Woke Up. It Was a Chelsea Morning.
The Metropolis Ensemble is getting set to record the complete collection of chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman with producer David Frost but you don’t have to wait to hear it; the best…
Out of the Rabbit Hole With David Del Tredici
Philip Glass is not the only composer who turned 70 this year. Among other newly-minted septuagenarians is David Del Tredici, a “maverick” composer in the great American tradition, and while…
What Did You Do During the War, Daddy?
The rabid right has worked itself into a state over Ken Burns’ extraordinarily fair, balanced and altogether pro-American documentary series, The War. Partly it’s the fact that it is on PBS…
The Sun Also Rises
Adam Kirsch, writing in today’s New York Sun: The critic of the serious arts — poetry, painting, music — is addressing readers who are not just indifferent to new work,…
MacArthur Stiffs Composers
Alas, no composers among the MacArthur geniuses named today but Dawn Upshaw, who probably makes a decent living at this singing and recording business, will be getting a check for…
Practice, Man. Practice.
“Music should either touch your soul or make you dance,” Michael Abels says, and though he admits there is a lot of music out there that doesn’t do either, those should…
Non-Fiction, Anyone
I’ve been paying some bills for the past couple for the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to update much. While I’m still catching up, why don’t we do a…
Andromeda’s Strains
Review in yesterday’s NYT of a novel called The Spanish Bow by a Chicago-born, Alaska-domiciled writer with the unlikely name of Andromeda Romano-Law. The teaser is this: “In a dusty, turn-of-the-century Catalan…
What’s Happening This Season?
The season is underway in New York and, as usual, there are a number of promising looking performances coming up. Here are a few things to look for: Margaret Garner,…