'Quartet' is sweet and slooowww

BBC Films

 

Like the wheels on a wheelchair which go round and round, these are the days of their lives in a retirement community for musicians at a luxurious estate in Buckinghamshire, England. 

Has there been a more placid British film? 

Dustin Hoffman may not look 75 but his directorial debut affirms his age.  He must have had nursing homes in mind when he made Quartet since it’s ripe pickings for them.  And quite predictable.

Except for a few critical F-bombs, the movie is harmless, however, shorn of the dull parts and with more hilarious lines, the movie could have been lots better.  Give me those late night writers! And some action, please.  What?  We can’t stand to see old people kiss and make hoochee? Or sing?

Quartet is about as lively as Tom Courtenay and Maggie Smith in this scene/BBC Films 

 

Show stealers are certainly Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly.   Why would anyone like Maggie Smith’s character want to re-marry a grumpy old man like Tom Courtenay's character?  Had he hinted at a smile once, his face might have fallen off. Women are not that desperate, Mr. Hoffman. Please supply some humor occasionally, Grumpy Old Man.

Unless scenery (Mother Nature) is a new category, the movie will win no awards, but the musical score is grand (Dario Marianelli).

Had a travel agent been posted at the theater exit, she/he would have needed an assistant.  Two assistants.  I am ready to go!  (With a side trip to Leicester, please.)

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Hang around for the credits at the end to rock your wheelchair.

At E-Street last Friday night, the 7:15 p.m. feature was almost sold out (small theater) to those generally above age 50.  No surprise, however, the vast quantities of wine consumed by moviegoers and the clinking of discarded bottles upon the floor at the end were ear lifters.

Arlington Arts Center opens new exhibit

R.L. Croft, Guardian, 2005/Patricia Leslie

Filled black plastic balloons or garbage bags float in the air or on the floor at the Arlington Arts Center, part of a creation by Allison Bianco, one of 26 artists in a new show, Interwoven: Art.Craft. Design. which has plenty to stimulate your mind if it is lying in winter.

Allison Bianco, Five Feet in Front of the Horizon, 2010/Arlington Arts Center

Absolutely delightful in its variety and array of art works, the show includes media ranging from a tree remnant, metal, hair, wool, wood, leaves, plastic, paper, bicycles, crutches, video, baseball bats, in addition to more customary materials like paint.

Jessica Smith, Les Vues d'Georgia du Pooler, 2012/Arlington Arts Center

The exhibition was juried by Kathryn Wat, chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Melissa Messina, senior curator, the Savannah College of Art and Design, who said the judges looked "for work that was not only fine art or craft or design, but had elements of all three" plus demonstrated quality, according to an interview in the newsletter of the Washington Project for the Arts.

Lily Kuonen, Two Gather, 2012/Patricia Leslie

The something-for-all artists represented in the show include Jehanne Arslan, Gertude Berg, Ryan Brennan, Caroline Chandler, Nikki Farrand, Samantha Fields, Joe Fish, Maggie Gourlay, Clarissa Gregory, Melanie Kehoss, Heidi Leitzke, Shawne Major, Susannah Mira, Rebecca Mushtare, Marc Robarge, Katie Shaw, Kristin Skees, Jessica Smith, Erwin Timmers, Olivia Valentine, Saya Woolfalk, and Martine Workman. 

One leaves the exhibition with an even deeper appreciation for the creators and the skills they weave into their gems.

Matthew de Leon, Suicide Rainbow, 2011/patricia leslie

What: Interwoven: Art. Craft. Design.

When: Now through March 24, 2013 every Wednesday through Friday, 1 - 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 12 - 5 p.m.

Where: Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201

Metro station: Virginia Square (Orange Line) with a Capital Bikeshare station nearby

How much: No charge

Parking: Onsite and free

For more information: 703-248-6800

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Free 'Alleluias' concert Wednesday at St. John's, Lafayette Square

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Choir members from St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, will sing a recital of “Alleluias” at the church at the corner of H Street, NW and 16^th on February 6 beginning at 12:10 p.m.
 

The presentation is part of the church's “First Wednesday” series and is an excellent respite from workday rush on “hump day.”

Featured in the approximately 35 minutes concert will be Annette Anfinrud, Barbara van Woerkom, Noah Mlotek, and Christopher Jones who will sing works by the Manhattan Transfer, Beethoven, Bach, Copland, and Rorem.

St. John's, Lafayette Square/patricia leslie

 

Other upcoming noontime concerts in the 2013 series are:

Mar. 6: Bianca Garcia, flute, assisted by Michael Lodico, St. Johns' associate choirmaster and organist, featuring the world premiere of a work by Stephen Cabell

Apr. 3: Benjamin Hutto, director of music ministry and organist, St. John's, performing "Organ Treasure Old and New"

May 1: Alvy Powell, bass-baritone and Gershwin interpreter

June 5: Jeremy Filsell, artist-in-residence at the Washington National Cathedral, performing organ works by Bach, Dupre, and Rachmaninov

St. John's, known to many Washington residents as the yellow church at Lafayette Square, is often called the “Church of the Presidents.” Beginning with James Madison, president from 1809 to 1817, every president has either been a member of, or has attended services at St. John's. A plaque at the rear of the church designates the Lincoln pew where President Abraham Lincoln often sat when he stopped by St. John's during the Civil War.

Who:  Choir soloists from St. John's

When: 12:10 p.m., February 6, 2013

Where: St. John’s, Lafayette Square, 1525 H Street, NW, at the corner of 16^th, Washington, D.C. 20005

How much: No charge

Duration: About 35 minutes

Wheelchair accessible

Metro stations: McPherson Square or Farragut West

For more information: 202-347-8766

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Goethe-Institut opens 'Facing Democracy'

At the opening of Facing Democracy at the Goethe-Institut, Washington/patricia leslie

A new photo and video exhibit Facing Democracy by three artists with global reach has opened at the Goethe-Institut in Chinatown.

 

Featured in the show are works by a Pulitzer Prize winner twice, Lucian Perkins, who worked at the Washington Post 27 years and whose pictures document wars around the world; Danny Wilcox Frazier, who has photographed economic effects on the poor worldwide with a recent focus on his home state, Iowa; and Baltimorean Jenny Graf Sheppard, the creator of the video, Site Specific and Everywhere, about the Occupy movement.

At the opening of Facing Democracy at the Goethe-Institut, Washington/patricia leslie

The unframed photos on the wall of discontent and upheaval are mostly the “in your face” variety, dramatic and powerful. Looking at them, a viewer’s hearing sense is triggered, and the imagined sounds of the times become quite real. The pictures are reminders of the sacrifices the participants made to be there and their contributions to the movement to awaken the world to the needs of the 99 percent and the consequences, if ignored. They made me nostalgic for the lost opportunity to join Occupy activists.

At the opening reception, Goethe-Institut Director Wilfried Eckstein welcomed guests and asked “Where is democracy going?”

 

Wilfried Eckstein, right, director of the Goethe-Institut, Washington, welcomed Lucian Perkins, one of the featured artists in Facing Democracy/patricia leslie

 

The Occupy movement was “the largest protest I’ve covered in 27 years," said Mr. Perkins, "especially with Mitt Romney’s 70 percent comment.” Occupy “did play a role in the election, and we’ll have to see what happens,” he said.

After the reception, the Institut hosted the screening of a series of 12 short films entitled Why Democracy, made by filmmakers from around the world.

 

The photo show and the films are part of several events which explore the future of democracy and will culminate in a panel discussion, Mapping Democracy:  Utopia and Renewal with Athens and Munich representatives on February 24 from 2 - 4 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut. 

 

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Click here for the film schedule in the Mapping Democracy series. The Goethe-Institut "organizes and supports cultural events that present German culture abroad and that further intercultural exchange," according to its website.

 

What: Facing Democracy  

When: Now through February 24, 2013 on Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

 

Where: FotoGalerie, Goethe-Institute, 812 Seventh Street, Washington, D.C. 20001

How much: No charge

Metro stations: Gallery Place-Chinatown or walk from Metro Center (10 minutes)

For more information: 202-289-1200

 

 

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National Symphony Orchestra tickets on sale for $11

Frederic Chopin playing the piano in Prince Radziwill's Salon, 1887/Henryk Siemiradzki and Wikimedia Commons.  At the end of the piano seated beside the standing woman is, perhaps, Prince Radziwill, looking at the viewer and bearing a strong resemblance to Congressman James Moran (D-VA). What do you think? Emanuel Ax and the National Symphony Orchestra will play Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2, April 4 and April 5, 2013. 

You must purchase a minimum of three tickets at $11 each for National Symphony Orchestra performances to take advantage of this outstanding sale. No handling fee.

Deadline to purchase is February 22, 2013.

Music lovers:  How can you beat this? 

Offered are concerts on Thursday and Friday nights (no Saturdays or pops) at the Kennedy Center.

You may call the subscription office at 202-416-8500, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and talk with a human or log on, according to the card in the mail, to nationalsymphony.org/TriplePlay and order, however, just like last year, I am still (after triple plays) unable to log on.  Or find that site.  Whatever.  It's a deal which I bought last year ordering from a person.

Here are a quick calendar and programs for the remainder of the 2013 season.   Click here for more description.

Feb. 21 and Feb. 22:  Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto

Feb. 28 and Mar. 1: Nordic Classic Cool (Sibelius)

Mar. 7 and Mar. 8: Mozart's Requiem

Mar. 28 and Mar. 29: Beethoven's Violin Concerto

Apr. 4 and Apr. 5: Emanuel Ax plays Chopin

Apr. 25: Beethoven and Tchaikovsky

Apr. 26: Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and more

May 2: Elgar's Cello Concerto

May 3: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5

May 30 and May 31: Respighi and Ravel

June 6 and June 7: Dvorak's Violin Concerto

June 13 and June 14: Ravel and Vaughan Williams

June 20: Thibaudet plays MacMillan

June 21: Thibaudet plays Saint-Saens

$33 (total) will get you three seats on Tier 2, however, $66 buys three better seats on the orchestra level, or $99 will get even better seats on orchestra. 

  
Hurry since the offer may be withdrawn at any time (i.e., when NSO reaches target sales).



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'Shock' art at the National Gallery of Art exits Sunday

Kim Rugg, No More Dry-Runs, 2008, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., gift of the Collectors Committee, 2009

 

This is one of those outstanding exhibitions that you want to remain permanent, so you can go by the National Gallery and study the pictures again and again, and uncover more intrigue upon every visit.

So much art and not enough time.  Folks, just one more day.

Shock of the News at the National Gallery of Art is absolutely must viewing for anyone remotely associated with news or art or history which pretty well includes everyone in Washington, D.C, or why are you here?

The power of art.

This show begins in 1909 with a front page story in Le Figaro by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian poet and playwright. "Le Futurisme" is about the birth of futurism, a column so audacious and inflammatory, it launched the movement, "shock of the news."

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Le Futurisme in Le Figaro, February 20, 1909, newspaper, collection Ohnesorge Martin-Malburet

About four years later, Pablo Picasso embedded a piece of newspaper in his collage, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass, which, according to the event catalog, "was widely considered the first self-consciously modern work of art to incorporate real newsprint."

 

Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass,1912, Collection of the McNay Art Museum, bequest of Marion Koogler McNay

Subsequently, a new art forum was born which spread rapidly throughout Europe and to the U.S. It pierced cubism, Dadaism, and futurism, embracing artists like Man Ray, Georges Braque and Juan Gris.

The exhibition includes 65 paintings, sculpture, prints and other media, arranged chronologically and tracing the development over 100 years. (Interestingly, in the first gallery on the right wall, half of the pieces feature the word “glass” in their titles.)

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Said National Gallery Director Earl A. Powell III at the opening, the show shapes “our understanding of modern artists’ responses to the newspaper,” calling the presentation the first to offer an “examination of the newspaper as both a material and subject.”

The show is not newspaper design work, but artists' creations employing newspapers. (Overheard on steps to the Mezzanine: “What’s Shock of the News about?” Answer: “Oh, I saw it in Chicago. It’s comic strips.” Not!)

Many of the pieces make political statements, especially renderings made after World War II: Stalingrad, the German occupation of France, the Black Panthers, Sino-American relations, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin, Palestine, Patrice Lumumba and Moise Tshombe, and oh! Salvatore Dali. He devoted a newspaper to himself. Shocking. Who would have thought?

Salvadore Dali, Dali News, November 20, 1945, The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL

In the third and last gallery is a work by Sarah Charlesworth reminiscent of the National Gallery's neighbor across Pennsylvania Avenue, the Newseum which features daily window displays of newspaper front pages. Ms. Charlesworth's Modern History: April 21, 1978 shows a portion of the front pages of 45 newspapers and treatment by their editors of a photograph of kidnapped former Italian prime minister, Aldo Moro, who was killed on May 9, 1978 by members of the paramilitary organization, the Red Brigades.

Sarah Charlesworth, Modern History, April 21, 1978, Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Justin Smith Purchase Fund, 2003

Kim Rugg in “No More Dry Ruins," (2008) cut out every letter from the August 8, 2008 edition of the Financial Times and rearranged them in alphabetical order (illustration at top).

Robert Gober redesigned a wedding page from a 1960 New York Times to include a small story about his own death by drowning at age 6. The article claims his mother was held for questioning.
Perhaps Gober's mother ignored child rearing to concentrate on her wedding business (if she had one) since another Gober piece (Newspaper, 1992) focuses on a photo of a bridal gown advertisement and Gober is the bride in wedding attire! Running on the same page is the story of a beating death of a youth by his mother.

Robert Gober, Newspaper, 1992, the artist and Matthews Marks Gallery

Still another article on Gober's Newspaper, 1992 page describes the Vatican's stance against gay rights which, according to the catalog, annoyed the Catholic Church when the work went up in 2000 at a San Francisco show.

Just before the exhibition's entrance, do not overlook, on the right, Mario Merz’s To Mallarme (2003) which is stacks of 2003 Italian and Arabic newspapers laid out over almost 24 feet with the words, in blue neon, translated from the French, “a throw of the dice never will abolish chance.”

This title comes from Stephane Mallarme’s 1897 poem, "Un coup de des jamais n'abolira le hasard." The newpapers' publication dates coincide with George Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Some of the other artists represented in the exhibition are Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Jorge Macchi, Paul Sietsema,Paul Klee, Max Weber, the Guerilla Girls, Hannah Hoch, Joseph Beuys , Andy Warhol, Laurie Anderson, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenberg, Semen Fridliand, and Paul Thek.

The catalog of 200+ pages has many color illustrations and provides rich background about the artists and their works. It was written by Judith Brodie, the National Gallery's curator and head of the department of modern prints and drawings, who spent five years developing the exhibition.

Hurry, before they disappear.

The exhibition was made possible by the Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Foundation. The Corinne H. Buck Charitable Lead Trust helped with the publication of the catalog.

What: Shock of the News

When: Open daily from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Saturday, and 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Sunday.

Where: East Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Fourth Streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W.

How much: No charge

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Metro stations: Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial-Archives, or the Smithsonian

1 Year Subscription to Vanity Fair Print & Digital - only $15!

 
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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra rocks with Rachmaninoff

Sergei Romaninoff, age 12/Wikimedia Commons

To hear guest pianist Garrick Ohlsson play Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto is to enjoy a sensual experience which is not plentiful enough in anyone’s life. 

At Strathmore last weekend, music lovers sat like statues without moving while Ohlsson and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra played what is considered one of the most, if not the most, difficult of all piano concertos,  which was also the composer's (1873-1943) favorite piano concerto.

Garrick Ohlsson/instantencore.com

Some audience members draped over railings, others leaned forward with elbows on knees, chins resting on palms, hypnotized and afraid they might miss one of the many notes.  Equally as spellbound as their parents and grandparents were the young people who attended.

The hands of the pianist, who was the first American to win the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition (1970), raced up and down the keyboard all night, crossing each other and moving almost as quickly as a hummingbird's wings.  

Ohlsson said later that memorization plays no role in his performance for he’s played Rach 3 “thousands of times,” and it has become part of his persona. His brain and fingers know what to do.

Maestro Marin Alsop and the orchestra complemented the pianist splendidly, and it was no surprise at the end when audience members, who filled the house, leaped up, applauding madly and shouting "Bravo" to four encores.

Conductor Marin Alsop/Opus 3 Artists

In a 30-minute conversation with audience members afterwards, Conductor Alsop said enthusiasm for the production helps her determine future programming, and the crowd cheered. 

Ohlsson began studies at Julliard when he was 13, and heard "Rach 3" the next year.   His teacher ordered him to play it at age 15 to avoid intimidation, he said.

Alsop and Ohlsson answered questions from the audience, bantering back and forth, quite at ease with themselves and each other. Approximately half the Strathmore house stayed late to listen.

Oh!  Crusted tilapia, couscous, and salad for $19.95 at the Strathmore restaurant. Great price and delicious, but the meal's pleasure is diluted by having to eat it on your lap because of insufficient tables and chairs.  Please, Strathmore.

Free parking at the Metro parking garage next door!

BSO concerts coming up at Strathmore:

Jan. 24:  Hairspray in Concert, 8 p.m.

Feb. 2:  Pictures at an Exhibition, 8 p.m. (Hindemith, Mozart, Mussorgsky by Ravel)

Feb. 7:  Stephen Hough plays Liszt

And on March 4 Ohlsson joins the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center to play Grieg's Piano Concerto No. 1.


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