Honored to have been able to write the program notes for this weekend’s National Symphony concerts with Michael Tilson Thomas. The program features his own remarkable, unclassifiable Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind.
John Adams’s latest composition was recently given its world premiere by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Here’s my program note introducing I Still Dance:
The unique creative exchange between John Adams and the San Francisco Symphony spans four decades and represents one of the most significant success stories in the collaboration among contemporary American composers, orchestras, and audiences.
Celebrate American music! And you can’t do much better than Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for this rep.
As Charles Ives impishly recalled about this third movement from his Holidays Symphony :
I did what I wanted to, quite sure that the thing would never be played, although the uneven measures that look so complicated in the score are mostly caused by missing a beat, which was often done in parades. In the parts taking off explosions, I worked out combinations of tones and rhythms very carefully by kind of prescriptions, in the way a chemical compound which makes explosions would be made.
Jason Lawrence Geiger is one of 19 defendants named in a federal indictment, the FBI said. Acting under the name Austin St. John, Geiger played Jason Lee Scott, the Red Power Ranger.
Rosmarie was the first daughter of Austrian naval Capt. Georg von Trapp and Maria von Trapp, and a younger half-sibling to the older von Trapp children portrayed on stage and in the movie.
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Harvey Fierstein's memoir, Bling Empire and more.
Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" act ignited an obscenity case in the '70s. We listen back to two archival interviews with the late comedian, and David Bianculli reviews a new HBO documentary about him.
The pop star has spent a life on the go, so the pandemic offered him a rare chance for reflection, to separate the person from the pop star. Also, of course, to record a new album.