Category: AJBlogs

On Stalin: “People underestimate the level of control that Stalin maintained. I once tried to count the number of people in the arts that Stalin controlled personally – it was close to one thousand. This was Stalin’s habit.”
On Shostakovich: “I wouldn’t dare to record him [in an interview]. He was mortally afraid of a microphone.” – Joseph Horowitz

Until recently, it may have seemed that the singer and songwriter Anne Phillips had resigned as a performer. She had not. Coincidentally, one of her colleagues on her most recent album, pianist Roger Kellaway, has a new disc of his own. – Doug Ramsey

After watching Leonard Bernstein’s “Bach Transmogrified” Young People’s Concert (back when I was a young person), I went to Smalltown USA’s local music store the very next day hoping to find a recording of one miraculous piece. I did, and I’ve been listening to it ever since. – Terry Teachout

Assuming there is a future, “when historians of the future chronicle the last days of Britain, a pig’s head may enjoy its own footnote.” – David Jays

The public library in Smalltown, U.S.A., had a modest selection of classical albums. One of them was this two-disc set of “live” recordings by the first important classical-music instrumentalist whose playing I got to know well. – Terry Teachout

I was introduced to this album by Bob Nelson, my eighth-grade social-studies teacher, who decided for reasons of his own to introduce me to the music of my own time. – Terry Teachout

A colleague recently shared that when they advocate for community engagement in their organization they get pushback about “mission creep.” Mission creep??!! If connecting the arts with communities is not an arts organization’s mission, what is it?! – Doug Borwick

Throughout the coming month, I’ll write about one of these albums every weekday in the order in which I first heard them, starting in 1968 with the first record I ever bought with my own money. – Terry Teachout

One of the highlights of the 2019 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival was a concert by Hannah Svensson. Now, Ms. Svensson’s new album, Places And Dreams, presents her along with the colleagues who backed her at Ystad. – Doug Ramsey