Japanese Music 2016

A pioneering indie-rock band continues its comeback streak. More sure-footed—and fun—than 2014’s Indie Cindy, Head Carrier bears the hallmarks of classic Pixies: Weird yet pretty, violent yet tender, and as reliant on sweet ‘60s harmonies as the rough edges of post-punk. See the oblique surf rock of “Classic Masher” (which could’ve made the band’s underrated Bossanova) or the rangy, folk-influenced “Tenement Song,” which harkens back to Doolittle.

The music on this recital was specifically written or arranged for duo violinists Angela and Jennifer Chun. It highlights the personal and professional connections between Philip Glass and Nico Muhly, a longtime colleague and admirer of Glass's work. Glass's miniaturist works, Mad Rush and In the Summer House, create a maximum effect when paired with Muhly's minimalist Four Studies and Honest Music.

The protean and prolific Jeroen van Veen turns his attention to Erik Satie’s complete piano works for a 9-CD boxed set that ties in with the composer’s 150th birthday year. In a way, the collection is completer than complete. It includes all of Satie’s published and unpublished works for solo piano and piano duo, piano arrangements of theater scores as Le fils des étoiles, Darius Milhaud’s transcription of Cinéma.