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Entertainment Reviews
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Written by ABQjournal staff
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Wednesday, 05 October 2005 |
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It's nice to see a rock star who knows we don't want to hear the new songs. New songs suck. No, not really, but if we're going to see somebody like Robert Plant, we want to hear him belt it out like he did with Led Zeppelin in the 70s. No matter how good his new stuff is, we really don't care.
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Written by D.S. Crafts
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Saturday, 01 October 2005 |
Friday (corrected from Thursday) night at Popejoy hall was a celebration of youth as much as it was of Russian music. In a concert featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra hosted the Albuquerque Youth Symphony along with 18-year-old Russian pianist Natasha Paremski.
To begin the program the NMSO graciously afforded the stage to the Youth Symphony to perform the Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italien. Beginning with a well-played fanfare from the brass, leading into a tuneful presentation of the folk theme by the woodwinds, conductor Amir Kats led the group leisurely through the opening section, then briskly through the more Tchaikovsky-like development, and ultimately to an effective full-ensemble conclusion. It may be just me, but I've always felt the main theme here sounds more American Western than Italian -- perhaps a lost fragment from the Grand Canyon Suite.
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Angela Hewitt Makes Each Piece Her Own |
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Written by D.S. Crafts
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Friday, 30 September 2005 |
"The Year of the Pianist" was how Managing Director William Mullen introduced the new season of the Santa Fe Concert Association. Surely there could be no better way of commencing the series than with Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt who took the stage of the Lensic Theater for the Performing Arts Thursday night. Hewitt, who first became known for her sparkling recordings of J.S. Bach, chose a program spanning nearly the length of her prodigious talent, including Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Ravel.
Like all great interpreters, she can make each piece her own while never violating the essential spirit of the music. Take, for example, her first offering, No. 5 of Bach’s so-called “French” Suites. Each dance was imbued with a distinctly different musical personality—-a spritely Courante, a bouncing Bouree, and a Gigue with unbounded energy and pianistic color. If anyone had any doubts that the Sarabande movements of this set of works are among Bach’s most elevated music, Hewitt quickly informed them of that fact with a profoundly graceful rendition with near-mystical qualities.
The Beethoven Sonata in D, Op. 10 No. 3 caused her to switch gears, fully reflecting the mad passions of the youthful composer in one of his most accomplished early works. The Largo e mesto (Slow and sad), the heart of the work, rose from the keyboard like an enveloping dark mist, transporting us to another place, another time.
Hewitt impresses not with electrifying virtuosity (though she has resources to spare), but rather from sheer musical presence and an understanding of the music communicated with crystal clarity. Here is a pianist with something to say.
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About Reviewers D.S. Crafts (Website) Composer Daniel Steven Crafts came to New Mexico from San Francisco where he had hosted a classical music radio program on KPFA. His first commission from opera star Jerry Hadley, "The Song & the Slogan" based on texts by Carl Sandburg, was made into a TV program for the PBS network and aired nationally in 2004 and won an Emmy for Best Music. His latest opera La Llorona is a collaboration with novelist Rudolfo Anaya based on his play "The Season of La Llorona." Mr. Crafts is currently working on another commission from Jerry Hadley for a piece about the American Southwest which includes texts by Rudolfo Anaya and V.B. Price. Two CDs of his music, Contemporaries (short, satirical keyboard works) and ARIAS (excerpts from his various operas) have been released on the BACAT label in San Francisco.
David Steinberg David Steinberg has covered state government, the courts, city and county government in Santa Fe for the Albuquerque Journal. He's been an arts writer for the past 20 years, and serves as the book editor, for the Journal. Over the years, he's also acted in plays, sung in choruses and played trumpet.
Jennifer Noyer Jennifer Noyer has been writing dance reviews for the Albuquerque Journal for 17 years, as well as contributing articles for Dance Magazine and other art journals. She trained in dance with Hanya Holm in New York City and Colorado Springs, and studied several dance techniques at the graduate level at the University of Michigan. After teaching dance at Wayne State University she entered and completed a Masters Degree in Humanities there. In New Mexico Ms. Noyer has taught, directed, and choreographed contemporary dance for several years. Her writing on dance includes a monograph accompanying the video of choreographer Bill Evens’ ballet “The Legacy.” An overview of Evans’s world wide career, it was written and published during his tenure at the University of New Mexico. Ms. Noyer’s studies in the humanities, and her studio dance work influence her approach to dance as an integrative art form in the United States.
Barry Gaines Barry Gaines has taught Shakespeare in the University of New Mexico English Department for over twenty-five years and has received two outstanding teaching awards. He has written theater reviews for the Journal since 2000. He has attended theater all over the world including Shakespeare productions in Russia, South Africa, Denmark, and Poland. He has also served as literary advisor for two professional theater companies and written performance reviews for Shakespeare Quarterly. Gaines has taken two years of acting with Paul Ford and appeared in small parts in three plays at the Albuquerque Little Theater. He believes that he is probably a better reviewer than actor.
Joanne Sheehy Hoover Joanne Sheehy Hoover, music critic emeritus of the Albuquerque Journal, has written for NPR, PBS, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Symphony, among others. She has also been a music lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates and a music critic and arts writer for The Washington Post. She was director of the Levine School of Music, one of the country’s largest community music schools, in Washington, D. C. 1980-1993. She and her husband moved to Corrales, New Mexico in July 1993. Also a poet, her fifth collection, “Einstein in New Mexico,” was published in 2002.
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