Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
“Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions. Intellect, will, taste, and passion co-operate just as they do in practical affairs; and lucky it is if the passion be not something as petty as a love of personal conquest over the philosopher across the way.”
William James, “The Sentiment of Rationality”
Buddy Rich and the Tonight Show orchestra play Horace Silver’s “Nutville” in 1974, introduced by Johnny Carson. The members of the band include Conte Candoli on trumpet, Lew Tabackin on tenor saxophone, and Ross Tompkins on piano:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“I have in my head a whole army of people pleading to be let out and awaiting my commands.”
Anton Chekhov, letter to A.S. Suvorin (October 27, 1888)
“People who lead a solitary existence always have something in their hearts which they are eager to talk about.”
Anton Chekhov, “About Love”
Bruno Walter leads the Concertgebouw Orchestra in a 1946 rehearsal of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
“There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality.”
Anton Chekhov, “The Teacher of Literature”
In today’s Wall Street Journal I write about the best theater of 2019:
Read the whole thing here.On Broadway and across America, it’s the same old story: Large-scale musicals are in a long-term slump. I saw only two new musicals of quality, “Hadestown” and “Soft Power,” this past year, and both of them were distinctly unconventional small-scale productions (although “Hadestown,” like “The Band’s Visit” and “Fun Home” before it, did manage to make it to Broadway for a successful run). Too many of the rest were jukebox biomusicals and no-but-I-saw-the-movie commodity shows, none of which had much of anything to offer beyond expensive light amusement for the tourist trade.
Of distinguished new plays, by contrast, there were plenty….
From 2010:
Read the whole thing here.Apropos of the front cover of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, James Breig, a reader of this blog, writes with a query: “Impertinent question: Is the cover photo reversed (Armstrong’s pocket handkerchief is on the right side of his jacket)? If so, was it done deliberately by the photographer or book designer, or inadvertently?”
My jaw dropped when I read this e-mail, and I immediately set to investigating….