Criticultura em Portugal

The Swedish Radio Choir Peter Dijkstra, director Works of Einfelde, Sandström, Hillborg, Schnittke Church of St. Mary of the Virgin, Manhattan November 14, 2017 Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, op. 123 (1823) The Swedish Chamber Orchestra Swedish Radio Choir Thomas Dausgaard, conductor David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center NYC November 12, 2017  Singing used to be a common form of social interaction, as in carols at parties, show tunes around the piano, etc. Given the drop in public school music and our lack of exposure to the unamplified singing human voice, I now wonder if anyone even sings in the shower. The exception to this void comes from the Lutheran and/or Scandinavian traditions, where singing is very much alive. In the US we see this in vital choral departments at places like St. Olaf’s College in Minnesota and by the robust choruses in many Lutheran churches, such as the bevy of talented young Lutheran musicians in the choir I sing in at the Church of ...

The Florida Project Directed by Sean Baker Starring Brooklyn Prince, Brina Vinaite, William Defoe, Lady Bird Directed by Greta Gerwig Starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts These two films by young directors both have a realistic, slice-of-life approach to exploring childhood ( The Florida Project ) and adolescence ( Lady Bird ). Neither has an important life/societal event to set things moving—we just drop in on lives already established. While each has an ending of sorts, we are left unresolved, much as life is. Each relies on an unpromising setting (the tacky hotels and strip malls of Florida, the humdrum world of Sacramento CA) as a main “character” that drives the plot forward. Finally, each depicts much-discussed working class families trying to get by while creating a future for their children. On a personal level, it was fascinating and nostalgic to see two areas I resided in (and was generally unimpressed by) serve as such key elements in these fil...

Strange Interlude (1928) By Eugene O’Neill David Greenspan, actor Jack Cummings, III, Director Irondale Theater, Brooklyn October 27, 2017 Measure for Measure (1603) By William Shakespeare Elevator Repair Service John Collins, Director NY Public Theater October 29, 2017 Even great artists create subpar works, as you can hear in Bach’s finale to Cantata 205 ,  and Beethoven’sWellington’s Victory (a.k.a. “The Bear went over the Mountain”). Much of this is understandable, since great creators need to experiment and take risks, and sometimes work fast to make money. One of the great artistic periods of history, one that gave us both masterpieces and curious flops, came in the post WWI era, when Picasso painted in sequentially more daring styles (Blue Period, Cubism, masks) and Igor Stravinsky migrated from colorful post-romantic works ( Firebird, Petroushka ) to rhythmic revolution ( Rite of Spring ), then to neoclassical and serialist styles. Also fro...

Music, Imagination, and Culture Nicholas Cook Clarendon Press, 1990 A Clockwork Orange Adapted for the stage by novelist Anthony Burgess Directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones Starring Jono Davies New World Stages, Manhattan October 20, 2017 New Work for Goldberg Variations (2016) Simone Dinnerstein, piano/Pam Tanowitz, choreography Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair, NJ October 21, 2017 Morphed (2016) Tero Saarinen Company (Dance) Joyce Theater, Manhattan October 22, 2017 Emerson String Quartet Beethoven String Quartet in E-flat major , Op. 127 (1824) Shostakovich String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor , Op. 144 (1974) Alice Tully Hall, Manhattan October 24, 2017 In Nicholas Cook’s outstanding book on how we hear music, Music, Imagination, and Culture,  he discusses a tribal culture in which a musical performance is appreciated and evaluated not by the sounds produced, but by the visible physical way in which the performers int...

La Favola d'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor English Baroque Soloists, The Monteverdi Choir Krystian Adam, Orfeo Gianluca Burato, Pluto Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center October 18, 2017 For the past seven months the famed Sir John Eliot Gardiner has embarked on an ambitious road show called “Monteverdi 450”, in honor of the 450th anniversary of the great composer’s birth. He has performed each of the three extant Monteverdi operas as a set, each one traveling with the same cast, in 8 different countries and nine settings, now ending in New York.  After my transcendent experience with a Monteverdi opera performed by Italians last year, this week’s L’ Orfeo was a disappointing mixed bag (you can see the entire performance here ). L’Orfeo (1607) is the very first opera that entered the repertory, following the beginnings of opera ( Dafne and Euridice by the Florentine Jacopo Peri) by about 10 years. Opera in its infancy drew its just...