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Coming Attractions in Classical Music: November 2009

October 30, 2009
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By Caldwell Titcomb Nov 1: Dinosaur Annex celebrates the 80th birthday of composer Yehudi Wyner with two of his works, plus music by David Liptak, Stefan Hakenberg & others. Wyner will himself perform. Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street, Boston, at 7:30 p.m. (Talk with composers at 6:30 p.m.)

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Classical Music Review: Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra

October 26, 2009
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By Caldwell Titcomb You might not be aware of it, but the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) is the oldest symphony orchestra in the country, having begun as the Pierian Sodality in 1808. For the past 45 years, the group was led by composer-conductor James Yannatos, who retired last June. So the HRO on October 24 gave…

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Culture Vulture: Answer this “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”

October 19, 2009
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Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Carmel O’Reilly. Produced by the the Lyric Stage Company at the YWCA Building on the corner of Clarendon Street and Stuart Street, Boston, MA, through November 14. Reviewed by Helen Epstein Improbable though it seems these days with multiple requests to turn off electronics before performances,…

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October Fuse Pick: Boston Book Festival

October 19, 2009
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by Bill Marx The Boston Book Festival, which kicks off its existence this Saturday, is an inevitability that for some puzzling reason wasn’t a reality. Boston is a determinedly readerish town, yet it is the only one of America’s major cities that doesn’t have a book festival. Thankfully, BBF organizer Deborah Z. Porter remedies the…

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Visuals Arts: Rembrandt and I in Oman

October 17, 2009
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It cannot be said that the average Omani was waiting for an exhibition of Rembrandt etchings. By Gary Schwartz “Frankincense from Oman and paintings by Rembrandt were both part of the good life in the 17th century.” That unlikely quotation is from the script of a film that I wrote and presented this summer to…

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Culture Vulture: Back to Laramie: Moises Kaufman’s Epilogue and Judy Shepard’s Memoir

October 15, 2009
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By Helen Epstein I saw “The Laramie Project Epilogue” at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, one of a reported 150 venues around the world where staged readings took place this week, the eleventh anniversary of what has become perhaps the most famous hate crime in the world. In October of 1998, twenty-one year…

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Film Review: “A Serious Man” Has Serious Thoughts

October 15, 2009
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Reviewed by Justin Marble For all of their acclaim, the Coen brothers have never been considered “personal” filmmakers. Technically talented, stylish, and humorous, sure, but in describing the Coens’ filmography, even their attempts at “mature” pieces deal in fantasy elements. Hitmen, large sums of money, and murder yarns proliferate the Coens’ oeuvre, and while these…

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Short Fuse: Homage to a Champagne Communist

October 15, 2009
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When discussing Friedrich Engels’s lament for lobster salad, Tristram Hunt dubs him “the original champagne communist,” but his biography is far from a damning portrayal. Marx’s General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels by Tristram Hunt. Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books, 448 pages, $32. Reviewed by Harvey Blume Among the most memorable words Karl…

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Culture Vulture: BSO’ s Death-drenched Russian program

October 13, 2009
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By Helen Epstein Oct-8-13 Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich Symphony Hall Boston, MA Vasily Petrenko, conductor Audiences as well as composers project their emotions and fantasies onto every piece of art with which they engage, but I think this is particularly true of instrumental music, whose non-verbal, non-visual yet powerfully emotional expressiveness is as open to…

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Classical Music Review: Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble

October 13, 2009
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By Caldwell Titcomb Three works by major composers made up the free concert presented by the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble on October 10 at the Midway Studios in South Boston. On the podium was Eric Hewitt, who holds a bachelor’s in saxophone performance and a master’s in conducting – both from the New England Conservatory…

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