Moving Pictures
So I was in New York City over the long weekend (well, actually, I was there Thursday - Sunday, so I engineered my own long weekend ahead of the actual long weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day), and it was chocked full of culture!
The highlight, of course, was the Boulez concert that Jack briefly mentioned in his post. I'd been looking forward to his concert since I first heard about it back in late August, so my expectation level for it was incredibly high. To have it pay off so thoroughly is just amazing. A truly exhilarating concert experience. Also notable that the music was played by members of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and therefore all younger than we gentle bloggers here. I don't know how old the alto was, but she had an incredible voice. One of those things you notice from the first note. And not an easy part to sing either.
I also went to see the NY Phil play Friday night, which was a mighty fine concert, but after the awesome chamber works the previous night, the music just couldn't compete. Every time I see the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, it blows my mind that an orchestra as good as they are plays in such a terrible hall. The last piece on the program was Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, which spends quite a bit of time being rather loud, but in Avery Fisher Hall it just sort of had the timbrel quality of something that is loud without actually sounding, physically, acoustically, loud. Bummer. The first half of the concert was Brahms's Second Piano Concerto, which is a big piece, and was played confidently. The first movement especially features a pretty French horn part, and it's always a joy for me to hear Phil Myers's playing. He was a good friend of my recently deceased horn teacher (as was Howard Wall, the NY Phil's 4th horn), so hearing them play for the first time since Dennis died carried that additional meaning as well (especially given the additional context that long-time associate principal horn of the NY Phil, Jerome Ashby died in late December). I imagine that it must be very difficult for Howard and Phil to have two other horn players that they were so close with pass in a short span of months.
Saturday night, I went with Jack and Mandy to Jazz at Lincoln Center to see Randy Weston's Afro-Cuban jazz sextet, which was quite good, if a bit short in length. The rhythm section especially, were pretty spectacular. The bass player played in a way that I never seen or heard before, where he used all of his fingers in something of a strumming pattern often to very good effect. I don't know that the vibe at Jazz at Lincoln Center is to my liking, and I was probably one of the youngest people there (and the only one that was dressed like a janitor), but I suppose it's good that such venues exist. Not all jazz happens in smoky dives, I reckon.
So lots of good music across three genres! Also wandered to the Whitney Museum, which was mostly a let-down, except for Kara Walker's exceptional silhouette murals. I don't want this post to get overly long, so I'll hold off on much of a description of them (I'm actually banking on the fact that Jack will step up and write his own post about the Whitney, since I'm losing steam here on mine (and I apologize, additionally, for the absence of hyperlinks from this post)).
And, as a final note, Jack & I went and saw Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at the movies, and it was quite good, if a bit bleak and depressing (but I guess maybe a little bit hopeful?). Between this film, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood, I've had some of the finest movie-watching experiences in years with this batch. Hurray for the Cinema!
The best thing about Diving Bell, though, is that the term "dirty weekend" is used a couple of times in one of the scenes. I always love it when "dirty weekend" is said in a movie (the last one on record, for me, was actually in a deleted scene in The Life Aquatic (Angelica Huston's character mentions to Owen Wilson's character that she had once had a dirty weekend in Kentucky). I used to play in a band by the name of Dirty Weekend (2000-2002, 2004, 2006-2007). Great term. Great band name. Great band.
The highlight, of course, was the Boulez concert that Jack briefly mentioned in his post. I'd been looking forward to his concert since I first heard about it back in late August, so my expectation level for it was incredibly high. To have it pay off so thoroughly is just amazing. A truly exhilarating concert experience. Also notable that the music was played by members of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and therefore all younger than we gentle bloggers here. I don't know how old the alto was, but she had an incredible voice. One of those things you notice from the first note. And not an easy part to sing either.
I also went to see the NY Phil play Friday night, which was a mighty fine concert, but after the awesome chamber works the previous night, the music just couldn't compete. Every time I see the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, it blows my mind that an orchestra as good as they are plays in such a terrible hall. The last piece on the program was Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, which spends quite a bit of time being rather loud, but in Avery Fisher Hall it just sort of had the timbrel quality of something that is loud without actually sounding, physically, acoustically, loud. Bummer. The first half of the concert was Brahms's Second Piano Concerto, which is a big piece, and was played confidently. The first movement especially features a pretty French horn part, and it's always a joy for me to hear Phil Myers's playing. He was a good friend of my recently deceased horn teacher (as was Howard Wall, the NY Phil's 4th horn), so hearing them play for the first time since Dennis died carried that additional meaning as well (especially given the additional context that long-time associate principal horn of the NY Phil, Jerome Ashby died in late December). I imagine that it must be very difficult for Howard and Phil to have two other horn players that they were so close with pass in a short span of months.
Saturday night, I went with Jack and Mandy to Jazz at Lincoln Center to see Randy Weston's Afro-Cuban jazz sextet, which was quite good, if a bit short in length. The rhythm section especially, were pretty spectacular. The bass player played in a way that I never seen or heard before, where he used all of his fingers in something of a strumming pattern often to very good effect. I don't know that the vibe at Jazz at Lincoln Center is to my liking, and I was probably one of the youngest people there (and the only one that was dressed like a janitor), but I suppose it's good that such venues exist. Not all jazz happens in smoky dives, I reckon.
So lots of good music across three genres! Also wandered to the Whitney Museum, which was mostly a let-down, except for Kara Walker's exceptional silhouette murals. I don't want this post to get overly long, so I'll hold off on much of a description of them (I'm actually banking on the fact that Jack will step up and write his own post about the Whitney, since I'm losing steam here on mine (and I apologize, additionally, for the absence of hyperlinks from this post)).
And, as a final note, Jack & I went and saw Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at the movies, and it was quite good, if a bit bleak and depressing (but I guess maybe a little bit hopeful?). Between this film, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood, I've had some of the finest movie-watching experiences in years with this batch. Hurray for the Cinema!
The best thing about Diving Bell, though, is that the term "dirty weekend" is used a couple of times in one of the scenes. I always love it when "dirty weekend" is said in a movie (the last one on record, for me, was actually in a deleted scene in The Life Aquatic (Angelica Huston's character mentions to Owen Wilson's character that she had once had a dirty weekend in Kentucky). I used to play in a band by the name of Dirty Weekend (2000-2002, 2004, 2006-2007). Great term. Great band name. Great band.
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