Review: Marsalis’ ‘Moving to Higher Ground’

In his newest book, the jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis comes a good deal closer to the goal that he’s been moving toward in his previous writings: A unitary theory of American culture, with jazz at its heart as explicator and savior.
Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, written with Geoffrey [...]

Housekeeping: Reviews done, and to come

I’ve yet to write anything much about upcoming events in the local classical season, but will do so in the next couple days. There are some not-to-be-missed concerts on the way, and in the next week or so I’ll start doing regular Friday previews of what’s coming for the weekend.
For the time being, my friend [...]

Seraphic Fire salutes music of New Spain

Another good sign of the musical season: The return of Seraphic Fire.
The Miami-based chamber choir is in its seventh season, and has added a series of Thursday afternoon concerts at the Harriet Himmel Theater at CityPlace in West Palm Beach. That will also mark the group’s return to Palm Beach County. It did a season [...]

Mozart, Brahms at St. Paul’s as season opens

It was the last Sunday of summer, and if the line I was standing in at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Delray Beach is any indication, this season of classical music will be not only enriching but well-attended.
The 21st season of Music at St. Paul’s, which opened Sunday, featured works by Mozart and Brahms as played [...]

Met’s live opera broadcasts return

I’ve had occasion in my previous blog to note the success of the Metropolitan Opera’s live HD broadcasts at movie houses across the country, and if you haven’t seen them, well, you’re really missing out.
For $18, you can see an opera live with a far better view of  the action than you could get from [...]

Mozart manuscript makes the news

The classical world got some excitement today with the announcement in France of the find of a previously unknown Mozart manuscript that had been buried in the files for more than a century.
It’s not really a score, just a couple sketches on a few lines of paper, one of them marked Credo and looking like [...]

A call for Publius to speak once more

 

I love to go back and  read some of the sacred founding texts of our government on important commemorative days, which is why over the past couple days I’ve been reading The Federalist Papers.
Today is Constitution Day, the anniversary of the day in 1787 when the Constitution was approved and submitted to the states for [...]

Strike up the band: ‘Dies irae’

It’s a ritual for millions of people on Saturdays during the school year, but I don’t follow college football much; it doesn’t do much for me.
But this weekend I was paying a little more attention to the scores because my wife’s in a pool at her workplace and there’s a question of family honor [...]

Magazines I love (2): ‘Lapham’s Quarterly’

The second of the two newish magazines I’ve recently been enjoying is Lapham’s Quarterly, a thick four-times-yearly devoted to readings from history, all referring to a central topic. The three issues published so far (it goes for $15 an issue): States of War, About Money, and Book of Nature.
Readers familiar with Harper’s Magazine will recognize [...]

A rose for Jimmy

Ever since the tragedy of seven years ago we commemorate today, I have brought a red rose in a vase to work in honor of my cousin, Jimmy Geyer, who died in the attack on the World Trade Center. (Since I don’t have an office to go to anymore, I’ll post a virtual rose on [...]