Excellent New York Polyphony

My experience thus far with the male vocal quartet New York Polyphony has been that they are always excellent. Tonight’s concert at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in NY’s Times Square presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University was no exception, all expectations met.

New York Polyphony consists of Geoffrey Williams (countertenor), Steven Caldicott Wilson (tenor), Christopher Dylan Herbert (baritone), and Craig Phillips (bass). They sing Renaissance polyphony like it was composed just … <Read More>

American Symphony Explores Works of the 1880s at Carnegie Hall

Leon Botstein, the music director and conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra for the past twenty years, has emphasized thematic programming in constructing the orchestra’s concert schedule. There is always a thematic link of some sort between the pieces presented in a multi-piece program, and most of the orchestra’s annual Vanguard Series in New York City consists of such programs. Last night at Carnegie Hall, the theme was “What Makes a Masterpiece.” Botstein offered performances … <Read More>

Zero Dark Thirty

This film was high on my list, but it took a while to find the time to go.  I went earlier this week and have been trying to “process” for myself what I think about this film. 

Zero Dark Thirty presents a dramatic version of the search for Osama bin Laden, launched after the 9/11/2001 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The focus is on a particular female CIA agent who, … <Read More>

Will the Supreme Court Actually Decide the DOMA Case?

When the Supreme Court granted the Solicitor General’s petition for certiorari on December 7, 2012, in United States v. Edith Windsor, posing the question whether Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violates the equal protection rights of married same-sex couples by denying them federal recognition, the Court added two questions: Whether the government’s “agreement with the court below that DOMA is unconstitutional deprives [the Supreme Court] of jurisdiction to decide this case, and … <Read More>

Radu Lupu at Carnegie Hall – January 24, 2013

I attended Radu Lupu’s piano recital at Carnegie Hall last night. This was a long evening. The program started (late as per Carnegie’s custom these days) at about 8:10 pm, and wasn’t over, including the single brief encore, until close to 10:30 pm. I have no objection to longer-than-usual piano recitals, but I found this one a bit wearying.
And that was because Mr. Lupu’s program seemed to me to be too much focused on … <Read More>

Merits Briefs in Supreme Court Marriage Cases Make Heavy Federalism Pitch

On January 22, attorneys defending against constitutional challenges to California Proposition 8 and Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act filed their briefs on the merits with the United States Supreme Court. Links to the briefs can be found on the Supreme Court’s website: click on the Docket box on the left side of the site and there is a link to the special page set up for these cases (Hollingsworth v. Perry; … <Read More>

New York Housing Court Rules for Surviving Same-Sex Partner in Contested Tenant-Succession Case

New York City Housing Court Judge Sabrina B. Kraus issued a ruling January 9 in Infinity Corp. v. Danko, Index No.: L&T 66511/2010 (N.Y.C.Civ.Ct., Housing Part, N.Y. Co.), a holdover proceeding in which the landlord sought to evict a surviving same-sex partner of a rent-stabilized tenant.  The case is notable because the landlord had subpoenaed the proprietor of Rentboy.com, a website advertising gay massage and escort services, about an advertisement for massage services placed … <Read More>

A Baritone’s Progress – Jesse Blumberg

One of my favorite singers is baritone Jesse Blumberg. I first heard him sing at a Wolf recital at the Austrian Cultural Forum many years ago. I had gone because another singer who had recently attracted my attention, Tom Meglioranza, was on the program. I came away from the event a Blumberg fan as well, and began to look out for his other concert appearances. Over the past month, I’ve attended three of them!

On … <Read More>

A Busy Saturday in NYC: Metropolitan Opera’s “Maria Stuarda” and New York Philharmonic in Brahms and Sibelius

I had a busy musical Saturday, attending an afternoon performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” at the Metropolitan Opera and an evening performance by the New York Philharmonic.
The Metropolitan was broadcasting the Donizetti opera live to movie theaters worldwide in high definition video, so one had to put up with the cameras-in-motion that can occasionally be distracting in the house. On the plus-side, perhaps, is that the performers, conscious of being broadcast, may be … <Read More>

Countertenor Alerts: Jaroussky, Roth Costanzo and Barna-Sabadus

The rising tide of exciting new countertenors is one of the most important offshoots of the early music movement. 

My favorite among the young countertenors is Philippe Jaroussky. I’ve heard him perform at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata.  I’ve been avidly collecting his recordings for several years now.  Most recently, Virgin Classics has issued a DVD collecting excerpts from video recordings of his concert appearances in France and Germany — many of … <Read More>