Steve Smith

  • The wayward wind.

    Photograph: Richard Termine for The New York Times The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, October 20, 2011

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  • Tri-Centric Modelling: Past, Present and Future(Le) Poisson Rouge/Issue Project RoomNew York City, USAThe Wire, September 2010 There was surely one burning question on the minds of the audience who packed the chic New York City nightclub (Le) Poisson Rouge to capacity on a Friday night for the first evening of Tri-Centric Modelling: Past, Present and…

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  • Learning to fly.

    Photograph: Julie Glassberg for The New York Times eighth blackbird at the Miller TheatreThe New York Times, October 18, 2011

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  • Geek out.

    Hilary Hahn and Cory Smythe at the StoneThe New York Times, October 13, 2011 The video embedded above shows the grand finale of Hilary Hahn's holy-rolling "Ives geek-out party" (her term) at the Stone, John Zorn's East Village new-music space, on Monday night. Hahn's disc of Ives's four sonatas, recorded with Valentina Lisitsa for Deutsche…

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  • Full immersion.

    Frédéric Chaslin accompanies Kirstin Chávez.Photograph: Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times Tobias Picker Composer Portrait at Miller TheatreThe New York Times, October 10, 2011 The title of this post refers to the notion of a concert that touches on multiple facets of a single composer's work over the course of an evening: the useful…

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  • Your property.

    Photograph: Lino Brunetti For at least the past several years, Michael Gira, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader behind the exquisite agonies of Swans, has been issuing a steady trickle of exclusive, limited-edition projects through the website of his label, Young God Records. Packaged with paper covers in plastic sleeves, these hand-numbered, signed and otherwise…

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  • No dejes que…

    Photograph: Roberto Sanchez Interview: CaifanesTime Out New York, Oct 6–12, 2011 In this article about the seminal Mexican alt-rock band Caifanes, recently reunited and now en route to New York's Hammerstein Ballroom for an October 12 show, I start by evoking the reunions of Led Zeppelin, Cream and the Pixies. For admirers of rock en…

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  • New frontier.

    "In Brooklyn, a New Leader Who Knows No Boundaries"The New York Times, October 2, 2011 An article about the arrival of Alan Pierson as the new artistic director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, an esteemed ensemble that has known tremendous highs and disheartening lows over the years. At a time when the orchestra is not only…

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  • Celluloid heroes.

    Tan Dun Martial Arts Trilogy in Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center Out of DoorsThe New York Times, August 15, 2011 Snapped with my iPhone, the image above depicts one of those moments described in the last paragraph of my Times review, when martial-arts movie images ceded to live-action video of Tan Dun conducting. Here he's leading…

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  • Double vision.

    International Contemporary Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall and the Kaplan PlayhouseThe New York Times, August 9, 2011 Everything about these two Stravinsky-centric concerts was hugely admirable. But the opening stretch of the Tully concert — an unmanned "player piano" piece seguing into four small-ensemble pieces in tight sequence, accompanied by thoughtful lighting design — was…

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  • Shout it out loud.

    Photograph: Ruby Washington/The New York Times Joshua Bell with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher HallThe New York Times, August 8, 2011 Along with the amazing Ruby Washington photograph you see above, my review of last Friday's Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra concert is in The New York Times today. I'd previously stated that…

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  • Gene Colan 1926-2011.

    Thinking back on the Batman and Detective comics I collected back in the early to mid 1980s, I remember preferring the issues drawn by Don Newton and Tom Mandrake, with strong, clean lines and clear depictions of the various characters in Doug Moench's hyperbolic dramas. The issues drawn by Gene Colan I felt less strongly…

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  • Billy Bang 1947-2011.

    "Billy Bang, Jazz Violinist Inspired by Vietnam Experience, Dies at 63"The New York Times, April 17, 2011 Probably no more than a year after I moved to New York in 1993, my head full of dazzling notions about downtown-jazz royalty developed during previous years of listening and learning from afar in Texas, I was out…

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  • Elemental.

    New Juilliard Ensemble at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, April 12, 2011

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  • Ars longa, vita brevis.

    21c Liederabend, Night One, at the KitchenThe New York Times, April 9, 2011 An outstanding event, but not my favorite piece of writing. Deadlines, word counts and basic human frailties are a continual challenge, and you don't win them all.

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  • Catch of the day.

    WQXR "Trout Week": Ebène Quartet at the Greene SpaceThe New York Times, April 7, 2011 Between musical selections midway through this show, host Bill McGlaughlin asked the members of the Ebène Quartet how many concerts they present in a typical year. Around 120 was the response. After a few more tunes – "Misirlou," "Libertango," the…

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  • Passing the torch.

    Anne-Sophie Mutter, Roman Patkoló and members of the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher HallThe New York Times, April 6, 2011 What kind of musician attracts Anne-Sophie Mutter's attention? Watch bassist Roman Patkoló playing Pablo de Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, a familiar violin showpiece, and you'll know the answer.

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  • Anne-Sophie Mutter with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher HallThe New York Times, April 2, 2011 In tempus praesens, the solemn, beautiful violin concerto by Sofia Gubaidulina that Anne-Sophie Mutter just performed with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New York Philharmonic, is the subject of a recent documentary film, Sophia: Biography of a Violin…

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  • Found all the parts.

    American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, March 31, 2011

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  • Houses of the holy.

    The Belcea Quartet at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, March 30, 2011

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