Koan for the day


Can any reader solve the following koan? Why in a culture that values accessibility above all else is Lou Harrison's genuinely accessible Piano Concerto almost inaccessible both on CD and in the concert hall?

* Photo shows Lou Harrison with his adored gamelan. More on the composer, his Buddhist faith and his Piano Concerto, which incidentally was composed for Keith Jarrett, here.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Frank Little said…
Perhaps a good subject for "Composer of the Week"?
10:52 am
Pliable said…
That's a good point Frank. A quick search, which I am sure you also did, suggests Lou Harrison has never been BBC Radio 3's composer of the week.

Another indication of his puzzling negelect.
10:56 am
petemaskreplica said…
I should think at least part of the answer is the expense of re-tuning the piano. You're quite right though, he's a wonderful composer and terribly underrated, especially this side of the pond.

Amazon's cataloguing is woeful, but you can find Joanna MacGregor's recording repackaged on a 2-CD set with some Birtwistle and Hugh Wood, well worth a tenner: http://amzn.to/tMAzg6
1:11 pm
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