contains even more music than Klang, clocking in with 29 hours of music. However, the opera, which notoriously calls for a helicopter quartet among its many difficult-to-stage requirements, has never been realized in full. 
  • Wagner's Ring takes about 19 hours to get from the opening note of Das Rheingold to the closing one of Götterdämmerung.
  • John Cage's work Organ/As Slow As Possible tests the performer to see how lethargically they can play the piece. One organ in Germany has been continually playing the work since September 2001, and will continue for another 624 years.

LISTEN:

Showcasing the fruit of the London Symphony Orchestra's commissioning project, The Panufnik Legacies II is a "tremendously appealing collection of new orchestral pieces," which is currently available to stream. (Q2 Music)

9 pm — The Berlin Philharmonic presents a New York-themed program with works by Dvorák, Boulez and Bernstein. (WQXR)

READ:

Anastasia Tsioulcas meets Camerata Romeu, Cuba's all-female orchestra. (NPR)

John Rockwell previews David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's opera, JFK, which premieres in Fort Worth in April. (Opera News)

In addition to JFK, check out four other operas premiering around the country that tackle American topics. (WQXR)

Alex Ross sizes up New York's smaller and scrappier opera companies. (The New Yorker)

WATCH:

The New Yorker's David Remnick profiled Aretha Franklin in its latest issue, recalling when she stepped in for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy's to sing a show-stopping version of "Nessun dorma."  

FOLLOW:

 Leave the needles and yarn at home before heading to the theater:


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