Soaking Wet with the Beyond the Bang Group at the West End Theater

Dance

Soaking Wet with the Beyond the Bang Group at the West End Theater

September 21, 2017Mari S. Gold

First up, an entirely delightful amuse-bouche minus title or program reference with Jeffrey Kazin, co-producer of The Bang Group, clapping the rhythms and Chelsea Ainsworth in pointe shoes tapping to the beat. As Kazin clapped an elaborate pattern Ainsworth echoed it; the couple then moved from the feet up the body incorporating other takes on percussion as she drummed on his torso and he slapped the ground. Juilliard grad Ainsworth was back in Two is You and deserves a shout-out for her expressive approach that maximizes every step.

Recordings

Giovanni Simone Mayr’s Remarkable Medea Opera, Superbly Performed

September 21, 2017Ralph P. Locke

Medea in Corinto (Medea in Corinth, 1813 and much revised over the course of the next ten years) was Mayr’s best-known opera and remained a repertory staple for a time even after his death. It has been revived frequently in our own day, especially in Italy, where audiences can of course follow the plot and shifting emotions without recourse to supertitles.

Dance

Living While Dying

September 20, 2017Mari S. Gold

According to choreographer Maria Bauman, the work is a meditation on various kinds of endings, positive and negative. Bauman, Gibney Dance’s 2017 Community Action Artist in Residence, says she feels charged with alive-ness while at the same time embracing the paradox of multiple deaths happening every moment; dying and dying and dying is the result of dancing that paradox.

Dance

Anna Bass and Monica Bill Barnes in One Night Only (running as long as we can)

Overeager: One Night Only (running as long as we can) — Monica Bill Barnes and Company at the WP Theater

September 20, 2017Mari S. Gold

first saw Monica Bill Barnes performing Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio show and was charmed. Besides their obvious physical skills, Barnes and her sidekick, Anna Bass, were full of humor with an underlying sweetness pleasantly at odds with their somewhat tough physiques and staccato moves. Then I participated in The Museum Workout, following Barnes and Bass through galleries, up and down stairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a group of us running and stopping to pump arms along the way which was an entertaining experience if not my ideal approach to enjoying art.

Recordings

A Crop of Recordings XVII: Dvořák, Ravel, Lalo, and Manén…with Some Classical Favourites for Hallowe’en!

September 19, 2017Steven Kruger

Every time I hear the Czech Philharmonic properly recorded I’m reminded what a glorious orchestra they are—overdue for appreciation. The ensemble recently signed a major contract with Decca and released Dvořák symphonies and concertos on CD, led by Jiří Bělohlávek. There’s also a complete Tchaikovsky project in the works from Semyon Bychkov. And now we have this beautiful take on the Slavonic Dances, captured without compromise.

Berkshire Review

Lois Mailou Jones, A Student at Howard, 1947. Watercolor over graphite on off-white wove paper.

Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College, May 03, 2017 – September 03, 2017

September 18, 2017Michael Miller

Between the limits of the discipline, as it is taught in graduate schools, and the structure of museological functions, exhibitions of drawings usually adhere to a restricted range of formats, which, while continuing to be viable for institutions and the public and useful for scholars in the field, can be felt as constricting for those who conceive and execute them. The scope of drawings exhibitions can be determined by time and/or place (stylistic categories), or an artistic personality (monographic), or collection ("Treasures on Paper from..."), and perhaps a few others. When a curator is faced with such a project, he may may find himself wrestling with an urge to break the mold and create something new.

Berkshire Review

Thomas Adès conducting the BSO. Photo Stu Rosner.

Ups and Downs of the Boston Music Season, mostly Boston Symphony with Andris Nelsons, 2016-2017

September 15, 2017Charles Warren

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 Tanglewood Music Festival, very successful by many reports, has just concluded, with the new season in Boston to begin very soon. I offer here the perspective of a look back at the preceding season in Boston, commenting mostly on BSO, but also a few other events. I was able to attend only one Tanglewood concert this summer: the impressive concert performance of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, conducted by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, with a large, excellent cast. A good sign for the future.