The Lively Arts (redux)

Verdi’s Requiem – musicAeterna Orchestra and Chorus, The Shed, Hudson Yards, NY, November 2019 The Shed: Industrial components; enormous wheels locked into place at the ready to roll back and open the roof to the sky, welded steel staircases and stadium-style seating inside the McCourt Theater. The factory appearance, the bronzed shell and the darkened…

Francisco Fullano, who grew up on the Iberian island of Mallorca, stitched together a program in inspired by Bach on a 1735 Guarneri del Gesú ‘Mary Portman’ that was owned by Fullano’s idol Fritz Kreisler with steel strings and a more modern instrument with gut strings.  He began his July solo recital on the stage…

Helsinki There was a plan. If the winds in Espoo permitted racing to commence by 1:00 pm my partner would be off the water in time to take the Metro into Helsinki for a concert, but if the wind wreaked havoc we’d miss the opening piece. In June daylight wasn’t a concern. After my museum…

Simone Dinnerstein Denver audiences had a treat when pianist Simone Dinnerstein performed May 18th for Friends of Chamber Music audiences after an April snowstorm cancelled her appearance. The April date was scheduled last minute to substitute for Piotr Anderszewski who had the flu.  Simone said aptly from the stage, “I’m the sub for the sub.”…

Writer B.K. Loren described the New Mexico sky when he wrote, “the bright blue sky and the white clouds ended abruptly, and a precise line of silver-gray intersected the blue.” In 1893, Joseph Henry Sharp  (1859 – 1953) visited Taos and took his memory of its crystalline sky to Paris to share with Ernest Blumenschein…

The superb violinist Christian Tetzlaff led the Tetzlaff-Tetzlaff-Vogt Trio with the cellist Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt in a breathtaking performance Tuesday, April 30th at the Newman Center. Christian Tetzlaff was at once a craftsman exhibiting his craft. He swayed with his violin coaxing the exact notes he needed from his instrument, but he…

“the composers at the heart of Bang on a Can have sustained what may be the most convivial vanguard in modern music history.” Alex Ross,The New Yorker The eclectic music ensemble Bang On A Can invaded the Newman Center for Performing Arts for their first performance in Denver on Friday, April 12th.  In 2017, the…

The widely anticipated Arts Center  – The Shed – opened April 5th in Hudson Yards at the north end of the Highline in New York. The building is anything but a shed with a cost of $475 millon. Michael Bloomberg donated $75 million for the center dedicated as the Bloomberg Building.   Michael Cooper of the…

The pressure on contemporary artists is unrelenting.  They must possess technique and an excellent field of vision, as well as absorb and project color.  In 2019, exhibiting visual artists have an additional responsibility to create art that provides social or political commentary.  The impact of urbanization on the environment is presented at Denver’s Robischon Art…