Saturday, May 30, 2009

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Stephen Hough's dandy blog: Cadenza

SH

Just to prove that Aisle Be Seeing You takes your intellectual needs seriously and isn't only about shilling for the Celebrity Series (I mean, it is, of course, just not exclusively), I want to share with you a funny, informative, and gently irreverent little blog I just found by pianist Stephen Hough (who isn't even on the Series this season, though he has been on it before and will likely be on it again at some point though I'm not in charge of that so don't ask me).

Cadenza
, as the blog is titled, is housed on the web site of the Telegraph newspaper and  has recently wrestled with (or merely pointed at) such topics as the sign banning guns in a Minneapolis concert hall, a poem composed about pronouncing Hough's surname, the pianists Shura Cherkassky, Glenn Gould and Vladimir Horowitz, and the relative merits of sparkling vs. still water.

If you think this blog is the best thing you have ever read (hi, Mom) then you will want to seek medical advice before reading Cadenza to be sure you can handle the upgrade ...



Fliter's joke piano

IF  

Ingrid Fliter overcame an apparent joke-piano at London's Wigmore Hall. We'll be having none of that when Fliter makes her Boston debut on November 1 at NEC's Jordan Hall (ahem!). Read Times (UK) review.

UPDATE: OK, so it wasn't an actual joke piano, it just did "funny" things...



Monday, May 11, 2009

Blogroll

Arts Blogs (in no particular order ... really)


A Blog Supreme, Aesthetic, Not Anesthetic, Brilliant Corners, deceptive cadenceThe Reverberate Hills, The Collaborative Piano Blog, Night After Night (Steve Smith), Sequenza 21, aworks: "new" american classical music, footnotes (Rachel Howard), On an Overgrown Path, Tears of a Clownsilly, The Standing Room (Sidney Chen), Monotonous Forest, Iron Tongue of Midnight, HubArts (Joel Brown), Jessica Duchen's Classical Music Blogionarts, Soho the Dog (Matthew Geurrieri), The Hub Review (Thomas Garvey), Alex Ross: The Rest is NoiseThe Well-Tempered Blog (Bart Collins), The Boston Musical Intelligencer, Destination-Out, OboeInsight, My Fickle Ears Dig ItAfriClassical, The Omniscient Mussel


Arts Blog at Newspapers and other media outlets


OCRegister-The Arts Blog, The Classical Beat (Anne Midgette, Washington Post), WETA Blog, ArtsBeat (New York Times), Culture Vulture Blog (Guardian, UK), Unquiet Thoughts (The New Yorker)


Arts Journal Blogs


About Last Night (Terry Teachout), The Artful Manager (Andrew Taylor), Foot in Mouth (Apollinaire Scherr), Seeing Things (Tobi Tobias), Life's a Pitch (Amanda Ameer), Mind the Gap (Molly Sheridan), Rockwell Matters (John Rockwell), Jazz Beyond Jazz (Howard Mandell), Rifftides (Doug Ramsey), Creative Destruction (John Thomas Dodson), The Future of Classical Music? (Greg Sandow), On the Record (Henry Fogel), Overflow (Harvey Sachs), Pianomorphosis (Bruce Brubaker), PostClassic (Kyle Gann), Sandow (Greg Sandow)


Blogs by Artists/Performer/Composer/Arts Institutions

Emanuel Ax's Official Blog, Cadenza (Stephen Hough), Think Denk (Jeremy Denk), Do the Math (The Bad Plus), thirteen ways (eighth blackbird), Jason Palmer's Weblog, Roger Bourland, ANAblog (Analog Arts Ensemble), Arnold Schoenberg Center, Suzanne Vega, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Felsenmusick (Daniel Felsenfeld), Jonathan Biss


Boston Blogs (and other Boston stuff)


Bostonist, Universal Hub, H2otown, Boston Metblogs, Boston Dirt Dogs, Not Running a Hospital, Boston Blogs, JazzBoston, Spontaneous Acts of Joyce, Rob Orchard's blog at Arts Emerson



Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Globe: Dawn Upshaw is affable, memorable

DU

Dawn Upshaw did it again. She proved herself a remarkable singer; a communicator of rare consistency and, apparently, a genuinely nice individual (not that that was why the audience was in the house). I'm working on a list of classical music performers that have unusual bonds with audiences and break down barriers to communication. IMHO, these performers are the future of classical music and the things they do, whether calculated or natural, are things I hope other performers will emulate. A case in point, was Ms. Upshaw's recital on Sunday, as recounted by Boston Globe reviewer David Weininger:

"... She is, indisputably, a great
singer, with a voice that radiates power and unforced warmth. But her
secret weapon is a casual, unpretentious demeanor that
lessens the distance between stage and audience. Listeners in her
presence experience music not as the inaccessible product of a holy art
but as a thing of open, approachable beauty."

Read all of A memorable recital from affable Upshaw, and, remember to get tickets the next time Upshaw is in town for a performance. No matter the context or even the presenter (bite your tongue!) she is a treasure.



Monday, May 4, 2009

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my SPAM friends

Today's comment spam:

"I am very enjoy your blog, your blog is very true of the bar, hoping to see you more exciting content! I wish you have a happy day!"

It is very true of the bar. It's about time somebody noticed.



Saturday, May 2, 2009

Friday, May 1, 2009

Globe: "Ailey troupe is as vital as ever"

539w
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Sweet Honey In The Rock in Hope Boykin's "Go in Grace"

David Perkins reviewed Tuesday evening's Alvin Ailey American Dance theater performance at The Opera House:

"When Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returned to Boston on Tuesday,
beginning a seven-performance run celebrating the company's 50th
anniversary, two things were immediately apparent. One, this is no
empty relic of a company: Twenty years after the founding genius's
death, its spirit is vibrant, its dancers' commitment to every gesture
total (down to the final extension of fingers and toes), and Ailey's
choreography as fresh and moving as if it had been created yesterday.
Two, it takes a lot of talent to add something of equal weight to a
program featuring his work."

Read all of Ailey troupe is as vital as ever

Programs continue through Sunday - good seats available for all remaining performances - visit www.celebrityseries.org for programs, times and tickets.