Category: AJBlogs

Is a home without a kettle even a home? It is at least the first step towards home. And in The Doctor – Robert Icke’s coruscating new play based on Schnitzler’s Professor Bernhadi – the kettle is pretty much the only step. – David Jays

A painter I know had this to say about his work as an artist: “Pleasantly surprised by his watercolour. But the calligraphies … I see too much repetitive strain there.” Personally, I love Gysin’s calligraphies. I don’t see “repetitive strain” in them. Repetitive, yes. But I like the repetitions. – Jan Herman

Judging from his imprudent published pronouncements, it appears to me that Secretary Bunch may feel so estranged (arguably with good reason) from the Trump Presidency that he’s cast aside his own previous self-description as “a Washington diplomat.” – Lee Rosenbaum

An incident initiated by the conductor at a post-concert party at the pianist’s home, just a few weeks before Horowitz retired from the stage for 12 years. – Joe Horowitz

Earlier this week in Yakima, Washington, alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl and pianist Nick Sanders demonstrated the like-mindedness that makes them one of the most riveting duos in jazz. – Doug Ramsey

NYFOS’s annual August concert at the tip of Long Island’s North Fork is always adventurous, even by its standards. This year’s program set conventional art song (Bizet, Ned Rorem) alongside the likes of Cole Porter, Bob Telson, and (yes) Lennon and McCartney. – David Patrick Stearns

It’s a truism that, as aesthetic movements go, the visual arts get there first. Think of Impressionism, which didn’t begin to inflect music until Debussy and Ravel – decades after Monet. Expressionism is another matter: the synchrony is amazing. – Joe Horowitz

Earlier this month I had the privilege and pleasure to speak at the Meighan Forum at the Stratford Festival. Since the Q&A was not captured in the transcript, I thought I’d reflect on a couple of the questions here. – Diane Ragsdale

In the 1980s the singer Lisa Rich seemed on her way to a long and successful career, and she recorded Highwire in 1987. For reasons not disclosed by Tritone Records, the album was not released for 32 years — until now. – Doug Ramsey