BIG APPLE PORTRAITS, PART 2

Put on your headphones, click the photo or the title, and enjoy. Give it time to load. The music, by Maurice Ravel, is "Melodies hebraiques: no 2, L'enigme eternelle," performed by Catherine Robbin (mezzo soprano) and André Laplante (piano), with Nora Shulman (flute); Camille Watts (flute); Joaquin Valdepeñas (clarinet); David Bourque (clarinet); Mark Skzainetsky (violin); Mi Hyon Kim (violin); Steven Dann (viola); Thomas Wiebe (cello). It's recorded by the CBC Records/Musica Viva label on the CD "Ravel: Mélodies" (Cat. #: MVCD1128).

If you prefer the videos sequentially more or less as Osborne intended -- the staff does -- instead of backwards (per the usual top-down chronological order of posting), just click here from top to bottom:

Typically, Osborne takes a modest view of his efforts. "The videos themselves won't sustain much interest (especially given all of the video media that swamps our lives)," he messages, "but they might be a useful small addition or footnote to your usual blogging when you get back to it." The staff begs to disagree. It believes his moody improvisations are more than just footnotes. (He also warns: "Many people won't have the modem speed to watch them." Aaarrgghh.) Coincidentally, the Chrysler Building's 75th anniversary is being celebrated this spring, and James Stevenson has an op-art birthday tribute in this morning's New York Times. It begins like so: