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I missed violinist Jennifer Koh’s performance with the New York Philharmonic on Wednesday night, since the orchestra’s Central Park concert was cancelled due to ferocious weather. (Koh’s debut with the orchestra came one night earlier, in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.) Fellow scribe Vivien Schweitzer, on the other hand, made the journey out to Cunningham Park in…
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They could probably be touring auditoriums and playing somewhere low in the billing on the first stage at Ozzfest by now. Instead, the members of pioneering Norwegian black-metal band Emperor took the high road. When they realized that they were pulling in at least two different directions, aesthetically speaking, after they recorded their fourth and…
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In the post below, I’ve added links to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson obituaries and tributes as I’ve come upon them…and they continue to mount, unsurprisingly. But the lovely essay by David Patrick Stearns that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer today deserves to be singled out for special attention, I think. It’s an insightful, elegant piece, and…
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Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott!Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben,Wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben! I come from God, and to God I want to return!Dear God will give me a little lightthat will lead the way to eternal blessed life. — Das Knaben Wunderhorn After…
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In all honesty, I can’t claim to have spent all that much time at CBGB lately; the fact of the matter is that the bulk of the club’s programming in recent years hasn’t held so much interest for me. But I’d be lying if I didn’t confess that there’s something altogether genuine and appealing about…
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"The difference between doing rock shows and cabaret shows is that at rock shows, the microphone smells like old beer and spit, while at cabaret shows, it smells like Chanel No. 5, and it’s caked with red lipstick," singer Lee Ann Westover explained on Monday night at Makor, the midtown nightclub run by the 92nd…
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Until such time as she launches a blog of her own, it falls to me to point you to the good Dr. LP’s review of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music, now online at Jazz Times. I’m betting that it’s an excellent read, full of detailed observations, exacting criticism, well-turned phrases and personable asides.…
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Let’s get one thing straight, right off the bat: Lorraine Gordon was not in Hanoi with Jane Fonda. It’s one of the more colorful of the many legends that has become attached to the 83-years-young owner of the Village Vanguard, New York City’s most hallowed surviving nightclub. "That’s another myth," Gordon told my TONY colleague…
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‘Angels in America,’ the Opera By Steve SmithMusicalAmerica.comJune 20, 2006 BOSTON — A quarter century after the first American case of AIDS was diagnosed, Angels in America — playwright Tony Kushner’s two-part, seven-hour epic about the disease, the lives it touched, and the callous disregard with which politicians marginalized its explosive early spread — long…
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I’ve lived in New York for 13 years now, and I’ve seen some mighty unexpected things in that time. But I can honestly say that among the many things I never expected to witness firsthand, a large Carnegie Hall crowd whooping it up over a violin solo by Ornette Coleman certainly ranks right up there.…
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And so we’re back from a brilliant working vacation in Morocco. The trip began with a June 1 flight into Casablanca, where our little party — myself, Dr. LP, Anastasia Tsioulcas (of Billboard, Gramophone, Weekend America and Café Aman renown) and her husband Joshua Sherman, classical scribe Robert Hilferty and world music maven Peter Margasak…
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As Phil Freeman is my witness, I swear that I had every intention of blogging in great deal on the subject of the punishing-in-a-good-way death-metal extravaganza on Monday night at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. The short version: Necrophagist really can play those insanely intricate heavy-metal bebop tunes live. The noises emitted from the…
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Yes, it’s been quiet around here this past week, for which I apologize. Firstly, I’ve been up to my neck in work; second, I’ve been making up for lost time with Dr. LP. And third, I’ve heard almost no live music since the Met Parsifal I covered just over a week ago. Instead, I’ve been…
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The Metropolitan Opera still has a few more performances to go before it puts Joseph Volpe’s final season to bed with a big, sloppy kiss, but this evening’s Parsifal was most likely the last time I’ll set foot in the house until Anthony Minghella’s fancy puppet show hits the stage in September. And I’m happy…
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Jeff Harrington of New Music reBlog is on vacation in France for a couple of weeks, but the addicts of the Analog Arts Ensemble have mounted an Emergency Reblog in order to prevent withdrawal symptoms. (We should all be blessed with such an impressive contingency plan.)
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Suppose, for a moment, that Axl Rose decided to put the past behind him. Say, for instance, he admitted that the band currently backing him — a very fine one — was not in truth the group with which he’d immediately and permanently cemented his reputation as one of hard rock’s most compelling frontmen. And…
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For Antonia — who I don’t know personally, but admire professionally nonetheless — the set list for the show Guns N’ Roses played at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday, May 12: Welcome to the JungleIt’s So EasyMr. BrownstoneBetter*Live and Let DieSweet Child O’ MineKnockin’ on Heaven’s DoorMadagascar*You Could Be MineThe Blues*Out Ta Get MeNovember…
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Ever since I started this blog last year, I’ve ended almost every post with a playlist. These have generated some delight, some curiosity, and the occasional question. The latest comes from reader Doug Gary, who asked in the comments field of last night’s post about Janine Jansen whether my playlists imply recommendation of the items…
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This is a photograph of violist Stephanie Griffin. She’s one of New York City’s finest, busiest new-music performers, as well as the musical director of Hi Art!, a laudable program that introduces very young children to contemporary art. I heard Griffin play with the Argento Chamber Ensemble on Sunday night at Miller Theatre during last…
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Remember when I posted about catching the lovely, talented young violinist Janine Jansen performing Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto with Neeme Järvi and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Newark last December? Sure you do. (But if you don’t, the original post is here.) I bring this up tonight because I just found out that the…
Night After Night 