Capital New York

New York Philharmonic picks up instruments from Staten Island junkyard

If it's been a dream of yours to watch the New York Philharmonic's elegant principal cellist, Carter Brey, race down from the stage at Avery Fisher Hall, dash over to the center of the audience, and hit a giant gong hanging from the ceiling, then Thursday is your night and Magnus Lindberg's Kraft, getting its New York premiere and only its second hearing in the U.S., is your piece. More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on October 6th, 2010 10:02am

Zachary Woolfe commented on Vienna Philharmonic predictably brilliant at Carnegie Hall

Thank you for this. It's true that Dudamel is doing more interesting things in L.A., and I wish he had brought more of that spirit to his recent New York visits. Both these Vienna concerts and his tour with the L.A. Phil in the spring felt programmed by rote. I certainly appreciate Vienna's concentration on their core rep; my main issue with Dudamel's program on Saturday is that it was silly, not that it consisted solely of staples. As a clarification, the Boulez piece that Vienna performed last season, "Notations," was composed in 1945, and orchestrated more recently.

Posted on October 5th, 2010 12:01pm

Zachary Woolfe commented on Vienna Philharmonic predictably brilliant at Carnegie Hall

That's true, and it's true that conductors set the programs and emphasize different aspects of the orchestra's mission, but I would say that those concerts were the exception rather than the rule when it comes to the orchestra's programming, particularly on its international tours. And I might add that, while Schoenberg, Webern, and Boulez are undoubtedly challenging to an audience expecting, say, Brahms and Dvorak, they are works that are the better part of a century old at this point. Harmonielehre is from 1985. The more interesting, related question is about Gustavo Dudamel: why is he being touted as a galvanizing, innovative force with the potential to shape classical music's future when his programming is as conservative as that of a conductor nearly triple his age?

Posted on October 4th, 2010 5:59pm

Vienna Philharmonic predictably brilliant at Carnegie Hall

You don't go to a Vienna Phil concert for new music—you go for authentic performances of the Central European classics. But last year, Berlin did Schoenberg: it's certainly not impossible to stretch the boundaries a little.Opening night this year was all-Beethoven: the seventh symphony and the first piano concerto. The second Harnoncourt concert featured Smetana's series of sumptuous tone poems, Ma vlast. But things went a bit off the rails when Dudamel planned his first concert on Saturday night. More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on October 4th, 2010 7:56am

The BookCourt bestseller list, annotated

When you think "Brooklyn bookstore," BookCourt should come to mind. Sure, there are more hipstery options—Spoonbill and Sugartown on the Bedford strip in Williamsburg, for one—and just plain hipper ones, like Greenlight Books in Fort Greene, which is celebrating its first anniversary this month.

BookCourt, which is in more sedate Cobble Hill, is going on 30 years old, and it represents the Brooklyn that is contiguous with the Upper West Side: a little less Jewish, perhaps, but equally prosperous and liberal, with the same strong hint of self-satisfaction. These are the people who love, love, love their city, because why shouldn't they! More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on October 1st, 2010 3:41pm

Sunny, West Coast types sell yet more fashion festivities

Ginger Boyle, the proprietor of Planet Salon on South Robertson Boulevard—"paparazzi row," she calls it—in Beverly Hills, was in a showroom in the Garment District yesterday morning along with a couple dozen other vendors. They were there to publicize their brands and the upcoming Los Angeles Fashion Weekend, an event whose target demographic in New York, the fashion industry, is still recovering from last week's festivities. More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on September 24th, 2010 10:03am

The marshmallow world of Will Cotton

The small crowd that gathered in an upstairs room at Christie's on Tuesday evening was youthful even if it wasn't universally young, casually well-dressed, savvy about both art history and the technical aspects of painting. It was, in other words, a group of people very much like the artist Will Cotton, whose talk these people had come to hear.

It was the first ArtTalk of the American Federation of Art's 2010-11 season, this one with in-kind support from Christie's, which provided the conference room and the flat-screen monitor, and refreshment from the Kumquat Cupcakery. More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on September 23rd, 2010 9:57am

The Miller Theater finds its voice with new talent at the top

In an interview at a cafe near Columbia University, Melissa Smey, the new director of the Miller Theater here, seemed thrilled at the prospect of her first season, though she's not new to the theater; she was the general manager under George Steel for eight years, and has programmed its jazz series since 2006.

"I think every new programmer is probably like, 'Oh my God, it's the best season ever,'" she said, "but I've been at Miller so long that I had a long time to plan the wish list." More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on September 21st, 2010 6:40am

Violinist Hilary Hahn and composer Jennifer Higdon on their big new recording

47-year-old Pulitzer-winning composer Jennifer Higdon and her onetime student, 30-year-old Hilary Hahn of Grammy fame have put together a new album that is among the most breathlessly awaited releases in classical music this year.

The two talked to Capital about their process, how to engage new and younger listeners, and balancing all the business with the actual work of being an artist in the age of the Internet.

Tonight, the two continue the conversation at Housing Works bookstore at 7 p.m. More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on September 20th, 2010 7:27am

Fall preview: Books to read, pretend to read, refuse to read

It's fall, so the regular slew of important fashionable literary feats, beltway favorites (whether it's the book with the 4-inch-wide spine about someone whose face is on a coin or the Beltway nonfiction noir, there's always a sense that these books are either too late or too early, no?) and callow bestsellers are peeking out at us from the catalogs.

Here we thought we'd highlight a few of the things we think you'll be hearing about (and a bit about what we think of them, sight, for the most part, unseen). More

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By Zachary Woolfe

on September 15th, 2010 1:16pm