Month: February 2012

CD Reviews: John Adams — Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine (SFSO/Tilson Thomas)

February 21, 2012
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The recording was made in December 2010 in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, and reveals an orchestra fully at home in John Adams’ distinctive idiom.

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Concert Review: Peter Serkin/BSO/Stéphane Denève

February 20, 2012
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Perhaps most remarkably, BSO conductor Stéphane Denève managed to create an atmosphere in which the Symphony Hall audience, which at this time of year sometimes sounds like it’s made up of inpatients from a tuberculosis ward, was utterly captivated: even the quietest moments were accompanied by a welcomed, attentive silence.

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Film Commentary: “The Artist” — Rooting for Simplicity

February 19, 2012
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“The Artist” works on two levels: the audience in the film and the audience watching the film are entertained by the same things. And it’s that simplicity – the era when silent movies were all they had and it was good enough – is the real protagonist.

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Theater Commentary: A Complex View of Life, Death, and Combat in Israel — “At Night’s End”

February 18, 2012
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A staged reading of an illuminating play by Motti Lerner about the devastating impact of war on men and women in Israeli society.

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Book Review: “Three Weeks in December”

February 15, 2012
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Some fiction can, literally, have the smell of too much research. And so, although I admire the ambition and scope of Audrey Schulman’s new novel, “Three Weeks in December,” I also feel that she made things harder for herself than she needed to.

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Jazz Feature: Pianist Jason Moran Repays It Forward

February 15, 2012
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From James P. Johnson to Thelonious Monk to Jason Moran, inspired mentors carry the past into the future.

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Classical Concert Review: Emmanuel Ax and the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Jaap van Zweden at Symphony Hall

February 15, 2012
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To judge from the all-around energetic playing of the BSO, it seems conductor Jaap van Zweden has struck a good rapport with the players and I, for one, look forward to hearing more from him in coming seasons.

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Jazz Review / Commentary: David Sanborn at Scullers – The Craftsman Cometh

February 13, 2012
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Art with a capital A has been put on such a pedestal that Craft with a capital C has been downgraded to a shabby or rustic sort of activity of which the practitioner should be a little ashamed. ’Tain’t so.

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Theater Review: An Underwhelming Staging of “Wit”

February 12, 2012
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Although I was disappointed in this Manhattan Theatre Club production, I am, however, very glad to have seen “Wit” — it is a contemporary classic.

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Jazz CD Review: The Dominique Eade Quartet at Scullers & Ran Blake / Dominique Eade CD, “Whirlpool”

February 11, 2012
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Dominique Eade’s two greatest gifts are her clarity of musical thought and her courage as an improviser. She does not try to be a cabaret-style interpreter or a ring-a-ding-ding swinger.

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