Alex Ross's Blog, page 257

Save Dance New Amsterdam

Dance New Amsterdam, a crucial center for dance performance and instruction in New York, is facing possible eviction from its downtown space.  If you wish to sign a statement of support, you can do so here. If current trends continue, within a few years the island of Manhattan will have lost the last traces of its once magnificent downtown scene. Is this the cultural legacy that Michael Bloomberg wishes to leave behind?

Previously: Bloomberg's masterpiece.

Pre-Bastille miscellany

Charles Downey at ionarts brings attention to Jonathan Harvey's Speakings and Tristan Murail's Les sept paroles, streaming at France Musique until July 24. Both works strike me as major statements.... Why is Kent Nagano leaving Munich in 2013? Jens Laurson has the goods....
Over at NewMusicBox, Molly Sheridan interviews Augusta Read Thomas, whose recent Jubilee is an electric, joyous piece.... The Minnesota Orchestra has announced participants for its next Composer Institute: Taylor...

Angela Meade's Norma

At the New Yorker website I have a mini-review of Angela Meade's memorable Norma at Caramoor on Saturday. I covered her Semiramide last summer and named that performance one of the best of the year. As the estimable David Shengold points out, Meade is apparently scheduled to sing in Anna Bolena at the Met in the 2011-12 season, sharing the title role with Anna Netrebko. (I'm not sure I'd want to be in Netrebko's place in that matchup.) Two other engagements of interest: Il trovatore at

Varèse update

The International Contemporary Ensemble's Varèse preview concert is now streaming at Q2, with the two-piano version of Amériques the chief attraction. As Steve Smith observed in his Times review, it's fascinating to hear Varèse's musical ideas shorn of their spectacular orchestration. By the way, I'd like to mention again Jacob Greenberg's fine CD Solitary , with a strikingly polystylistic Lied ohne Worte by the pianist.

Quote of the day

"Composition, contemporary composition, is where reviewing comes to life. Complaining about interpreters, or rooting for them, however legitimate, is just fidgeting. Criticism joins the history of its art only when it joins battle, for or against, with the music of its time." — Virgil Thomson, 1974

Photo: Carl Van Vechten.

In ebb yet terrible and deep

Here's a remarkable story: the other night on the Suffolk coast of England, Bob Shingleton, proprietor of the blog On an Overgrown Path, saved a boy from drowning. The episode took place in Gorleston, some thirty-five miles north of Aldeburgh, where the dismal tale of Britten's Peter Grimes unfolded; this one had a happier ending. Bob initially withheld his name from the media, not wishing to claim credit, but chose to reveal himself when news stories gave a distorted view of the incident.

Musique magique

The radically danceable music of Burkina Electric—Maï Lingani, Wendé K. Blass, Lukas Ligeti, Pyrolator, Zoko Zoko, and Idrissa Kafando—descends tonight on the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn. On July 25th the band returns to play Central Park's Summerstage. On y va!

Quote of the day

"I've seen more divalike behavior in Starbucks over soy milk than I've
seen backstage at the Metropolitan Opera." — Lesley Weston, head of costumes at the Met. (Via ArtsJournal.)

Bring on the Berg

In the rolling hills of the Hudson River Valley it is to be a summer of Berg. This year's Bard Music Festival, based at Bard College, focuses on the almighty Austrian modernist and various kindred spirits. In addition to two weekends of concerts in August, Bard will present, in its allied Summerscape series, the American stage premiere of Franz Schreker's complexly decadent opera Der ferne Klang, for which Berg made the vocal score. The production, which opens on July 30, is by Thaddeus...

Classical music younger, hipper than late-night TV

That's what I conclude from today's New York Times story about declining audiences for late-night talk shows such as The Tonight Show and The Late Show. Writes Bill Carter: "....[T:]he median age of [Jay Leno's:] viewers has crept up to 55.6 from 46.6. Mr.
Letterman's audience is slightly younger, at 54.7." The latest findings by the League of American Orchestras, drawing on their own studies as well as the most recent NEA study of arts participation, indicate that the median age for the...