Author: Matthew Westphal

The Solo Balanchine Made For Paul Taylor, Revived By New York City Ballet

“In his autobiography, Taylor said he had asked Balanchine if there was any way it should be performed. His reply: ‘Is like fly in glass of milk, yes?'” City Ballet soloist Jovani Furlan learned the dance, titled Variations, from Paul Frame (who learned it from Taylor); Furlan has now taught it to, and is alternating performances with, Michael Trusnovec, long the star dancer in Taylor’s own company. Gia Kourlas interviews them both. – The New York Times

After 87 Years, A Radical Novel Of The Harlem Renaissance Finds A Publisher

Claude McKay set aside his novel Romance in Marseille in 1933 because his editor thought it too shocking to sell: its protagonist is a West African double amputee with a prostitute lover, and most of the action is “in a sexually liberated working-class milieu, where queer love is accepted as a fact of life, no more subject to judgment than its heterosexual counterpart.” Penguin Classics has just published it for the first time. – The New York Times

I Planned And Conducted Concerts Where We Didn’t Tell The Audience What The Program Would Be. Every Performance Sold Out.

Robert Trevino, music director of the Basque National Orchestra in Spain, writes about the restaurant meal that gave him the idea, how he and the orchestra staff planned and marketed the series (and convinced the media not to reveal the secret), and how the audiences responded. (includes complete video of concert) – Gramophone

How Are They Dating This Set Of Ancient Australian Rock Paintings? With Mud Wasps

Dead mud wasps, in fact. The ancient artists who painted the Gwion figures in Western Australia’s Kimberley region used iron oxide pigments, which have no organic material and can’t be carbon-dated. But the remains of mud wasp nests stuck to the paintings can be carbon-dated, and researcher Damien Finch has used them to determine that the Gwion paintings are roughly 12,000 years old. – BBC

Boris Johnson’s Government Seriously Considers Abolishing License Fee That Funds BBC

“The culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, suggested the television licence” — an annual fee, currently £154.50 ($201.68), charged every household and business with a television — “was an increasingly outdated way of funding the BBC, saying that while she would guarantee its existence in the short term, it was time to look at new ways of subsidising public service broadcasting.” – The Guardian

Philadelphia Orchestra Makes Hi-Res Concert Recordings Available For Streaming — And They’re Free

“An initial batch of nearly three dozen pieces from the 2018-19 season are now available for listening on the orchestra’s website — a number that will grow over time. … The number of performances ultimately available through the new ‘Listen on Demand’ service is potentially hundreds culled from several decades.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Slammed For Doing ‘Literary Blackface’, Barnes & Noble Cancels Poorly Thought-Out ‘Diverse Editions’ Campaign

The idea of this Black History Month initiative was to take 12 children’s and young-adult classic titles — among them Frankenstein, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, and Romeo and Juliet — and sell them with covers depicting their characters as nonwhite. (This as opposed to promoting titles by nonwhite writers.) – The Guardian