Sun Kil Moon ~ Lost Verses 2016.02.07@Jordan Hall, Boston

From the Top Show #318 was recorded before a line audience last night at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in Boston. Wild and well-earned ovations greeted all our young guests: 11-year old Katherine Liu with her bookend Chopin performances, opening with Waltz in Ab, Op. 42 and the Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 2 serving as the evening’s close; Nashville-born Classical guitarist, 15-year-old Nolan Harvel turning in poised and pearly pieces by Segovia and Tansman; 18-year-old violinist/composer, Sasha Yakub brought music by perennial favorite of mine, Igor Stravinsky in movements selected from Duo Concertante, a work we’d not had previously ever on the program; Karl Bohm’s lovesong Still Wie die Nacht in the burnished and impassioned voice of 17-year-old Concord soprano, Hannah Klein; and Mariya Zabara, an 18-year-old cellist/actress from Belarus brought the house down with her dramatic, virtuosic and witty performance of David Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody.

At the halftime break in the broadcast, I premiered my arrangement of Lost Verses, part of my late obsession with the work of Mark Kozelek and his bands, Sun Kil Moon and 90’s San Francisco band, Red House Painters. Jordan Hall’s brand new Hamburg Steinway prove an amenable partner, and the glorious acoustic of the room was captured with expert sonic imaging by our own Berred Ouelette.

Enjoy.