Latest

July 31, 2020 Tanglewood Stream Fishing 2020, Part 1
July 30, 2020 Public Concerts Resume at PS21 in Chatham, New York—Second Concert: Beethoven by the Calidore String Quartet
July 21, 2020 Ian Hobson will perform a streamed recital co-presented by SubCulture NYC, Florida State University, and Sinfonia da Camera this Wednesday, July 22nd, 5:00 p.m. EDT
July 12, 2020 A Crop of Recordings XXXI: Piston, Gould, Hanson, Roussel, Dukas, Strauss, Liszt. Beethoven…and Knecht!
June 16, 2020 “Transfiguration” goes to London! To be part of United Solo’s First London Festival in September.

Christopher Curtis

Musical Theater

Rob McClure as Charlie Chaplin. Photo © 2012 Joan Marcus.

Chaplin the Musical, at the Barrymore Theatre

November 22, 2012Nancy Salz

Chaplin
Barrymore Theatre

Rob McClure – Charlie Chaplin
Jim Borstelmann – Alf Reeves
Jenn Colella – Hedda Hopper
Erin Mackey – Oona O’Neill
Michael McCormick – Max Sennett, Charlie Chaplin Sr., McGranery
Christiane Noll – Hannah Chaplin
Hayley Podschun – …

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Tanglewood Stream Fishing 2020, Part 1

The program in some ways reflected mood swings that strike us these days: melancholy, valediction, the hauntings of past ardors, and the impulse to get the hell out

Public Concerts Resume at PS21 in Chatham, New York—Second Concert: Beethoven by the Calidore String Quartet

PS21 was founded by the late Judy Grunberg in 1999 with the mission of presenting advanced and diverse performances of music, dance, and theater, as well as some film screenings. Under her leadership as President of the Board, local residents and some from further away enjoyed lively summer programs performed in an ingenious plastic stage-cum-shelter in the middle of a field. Before her passing in 2019, she initiated the construction of an equally ingenious and certainly more elegant permanent structure which could be used from autumn through spring. A 300-seat theater open on three sides functions as the summer venue. Its stage house can be converted into a black box theater seating 99, providing a more intimate space for performances that need it. It was designed by a local architect, Evan Stoller, son of the legendary architectural photographer, Ezra Stoller.

Ian Hobson will perform a streamed recital co-presented by SubCulture NYC, Florida State University, and Sinfonia da Camera this Wednesday, July 22nd, 5:00 p.m. EDT

Ian Hobson, the internationally lauded pianist, will perform a streamed recital co-presented by SubCulture NYC, Florida State University, and Sinfonia da Camera this Wednesday, July 22nd, 5:00 p.m. EDT.

A Crop of Recordings XXXI: Piston, Gould, Hanson, Roussel, Dukas, Strauss, Liszt. Beethoven…and Knecht!

From my own perspective as a lover of Howard Hanson’s music, the best here comes last. His Fourth Symphony (1943) is subtitled “The Requiem” and was composed as a memorial to Hanson’s father. Its four movements correspond to sections of the traditional Latin mass. It was Hanson’s favorite among his symphonies, and while the melodies may not be as immediately committed to memory as those of the “Nordic” and “Romantic,” the glowing consecrational quality of the work, its beautiful flow and reverential beauty, full of life and never morose, is hard to surpass in American music. The piece fades away in lovely nostalgia. Clearly Hanson knew the Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony. Like Vaughan Williams, Hanson’s music has the ability to make sadness cozy and comforting. To his credit, Kalmar turns out here a performance finer than Gerard Schwarz’s heavy-handed take with the Seattle Symphony. It’s as good as the composer’s own, and in far better sound. I vote this release a prize of my own!

Our Time, a Collage of Records from Williams, a 90th Birthday Tribute to Stephen Sondheim (’50) at Williams College – a Review

In considering how to approach this review of Our Time, a Collage of Records from Williams, directed by Omar Sangare, Professor of Theatre, I came to the conclusion that it was imperative to concentrate not only on the title of the production, which seems neutral enough at first glance, but how it was described in the official announcement. As a co-production of the Williams Theatre Department and “Sondheim@90@Williams,” to honor the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim as an illustrious member of Williams Class of 1950[1. for which the Williams Music Department also organized a day-and-a-half symposium about the composer and his work], Our Time was presented “in celebration” of this birthday. That final phrase might lead us to expect a revue of Mr. Sondheim’s most-loved tunes with a new, student-generated book encasing them, but Our Time was nothing of the sort.

Happy Birthday, Stephen Sondheim! …from his alma mater, Williams College

Stephen Sondheim turns 90 today. His alma mater, Williams College, chose to honor her renowned alumnus with a musical production entitled Our Time, a Collage of Records from Williams, which brings life at the college between 1946-1950 (when Sondheim was a student there) back to life. This compilation of stories, devised Ilya Khodosh, ’08, and Omar Sangare, has been chosen by current students; who, by research, selected stories to share from the stage. At the end of the show, there is also a story delivered by a video message by Stephen Sondheim, himself.

Only two of the five scheduled performances took place before the spread of the Corona virus necessitated the cancellation of further performances. Happily, they were recorded on video, and Williams can now honor its son and audiences can enjoy this musical reminiscence.

Florent Schmitt’s “Légende” and “Oriane et le Prince d’Amour” with Debussy and Rachmaninoff—the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta

There’s something about Buffalo that is forever and wonderfully 1940. The city admittedly went through a difficult patch in the last decades of the century, before emerging today prosperous and half the size it was. From an artistic perspective, though, this may not be all bad. Buffalo escaped most of the Pizza Hut architecture and cereal box skyscrapers which typically afflict American cities. Today, great colonnaded turn-of-the-century hotels, banks and office buildings still reflect iconic dignity and Dreiserian business energy upon a downtown more formal and stylistically unified than most. When it comes to its resident orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic similarly avoided an onslaught of concrete, continuing to perform in Kleinhans Music Hall, designed by the Saarinens (father Eliel and son Eero) in 1940 and declared a national landmark in 1989.

Latest

July 31, 2020 Tanglewood Stream Fishing 2020, Part 1

July 30, 2020 Public Concerts Resume at PS21 in Chatham, New York—Second Concert: Beethoven by the Calidore String Quartet

July 21, 2020 Ian Hobson will perform a streamed recital co-presented by SubCulture NYC, Florida State University, and Sinfonia da Camera this Wednesday, July 22nd, 5:00 p.m. EDT

July 12, 2020 A Crop of Recordings XXXI: Piston, Gould, Hanson, Roussel, Dukas, Strauss, Liszt. Beethoven…and Knecht!

June 16, 2020 “Transfiguration” goes to London! To be part of United Solo’s First London Festival in September.

Christopher Curtis