I have just posted a new BesenArts Newsletter. The
newsletter announces that the Voxare String Quartet is featured in
an article in the new Musical America.
December 13, 2011
Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery, Part 3: Ghosts
I continue my Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery with a nod to A Christmas Carol, which is to
say revisits from a couple of alleged rogues I have written about
before. First, I'm sure you will be excited to know there is further
news about Hoboken's very own fine wine-loving alleged art thief,
Mark Lugo. And then we will delve into the latest from one Louis
Zayas, Esq., who figured in an earlier feature about former 4th Ward
Councilor Chris Campos. Read all about it in the Hoboken Diary.
BesenArts Newsletter: November 4, 2011
I have just posted a new BesenArts Newsletter. The
newsletter announces that the Daedalus Quartet has been selected for
the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
“String Theory” tour, through which presenters in the Mid
Atlantic region are eligible for fee support up to 50%.
November 3, 2011
Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery, Part 2
True crime. Hoboken politics. Same difference. The stuff of song.
Here's a catchy one, my own creation. (Sort of.)
Lizzie Mason took an axe
And gave Dawn Zimmer forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave Hoboken forty-one.
I have just posted a new BesenArts Newsletter. In
addition to announcing repertory plans for the BesenArts roster for
2012-2013, it includes a special feature interview with Erik
Peterson, violist of the Voxare String Quartet, about “Voxare Meets
Man With a Movie Camera,” a
screening of Dziga Vertov’s pioneering 1929 silent documentary,
accompanied by a soundtrack created by Voxare from music of
Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Mosolov.
October 17, 2011
Hoboken Alleged Rogues Gallery, Part 1
Pop Quiz: What do the following have in common?:
Pablo Picasso
Fernand Léger
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Alexander Calder
3 bottles of Chateau Petrus Pomerol (2006)
The Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan
The Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco
Per Se (4 stars, “the best restaurant in New York,” review of
October 11, 2011, The New
York Times)
BLT Fish (3 stars, The New
York Times)
Lefty O'Doul's (San Francisco)
Gary's Wine & Marketplace in Wayne (New Jersey, of course)
December 21, 2010:
Voxare String Quartet Joins BesenArts Roster
I am delighted to
announce an addition to the BesenArts roster - the Voxare String
Quartet. I have never, until now,
introduced a new artist or group mid-season, and I think this is
demonstrative of my excitement about this wonderful young quartet.Those of you at
the Chamber Music America conference will have a chance to hear
why at one of the conference-sponsored showcases - Voxare
will
play
music
of
Barber,
Shostakovich, and Vrebalov at 12:30 PM on Saturday, January 15th
in the Gramercy Room at the Westin. Voxare will
also receive a CMA/ASCAP Award for Adverturous Programming at the
conference. You can read much more in the latest BesenArts
Newsletter.
December 21, 2010
Hoboken Diary: 4-4 = 524 (Hoboken Math)
Anyone who follows Hoboken politics would immediately understand the
above seemingly strange mathematical equation. The part to the
left of the equal sign is shorthand for Ward 4, District 4.
The part to the right is a quantity of absentee ballots. Read
all about it in the Hoboken Diary.
November 23, 2010:
New Daedalus Quartet Concert Recording
A new demo recording of the Daedalus Quartet is in shipment to me
now and I have just posted the contents to the FACE THE MUSIC area of the
website. The performances, of the Op. 3 of Berg and the Op. 127 of
Beethoven, come from a recital for the Asheville Chamber Music
Series on October 8. Classical
Voice
of North Carolina gave high praise to this performance.
October 27, 2010:
Daedalus Quartet 2011-2012 Repertory Update & New Yorker
review
The Daedalus Quartet has just announced some exciting changes to its
offerings for 2011-2012. (Download PDF.)
Based on the terrific audience and critical response to their
performances this summer, they have decided to continue to offer
Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” and two works by Berg, the String
Quartet, Op. 3, and the Lyric Suite.
Missed by me, until today: In a September
13 review (subscription required) of the Bard Festival’s
“Alban Berg and His World,” The
New Yorker’s Alex Ross wrote that the composer’s Op. 3 is
“at once lavishly expressive and fiercely disciplined … the Daedalus
Quartet offered a cleanly argued, vital account of the piece.”
Need a Hoboken news fix? Always be sure to check the most
recent newsletter -- but if you need a major fix, please visit the
new Hoboken Diary.
October 20, 2010
A review of the Alexander String Quartet in Clarín
(Buenos Aires). Still working on a Spanish
translation. I have been able to pick out some nice phrases,
however: The review praises the Alexander's passionate
rendition of the Dvořák "American" and how they "created an
atmosphere of enormous concentration, as powerful as it was rustic
and gloomy" in their performance of Shostakovich's String Quartet
No. 4.
October 8, 2010
A review of the Daedalus Quartet from Classical
Voice
of North Carolina. Daedalus is described as as
"accomplished, fearless, and deeply inspiring." Their Mozart
K. 590 was "an exquisite performance, with finely balanced
voicings, and an expressive range that suited the piece.
Especially impressive was their cohesiveness of interpretation,
executed with such clarity that one could easily follow the
elements of dialogue, motivic development, and what was foreground
and what was background." The Berg Op. 3 performance was
"one of sustained concentration and high seriousness, exhibited a
profound understanding of the piece." And their Beethoven's
Op. 127 is described as "uncanny and exquisite ... as though the
four musicians were but a single player."