Grove: Sees Trees, but Not ForestDICTIONARY: Officially known as the "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition," the work under review, published earlier this year, is in fact the seventh revision of a colossus that now encompasses 29 volumes -- some 25 million… Jul 03 01July 03, 2001Article at WSJ
A Wagnerian Drama Of SuccessionT he Green Hill, as Germans call the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, is a bastion of German tradition. Composer Richard Wagner built the theater in 1876, and Wagner operas, and only Wagner operas, have been presented there ever since. Fiercely guarded by… Apr 12 01April 12, 2001Article at WSJ
Show Me the Money'I found an orchestra that was like the most beautiful antique furniture, full of dust and full of cracks," says Daniel Barenboim. "So you have to cover all the cracks, clean it all up, take all the dust off. To do that I thought I would do two… Jan 09 01January 09, 2001Article at WSJ
Nostalgia for the ModernT o commemorate its centennial, which it celebrated this month, the Philadelphia Orchestra played nothing but music written in the 20th century for an entire season (1999-2000). It also issued a 12-CD set of highlights from the orchestra's archives,… Nov 28 00November 28, 2000Article at WSJ
The Amber Room Mosaic And Diplomacy's TrapsU ntil 1941, the "eighth wonder of the world" was in Russia: the Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo, a palace near Leningrad. It was a complete interior of intricate mosaics made entirely of amber, which the Kingdom of Prussia gave to Peter the Great in… Jan 20 00January 20, 2000Article at WSJ
In Concert: The Berlin SpringNew York C arnegie Hall's orchestra seats are holding an interloper tonight: There's an electronic control panel among the concert-goers, its surface alive with green lights. From here, sound technicians control the noises traveling from the mikes… Nov 10 99November 10, 1999Article at WSJ
Francesco Clemente: '80s Star Surfaces at the GuggenheimNew York I f he were designing a space for a show of his work, Italian painter Francesco Clemente might come up with something very like the Guggenheim: a spiral toward the Infinite, swelling over Fifth Avenue in voluptuous, pregnant curves. Or he… Oct 22 99October 22, 1999Article at WSJ
At This Piano Contest, No Professionals Need ApplyFort Worth, Texas M ichael Kimmelman is an amateur, even though he's chief art critic of the New York Times. Marcus Raskin is an amateur, although you might not want to tell his colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, or the… Jun 22 99June 22, 1999Article at WSJ
Surfing the MetNew York T he august Metropolitan Museum of Art is not exactly at the cutting edge of cyberspace. Indeed, its curatorial staff have no e-mail or direct access to the World-Wide Web. But Michael Bloomberg, whose eponymous Bloomberg News is a… Jun 18 99June 18, 1999Article at WSJ
Alfred Brendel as PoetNew York C arnegie Hall audiences, one might assume, know Alfred Brendel pretty well. The pianist has been playing here for more than 25 years. Furthermore, plenty of New Yorkers have seen Mr. Brendel's articles in the New York Review of Books (some… May 06 99May 06, 1999Article at WSJ
The Met's New Greek And Roman GalleriesNew York F or years, it seemed that Greek and Roman antiquities were second-class citizens in the Metropolitan Museum's aesthetic hierarchy, displayed in cases that gave the impression of being as dusty as the archaeological sites from whence they… Apr 20 99April 20, 1999Article at WSJ
At P.S.1, MoMA Finds New Space Across the RiverNew York C ontemporary art is generally about testing limits. And few things could test the limits of most New York museumgoers better than a subway ride into the borough of Queens. But this is precisely the fantastic voyage undersea (actually under… Mar 04 99March 04, 1999Article at WSJ
. . . Sung by the Thinking Woman's BaritoneNew York I n Jules Massenet's "Werther," when a tenor sings the lead role, Werther often comes across as hot-headed, impassioned and shallowly egocentric. But in the Metropolitan Opera's current revival, the 6-foot-4 Thomas Hampson, with his mellow,… Jan 21 99January 21, 1999Article at WSJ
Choirboys II MenNew York S tanding around the mikes in a recording studio taping a radio show, still bleary from jet lag at the start of their American tour, the members of the British vocal sextet the King's Singers come off like choirboys who have spent their… Jan 08 99January 08, 1999Article at WSJ
. . . to the Literal World Of Ben ShahnNew York I n 1947, Ben Shahn, then 49, became the youngest artist yet to have his own retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art; 1951 saw the publication of a Shahn biography; in 1954, he and Willem de Kooning were chosen to represent the United… Dec 01 98December 01, 1998Article at WSJ
WHO Reports Exhibition Is Good for Your HealthNEW YORK -- "Originally I was a little surprised to know that the World Health Organization was involved in the presentation of a contemporary art exhibition," writes Jamaican artist Nari Ward in her catalog entry for the show "The Edge of… Oct 09 98October 09, 1998Article at WSJ
A Lust for Expressionism: What One Man BoughtMunich "A rt collectors are either dentists or lawyers with big bankrolls, and they should go to the devil," says Lothar-Günther Buchheim. As Mr. Buchheim sees it, he isn't himself a collector, but rather an author (he wrote the book "Das Boot,"… Aug 21 98August 21, 1998Article at WSJ
For Viennese Artists, A Tale of Two CitiesVienna Isa Rosenberger thinks Los Angeles is a dose of reality after the sheltered climate of her native Vienna -- and yet there's also a sense of fiction about it. "You drive down the street and get a new understanding of films, a new frame of… Jun 23 98June 23, 1998Article at WSJ
The Body Beautiful And Not So BeautifulLos Angeles It is the fate of art to be exhibited. Sure, artists in the past decades have tried to escape this fact. Like the man in the folk tale who leaves town to avoid his predicted rendezvous with Death, they've created one-time "happenings,"… Apr 15 98April 15, 1998Article at WSJ
A Tasty Goulash Of Hungarian CultureBudapest H ungarian culture is the focus of the Budapest Spring Festival, which came to an end last weekend. But the festival, which included everything from classical music to folk dancing to jazz, had a more somber close than it had hoped. Its… Apr 03 98April 03, 1998Article at WSJ
