Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Gregor Piatigorsky plays William Walton’s Cello Concerto, a work that he commissioned in 1956. He is accompanied by Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony. This performance, the work’s British premiere, was originally telecast live by the BBC on February 13, 1957:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.
BROADWAY:
• The Band’s Visit (musical, PG-13, virtually all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Dear Evan Hansen (musical, PG-13, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• Hamilton (musical, PG-13, Broadway transfer of off-Broadway production, all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
• My Fair Lady (musical, G, nearly all shows sold out last week, reviewed here)
CLOSING SOON OFF BROADWAY:
• Days to Come (drama, G, not suitable for children, closes Oct. 6, reviewed here)
CLOSING NEXT WEEK OFF BROADWAY:
• Be More Chill (musical, PG-13, closes Sept. 30, reviewed here)
• Heartbreak House (drama, PG-13, closes Sept. 29, reviewed here)
“The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.”
Thomas Sowell, “Big Lies in Politics” (syndicated column, May 22, 2012)
Otto Preminger is the celebrity guest on To Tell the Truth. The panelists are Orson Bean, Peggy Cass, Kitty Carlisle, and Tom Poston, and Bud Collyer is the host. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on November 8, 1965. Preminger’s segment stars at 16:25:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“Put differently, religion is the audacious attempt to conceive of the entire universe as being humanly significant.”
Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion
From 2008:
In private life Dick was as dapper as his playing, and old-fashioned in all the best ways. He liked Chicago-style jazz, British tailoring, black-and-white movies, Marmite, and The New Yorker before Tina Brown got her hands on it. Not surprisingly, he was more than a little bit at odds with much of the modern world, and I suspect that he would have been vastly happier had he been born in 1908 instead of 1938. He was also a pessimist by nature, but like many such folks, he gave more pleasure than he got–and, I suspect, got more pleasure than he usually cared to admit….
Read the whole thing here
“Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.”
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty