Quote from Mick Jagger. “I’m quite traditional in my taste in classical music. I like Purcell and English romantic composers. Tonight, we were listening to a composer called John Adams who is American. Also, I have a weakness for Messiaen.” Traditional? Ok by me!

Gospel According to the Other Mary premieres in Vienna. (This ain't Rosenkavalier, no way!) youtube.com/watch?v=ukz_xV…

Well, if it doesn't groove it doesn't work--at least for me.

Haven't heard from my friend Víkingur Ólafsson in a while. After having toured 80 performances of Goldberg Variations, maybe, like Kafka's Mr. Samsa's waking up to find himself a huge coackroach, our pianist awoke to find himself metamorphosed into a crab canon?

The SF Symphony is one of THE great orchestras. Alas, their board's grim austerity plan & willingness to lose Esa-Pekka Salonen risks ruining both morale of the players and overall artistic quality. This in one of the wealthiest demographics in the world. What gives?

Hearing Esa-Pekka Salonen & San Francisco Symphony's brilliant Mahler 3rd over the weekend made me think back on when I reviewed Jens Malte Fischer's excellent bio for NY Times Book Review. nytimes.com/2011/10/02/boo…

No, no! I'll take no less!!!!! Lea Desandres, I'll take no less than you. youtube.com/watch?v=U5yaQl…

This Deutsche Oper Berlin production: painful to even think about. "Nixon in China" is so often mistreated or misunderstood. In 35 years I've only seen 2 productions that got it right. This one? Clearly a disgrace. But we composers can only babysit our creations for so long.

"Adams’ problem opera at last gets the reading it deserves" John Adams's Girls of the Golden West sounds wonderful courtesy of LA Phil on Nonesuch Records; Julia Bullock & Davóne strong soloists. Limelight's Recording of the Month; my review: limelight-arts.com.au/reviews/girls-…

Si quieres leer un poco sobre mi Sax Concerto y el virtuoso Tim McCallister, puedes hacerlo aquí: milenio.com/cultura/saxofo…

After I did the premiere & US tour of his Gejagte Form in 1996, Wolfgang Rihm , who died Saturday, gave me a pocket copy of Goethe’s complete poems—“a small thought but with great substance”

Unless they're amusing stinkers, I dont' normally post reviews of my stuff. But this one links to Leila J's absurdly virtuoso performance of my Violin Concerto with incomparable St. Louis Symphony Orchestra & David Robertson. sfcv.org/articles/revie…

theguardian.com/sport/article/…

The National Children's Symphony of Venezuela play "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" under Gustavo Dudamel . Unbelievable! Yikes, seriously amazing-and also probably the fastest performance in history. (Don't ever get in a car with Gustavo driving!)

My job is always a great pleasure- but tonight BBC Proms with Sinfonia of London and John Wilson was an utter once in a lifetime experience. If you missed it - you have to catch up BBC iPlayer John Adams Harmonielehre was beyond words. This orchestra is off the scale. Thank you 🙏

Harmonielehre calls for about 100 players. So multiply by two, and that comes to 200 bloody socks. That's a lot of socks. Must have been quite a Prom concert. Very sorry to have missed it.

My search for info on Pope's Dunciad produced this:

Handel tried out those four bars into LOGIC and then transferred them to ProTools, but the apps must have had issues with the key relationships. Hmmm...

Probably my last game at Oakland Coliseum after 40 yrs of going, as the A's leave Oakland next year. Big crowd last night! Looked like one my new music audiences from the the old days! (A's beat the Rays, 3-0 shutout).

Have you heard Sasha Berliner? Sort of a genius, and I don't use that term often. And she's from San Francisco! youtube.com/watch?v=E1v3LC…