Sorry folks! Recap of last Sunday's "Catch of the Day" was supposed to have included audio of the chat with Hilary Hahn on Einojuhani Rautavaara's Serenades. But I forgot to attach the file. That omission has now been fixed, if you'd care to check the updated post. Here's the link.

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It's always a special pleasure to welcome an artist we admire to our studio. This time our guest was the trail-blazing American violinist Hilary Hahn, whose forthcoming album Parisconcludes with the world-premiere recordings of the final musical thoughts of Einojuhani Rautavaara, pieces written for her that came to light only after the composer's death. Though the Finnish master knew Hilary's playing and had written music for her before, the two never met. I, on the other hand, who could never hope to play his music, had had occasion to visit him and write about his work several times (as here). The complementary perspectives made for a lively exchange (link to the audio of the talk segment above).

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Three albums only this time, but each a winner in its distinctive way. Here they are, in order of appearance, with track listings:

William Susman, A Quiet Madness (Belarca 2020)

• Seven Scenes for Four Flutes

Patricia Zuber, flutes (all four of them)

• Zydeco Madness

Stas Venglevski, bayan

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When Basil Twist got his MacArthur in 2015, the only question was why it had taken so long. As far as the smart money was concerned, his genius had been established fact since 1998, when he first interpreted an opium dream from the pen of Hector Berlioz in a 500-gallon aquarium. Some critics called Twist's Symphonie Fantastique a nonrepresentational underwater puppet show; more accurately, Twist himself described it as a "spectacle of abstract form." Whipped up from tatters of fabric, wands, the odd ostrich feather, acrylic cutouts, and other far-from-precious bric-a-brac, the instant hit went on to glory in boutique venues around the world.

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