Saturday, March 29, 2008

New Yorker


Susan Homer
Butterfly-Flowers
At Metaphor Contemporary Art, here

Well, first of all, if you like today's featured painting, I strongly suggest that you who read this and live in New York go see this show. It's at Metaphor Contemporary Art in Brooklyn, and you can get the address and hours here. Homer's show is called The Traveler's Return. I love--and agreew with--this quote from her write-up:

The multiple sessions of work that go into their making leave behind layers of information and traces of brushwork that become part of the topology of the paintings imbuing them with a tactile generative energy and a deep sense of time.


In this New York-centric vein, I'm going to offer up a review of Mannes College of Music's most recent recital of Arnold Schoenburg's Lieder, opus 2 (1899)and Pierrot Lunaire (1912).


First, though, a little background. Schoenburg is probably know best for his role in the creation of (big M) Modern music. But, as demonstrated by soprano Katharine Dain, his early, hyper-Romantic work can be inspiring and bold, as well. Her Lieder was sexy and stunning. I'd watch out for this one. She's got voice, musicality, and can emote better than William Shatner in a fight scene.


The Pierrot--one of the (many) iconic and now-canonic works by Schoenburg--demonstrated, once again, Dane's powerful musicality and ability to connect with her audience (even in Sprechstimme, even in Sprechstimme...), and the ensemble, as a whole, pulled of their difficult parts with remarkable ease.


Back in Oberlin tomorrow.