Podcasts from New York Arts Michael Miller

 

 

Audio interviews and illustrations below. As we mention particular buildings and views, click on the relevant thumbnail.

The distinguished old master dealer, Robert Simon, held his first exhibition of a contemporary artist this past November and December. Entitled The Third Rome : Allegorical Landscapes of the Modern City, it was devoted to the current work of Pamela Talese, a Brooklyn-based painter known for her haunting views of gritty industrial sites around the Navy Yard and Red Hook. Around 2012, she found that she had exhausted this subjects and everything else in New York City, and she decided to return to Rome for the first time in twenty-two years, applying for an artist’s fellowship at the American Academy and, once there, after exploring contemporary buildings, like Renzo Piano’s Parco della Musica, she began to explore more recent neighborhoods outside the historical center. By “more recent,” I mean areas developed in the 1920s and 1930s, that is, the Fascist Era. Exploring the neighborhoods on her bicycle with her painting box and folding easel strapped on, Ms. Talese felt attracted to certain buildings that stood out for their clean, simple lines and elegant design. These were prime examples of Fascist architecture—modest, functional residential edifices, utilitarian civic structures, and a few public buildings. Virtually none of these appear in the surveys of Fascist architecture—with one notable exception, the Foro Italico (originally called the Foro Mussolini).

When I was in Rome for my post-doctoral work from 1983 to 1985, I used to take Sunday afternoons off from the Renaissance and indulge in passeggiate in some of those neighborhoods. I found something comforting in the quietude of the streets and rather more aesthetic pleasure than I expected in the same simple, elegant structures Pamela Talese,  in her paintings, has recorded and interpreted with such assurance, subtle feeling, and generous observation. Impressed by their openness to light and air, and their straightforward functionality, I assumed these buildings were constructed in the post-war years, above all the early 1930s, but no, through this exhibition and conversations with Ms. Talese, I have learned something about their history, i.e. that they belong to Mussolini’s time, and that they arose out of ideas of city planning and architectural style which he and his movement espoused.

Pamela Talese regards Mussolini as the Robert Moses of early 20th century Italy, and in that, I believe, she is absolutely correct. The two had a lot in common. One could easily imagine books on Fascist city planning and architecture and perhaps a few about and by Albert Speer on Moses’ shelves.

You can hear Ms. Talese’s perceptive, nuanced account of this in the two podcast interviews presented here: the first segment concerns her project, which still continues after several years of annual visits, and the second, the historical background of Fascist architecture. These were extrapolated from one, lengthy and very enjoyable conversation, but for coherence and accessibility I have edited it into two.

On one evening during the exhibition there was a brilliant pair of talks and conversation, moderated by Robert Simon, with Pamela Talese and the Luigi Ballerini, Emeritus Professor UCLA, Distinguished poet, translator, food historian, and critic, and author of the essay “The Foro Mussolini and The Marble Boys of Yesteryear” that accompanies the photographs by George Mott in Foro Italico (PowerHouse Books 2003). Professor Ballerini encapsulated my own feelings...

 

 

Last month I had the pleasure of chatting with Inbal Segev, a young cellist from Israel, who has been making a mark in contemporary music and the classics. She was discovered by Isaac Stern as a high school student in Israel, and he arranged for her to come the United States to study at Yale and Juilliard. On this occasion we talked about her upcoming performance of Christopher Rouse’s cello concerto with the Albany Symphony under David Allan Miller and a very interesting—and successful—contemporary music festival sponsored by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Marin Alsop. It held its inaugural season just last summer.

 

I’m very pleased to present this interview with Paavali Jumppanen, who will be playing a recital at the Frick Collection this coming Sunday, October 8, 2017, at 5 pm. He will play works by three composers he has studied in particular depth over many years: Beethoven, Debussy, and the William Duckworth (1943-2012).

Debussy: Études

Duckworth: Selections from The Time Curve Preludes

Beethoven: Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”)

Mr. Jumppanen has accomplished a great deal in the United States as well as his native Finland, primarily in Boston, where he appeared regularly at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. He has also received a fellowship at Harvard and been a resident at Bucknell.

As you will learn in the podcast, he is not only a pianist of exceptional virtuosity and perception, he is interested in many different aspects of the history and theory of music. He is currently director of two festivals in Finland, one devoted to the piano, Piano Espoo,

You will find more, including online recordings and links to available CDs and vinyl recordings on his artist site and blog, Paavali’s Studio.and another, far to the north in Lapland, Kiehu Music, which is rooted in the particular mixed culture of that remote borderland between Finland and Sweden.

 



Some months ago New Yorkers enjoyed an opportunity to hear a gifted young American pianist, Thomas Nickell play Mozart’s Concerto in A Major, K. 414 and a new concerto by a living English composer, David Matthews, supported by a splendid chamber orchestra in the best English tradition, The Orchestra of the Swan, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, conducted by its founder, David Curtis. They received an especially warm response from their sold-out hall, and they have every reason to come back. This will occur in early June 2018. Meanwhile you can listen to David Curtis talk about chamber orchestras, The Orchestra of the Swan in particular, and English music, which, I believe has been rather neglected on these shores in recent years.

This may be changing. Thanks mostly to Thomas Adès, Tanglewood is doing some justice to English music this summer, and before that, Mr. Curtis and The Orchestra off the Swan will return  to New York with more treasures from their repertory In listening, you will note his healthy attitude to new music.

For our review of The Orchestra of the Swan’s concert with Thomas Nickell, click here.

For a preview of English music at Tanglewood, prefacing a review of an important performance of Elgar’s The Apostles, click here.

 

Anyone who has heard Manfred Honeck conduct his own Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Heinz Hall or in their exemplary recordings on the Exton and Reference Recordings labels will know what a treasure he is for the world of music. This week he will conduct the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with Inon Barnatan and Mahler’s First Symphony. He has made something of a speciality of this composer, a fellow Austrian. His recorded cycle with Pittsburgh now includes Symphonies No. 1, 3, and 5. Maestro Honeck also has special insight into the work of Anton Bruckner, another fellow Austrian. He has so far recorded Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony and looks forward to recording the Ninth.

In this interview you will learn something about the care and intelligence he puts into preparing his performances and his warm feeling for these great composers.

Manfred Honeck’s recordings reviewed by Steven Kruger in New York Arts:

STRAUSS Elektra Suite. Der Rosenkavalier Suite • Manfred Honeck, conductor; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra • REFERENCE RECORDINGS FR-722SACD (Streaming Audio: 58:33) Live: Pittsburgh 5/13-15/2016 http://newyorkarts.net/2017/02/crop-recordings-xiii-richard-strauss-hans-rott-alberto-ginastera-robert-schumann-gabriel-faure/

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6. DVOŘÁK Rusalka Fantasy • Manfred Honeck, conductor; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra • REFERENCE RECORDINGS FR-720SACD (67:03) Live Pittsburgh 2015 http://newyorkarts.net/2016/08/crop-of-recordings-9/

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 • Manfred Honeck, cond; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra • REFERENCE RECORDINGS FR-718 (71:27) Live, Pittsburgh 12/5-7/2014 http://newyorkarts.net/2015/12/a-crop-of-recordings-ii-elgar-rachmaninoff-strauss-schmitt-magnard-and-beethoven/