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Concert Review: Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at Symphony Hall

February 26, 2012
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John Oliver, director of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, deserves the thanks of all involved for his willingness to take on this unenviable assignment, as well as credit for ensuring that the performance didn’t fall off the tracks.

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Theater Review: “Time Stands Still” — A Too Distant Echo of the War in Iraq

February 25, 2012
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When young photographers went up to the famous war photographer, Robert Capa, and asked him what they could do to make their pictures more gripping, he said: “Go closer!”

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Short Fuse: Jeremy Lin — Chess Fantasy

February 24, 2012
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jeremy lin & i played a few games. let me say, so far as xiangqi went, he wasn’t an all star. then again, neither was i.

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Jazz Review / Commentary: Chick Corea’s “The Continents” and the Problem of the Jazz Piano Concerto

February 22, 2012
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Chick Corea’s “The Continents: Concerto for Jazz Quintet and Chamber Orchestra” is filled with tuneful melody, shows off some superb playing by the soloists, breaks new ground in a number of ways, and achieves nearly all of its ambitions.

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Movie Review: Oscar Nominated Live Shorts — A Very Competitive Year

February 22, 2012
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Five strong contenders: production values are high, the actors excellent, and four are beautifully grounded in their settings –- Norway, Calcutta, and two in Ireland.

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Book Review: The Print-Pantheist — Cyprian Norwid’s “Poems”

February 21, 2012
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In light of the many translations of Cyprian Norwid’s verse into English, Danuta Borchardt thought carefully about what she was going to focus on.

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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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