A Singer’s Notes by Keith Kibler, 11: New Year’s Blessings and my Favorites from ‘09
The holidays are over in my rural kingdom of music and art, and there were some blessed nights. I enjoyed particularly a cogent and real My Fair Lady

The holidays are over in my rural kingdom of music and art, and there were some blessed nights. I enjoyed particularly a cogent and real My Fair Lady
Is there any 20th century composer less comfortable to contemporary tastes than Menotti? A rehashed Romantic, they might say, before modernism even got off the ground. The victim of his greatest success, his Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors.
HELP FOR HAITI: An Intimate Evening with JAMES TAYLOR
All concert proceeds to benefit Partners in Health: www.pih.org Friday, January 22, 2010
No phone sales are available for this concert. Limit four tickets per person.
$1000 Golden Circle includes onstage reception with Artists
$200 Orchestra and Mezzanine
$100 Balcony
"Our hearts go out to everyone in Haiti," said Mr. Taylor. "We need to do everything we can to help the country recover after this tragic earthquake. I'm grateful to do my part and hope my neighbors here in the Berkshires will join me and be as generous as possible."
Mr. Taylor will be joined by his longtime singers Kate Markowitz, Arnold McCuller, his wife, Kim, and Boston Symphony Orchestra cellist Owen Young.
Partners In Health (PIH) has been working on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years. The organization works to bring modern medical care to poor communities in nine countries around the world. The work of PIH has three goals: to care for patients, to alleviate the root causes of disease in their communities, and to share lessons learned around the world. Based in Boston, PIH employs more than 11,000 people worldwide, including doctors, nurses, and community health workers.
The event will be simulcast on WAMC Northeast Public Radio (wamc.org). Kim and James Taylor will match proceeds from all ticket sales.

New York Philharmonic
Avery Fisher Hall
Tuesday, December 29, 2009, 7:30 P.M.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 7:30 P.M.
Saturday, January 2, 2010, 8:00 P.M.
Alan Gilbert, Conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano
Webern, Im Sommerwind
Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488
Webern, Symphony, Op. 21
Schumann, Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61
Unfortunately I was not able to attend Alan Gilbert's first concerts of the season, and this was my first experience of his work with the New York Philharmonic. I did hear his guest concert with the Boston Symphony last spring—a major event, as it included his magnificent Ives Fourth. It happens that both the Boston and the New York program were quite similar and revealed similar qualities in Gilbert's conducting, although his approach was quite different. Both included a little-known early work by a major twentieth-century composer, and a concerto with a highly-respected pianist, as well as a symphony—eccentric symphonies in both cases, I'm tempted to add...
Boston is full of excellent musicians who give concerts in various configurations of established chamber music groups, early and new music groups, and orchestras of various kinds other than the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and of course in solo recital. For musical performance and presentation of a great range of music, we are blessed in Boston. In early October I attended my first concert by the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, playing at the Goethe Institute on Beacon Street, where the large high-ceilinged double parlor makes a great venue for music, with a rich, resonant, vivid sound right to the back, though with small chairs all on one level and on this occasion a packed house, it was hard to see. I was attracted by the program, featuring the Debussy Cello Sonata and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. I just wanted to hear these works—it had been a while. It was a splendid concert, and too bad for me just coming to the Chameleon group, which has been thriving here for a dozen years. The concert opened with a Mozart violin/viola Duo, K. 423 in G Major, beautifully played by Kristofer Tong and Scott Woolweaver. This elegant, intricate music made a good opening to the rest of the program. Mozart mattered to Chopin and to the French in a way that Beethoven and others in the Germanic tradition did not.
David Hoose continues his conversation with Michael Miller about his education, about conducting and conductors, the BSO, Seiji Ozawa and James Levine.
Over the past few years, my enthusiasm for the Tannery Pond Concerts has been no secret. Where else can you hear a unique combination of the most celebrated soloists and chamber groups together with handpicked young musicians of extraordinary promise? And in a handsome Shaker tannery from the early nineteenth century with glorious acoustics. All this thanks to its director, Christian Steiner, who as the most prominent photographer of musicians and singers has unique access to information. Also, as a musician from a musical family, he has superb taste. Very few concerts ever disappoint there, and none are simply routine. For my part I can only be grateful for the discoveries I've made there. Beyond this, next summer will be special, since Tannery Pond will be celebrating its 20th anniversary, and Mr. Steiner has put together an exceptional season.
Alexander Calder’s (1898-1976) acceptance of the prize for sculpture at the XXVI Venice Biennale in 1952 forged a bond of friendship with a country he had admired for some time. He was especially close to art connoisseur Giovanni Carandente, who sadly passed away last June 7th while working furiously on the catalogue for this exhibit. Carandente is largely to thank for introducing Italy to the radical idea that art could break forth from closed frames into three-dimensional space and engage the surrounding environment by contrast and analogy. Carandente’s keen interest in urban sculpture boded well for Calder, whose “Teodelapio” (1962) outside the Spoleto train station ignited a passion for public art in Italy that endures even today. His friendship with Carandente expanded the possibilities for his prodigious output, leading him to design several opera sets for theatres across Italy. Although Calder declined the Medal of Freedom offered him by President Gerald Ford on political grounds, he went on to accept several degrees honoris causa from prestigious Italian universities.