Year: 2009
By Helen Epstein, World Books Contributor Although September 1, 1939 — the day Hitler invaded Poland — is regarded as the beginning of the Second World War, Czechs remember March 15, 1939 as the day it began for them. Seventy years ago the German armed forces occupied what is now the Czech Republic and declared…
Read MoreBy Peter Walsh “There’s a gude time coming.” —Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy (1817) Americans, always attuned to the prices and classes of commodity, assume that the arts fall into the expensive luxury category: an ornament to good times but destined to wilt, like a hot house orchid, under the cold wind of recession. History…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Conductor Benjamin Zander celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Boston Philharmonic and his 70th birthday. The two greatest post-Brahms symphonists – Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius – were markedly unalike. In 1907 their paths happened to cross in Helsinki, and they had several conversations. When the talk turned to the essence of…
Read MoreBy Harvey Blume The Economy Cometh Niall Ferguson, “The Ascent of Money,” Penguin Press, 2008 It’s way past time to utter the dread G word about the economy, the G word being “Godzilla.” The economy as we now experience it, is like the monster in the 1998 American remake: it rises from unfathomable depths before…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Susan Bernofsky’s translation of Robert Walser’s 1908 novel won her a 2007 PEN Translation Fund Award. She’s followed that up by translating the Swiss writer’s first novel, “The Tanners.” A recent World Books podcast explores two recent translations from the German of novels by the mysterious Swiss writer Robert Walser, an author…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Some of the dancing feet in a scene from the Boston Conservatory production of “42nd Street.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a sucker for tapdancing – whether the unsurpassed solo hoofing of the late Gregory Hines (1946-2003) or an entire stage of unison clickety-clacking. Tapdancing was a stage…
Read MoreBy Gary Schwartz Director Paul Thomas Anderson is no Upton Sinclair. Half an hour into Paul Thomas Anderson’s film There Will be Blood, shown on Dutch television the other night, I told Loekie how intensely happy I was that the film existed. A few months ago I read the book on which the film is…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx David Polonsky, Art Director of “Waltz With Bashir.” Recently, the World Books podcast got about as close to Hollywood as it is probably ever going to get. I talk to Israeli artist David Polonsky about the acclaimed animated documentary “Waltz With Bashir,” directed by Ari Folman.
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Chinese pianist Lang Lang can play the heck out of Chopin. When I first heard Chinese pianist Lang Lang, he was a teenager. He displayed plenty of virtuosity, but without an idea in his head – and the music chosen was not worth anyone’s time. He had begun lessons at three and…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Soprano Aliana de la Guardia and violinist Gabriela Diaz performing selections of “Kafka Fragments” at a WGBH studio. A recent World Books podcast serves up a literary/musical treat. A Boston company, Ludovoco Ensemble, presented a performance of “Kafka Fragments,” a short chamber work composed by György Kurtág for soprano and violin in…
Read More
Design Review: A Singular Art Nouveau Shop Front in Harvard Square