Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The grand-niece of Léon Theremin himself, Lydia Kavina was tutored on his pioneering electronic instrument by its inventor from the age of nine, quickly becoming her generation's combined equivalent of Clara Rockmore and Dr Samuel Hoffman, experts respectively of the instrument's classical and Hollywood applications.
Thus did she play the theremin on Howard Shore's score for Ed Wood, rearranged here by the composer into a suite which showcases not only the instrument's spooky qualities, but also its ability to underscore the more comical, bathetic moments. The most substantial pieces are Christian Wolff's "Exercise 28" from 2000, a New York School fragmentary bricolage of violin, double bass, French horn and theremin; and Olga Neuwirth's stunning suite from her surrealist opera Bahlamms Fest (1999), in which Kavina demonstrates the instrument's full emotional range, from louche, bourgeois waltz to chilly evocation of the cold wind of humanity, to the terrified squeals of a Bah-Lamb to the slaughter.
Pick of the album:'Suite aus Bahlamms Fest', 'Suite from Ed Wood', 'Exercise 28'
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments