Serenading the Glorious Leader
The New York Philharmonic is thinking of visiting North Korea next year and that has caused a great deal of tut-tutting from the nuke ’em, don’t serenade ’em crowd. The…
From the Old Mailbag
Hey, I think you and your readers at sequenza21 will like this piece we just published, by Richard Taruskin: It’s a provocative argument that the dire situation in which classical…
Wish I Had a River I Could Skate Away On
Several good reasons to be glad you weren’t a child prodigy. Oops, forgot. Some of you probably were. Morton Subotnick. Discuss.
APPOMATTOX: The War Within
6J14flyMOQo Human behavior’s funny. The more we try to change the more we don’t seem able to. Are we cursed to repeat the same mistakes in our private lives —…
The Norman Conquests
Norman Lebrecht is an entertaining writer who has never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Come to think of it, he may have been the…
El paseo de Buster Keaton
Did you ever wonder why doctors think it’s a good idea for a bunch of sick people to wait together for their exams in a small, overheated, unventilated room? Or…
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…
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…
The Intimate Side of Philip Glass
Turning 70 is a big deal for most people, and especially so for Philip Glass, whose birthday is being celebrated worldwide big time. He’s just been feted in New York…
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,…