Category: AJBlogs

Simon Rattle’s landmark 3-D high-def Mahler festival with the London Symphony Orchestra
So often when star musicians such as Simon Rattle hit a golden spot in their late 30s and early 40s, you stand back and ask, “Where can they possibly go from there?”  … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-05-08

The Problem of “Engagement”
In March I had the privilege of participating in the Intersections Summit hosted by Milwaukee Repertory Theater. It was a heady gathering of community engagement practitioners from theaters (mostly) across the U.S. As frequently happens, …  read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-05-08

A Little Masterpiece in Central Asia
There are many reasons to visit Uzbekistan, which I did last fall. … [One of them is] the Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara. The little structure not only survived the 13th-century marauder Genghis Khan but also many earthquakes and other natural shifts … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-05-08

“Are We All Done?” Christie’s Delivers a Dull (but effective) “Sale of the Century” Debut
Maybe I’m getting jaded, but tonight’s first installment of the “Sale of the Century” — the David Rockefeller estate disposals at Christie’s — seemed to me as exciting as a wet blanket. (I suppose that would be me.) … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-08

Propwatch: the fans in The Way of the World
There’s no limit to how much bad acting you can do with a fan, if you’re in a folderol frame of mind. Point it for emphasis. Snap it shut in high dudgeon. Make peekaboo … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2018-05-08

 

Rocky Rockefeller Predictions: Estimated “in Excess of $500,000,” But Hyped as “a Billion-Dollar Sale”
With a lot riding on this week’s results of the David Rockefeller estate’s purported “Sale(s) of the Century,” several news publications have upped the ante, impetuously recasting the series of auctions, estimated by Christie’s … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-07

New York City Ballet Celebrates Jerome Robbins
I lived with Jerome Robbins for six years. (Forgive the startling opener; he was dead at the time, but liked a joke). … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-05-07

Monday Recommendation: Todd Strait
Todd Strait, There’ll Be Some Changes Made (Todd Strait)
Drummer Todd Strait has spent significant stretches of his career in New York and Portland and freelanced with a cross-section of world-class musicians. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-07

 

Is TEFAF New York A Success?
That depends on how you measure success. There was a lot of doubt and even some worry that TEFAF, the world’s best art fair, would not be able to make a go of it here … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2018-05-05

Weekend Listening Tip: Ellington’s “Such Sweet Thunder”
Following up on our April 24 remembrance of Duke Ellington’s 70thbirthday party at the White House, Jim Wilke has prepared a special Ellington broadcast on his Jazz Northwest. Here is part of … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-05-04

Two Takes on How Christie’s Won the Rockefeller Consignment (plus: CultureGrrl’s Video Tour)
How did Christie’s manage to best Sotheby’s in landing the hotly contested, monumental David Rockefeller consignment? That trove goes on the block next week, led by this waif, who carries the sales’ heftiest presale estimate … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-05-04

Replay: Jack Benny appears on The Lawrence Welk Show
Jack Benny appears as a guest on an undated 1971 episode of The Lawrence Welk Show: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-05-04

Off the pedestal
Here’s a phrase from the biography of Beth Bahia Cohen, a violinist who plays our kind of classical music, but who also plays just about every violin-like instrument found anywhere in the world. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2018-05-03

May 3 Birthdays
This is the birthday of two men who had significant effects on jazz and popular music. Bing Crosby was born on May 3, 1903 in Spokane, Washington, John Lewis seventeen years later … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-05-03
 

Hearts for Hartwig: My Appreciation for Getty’s Soon-to-Retire Communications Head
It’s not like me to sing the praises of museum communications officials, even though I constantly rely on them for help (and they often are extremely helpful). As a critic and investigative journalist intent on clarifying what’s been blurred by PR spin, my relationship with spokespersons is often more adversarial than collegial. Not so with Ron Hartwig, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-02

 

Systemic Privilege Revisited
In Systemically Privileged, I floated an idea. I discussed the difficulty I’ve had over the years in describing the kind of nonprofit arts organization most in need of developing authentic community connections. My suggestion … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-05-01

Correcting myself
Sometimes I get things really wrong. As I did in my last post, when I quoted a tweet about Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2018-05-01

“The Great Composer You’ve Never Heard Of” — and how he was suppressed by Carlos Chavez
In many respects, Revueltas bears comparison with George Gershwin: a self-invented composer of genius who mines the vernacular without apology or discomfort. And just as Gershwin was the victim of a “Gershwin threat” that pigeon-holed him as a dilettante interloper, so it was with Revueltas. Gershwin’s influential detractors included Aaron Copland. Revueltas was dismissed as a gifted amateur by his one-time colleague Chavez. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-05-01

 

On artistic leadership and aesthetic values in a changed cultural context: A new keynote address
Last week I had the privilege, pleasure, and honor to give the keynote address at the Canadian Arts Summit – an annual gathering of the board chairs, executive leaders, and artistic leaders of Canada’s major cultural institutions. … read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2018-04-29

Egypt: Breaking New Ground – Underwater
Like Gold, Picasso and Impressionism, Egypt has generally been a sure-fire subject for art museums. But, you may think, you know the story – basically. An exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum will make you think again. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-04-29

Civics is How We Take Care of the Space Between People
The most important thing I learned in a glorious Humana Festival weekend of theater – six new American plays and a lot of theater geeks – was not in a play at all. … read more
AJBlog: The Bright Ride Published 2018-04-30

From Cuba with Fervor and Vigor
Some of us may remember Carlos Acosta, when he was appearing with England’s Royal Ballet or, more briefly, as a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre. Princely. Virtuosic. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-04-29

How Many People in a One-Woman Show?
I love going to shows at Joe’s Pub for Dance Now’s Dance-mopolitan’s Commissioned Artist Series. But doing so takes a kind of expertise that I may lack. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-04-30

 

Leonard Bernstein at 100: An American Archetype
My 5,000-word piece on the Leonard Bernstein Centenary, in The Weekly Standard this week, begins with a story you’ve never heard before: “In 1980, at the age of 62, Leonard Bernstein undertook the composition of a … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered QuestionPublished 2018-04-28

Barnes Foundation to Subdivide (& monetize?) 137 Acres; Offloads Costs of Lower Merion Properties
Some six years after it controversially moved to Philadelphia, the Barnes Foundation appears to have decided to monetize the original properties of its founder, the legendary collector Albert Barnes, in both Lower Merion and Chester … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-04-27

Replay: Bernadette Peters sings “Broadway Baby”
Bernadette Peters sings Stephen Sondheim’s “Broadway Baby” (from Follies) on The Tonight Show. The performance, originally telecast by NBC on July 27, 1989, is followed by a segment in which Peters is interviewed by Johnny … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-27

Homer And His Unique Way of Seeing
Winslow Homer has always been a complicated artist, and now he will be viewed as an even more complicated one. What’s going to do that is an exhibition opening in June at the Bowdoin College … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2018-04-26

Almanac: Solzhenitsyn on Chekhov and the future of Russia
“If the intellectuals in the plays of Chekhov, who spent all their time guessing what would happen in twenty, thirty, or forty years, had been told that in forty years interrogation by torture would be … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-26

An Educated Guess: What Did the Lucas Museum Pay for Rockwell’s “Shuffleton’s Barbershop”?
In the two weeks since the announcement of the Berkshire Museum’s widely deplored sale of Norman Rockwell‘s “Shuffleton’s Barbershop” to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, none of the parties to the transaction … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-04-25

Homer And His Unique Way of Seeing
Winslow Homer has always been a complicated artist, and now he will be viewed as an even more complicated one. What’s going to do that is an exhibition opening in June at … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-04-26

A Dorough Tribute
In the aftermath of Bob Dorough’s death on Monday, increased attention is going to his extensive body of songs. Among Dorough’s greatest admirers is the Swedish trumpet player and singer Mårten Lundgren. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-26

 

ICYMI: Art Is Better Than …
Sex, food, drugs, art – are they all the same? Do they provide the same kind of pleasure and engagement? No, says Julia F. Christensen, a neuroscientist at the Warburg Institute, University of London. She says – and I seriously hope she is correct … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-04-25

An Educated Guess: What Did the Lucas Museum Pay for Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop?
In the two weeks since the announcement of the Berkshire Museum’s widely deplored sale of Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, none of the parties to the transaction … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-25