hodgepodge of bits: first off, CONGRATS to andy for being on lloyd schwartz of the boston phoenix's top ten classical music moments of 2003 list:

7) Best new pieces (in chronological order by age of composer) The new pieces I’ll remember best are 94-year-old Elliott Carter’s Boston Concerto, commissioned by the BSO and conducted by Ingo Metzmacher; 84-year-old Leon Kirchner’s Second Piano Sonata played by Russell Sherman at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; 65-year-old John Harbison’s Second Piano Sonata played by Robert Levin in a Fleet Boston Celebrity Series Boston Marquee concert, his moving Requiem at the BSO conducted by Bernard Haitink, and his 1986 cinemascopic ballet score, Ulysses, getting its first complete musical performance with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose; and 47-year-old Andy Vores’s Goback Goback with baritone David Kravitz and David Hoose conducting Collage New Music.

actually the only other thing i feel like posting right now is a link to the new york times' art section's best of 2003 section. despite taking all of his reviews with a grain of salt or two, i was glad to see brantley single out donna murphy again for her performance in wonderful town.