Jay Harvey Upstage

Garrick Ohlsson played Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin here Sunday. My first memory of Garrick Ohlsson is of a very tall young man entering the stage of Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan, resplendent in a white suit, complete with vest. It was summertime in the early 1970s, and the attire seemed seasonally appropriate and also reflective of his radiance as a recitalist. Then and now, the superficially incongruous image of Mark Twain came to mind; the celebrated author favored white suits in the last decade or so of his life, and was often photographed in one. Sunday afternoon's American Pianists Association recital by Ohlsson, who this time was more soberly clad, spurred a mental connection: The 67-year-old pianist, like Twain, is a master storyteller. The narrative thread in his interpretations, particularly of Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, was remarkably sturdy and inviting. The Ballade performance suggested the literary analogues to Chopin'...

In Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major, those who love his music just this side idolatry meet on common ground with many music-lovers who are left cold by most of it. The Fourth is somewhat shorter than the rest, for one thing, and relies more on charm and simpler emotional appeal than grand statements or despairing plunges. Swedish soprano Malin Christensson Shortly after he became the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra' s music director, Raymond Leppard gave an interview that briefly expressed his scorn for Mahler as an unstable egotist swinging wildly between poles of exaltation and self-loathing. He made an exception for the Fourth, which was the only Mahler symphony he conducted in his 14-year tenure. Everything points up to the finale, "The Heavenly Life," with its text from "Youth's Magic Horn," the collection of modified folk poetry that often inspired Mahler. As performed brightly by this weekend's soprano soloist,  the finale mad...

The viola d'amore is a special interest of Rachel Barton Pine's. Among the most valuable recent releases from Cedille Reords is a magnificent disc of Antonio Vivaldi's six concertos for viola d'amore, with Rachel Barton Pine as soloist with Ars Antigua . For the most part, the accompaniments are for string orchestra with harpsichord (David Schrader), but a particularly fascinating piece is the Concerto in F major, RV 97, with the resonant string instrument partnered with horns and oboes, plus (in the slow second movement), a bassoon. The viola d'amore, which gave way to the viola we know today, enjoyed a vogue in the Baroque era because its equal number of bowed and resonating strings (totaling 12)  gave it a warm aura as a solo instrument that could hold its own in the ensembles of the day.  And this is how Pine plays it, fully engaged with the Chicago-based period-instrument ensemble. Vivaldi achieved a great deal of variety in his settings for the ins...

Morton Feldman (1926-1987), American composer One exchange from a 1967 interview with Morton Feldman, newly translated from the French and available through a link on Norman Lebrecht's blog: JYB: What do you think about composers who close themselves off in a technique, in a system? MF: That’s like those guys who are forty years old who still live in their mother’s skirts. My tribute:   A haiku in memoriam Morton Feldman Who are they? Just watch For the ones who hike up skirts To cross mud puddles.

 "To speak of culture is to foreshadow a battle." — John Keene, Annotations , quoted by Ben Ehrenreich in the Oct. 19 Nation. "I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n." — Huckleberry Finn, reflecting on his companion Jim's homesickness as they raft down the Mississippi What do we go to art for? How vital to our experience of art are the political and cultural values we have absorbed and the personal moral sense we've developed along the way? These questions loom large as our political life shows no sign of losing its polarized quality, and the cultural wars that sometimes overshadow larger social ills continue to bloody the landscape. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" still bobs to the surface of a raging torrent, and a particular instance concerns me here. Without retreating into aestheticism, it's important to resist confusing what art does with how we think the world should be. ...

Garrick Ohlsson is a Chopin specialist, ranges into the modern repertoire, too It won't disappoint fans of Garrick Ohlsson to know that the second half of his recital this Sunday for the American Pianists Association will be devoted to music of Frederic Chopin. That's a considerable understatement, given that Ohlsson has been in the front rank of American concert pianists since winning the Chopin International Piano Competition in 1970, when he was just 21. After his recital's first half comprises two major works by other masters — Beethoven's Sonata in A major, op. 110, and Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy in C major — Ohlsson will offer Scherzo No. 4 in E major, two etudes, the Nocturne in C minor, op. 48, no. 1, and the Ballade in G minor. Ohlsson's discography as well as his concert schedule has featured a lot of Chopin throughout the 45 years he's been before the public in a big way. One of my favorites among his early LPs is the 1974 ...

Sammy Miller, in a subdued portrait sans Congregation At the end of its cheekily named Rust Belt tour, Sammy Miller and the Congregation played Birdy's Sunday night to a large, ardent crowd. The New York sextet includes as keyboardist David Linard, formerly active in Indianapolis as a Sophie Faught sideman. Led by an amiable drummer manning a compact kit with a wide range of dynamics and exuberant time-keeping, the band was Rust-Belting it out one last time. According to trombonist Sam Crittenden, the now concluded tour is the band's first-ever venture away from the Big Apple. Sammy Miller and the Congregation update classic jazz and Americana. The latter loose category ranged on this gig from Stephen Foster to Jimmie Davis, whose "You Are My Sunshine" was an assertive encore. Everything they take up seems subject to hardening the groove and freeing the conventional jazz demeanor: The band revives the category of "entertainment jazz," whose lumin...