Patrick’s Picks is a series of monthly Spotify playlists curated by Jacaranda’s Artistic Director, Patrick Scott.
Each two-and-a-half hour playlist spans genres, eras, and continents, and is crafted with the current historical moment in mind.

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and while you’re there, check out our first two Jacaranda Live Recordings releases:
Rebellious: Music of Julius Eastman, & A Charged Embrace: Music of Kraft, Broughton, and Krausas.

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NAVALNY: ON AND EVER ONWARD

MARCH 2024


With unmistakable bitterness two singles by the obscure Russian musician Levak opine on the grim fate of Alexei Navalny and Ukraine. Sweeping elegies by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky anticipate great Russian monuments to Navalny once—like waking from a terrible nightmare—Putin’s reign of terror is ended. Overflowing with irrepressible conviction, Mahler’s hero sings a “drinking song of the earth’s sorrow”. In solidarity, Poland, Estonia, and Finland offer keening tributes and lay opulent wreaths among banks of floral gestures, modest and touching. The austerity of Japanese fury and grief gives poetic weight to our transnational mourning of a hero’s life destroyed in an arctic prison.

FIERCE BEAUTY I & II: PLANET SCHOENBERG 2024

FEBRUARY 2024


Heartfelt intensity suffusing boldly unapologetic beauty describes the various marvels of this final journey. The complex organization of Arnold Schoenberg’s Opus 23 and intricate design of the dozen piano pieces by Pierre Boulez is their secret strategy for pleasure. The more transparently accurate the performance the more potent the impact on the listener. Feeling for color and mood are always the artist’s x-factor, and intuition matters. John Coltrane studied with a disciple of Schoenberg. Like the film composer Leonard Rosenman, a Schoenberg student, Coltrane was helped by the master’s ideas to find his true voice in compositional rigor—as evidenced by his masterpiece A Love Supreme. The charms of Richard Strauss in this witty chamber arrangement shows why he was embraced as the forerunner of modernism in Vienna at the turn of the century—while in fact the First Chamber Symphony of Schoenberg proved otherwise. The north star for Schoenberg was Bach who’s powerfully forward-looking Chaconne shines brightest. Mahler was Schoenberg’s champion, and his debt to Schoenberg can be heard in the heartbreaking Adagio of Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony.

TRANSATLANTIC: PLANET SCHOENBERG 2024

JANUARY 2024


TRANSATLANTIC journeys from Vienna to Los Angeles with music epitomizing Arnold Schoenberg’s roots in Franz Schubert, and his popular 1899 Late Romantic sextet  Transfigured Night, now an established classic of the standard repertoire. After an icy winter traveling between Boston and New York in 1933, the Schoenberg family relocated briefly in Hollywood then Brentwood, where their home stands today as a living testament. The playlist captures a tennis match between Schoenberg and his close friend George Gershwin who had studied with an advanced Viennese pedagogue in the 1920s. Included is the “Gigue” from Schoenberg’s 1921 Suite for Piano. Listen for chord progressions that hint at Gershwin’s 1928 tone poem American in Paris. Erich Zeisl’s Menuchim’s Song, enchantingly performed by Jacaranda pianist Steven Vanhauwaert with his friend Ambroise Aubrun, stands in for Songs for Barbara yet to be recorded by pianist Gloria Cheng. Then eight-years-old, Barbara Zeisl would marry Schoenberg’s oldest son Ronald. Mikhail Korzhev, the last word on the piano music of Schoenberg disciple Ernst Krenek, shares the witty yet patriotic George Washington Variations from 1950. Of course, this newly minted U.S. citizen was aware of the McCarthy era Red Scare. In 1942 Schoenberg also weighed in on tyranny – that of WWII dictators Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin – with his riveting Ode to Napoleon, a setting of Lord Byron’s outraged indictment. Join us for the SESQ-Weekend January 13 & 14 for relevant documentaries and the “Transatlantic” concert as we kick off the new year with Schoenberg’s sesquicentennial.

GREAT CITIES: UNDER PRESSURE

DECEMBER 2023


In honor of the global warming summit in Dubai, we survey great cities now under pressure: Chicago, New York, L.A., London, Vienna, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Teheran, Istanbul, Reykjavik, Moscow, Detroit, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Quebec, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Dubai—under the scrutiny of Drake, Giveon, Queen Latifa, Lil’ Kim, Macy Gray, Judy Garland, JAY-Z, Alicia Keys, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, Pet Shop Boys, Michael Giacchino, Ultravox, Edith Piaf, Arthur Honegger, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, Ethel Waters, Tony Bennett, Scott McKenzie, Madness, Omer Adam, Mark Eliyahu, They Might Be Giants, KAROL G, Pluvia, Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra, Bad Bunny, Charley Pride, Bruce Springsteen, Nothing But Thieves, Teriyaki Boyz, Moustafa Kouyate, Romain Malagnoux, Murray Head, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Ashkabad, and Drinche—with intro, outro and interstitials by Arvo Pärt, Katia & Marielle Labèque, Elliott Carter, Conrad Tao, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Benno Ambrosini, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Hans Otte, Ralph van Raat, John Coltrane, Johnny Smith, George Friedrich Haas, Ensemble Recherche, Björk, Mica Levi, Oliver Coates, Queen, and David Bowie: “it’s the terror of knowing what this world is about/Watching some goods friends screaming ‘Let me out’”

NOVEMBER 2023


MARIGOLD BRIDGE: DARK & LIGHT

Marigold Bridge suggests the Mexican “Day of the Dead” and its stunning depiction in the film Coco. This playlist took a sudden dark turn October 7 with the brutal attack by Hamas on Israel. Meredith Monk gave us a subtitle with her haunting and soulful Dark/Light. Floral tributes contrast with decisive survival in the never-ending cycle of beginnings and endings governed by Pluto—the ruling sign of Scorpio. Thomas Newman scored a story told from the perspective of a dead man. Dante by Thomas Adès projects images of purgatory and the endless whirlwind. Louis Vierne’s overlooked Piano Quintet elevates loss and suffering to a radiant level of determination: surpassing blindness while cuckolded by a stunning wife, and the deaths of both sons—one in WWI, and the other from the flu pandemic that followed. Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, and Allan Toussaint knowingly strike the right notes. Mercedes Sosa, Kali Uchis, and Ofra Haza caution with primeval sounds. Music by Steve Reich, an American Jew pondering the eternal struggle, is woven throughout. A poignant offering by Leonard Bernstein, and Gustav Mahler’s “I am Lost in the World” allow us to cry.

OCTOBER 2023


LEVITATION: GROUNDED

The summer of distraction is over and autumn is upon us. Dispossessed people weighed in the balance of Libra’s scales teeter between cultural weightlessness and the grounded reality of boundaries enforced. We open with Ellis Island. The ever-socially relevant Meredith Monk visited us last month sharing some of these trenchant tracks live. After massive protests rocked Santiago in 2019, Chilean Ana Tijoux’s song “Rebelión de Octubre,” features 13-year-old Mapuche rapper MC Millary to remind the people of what they have lost, what they have learned since, and why they still fight for a new plebiscite coming December 17, 2023. Arnold Schoenberg’s witty nostalgia animates his Serenade, a genial wedding present for his second wife Gertrude Kolisch. Chill with Harold Budd, California’s answer to Eric Satie. Then welcome a long-overdue new recording of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto by Sheku Kanneh-Mason with Mirga conducting the City of Birmingham Orchestra. She has our vote to replace The Dude in 2026. Shostakovich exemplifies Libra through mastering the public figure balancing act like no other musician before or after.  

SEPTEMBER 2023


PUZZLE QUEST: DESCRIBING THE RAIN

A match between tennis partners Arnold Schoenberg and George Gershwin lives at the heart of this playlist, which features three great September-born LA composers including John Cage. It’s a musical puzzle by Eldon Rathburn, the dean of Canadian film composers, who won a commission from the LA Phil in 1945. Arnold was a judge and Eldon became his devoted fan. Schoenberg’s two astonishing late LA concertos are given consummate performances. Gershwin’s piano rolls offer the ultimate authenticity with dazzling piano sound. Hear Schoenberg’s dedicated students Cage and Lou Harrison. Criticized by his teacher for Cage’s lack of feeling for harmony, Cage’s dying words conveyed his satisfaction at finally achieving harmonic mastery with Thirteen, his last major work. You can find it elsewhere on Spotify. Delightful diversions by Johnny Mercer and Rogers & Hart are here courtesy of jazz greats Cannonball Adderley and Shirley Scott, as well as the stylish songbirds Anita O’Day and Dawn Upshaw. Recurring unseasonal rain is rendered by Hanns Eisler, who presented his gift 14 Ways of Describing the Rain to Arnold Schoenberg on his 70th birthday in Los Angeles. 

AUGUST 2023


Here’s a taste of larger-than-life personas—of kings, queens, emperors, celebrities, and their fearless offspring—uncompromising, forward driven, badass! Add sun worshippers, sunflowers, a royal hunt and storm, plus two coronations and you have this month’s musical take on Leo. Phaeton’s mythological chariot was sun scorched. Peruvian princess Yma Sumac was worshipped by hundreds of thousands of fans across the Soviet Bloc during Khrushchev’s late-fifties cultural thaw. Bloodthirsty no-holds-barred princess Turandot meets regicidal queen Semiramide. In the spirit of anything goes, we bid a fond farewell to Tony Bennet sharing a mic with his badass celebrity partner Lady Gaga.

BADASS ROYALTY: SOLAR FLARES

JULY 2023


This July playlist is a sequel to Wilderness Children: Family Issues (7/21) and Compass Mentis: Sun Devils & Twisters (7/22)—three critical investigations of the USA for its birthday month. Summer birds and cicadas are eternal witnesses to decades of exceedingly beautiful, tough/tender, moving and inescapable evidence. After John & Yoko’s wishful thinking, songbirds Barbra Streisand, Anita O’Day and Lee Remick make the case with “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bully,” “Poor Donny One Note,” and “There Won’t be Trump-ets.” Then Electric Youth advises—we need a real human being to have a real hero, and hero status is reserved for people who actually do accomplish things by helping. My new “best attitude” fave here is Zimbabwean-American singer & TVpersonality Alexandra Shungudzo Govere. Enjoy the fireworks.

DISTANT COUSINS: IT’S A GOOD DAY…

JUNE 2023


The Twins neither lead nor follow. With wet fingers raised high in the air, they gage the wind, and make more wind blow. A conspicuous Gemini might confess “it’s only a paper moon against a carboard sky—but it won’t be make-believe if you believe in me.” Reality meets shadow reality and falsehood. China’s Last Emperor was emperor only within the Forbidden City. Under the moonlight, chameleon Gavin Bryers walks us through Vespertine Park. Fleetfooted Mercury summons singers Algerian Rachid Taha, Cape Verdian Cesária Evora, and the Turkish pianist Fazil Say. Gemini composers include Edward Elgar, Robert Schuman, Igor Stravinsky—and Richard Wagner’s sacred/profane dichotomy in the dazzling hands of fellow air sign, Franz Liszt.

TAKING TEMPERATURES: WINDS CHANGE

MAY 2023


Taurus rules the throat. Many great singers born to this sign, including Barbra Streisand, possess phenomenal pipes. As the wheel moves from the “I am!” of the Ram, appetites for food, pleasure, and sleep typify the Bull. Acclaimed British jazz singer Claire Martin & arranger/conductor Scott Dunn have their take on sleeper’s awake and the urban/rural divide. Long before the song’s holiday association, Greensleeves alluded to telltale grass stains of the alfresco lovemaking of a “green dress.” The hands-free “voice” of the incomparable theremin artist Clara Rockmore depicts the long-throated swan and the firebird’s lullaby. Sultry Spanish moods continue from April infused by jazz. Throughout, as springtime rain persists, the grass seems always greener.  

GREENER GRASS: APPETITES

APRIL 2023


The wheel starts with fire. The fiery identity of Aries asserts “I AM!”. With Mars right there at the source of being, war is a fact of human existence. The eleven successive signs have the job of managing, mitigating, and transforming our collective impulse toward bloodlust. The wheel ends with peaceful Pisces. Thomas Adès, ever the Pisces master of all sensations, weighs-in. Sarah Vaughn nails spring fever, while Beyonce and Coltrane go for the motion. Ah castanets! Con fuego is a dominant strand in the hands of DeFalla, Ravel and the woefully neglected Jules Massenet. Listen to Chilean French singer & mediator Ana Tijoux – wow! Pink Martini heralds the coming of spring with Gongxi, the fantastic Chinese New Year song.

RITUAL FIRE: CHARM OFFENSIVE

MARCH 2023


Jazz organist Shirley Scott is a huge gob smacking discovery! I’m sharing a generous helping of her amazing tracks. Bill Evans and Tony Bennet are answered by FKA Twigs for advice gratefully taken by someone who turned away from taking her own life. This coded playlist is dedicated to everyone who intercedes in teen suicide. The Celine Dion track is a shout out to Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet Séguin’s playlist heard on Terry Gross. Also, remembering Whitney Houston, with whom I worked on Bodyguard. Of course, birthday boys Thomas Adès and Maurice Ravel are here. This is the strongest brew of Piscean zeitgeist yet! Tune in to Neptune here.

THE SCHOOL OF FISH: FATHOMLESS

FEBRUARY 2023


A quartet of Aquarians – Mozart, Schubert, John Adams, and Philip Glass – rub shoulders with the telling sounds of African American Icons in this Uranian brew of high contrasts and  surprising frissons. A snatch of Capricorn composer Brian Ferneyhough, that didn’t make it into last month’s playlist Precarious Hold, found an interesting spot between minimalist Hans Otte (thanks for the intro, Monday Evening concerts!) and Coltrane’s underappreciated Africa. High-road equanimity intersects  leading-edge electricity, with a serving of Vindaloo.

EQUANIMITY / ELECTRICITY

JANUARY 2023


Governments are teetering yet hope and good humor are holding their own against the seriousness of Saturn. Capricorn composers Poulenc and Pergolesi get their nods (it’s not a sign for great composers), while brilliant piano music threads through songs of the moment and past favorites. The pain of love works here as a metaphor addressing divisiveness and the need to transform dysfunctional world views. Janet Yellen is making history in the US Treasury, an institution we want to be dependable, reliable, grounded, practical, loyal, and materialistic. Who woulda thunk she inspired a rap song!

PRECARIOUS HOLD: COMMON DESTINY