November 2011 Archives

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Laura Bleiberg on Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project (Los Angeles Times)
Robert Campbell on postmodern architecture's new moment (The Boston Globe)
Robert Christgau on Jonathan Lethem (The New York Times Book Review)
Robert Christgau on Ellen Willis and Paul Nelson (Barnes & Noble Review)
Michael Feingold reviews J.T. Rogers' "Blood and Gifts" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews "Wild Animals You Should Know" (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on designing the London Olympics (Los Angeles Times)
Christopher Hawthorne recommends modernist holiday gifts (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "The Swell Season" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on the new play "Burning Bluebeard" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on housing designed for the lives we live (The New York Times)
Glenn Lovell reviews Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on postage-stamp Pinter at Writers' Theatre (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Ann Powers on holiday pop music as a force for good (NPR)
John Rockwell on Martha Clarke's "Angel Reapers" (The New York Times)
John Rockwell on conductor René Jacobs (The New York Times)
Calvin Wilson on jazz trumpeter Jeremy Davenport (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on a year of "Spider-Man" (Newsday)

And in print:

Mark Rozzo on Keith Richards' family: Patti Hansen and their daughters, Theodora and Alexandra Richards (Town & Country)

Gathering my thoughts about the Ellen Willis and Paul Nelson collections for the Barnes & Noble Review column published before Thanksgiving as "Pioneer Days," I began backgrounding compulsively as I invariably do. And so I pulled from my pending shelves a quasi-collection I'd begun and then put down in 2009: Robert Hilburn's Cornflakes With John Lennon. Given that I already had two meaty books to review, I didn't have room even to mention it in my essay; 400 words over my ideal length, although the online gods I'm accountable to are understanding about such peccadillos, I didn't even have space to quote any of the prose I wanted to make a stylistic point of. So I thought I'd give Hilburn more than a mention here.

For a long time, Hilburn was the most powerful rock critic in the country. He and I have been friendly for many years, largely because he's such an engaged and agreeable guy, and ultimately those qualities are the secret of his success. Though it's tempting to attribute his power totally to his position as chief critic at the biggest paper in the capital of the music industry, the L.A. Times, that really doesn't explain it. The book makes clear that he was aware of who he was expected to please when. But he's also at some pains to point out times he didn't. And though lots of people I know have resented him over the years, I've never heard anyone characterize him as Machiavellian, interested in power for its own sake. His secret was his genuine enthusiasm for the most high-minded kinds of conventional rock--a basic taste set he shared with Nelson, except that Nelson was much pickier--and his appetite for personal contact with the people who made it. This Nelson also shared, only without Hilburn's social skills and indefatigable energy. Hilburn was the biz's idea of what a quality critic should be.

The reason I'd originally stopped reading Cornflakes With John Lennon is that neither Hilburn's prose style nor his critical insights were worthy of his enthusiasm. What the best daily critics do is convey basic information to the general reader in a way that will also offer some kind of new perspective to the more knowledgeable fan. As far as I'm concerned, this means avoiding generalized boilerplate like "looking bravely at their own deepest fears and grandest dreams," like "Jerry Lee has always been as brash as he is talented," like "you couldn't deny the artistry of Cube's words and Dre's exquisite beats," like "a raspy, soulful voice that captured beautifully the poignant quality . . ." I wasn't learning enough, so I moved on.

I'm glad I picked the book up again, though. Cornflakes With John Lennon isn't a collection per se. It's a memoir of Hilburn's career that relies heavily and sometimes verbatim on his previously published words. And its cumulative effect is actually damned impressive. Because he was who he was as a person as well as a professional, including a workaholism that he implies ruined his first marriage and I'm not convinced he ever entirely controlled, Hilburn achieved unmatched access and conducted more major rock-star interviews than anyone ever. And these interviews were never fluff jobs--they examined artistic choices and artistic meanings. It's true and regrettable that he had no taste for pop proper even when the artist was as slippery deep as Madonna. Nor did he feel funk's exquisite beats. And he was too drawn to heroes, which means the book is shot through with Springsteen, who he was on early, and Bono, who once told him, "Look, I'm sick of Bono, and I am Bono." Nevertheless, he was always and still remains not just a believer, but a critical one. When you choose to make a life out of arts journalism, that's plenty--in its own way, more than either Nelson or Willis found it worth their while to do.

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Martin Bernheimer on "Dark Sisters" at Gotham Chamber Opera (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" at Carnegie Hall (Financial Times)
Timothy Cahill on Roko Belic's documentary "Happy" (Art & Document)
Laura Collins-Hughes on Lydia Diamond and "Stick Fly" (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold on "The Blue Flower" at Second Stage (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold on "Standing on Ceremony" at the Minetta Lane (The Village Voice)
Patti Hartigan on "The Nutcracker" as drama, not dance (The Boston Globe)
Christopher Hawthorne on the proposed NFL stadium for L.A. (Los Angeles Times)
Jan Herman on Richard Sargent's décollage billboards (Straight Up)
John Horn on Martin Scorsese and "Hugo" (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on "Top Chef: Texas" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on the role of Hawaii in "The Descendants" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday on this holiday season's crop of movies (NPR)
Julia M. Klein on "Anonymous" (Obit Magazine)
Julia M. Klein on the Dublin Writers Museum (The Wall Street Journal)
Glenn Lovell reviews Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on Contempo's matchmaking with jazz fans (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Renee Montagne interviews Diane Keaton (NPR)
Ann Powers on Kate Bush's "50 Words for Snow" (NPR)
Ann Powers on "Michael Jackson: Immortal" (NPR)
Craig Seligman reviews Colson Whitehead's "Zone One" (Bloomberg News)
Laura Sydell on Google's music store vs. iTunes and Amazon (NPR)
Linda Winer on Hugh Jackman bringing Vegas style to Broadway (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews Theresa Rebeck's "Seminar" (Newsday)

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Gina Arnold on drum circles at Occupy Wall Street (Sounding Out!)
Laura Bleiberg on dancing against climate change (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold reviews Kirsten Greenidge's "Milk Like Sugar" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews David Ives' "Venus in Fur" (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on LA enshrining its recent heritage (Los Angeles Times)
Christopher Hawthorne on "Eden by Design" (Los Angeles Times)
Alan Hess reviews LACMA's "California Design 1930-1965" (The Architect's Newspaper)
John Horn on Alexander Payne and "The Descendants" (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on an Oscar campaign for "The First Grader" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Werner Herzog's "Into the Abyss" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" (The Washington Post)
Hillel Italie on plagiarism in Q.R. Markham's debut novel (The Associated Press)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Stéphane Denève's Chicago SO debut (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Hershey Felder as Leonard Bernstein (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on bicycling New York (The New York Times)
Julia M. Klein reviews Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens biography (Obit Magazine)
Dennis Lim on Paddy Considine and "Tyrannosaur" (The New York Times)
Nancy Malitz on original "Boris Godunov" at Chicago Lyric (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Tom Moon reviews R.E.M.'s "Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage" (NPR)
Ann Powers on "Stairway to Heaven" at 40 (NPR)
Ann Powers on Drake's "Take Care" (NPR)
Laura Sydell on Disney making original content for YouTube (NPR)
Calvin Wilson on Mario Vargas Llosa (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Calvin Wilson on White Flag Projects (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on theater's obsession with "landing a celebrity" (Newsday)
Linda Winer on Sam Waterston as a fragile King Lear at the Public (Newsday)

And in book news:

Sandra Heerma van Voss' first book, "Familiealbum," a collection of interviews about family histories that she wrote for Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, has just been published.

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Laura Bleiberg on Diavolo Dance Theater's Music Center residency (LA Weekly)
Larry Blumenfeld on Wadada Leo Smith (The Wall Street Journal)
Larry Blumenfeld on jazz pianist Henry Butler (The Wall Street Journal)
Robert Campbell on a contemporary building in a landmark district (The Boston Globe)
Robert Christgau on Jeffrey Lewis' "A Turn in the Dream-Songs" (NPR)
Laura Collins-Hughes on the Eichmann-in-Argentina play "Captors" (The Boston Globe)
Steve Dollar on Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" (GreenCine Daily)
Steve Dollar on Jonathan Demme's "I'm Carolyn Parker" (The Wall Street Journal)
Michael Feingold reviews Jesse Eisenberg's "Asuncion" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews David Henry Hwang's "Ch'inglish" (The Village Voice)
Matthew Gurewitsch on family resemblances among Wagner's Wälsungs (Opera News)
Matthew Gurewitsch reviews a wacko "Troyens" (Opera News)
Patti Hartigan on Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland and "Moby Dick" (The Boston Globe)
John Horn on Cameron Crowe (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on the European Union Film Showcase (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Like Crazy" (The Washington Post)
Julia M. Klein interviews Michael Lewis about "Boomerang" (AARP Bulletin)
Julia M. Klein on Trevor Cole's "Practical Jean" (AARP The Magazine)
Glenn Lovell reviews Eddie Murphy in "Tower Heist" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews the UK thriller "A Lonely Place to Die" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on violinist Hilary Hahn's self-marketing ways (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Renee Montagne interviews Mindy Kaling (NPR)
Claude Peck profiles Chuck Palahniuk (Star Tribune)
David Streitfeld on the Kindle Owners' Lending Library (The New York Times)
David Streitfeld asks whether Amazon will reshape publishing (The New York Times)
Calvin Wilson on Drake Doremus (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Calvin Wilson on "Ralston Crawford and Jazz" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities" (Newsday)
Linda Winer on political theater and its capacity to effect social change (Newsday)

And in print:

MJ Andersen on "Candide" and Occupy Wall Street (The Providence Journal)

After spending the entire day snuggling under a blanket with a good mystery during Saturday's unseasonable snowfall, I had to make a concerted effort to venture out into the elements in order to get to Carnegie Hall that evening. Nothing less than the combined musical power of pianist András Schiff, conductor Iván Fischer, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra could have lured me out on such a night. As it turned out, my gamble paid off handsomely.

The program (part of a Perspectives series that Schiff is curating on Bartók and his legacy) began with two Bartók works, the lively, brief Hungarian Peasant Songs and then the lengthy, complicated Second Piano Concerto. For both, Fischer had arranged his Budapest musicians in an unusual manner: the orchestra wore its belly outward and its pelt inward, so to speak, with two rows of woodwinds and brass surrounding the conductor at the center of the semi-circle, so that they were seated in front of rather than behind the evenly divided strings. This made for a bright, clear sound that suited the Bartók songs beautifully--and since there were more than enough strings to hold their own, it didn't in any way damage the balance. When Schiff entered the scene for the piano concerto, this seating seemed to make even more sense, for it gave his emphatic playing something solid--something that emphasized the piano's percussive rather than string-like qualities--to stand up against. As the concerto modulated from its frenetic, overpowering opening to its more complex echoes and patterns, one was able to sense how fully Schiff understood this music. The pianist seemed to combine inspired madness of manner with utter sanity of control, much in the way the conductor did with his instrument, the orchestra--proving once again (if such proof were needed) that you can never have too many wild Hungarians onstage at once.

For the second half, which consisted of Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, András Schiff sat in the audience (I could see him, right across the aisle from me, as he sat and listened attentively, occasionally rubbing his hands against each other to relax them from their prior exertions) and Fischer took over completely. For this performance, he moved the trumpets and French horns back to their usual position and left only a single row of woodwinds at the front. I have been steadily and passionately listening to this symphony since 2003, when I first heard Simon Rattle rehearse it and then conduct it with the Berlin Philharmonic; I probably play Rattle's excellent recording at least once a month, at home. And yet it wasn't until last Saturday night that I realized exactly how the lead oboe and the lead clarinet function in the music--how they alone start up each new theme, and then proceed to take over each other's parts, sometimes twining together as a pair, sometimes enlisting their fellow woodwinds, sometimes leading the whole orchestra into a larger sound. It was Fischer's brilliant seating arrangement that showed me this. (And it was equally brilliant of him to keep the horns at the back, so that their haunting, mournful sound could seem to come at us from a great distance.) Iván Fischer is that rare item, a choreographic showman who is also a great conductor--and what Saturday night proved to me, once again, is that both these aspects of his personality are essential to the Budapest Festival Orchestra's consistently marvelous performances.