Anglophile And Russophile Classical WETA-FM Continues To Deepen Classical Music Mini-Crisis In America; Baltimore Symphony Rushing To Rescue

Another day of the New Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, playing absolutely no American classical music, despite huge helpings of Telemann, Torelli, and minor English and Russian classical composers. Obviously, the Republocrat elites running WETA rely on poorly-educated market-researchers and huckster software, rather than thinkers, in preparing their playlists.

Please write to WETA Chairman Sharon Percy Rockefeller and demand that Classical WETA-FM Radio contain one-tenth to one-fifth as much American classical music content as WETA-TV contains American television and film content! Demand that the intellectual task of preparing Classical WETA-FM playlists -- for which Classical WETA-FM is currently unqualified -- be turned over to the classically-trained staff of the Library of Congress Music Division for a transitional period of at least one-year!

Sharon Percey Rockefeller
CEO & President
WETA
2775 South Quincy St.
Arlington, VA 22206
tel 703.998.2600

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Wednesday, March 7 at 7:00 pm -- LOUIS C. ELSON MEMORIAL LECTURE
THE CLASSICAL MUSIC "CRISIS" AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT ITby Joseph Horowitz (no tickets required) Library of Congress

"Joseph Horowitz, author of Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall (2005) and artistic director of Washington’s Post-Classical Ensemble, traces the decline of classical music in this country and suggests ways to revitalize it. It will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with musicologist Karen Ahlquist, George Washington University, and Christina Sheppelmann, artistic administrator, Washington National Opera."

Performances and Lectures at the Library of Congress, 2006-07

Shouldn't Sharon Percy Rockefeller also be on this panel attempting to justify her ways of raising and using private contributions and public funds to hinder the development of American classical music culture?

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"RADIO is our most intimate medium — it wakes us in the morning, follows us into the shower, accompanies us during commutes and becomes a lifeline in emergencies. But radio is struggling to attract and retain an audience.

Today in Congress, the executives from XM and Sirius who propose merging into a $13 billion satellite monopoly will argue that consolidation offers the best hope for reviving radio. Traditional broadcasters also favor consolidation. In October, the National Association of Broadcasters asked the Federal Communications Commission to relax ownership limits in local markets, so companies could control yet more stations per town.

But does anyone believe that consolidation has been good for radio? During the past five years, I’ve traveled the country asking people to describe what has happened to their local stations, and not one has told me that radio is better than it was a decade ago. Listeners complained that their favorite local D.J.’s, talk show hosts and reporters have disappeared, replaced by syndicated shows, automated programs, predictable song cycles and endless commercials.

Before the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed a company to own up to eight radio stations in a single market and an unlimited number nationwide, one could hear the sounds of Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Seattle through their local radio stations. Today, big-brand stations dominate the dial coast to coast. Radio no longer makes our hometowns feel like home.

Satellite radio companies grew during the 1990s by delivering refreshingly uninhibited content, mostly commercial-free. Although terrestrial broadcasters prevented XM and Sirius from providing local news and programming, the “satcasters” attracted more than 13 million paying customers." ...

Eric Klinenberg "Saving Radio in the Satellite Era" New York Times February 28, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/opinion/
28klinenberg.html?pagewanted=print

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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Celebrates A Living Classical Music Culture in America!

"We’re calling it a season, but it’s really more of an adventure. A musical adventure conducted by a deeply knowledgeable and accessible tour guide we’re proud to have as our new Music Director. Maestra Marin Alsop brings a masterful technique, unsurpassed musical credentials, and boundless energy and creativity to the BSO and to the Baltimore/Washington area. She has the uncanny ability to make the classic and the new equally relevant and exciting to you. World-class orchestra meets brilliant conductor.

Your Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has truly earned its place among the world’s most respected orchestras. Its electrifying performances have brought critical acclaim and a devoted following locally, nationally and
internationally. Adding Maestra Marin Alsop to such an accomplished group of musicians raises the artistic bar to even greater heights.

Something classic. Something contemporary. Something for everyone.

From the symphonies of Beethoven to the works of living composers, Marin Alsop and the BSO bring it all to life. The season opens with the perfect combination of two extremely powerful works, one classic, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, and one contemporary, John Adams’s Fearful Symmetries. And the excitement builds from there with star-studded guest soloists including pianists Garrick Ohlsson and André Watts, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pops favorite Michael Feinstein and folk legend Art Garfunkel. Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu, George Takei, and the BSO SuperPops bring you a Sci-Fi Spectacular, while the Charlie Chaplin film City Lights gets a new twist with live accompaniment from the orchestra. And of course, there are the great classics. From Bach to Brahms, Mozart to Mendelssohn, Dvoˇrák and beyond.

Composers put down the pen and pick up the baton.

The 2007-2008 season brings you modern-day masters, with the works of 11 living composers, five of whom will be conducting their own compositions and all of whom will be discussing them. They’ll join Maestra Alsop onstage after the concert for
one-on-one conversations with the audience during our new Q&Alsop. It’s wonderful to admire a great piece of music. But it’s truly a great opportunity to delve into the context of the music and ask a composer, “What was the inspiration for that
passage?” It’s like hearing Beethoven’s personal take on the famous first four notes of his Fifth Symphony."

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 2007-08 Season Featuring Eleven Major Works By Living Composers















Sarmatian Winged Horsemen and Winged Horsewomen rushing to the Gates of Western and American Classical Musical Culture in order to prevent it from being taken over by WETA-FM's Republocrat troops of classical music hucksters.

Photo credits: www.russellhooverstudios.com and Wikipedia Commons. With thanks.

Intellectual Responsibility: When Silence Is Not Golden: Conversations With Mstislav Rostropovich And Galina Vishnevskaya

"What is the responsibility of intellectuals to other artists and thinkers whom they know are being repressed by their respective governments in other parts of the world? What can they do? What should they do? And does it matter?

The following is an excerpt from conversations with music critic Claude Samuel and world-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, Bolshoi Opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya. Rostropovich was born in Baku, [Azerbaijan]. The home in which he was born was recently converted into a home museum and the street named after father and son cellists - Leopold and Mstislav.

The observations about how intellectuals should be active grew out of their own personal experience in assisting Russian composers Prokofiev and Shostakovich whose works were censured for a period of time under the restrictive Soviet regime. But then the spotlight was turned on Rostropovich and Galina themselves in 1970 when they befriended dissident writer [Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, 1970] Alexander Solshenitsyn (author of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and later the three volume "Gulag Archipelago" describing the horrors of the prison camps in Siberia, which he himself had survived and had lived to tell the story).

Rostropovich invited the writer and his family to spend the winter at his dacha outside of Moscow, as he had no place to live. Then the musician wrote an Open Letter in support of the maligned writer. But his humanitarian gesture brought on retaliation. Soviet authorities turned the spotlight on the musicians and revoked their citizenship and stripped them of all the music honors and privileges while they were on a two-year tour in the United States. This meant the Lenin and Stalin medals, which were the ultimate awards bestowed in the Soviet Union by some of the most respected and highly qualified musicians and music critics in the world. It's an understatement to say that Rostropovich and Galina were shocked by the decision.

Here, Galina and Rostropovich with French journalist and renowned music critic Claude Samuel discuss the responsibility of artists and intellectuals when they learn that fellow artists are being repressed by their governments." ...

Claude Samuel Azerbaijan International AZER.com Summer 2005


















Mstislav Rostropovich, World renown cellist, painted by Tahir Salahov. On display at the Rostropovich Home Museum in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the musician was born. The portrait was prepared specifically in 1999 for the Rostropovich Home Museum. [The Museum, and the Street on which it is located, honor both Mstislav and Leopold Rostropovich, Mstislav's father; who was also a cellist.]

Image credit: (c) Tahir Salahov and Azerbaijan International(AZER.com.) All rights reserved. With thanks.

Studying Islamic Medieval And Renaissance Proportion And Beauty Before Bombing It

"In the beauty and geometric complexity of tile mosaics on walls of medieval Islamic buildings, scientists have recognized patterns suggesting that the designers had made a conceptual breakthrough in mathematics beginning as early as the 13th century.

A new study shows that the Islamic pattern-making process, far more intricate than the laying of one’s bathroom floor, appears to have involved an advanced math of quasi crystals, which was not understood by modern scientists until three decades ago.

The findings, reported in the current issue of the journal Science, are a reminder of the sophistication of art, architecture and science long ago in the Islamic culture. They also challenge the assumption that the designers somehow created these elaborate patterns with only a ruler and a compass. Instead, experts say, they may have had other tools and concepts.

Two years ago, Peter J. Lu, a doctoral student in physics at Harvard University, was transfixed by the geometric pattern on a wall in Uzbekistan. It reminded him of what mathematicians call quasi-crystalline designs. These were demonstrated in the early 1970s by Roger Penrose, a mathematician and cosmologist at the University of Oxford.

Mr. Lu set about examining pictures of other tile mosaics from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, working with Paul J. Steinhardt, a Princeton cosmologist who is an authority on quasi crystals and had been Mr. Lu’s undergraduate adviser. The research was a bit like trying to figure out the design principle of a jigsaw puzzle, Mr. Lu said in an interview.

In their journal report, Mr. Lu and Dr. Steinhardt concluded that by the 15th century, Islamic designers and artisans had developed techniques “to construct nearly perfect quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns, five centuries before discovery in the West.”" ...

John Noble Wilford "In Medieval Architecture, Signs of Advanced Math" New York Times February 27, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/science/27math.html?em&ex=1172811600&en=4dfef8ec91176cf5&ei=5087%0A


















Sayeh Barimani
Born in May 6,1959
MA in Architecture, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

Group Projects
300 bed hospital (Meshed, Iran)
University of Basic Science (Babolsar, Iran)
Designing of 150 bed hospital (Sari, Iran)
Director of planning of Razi psychiatric hospital (Tehran, Iran)
Sport complex (Bonab, Iran)
Legal medicine center (Teheran-Kahrizak, Iran)
Research and physical programming Center of the New Stock Exchange (Tehran, Iran)

Personal Projects:
Factory for the manufacture of metal pieces for telephone cables (Shiraz, Iran)
Four story Residential complex (Tehran, Iran)
Renovation of three residential apartments (Tehran, Iran)
Designing and construction of a residential house (Pool- house, Sari, Iran)

Photo credit: (c) www.caroun.com. With thanks.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Leaves National Symphony And San Francisco Symphony Miles Behind By Programming Eleven Major Works By Living Composers

"Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's incoming music director, announced an exciting and unusual inaugural season Tuesday that will feature all nine of Beethoven's symphonies as well as major works by 11 living composers.

It will be the first time that the BSO has played the entire Beethoven cycle in one season. The 2007-08 programming also includes works by leading composers Aaron Jay Kernis, Steven Mackey and Joan Tower. Five composers -- John Adams, Tan Dun, James MacMillan, Thomas Ades and HK Gruber -- will conduct their own music.

It is an infinitely more thought-provoking season than the one the National Symphony Orchestra offered for 2006-07, which has been much criticized for its timidity and reiteration of standard repertory. The NSO will announce its 2007-08 season, the last under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, next Tuesday.

"Conceptualizing this season and weaving it together was a wonderful challenge and tremendous fun," Alsop, the first woman in history to take on the leadership for a full-time, full-size and top-ranking American orchestra, said in a statement. "This inaugural season with the Baltimore Symphony offered me an opportunity to capitalize on the strengths and history of a terrific orchestra and set out my vision for an orchestra in the 21st century." ...

Tim Page "BSO Unveils Lineup for Marin Alsop's First Season" Washington Post February 28, 2007 via Topix.net

http://www.topix.net/content/wapo/
3626207798030853917910989354281387152963

All Subscription Seats Just $25!!

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra















Aerial View of Fort McHenry [right of photo], Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Fort McHenry, as many Americans once upon a time knew, was the birthplace of the American National Anthem.

Photo credit: NOAA Magazine [U.S. Department of Commerce]. MARINE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND WETLAND RESTORATION MEET AT FORT MCHENRY. With thanks.

Mr Cogito Remembers His Classical Youth Among The Ruins And Shakes His Tin Cup For The Oakland Youth Orchestra And Kairos Youth Choir

Michael Morgan tours Greece with Oakland Youth Orchestra [California]

This June, Michael Morgan will lead the Oakland Youth Orchestra on its first tour of Greece. The orchestra’s five-concert tour of Crete and Greece will take place June 19-30, with performances scheduled for Heraklion, Hania, Delphi, Athens and Patras. OYO is busy with preparations and fundraising for scholarships to make it possible for all the young musicians to participate in this big adventure.

For details about the tour, and how you can help, please visit their website.

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Greek Odyssey Gala

Sunday, March 4, 2007, 3 til 7 pm
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, Oakland, California
4700 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland

Special guests: Kairos Youth Choir, Berkeley's Premiere Children's Choir



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Love Among the Ruins by Robert Browning

I.
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles,
Miles and miles
On the solitary pastures where our sheep
Half-asleep
Tinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stop
As they crop--
Was the site once of a city great and gay,
(So they say)
Of our country's very capital, its prince
Ages since
Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far
Peace or war.

II.
Now,--the country does not even boast a tree,
As you see,
To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills
From the hills
Intersect and give a name to, (else they run
Into one)
Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires
Up like fires
O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall
Bounding all,
Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed,
Twelve abreast.

III.
And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass
Never was!
Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads
And embeds
Every vestige of the city, guessed alone,
Stock or stone--
Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe
Long ago;
Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame
Struck them tame;
And that glory and that shame alike, the gold
Bought and sold.

IV.
Now,--the single little turret that remains
On the plains,
By the caper overrooted, by the gourd
Overscored,
While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks
Through the chinks--
Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time
Sprang sublime,
And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced
As they raced,
And the monarch and his minions and his dames
Viewed the games.

V.
And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve
Smiles to leave
To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece
In such peace,
And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey
Melt away--
That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair
Waits me there
In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul
For the goal,
When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb
Till I come.

VI.
But he looked upon the city, every side,
Far and wide,
All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades'
Colonnades,
All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,--and then,
All the men!
When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand,
Either hand
On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace
Of my face,
Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech
Each on each.

VII.
In one year they sent a million fighters forth
South and North,
And they built their gods a brazen pillar high
As the sky,
Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force--
Gold, of course.
Oh heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!
Earth's returns
For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!
Shut them in,
With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!
Love is best.












Interior of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, Oakland, California, North America

Photo credit: (c) Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, Oakland, California. With thanks.

Truth And Reconciliation May Come To MET Opera: Peter Gelb Plans Eight New Productions For 09-10 And Kentridge's Staging Of Shostakovich's 'The Nose'

..."Gelb said the 2009-10 season -- the first he fully programs -- is likely to include eight new productions. The latest addition is Valery Gergiev conducting William Kentridge's staging of Shostakovich's "The Nose."

There have been two changes to the seven productions Gelb announced last year for his first season, with Luc Bondy directing Puccini's "Tosca" instead of George C. Wolfe and Bartlett Sher replacing Bondy in Offenbach's "Les Contes D'Hoffmann." ...

In the midst of his first season at the Met, Gelb said there have been 61 sold-out performances, up from 22 last season, and that 83 percent of potential box-office income to date had been sold, up from 74 percent at this point last year. ...

He also said the Met plans a May announcement on new commissions."

Ronald Blum Associated Press Writer "Levine to Conduct Just 4 Operas at Met" CBSNews.com February 28, 2007

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/27/ap/
entertainment/mainD8NIBRRG0.shtml




























William Kentridge "The General" (B&W)
1993-8
Drypoint
47.25 x 32in / 120 x 80cm
Edition of 15.
Collection of Mr Cogito.

Image credit: (c) William Kentridge 1993-8. All rights reserved. Courtesy of Robert Brown Gallery.

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William Kentridge "Receiver", 2006

A limited edition book of 22 etchings, drypoints & photogravures by W. Kentridge, with 7 poems by [Nobel-Prize laureate, 1996] Wislawa Szymborska; with separate, unbound, signed photogravure by W. Kentridge. Published by Dieu Donne Press with Galamander Press.

Milena Kalinovska's essay on William Kentridge and Oleg Kudryashov, entitled "Points of Contact". [Under Kentridge or Kudryashov at link below.]


" An art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check and nihilism at bay…."
-William Kentridge

" I draw that what I see inside myself or that what I cannot talk about yet cannot forget."
-Oleg Kudryashov


Robert Brown Gallery.

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)

Attempting To Step Out From MET Opera's Avant-garde Shadows, New York City Opera Hires Avant-garde Administrator And Scouts New Stages

"Gerard Mortier, one of the opera world’s pre-eminent modernizers, who made his mark over a quarter century with sometimes shocking, up-to-the-minute productions, will become general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera in 2009.

Mr. Mortier, now the director of the much larger and more complex Paris National Opera, will succeed Paul Kellogg, who leaves in May as general and artistic director.

The appointment of such a major international figure is a coup for the No. 2 house in Lincoln Center. It represents a challenge to the behemoth across the plaza, the Metropolitan Opera, where a new general manager, Peter Gelb, has shaken up its hidebound ways.

In a telephone interview from Paris today, Mr. Mortier said he would halt the company’s intense and protracted effort to find a new home, which included failed attempts to move to Ground Zero and to a nearby site on Amsterdam Avenue. Instead, the company will stay put in the New York State Theater, whose stage was built for ballet, but will travel for performances elsewhere in the city. He said he had recently visited the Apollo Theater, the Hammerstein Ballroom and the Armory." ...

Daniel J. Wakin "New General Manager at New York City Opera" New York Times February 27, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/
arts/music/27cnd-opera.html?hp

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Also see Paul Griffeths "Messiaen's Excursion Into Rapturous Opera" New York Times October 17, 1999

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/
fullpage.html?res=9A00E5D91430F934A25753C1A96F958260





























Gerald Mortier production of Offenbach's Gerolstein.

Will there be room for outstanding new American opera at a reborn, post-modern New York City Opera?

Photo credit: Copyright © Dr. Dieter David Scholz 2002 www.dieter-david-scholz.de With thanks.

Austrian Embassy, In Washington, D.C., To Host Spring Festival Of Song: 10 Lieder Recitals From The Viennese Classic To The 21st Century

An das Lied: Festival of Song 2007

Program Overview:
Wednesday 04.11 | 7:30 pm
Wolfgang Holzmair, Susanna Philipps, Hermine Haselböck, Russell Ryan
Hugo Wolf: The Spanish Songbook
In cooperation with the Vocal Arts Society, tickets $35.00


Monday 04.16 | 7:30 pm
John Dickie, Markus Vorzellner
Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven


Wednesday 04.18 | 7:30 pm
Jesse Blumberg, Thomas Bagwell
Franz Schubert: The Fair Miller Maid (Die schöne Müllerin)


Friday 04.20 | 7:30 pm
Arisa Kusumi, Thomas Meglioranza, Thomas Bagwell
Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf


Tuesday 04.24 | 7:30 pm
Scott Murphree, Robert Gardner, Thomas Bagwell
Gustav Mahler


Saturday 04.28 | 7:30 pm
Hermine Haselböck, Volker Nemmer
Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker and Erich Wolfgang Korngold


Wednesday 05.02 | 7:30 pm
Anna Maria Pammer, Markus Vorzellner
Alban Berg, Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern


Friday 05.04 | 7:30 pm
Johannes Föttinger, Markus Vorzellner
Ernst Krenek, Arnold Schönberg and Egon Wellesz


Monday 05.07 | 7:30 pm
Elisabeth Linhart, Markus Vorzellner
Kurt Anton Hueber, Wolfram Wagner, Andreas Wykydal and Julia Tsenova


Thursday 05.24 | 7:30 pm
Mathias Hausmann, Markus Vorzellner
Songs on Texts by William Shakespeare

Austrian Cultural Forum | Washington, D.C.















Scene from Friedrich Cerha's Der Riese vom Steinfeld [The Giant from the Flinty Field] starring Thomas Hampson in the title role and Diana Damrau as the Young Woman.

Photo credit: (c) Axel Zeininger and medianotes.com. With thanks.

Audiences Up Only Nine Percent Over Disenlightenment Years, MET's Gelb Declares Efforts To Sustain And Re-Energize The Art Form Have Only Just Begun

New York, NY (February 27, 2007) — "Two thirds of the way through his first season as General Manager, Peter Gelb – together with Music Director James Levine – announced plans today to expand the number of new productions, high-definition transmissions into movie theaters, and other audience outreach initiatives for the 2007-08 season. The season will open on Monday, September 24, with Mary Zimmerman’s new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Maestro Levine. With the company currently experiencing a dramatic increase in attendance – the first box office improvement in six seasons – Gelb announced plans for seven new productions in 2007-08, the most new productions the Met has presented in one season since its inaugural 1966-67 season at Lincoln Center. He also announced plans to increase the number of high-definition transmissions into movie theaters from six to eight, a reflection of the significant success of this new method of reaching opera lovers throughout the world.

“So far, this season has proven that with a recipe of dynamic new productions, great singers, and a more direct approach to the public, it is possible to reach a wider and younger audience, while still serving our loyal audience,” said Gelb. “However, our efforts to sustain and re-energize the art form have only just begun.”

James Levine said, “The successes we have had in increasing the audience and reaching out to a broader public have brought a new exuberance to the artistic offerings as well. The variety and richness of next season’s repertory is extraordinary, and the sense of excitement and anticipation in the company is palpable.”

The Met’s efforts to revitalize its repertory next season begin with an accelerated schedule of new productions. In addition to the season-opening production of Lucia di Lammermoor (September 24), which stars Natalie Dessay, the other new productions include Verdi’s Macbeth (October 22), staged by former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Adrian Noble, conducted by Levine, and starring, Željko Lucic and Andrea Gruber; Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride (November 27), directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Louis Langrée, with Susan Graham in the title role and Plácido Domingo as Oreste; Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (December 24), the Met’s winter holiday presentation, in a new staging by Richard Jones and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, featuring Christine Schäfer and Alice Coote; Britten’s Peter Grimes (February 28), directed by John Doyle and conducted by Donald Runnicles, featuring Neil Shicoff and Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role; Philip Glass’s Satyagraha (April 11), directed by Phelim McDermott of London’s Improbable theater company in the work’s Met premiere, conducted by Dante Anzolini, with Richard Croft, as Gandhi ...


New Initiatives


“Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” expands within New York City this season through a partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. The Met will transmit at least four opera performances into public schools in all five boroughs at no cost to the schools. “We are thrilled that our students will have the opportunity to experience the magic of opera through these live broadcasts, thanks to the generosity of the Met and their corporate sponsors,” said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. “Our partnership with the Met will help support and augment arts education programs in our schools.”

The Metropolitan Opera Guild will partner with the Met and the NYC Department of Education to develop educational materials for teachers, students, and families.

Corporate sponsors will partner with the Met to make important contributions to this program: Panasonic will provide “1080i” HD projectors to each school; Dolby Laboratories’ Production Services will calibrate each auditorium and install specialized audio decoding equipment; and Bell Express Vu will provide “6100” satellite dishes and receivers for each location.

Great Performances at the Met, the new television series from Thirteen/WNET that is broadcasting all six of the performances in the current HD series, continues its partnership with the Met next season. The 2006-07 series of six broadcasts marks the most complete Met operas ever presented by PBS in one season.

The programs, delivered to movie theaters in Dolby Digital 5.1 with surround sound ...

Opera companies around the country have joined forces with the Met’s HD transmission series to promote live opera in their communities, including Arizona Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Pacific, Sacramento Opera, Opera San Diego, Connecticut Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Minnesota Opera, St. Louis Opera, Opera Cleveland, Knoxville Opera, Greensboro Opera Company, and Dallas Opera.

...

Principal Guest Conductor Valery Gergiev revisits two operatic masterpieces by Prokofiev, both of which he introduced to the Met in recent seasons. The Gambler, a gripping interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s tale of compulsion, addiction, and madness, is brought to life by many of the same Russian singers who were hailed for their portrayals at the opera’s Met premiere in 2002, notably Vladimir Galouzine and Olga Guryakova leading the cast. The epic War and Peace – the biggest production the Met has ever done – also returns under Maestro Gergiev’s baton. Prokofiev’s moving adaptation of the Tolstoy novel calls for 68 solo roles and numerous extras to depict the battles and balls of Imperial Russia. The predominantly Russian cast includes several debuting artists, and American bass Samuel Ramey will repeat his acclaimed performance as General Kutuzov."


Full Press Release

The Metropolitan Opera Web-site

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With thanks to Alex Ross and The Rest Is Noise for the MET attendance statistic in headline.













The Kirov/Mariinsky Opera Production of Prokofiev's War and Peace [Peace and War]: Warfare where it belongs ... on the operatic stage.

Photo credit: www.mariinsky.ru Kirov, Mariinsky Opera, [St] Petersburg, Russian Federation. With thanks.

Peter Gelb Theatens 'Partial Re-Nationalization' And Rebirth Of The Metropolitan Opera House By Mounting Back To Back American Operas In Spring 2008

"The Metropolitan Opera will present seven new productions next season, the most since it moved into Lincoln Center in 1966, and intensify its campaign to make opera hot — or at least mildly picante in a media-saturated world.

In an interview on Monday about his future plans, the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, said he was pressing forward with his strategy of bringing in co-productions of new stagings from other houses, effectively adopting the out-of-town tryout system of Broadway. That way the productions can appear more polished and dramatically effective in the big house off 65th Street.

An opera company’s pride often lies in presenting a production for the first time, he said, but for him, “the pride is in a great performance.”

So a production of Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” is to play at the Met next season after a run at the Seattle Opera. Philip Glass’s “Satyagraha” is receiving its start in workshops by the English National Opera. And Donizetti’s “Fille du Régiment” comes courtesy of the Royal Opera House in London.

The other new productions include Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” which will open the season, with the soprano Natalie Dessay; Verdi’s “Macbeth”; Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes”; and an English-language version of Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” a Welsh National Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera production reconceived by the Met for special holiday performances.

Mr. Gelb, who is in his first season as general manager, has staked the Met’s future on deepening the theatrical presence on the stage, exemplified by his hiring of the film and theater director Anthony Minghella to direct this season’s opener, “Madama Butterfly,” which sold out and will return next season. While most of next season’s plans were already in place before his arrival, Mr. Gelb has made his mark by bringing in directors with mainly nonoperatic experience.

They include Mary Zimmerman for “Lucia,” Richard Jones for “Hansel” and John Doyle (who won a Tony Award for “Sweeney Todd”) for “Grimes.” The leaders of London’s theater troupe Improbable will direct “Satyagraha.”

The new productions brought in by Mr. Gelb are “Lucia,” “Hansel and Gretel” and “Satyagraha.” Mr. Gelb acknowledged that new productions are expensive but said that ticket sales and increased donations brought in by their buzz would make up the cost, and then some. He said ticket revenue this year already equals last year’s total....

Tan Dun’s sprawling new work, “The First Emperor,” which ran to mixed reviews but full houses this winter, will return at the end of the 2007-8 season for three performances. Mr. Gelb said he had asked Mr. Tan to make cuts to improve the dramatic flow. “He didn’t have the benefit of a rewrite,” Mr. Gelb said.

One reason for bringing the work back, he said, was to have it ready for a tour to China tied to the 2008 Olympics. The tour is not a sure thing, but Mr. Gelb said Chinese government officials had expressed strong interest, even promising financial support. “The Met would like to go,” he said." ...

Daniel J. Wakin "Met to Add Seven New Productions for 2007-8" New York Times February 27, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/
arts/music/27met.html?pagewanted=print
















Scene from Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton's recent opera, Waiting for the Barbarians, based upon novel by Nobel-Prize laureate [2003] J.M. Coetzee. The work -- which is, in part, a reflection on torture, power, and language originally set on the colonized shores of the Black Sea -- has been performed in Erfurt, Germany and Austin, Texas; but not in the major operatic centers of Europe/Russian Federation; North America; or Japan/China.

Photo credit: Agence France Press via www.geencommentaar.nl. With thanks.

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Fernando Botero Abu-Graib painting [ca. 2003] on display at the Main Library of the University of California, Berkeley, through the middle of March 2007.

Continuing Its Boycott Of American Classical Music, WETA-FM Programs Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov's First Symphony, But No Ives, Griffes or Sessions

Again today, the new Classical WETA-FM, in the nation's capital, continues its boycott of American classical music by programming 0 minutes of music by American classical composers.

TODAY'S PLAYLIST
Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The station has announced that it will begin refunding recent contributions -- large and small -- of those offended by WETA's anti-American classical music programming, as it seeks to replicate the reactionary, commercial-driven classical programming of the former WGMS.

For refunds or to register a programming complaint, write or call:

WETA
2775 South Quincy St.
Arlington, VA 22206
tel 703.998.2600

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Among today's beneficiaries of WETA-FM anti-Americanism are Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov and Richard Addinsell.

"The Warsaw Concerto was written for the 1941 film, Dangerous Moonlight, and continues to be a popular piano piece. The film-makers wanted something in the style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, but were unable to persuade Rachmaninoff himself to write a piece. Although Addinsell created the melodic material, the job of producing a concerto in the style of Rachmaninoff fell to Roy Douglas.

Addinsell also wrote the short orchestral piece "Southern Rhapsody", which was played every morning at the start of black-and-white TV broadcasts by the former Southern Television company in southeastern England from 1958 to 1969. Like much of his film music, it has been heard by millions of people who do not know either its title or the composer's name, and is still fondly remembered even today.

Addinsell also collaborated from 1942 with Joyce Grenfell, for both West End revues (including Tuppence Colored and Penny Plain) and Grenfell's one-woman shows.

For many years he lived at Chichester Terrace in Brighton with his close friend, the fashion designer Victor Stiebel." (Wikipedia)


























Boycotted American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes, composer of the American impressionist orchestral masterpieces The White Peacock and The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan.

"Charles Tomlinson Griffes played an important role in the development of the American art song. Griffes possessed one of the most distinctive voices in American music" (United States Library of Congress)

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"After early studies on piano and organ in his home town, Griffes went to Berlin for four years to study composition with Engelbert Humperdinck. On returning to the U.S. in 1907 he began teaching at the Hackley School for boys in Tarrytown, New York, a post which he held until his early death 13 years later.

Charles Griffes Griffes is the most famous American representative of musical Impressionism. He was fascinated by the exotic, mysterious sound of the French Impressionists, and was compositionally much influenced by them while he was in Europe. He also studied the work of contemporary Russian composers (for example Scriabin), whose influence is also apparent in his work, for example in his use of synthetic scales.

His most famous works are the White Peacock, for piano (1915, orchestrated in 1919); his Piano Sonata (1917-18, revised 1919); a tone poem, The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, after the fragment by Coleridge (1912, revised in 1916), and the Poem for Flute and Orchestra (1918). He also wrote numerous programmatic pieces for piano, chamber ensembles, and for voice. The amount and quality of his music is impressive considering his short life and his full-time teaching job, and much of his music is still performed. His unpublished Sho-jo (1917), a one-act pantomimic drama based on Japanese themes, is one of the earliest works by an American composer to show direct inspiration from the music of Japan.

He died of influenza — possibly the infamous Spanish flu — at the age of 35, and is buried in Bloomfield Cemetery in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey. His papers passed to his younger sister Marguerite who chose to destroy many that explicitly related to his gay life. ...

Griffes kept meticulous diaries, some in German, which chronicled his musical accomplishments from 1907 to 1919, and also dealt honestly with his homosexual lifestyle" ... (Wikipedia)

Photo credit: Music Division, Library of Congress.

American Orchestral Musician Web-Based Resource To Conduct Virtual Discussion With Focus On Diversifying Membership Of American Orchestras

Polyphonic.org - the online resource for orchestral musicians - will be conducting its latest Virtual Discussion Panel this week with a focus on diversifying [American] orchestras.

"Diversity in the symphony orchestra means a lot of different things depending upon where you are. In Vienna it means finally allowing women to hold full positions in the 21st century, a situation that was corrected in the US quite a while ago with the advent of behind-screen auditions. In the US in the early 20th century, it might have meant hiring American-born musicians rather than Europeans. And certainly in the past few decades, it has meant hiring more African-American and Latino musicians.

But looking across the continent at the makeup of symphony orchestras, the ratio of men to women in professional orchestras is pretty even while the percentage of African-Americans and Latinos in symphonies is well below their ratio in the population. On the other hand, the percentage of Asian musicians in orchestras is higher than their percentage in the population.

Most orchestras are located in urban areas, many of which are primarily inhabited by people of color, yet symphony audiences are predominantly white, usually coming from the suburbs. Should an urban community care about its orchestra if it does not reflect the ethnic make-up of the community? Beyond presenting community outreach performances designed to appeal to the resident ethnic communities in the city, do orchestras have an obligation to do more? To diversify the ethnicity of the musicians on stage, on staff, and on the board?

Given that auditions for professional orchestras are now held behind screens and are conducted with every attempt to hire the very best player, regardless of ethnicity or gender, should we care about the diversity of our orchestras? Is it the job of orchestras to attempt to increase the numbers of African-American and Latino musicians hired, especially if this might mean not hiring the very best player for a position? One could say that, once the identity of auditionees was kept secret, women came into their own in winning positions in symphonies. Should not the same be true for various ethnic and racial groups?

Yet most musicians would agree that the problem with diversifying orchestras ethnically and racially is the lack of African-Americans and Latinos in the audition pool. Whose responsibility is this? Is it simply because of a cultural preference for different kinds of music? What should be the role of orchestras, if any, in increasing the number of candidates of color qualified to take highly-competitive symphonic auditions?" (Ann Drinan, Senior Editor, Polyphonic.org)

Join our discussion of these and other issues involving diversity in the orchestra.

Polyphonic.org


















Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Michael Morgan, and with guest American composer and soloist DJ Spooky.

Unlike its rich uncle orchestra across the San Francisco Bay, the Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestra features an American classical work -- often a world premiere -- on virtually every program. The rich uncle orchestra across the Bay has announced no new American works for its upcoming 2007-08 concert season.

[Click on image for enlargement.]

Photo credit: www.djspooky.com. With thanks.

Easter 2007 CE And 2010 CE Give Orthodox And Western Christians Upcoming Opportunities To Celebrate Feasts Of Springtime Spiritual Life At Same Times

Easter 2007
Ash Wednesday is 21 February
Palm Sunday is 01 April
Good Friday is 06 April
(Western) Easter Sunday is 08 April
(Orthodox) Easter Sunday is 08 April


Easter 2008
Ash Wednesday is 6 February
Palm Sunday is 16 March
Good Friday is 21 March
(Western) Easter Sunday is 23 March
(Orthodox) Easter Sunday is 27 April


Easter 2009
Ash Wednesday is 25 February
Palm Sunday is 5 April
Good Friday is 10 April
(Western) Easter Sunday is 12 April
(Orthodox) Easter Sunday is 19 April


Easter 2010
Ash Wednesday is 17 February
Palm Sunday is 28 March
Good Friday is 02 April
(Western) Easter Sunday is 04 April
(Orthodox) Easter Sunday is 04 April

Source: http://www.holidays.net/easter/eadates.htm

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Early Christianity

Eastern [Orthodox] Christianity

Western Christianity

Internet Sacred Text Archives ['a quiet place in cyberspace
devoted to religious tolerance and scholarship']



























Easter lamb [Easter Bread in shape of a lamb], St. Yura's Cathedral, Lviv, Ukraine. St. Yura's Cathedral is a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and one of Lviv's numerous Baroque-era architectural masterpieces. The exterior of the building features late Baroque sculptural masterpieces by Johann Georg Pinsel.

Pinsel's smaller and less fragile masterpieces have toured throughout Poland and to Munich, Germany; but not yet to the United States of America. [One masterpiece of Pinsel was included in the Land of the Winged Horseman: Art in Poland, 1572-1764 Exhibition, which had a limited tour of the United States in 1999.]

[Imagine never having heard a performance or recording of a masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach.]

Johan Georg Pinsel on Sztuka.net [Poland]. 33 Images.

Photo credit: Copyright © 2002 Wilton Tifft. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Tifft.com Gallery. With thanks.

Russian President Putin Honors Russian And World Musician Rostropovich For Human Creativity, Development Of World Music, And Service To His Nation

"Acclaimed cellist and conductor MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH has picked up one of Russia's top honours from President VLADIMIR PUTIN. The leader signed a decree earlier today (26FEB07) awarding Rostropovich with the Order of Service to the Fatherland, First Degree, for his "outstanding contribution to the development of world music and many years of creative activity". Putin has made no secret of his admiration for the 79-year-old musician - the concerned statesman visited him in hospital in Moscow earlier this month (06FEB07) after he was admitted with an undisclosed illness. Rostropovich went into exile from the Soviet Union in 1974 after housing dissident writer ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN for four years. He later became music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington - a position he held until 1994."

Source: (c) Contactmusic.com Ltd.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/
cellist%20awarded%20russian%20state%20medal_1023298

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The Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation for the Health and Future of Children

The Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation (VRF) is a publicly-supported non-profit 501(c)(3)organization based in Washington , D.C. The VRF also maintains offices in St. Petersburg , Russia , Baku , Azerbaijan , Tbilisi , Georgia and Yerevan , Armenia .

The VRF was founded in 1991 by Maestro Rostropovich , the world-renowned Russian cellist, and his wife, the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya , to improve the deplorable state of children's health care in Russia and other Newly Independent States formerly part of the Soviet Union .

The VRF conducts sustainable public health programs for children that focus on vaccine-preventable diseases and HIV/AIDS. These programs typically include children, adolescents, and at risk health care workers. In 2006 the VRF completed a nationwide vaccination initiative against hepatitis B in the Russian Federation . Over 2 million adolescents and at risk health care workers were vaccinated during the 5-year course of the initiative. Now the Russian Ministry of Health is continuing this important work with its own resources. In the Transcaucasus countries of Georgia , Azerbaijan , and Armenia , the VRF is supporting national immunization programs against measles, mumps and rubella as part of the strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO) to eliminate measles and prevent congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) throughout the European region. In March 2006 the VRF, in cooperation with WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan , completed a mass immunization campaign against measles and rubella (MR) in Azerbaijan . Over the course of four weeks, nearly 3 million children and young adults were vaccinated against MR, effectively eradicating measles and preventing congenital rubella syndrome in the country. Similar mass immunization campaigns are planned for Armenia in the fall of 2007 and Georgia in the spring of 2008.

In April 2006, Maestro Rostropovich was named Special Representative of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Over the next three years, the VRF, which is already supporting HIV/AIDS programs in Georgia and Russia , plans to use a substantial proportion of its resources on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support among children and youth, including the reintegration of institutionalized HIV positive children and youth into society.

Recently completed projects of the VRF include:

Telemedicine Network
Children's Hospital
Pilot Vaccination Program
Water Purification
Medical Equipment

http://www.rostropovich.org/about_vrf.html














Music and the World: Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya with recently vaccinated children at an orphanage in St. Petersburg, the Russian Federation, Future European Union.

Photo credit: (c) VRF (Vishnevskaya Rostropovich Foundation, Washington, D.C.). With thanks.

Mr Cogito Adds Willy Decker's "Boris Godunov" To Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "Das Leben der Anderen" On His Future Net-Flix List

..."[German Director Willy] Decker also gets another chance to shine, in a dazzling staging of Mussorgsky's stark and brooding early version of "Boris Godunov" for Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu (TDK DVWW-OPBORIS). "Boris" operates on a much grander scale than "Traviata," but Decker's skill at visual storytelling -- not least in the sweeping movements of his large chorus -- is, if anything, even more impressive here. And he's not without his big props. Instead of a kinky loveseat and an eight-foot-wide clock, Decker's visual motifs of choice become photo enlargements of the child Czar Dimitri -- which pop up relentlessly to haunt Dmitri's murderer, the current czar, Boris -- and a two-story-tall, gilded wooden chair that's carried aloft like a national treasure by a sea of workers, and hoisted up or brought low depending upon Boris's political standing.

With a Cold War Soviet design that renders the drama all the more immediate, this production also has a strong presence at its center. Finnish bass Matti Salminen -- so arresting with that inimitable, bear-like yowl of a voice -- has never been the most emotionally communicative of actors onstage. But here, his weathered, implacable face is exploited beautifully to suggest the opacity of a middle-management drudge out of his depth in handling ill-gotten power, and lurching bleary-eyed from one decisive historical moment to the next. His performance accrues weight and tragic dimension quietly through the opera, rather than seizing attention with the kind of scenery-chewing acting that's become lingua franca among basses in this role." ...

Joe Banno "A Dramatic Flair for Opera: Vocals, Visuals Elevate DVDs" Washington Post February 25, 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2007/02/23/AR2007022300453.html















Still from German opera director Willy Decker's production of Bela Bartok's only opera, Bluebeard's Castle.

Photo credit: (c) www.musicweb-international.com. With thanks.

Bread And Circuses Relieved By A Class Act From Italian Composer And Humanist Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone official site.

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"Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series. Although only 30 of these are for Western films, it is for this work which he is best known. Morricone's sparse style of composition [sic] for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtracks of the classic [spaghetti] westerns The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968). His more recent [sic] notable compositions for film include the scores for The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986), The Untouchables (Brian DePalma, 1987), Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988), and Lolita (Adrian Lyne, 1997). He received the Honorary Academy Award (Lifetime Achievement Award) in 2007, only the second film composer to be so honoured." (Wikipedia, "containing unencyclopedic list".)

Was Leopold Stokowski and his associates the first, in 1942, for their work on Walt Disney's Fantasia?

*

Music
The Top 10 Scores of Ennio Morricone
by Andy Trudeau

With something like 400 scores to his credit, covering virtually every genre of film, the Ennio Morricone canon is extensive. This is a list of my 10 personal favorites.

Since many of Morricone's older scores have been reissued time and again, I won't list disc labels or numbers. A visit to any good CD shop should turn up what is currently in print.

As a general rule, you should avoid concert samplers. Much of Morricone's best known music fits so carefully to his orchestrations and performers that to hear it played in a different setting, by less than virtuoso players, is like drinking very warm beer.

Oscar Nominated Scores

Morricone's best U.S. scores cover a nice range, from the gently lyric, to action-dramatic to choral/symphonic.

Malena
The Untouchables
The Mission

Spaghetti Westerns

Morricone may have closed the door on writing any more western scores, but these three find him at his best. They are full of unusual instrumentations, winding melodies and often feature the superb solo work of whistler Alessandro Alessandroni and vocalist Edda dell'Orso.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Duck, You Sucker! (aka A Fistful of Dynamite)
Once Upon a Time in the West

Other Scores

What a range, from the nostalgic lyricism of Paradisoto the eerie soundscape of The Red Tent. Listen to these scores and you will understand why everyone calls Morricone "maestro."

Cinema Paradiso
The Thing
The Red Tent
Once Upon a Time in America

Source: National Public Radio

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Composer Ennio Morricone made his U.S. concert debut conducting the Sinfonietta Orchestra of Milan, in December 2006.

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2007 Academy Award Film Score Winner, for Babel, Gustavo Santaolalla, born in El Palomar, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, in 1952.

Extra! Extra! Classical WETA - FM, In Nation's Capital, Commemorates V.P Cheney's Trip To Australia By Programming Work By Living Australian Composer!

Again, not a single work today by an American composer, past or living, on the so-called New Classical WETA-FM radio station, in the Nation's Capital, Washington, D.C.

However, in a short break from wall to wall European classical music programming, there is today one short 5-minute work by a living Australian composer Graeme Koehne; a work for guitar (from a recording made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ["Exercise Your Imagination"]:

"Graeme Koehne (born 1956 in Adelaide, South Australia) is a composer. He studied with Richard Meale in Adelaide, Louis Andriessen and Jacob Druckman at Yale University while on the Harkness Fellowship, and privately with Virgil Thomson in New York. Since 1986 he has lectured in composition at Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide.

Koehne is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of triadic tonality. His orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, and Elevator Music makes allusions to Hollywood film score traditions, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms. He cites influences from "much-maligned and misunderstood" work by composers Les Baxter, Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini and John Barry." (Wikipedia)

The New Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, has now programmed works by two living composers over the past two months: Tan Dun and Graeme Koehne.

Classical WETA - FM Playlist for Friday, February 23, 2007

6:07am: Piano Concerto #18: III
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
[EMI 57803]
6:16am: Concerto, RV 454
Antonio Vivaldi
Italian Soloists
[Denon 1520]
6:26am: Tarantelle
Frederic Chopin
Bernard D'Ascoli (piano)
[Nimbus 5249]
6:36am: Violin Concerto #8 : III
Ludwig Spohr
Hilary Hahn (violin)
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Eiji Oue (conductor)
[DG 0007188]
6:46am: Festive Overture
Dmitri Shostakovich
National Symphony Orch. of Ukraine
Theodore Kuchar (conductor)
[Brilliant 6735]
6:53am: Violin Sonata A Major: IV
Cesar Franck
Yo-Yo Ma (cello)
Kathryn Stott (piano)
[Sony 87287]
7:07am: Keyboard Sonata (K. 114)
Domenico Scarlatti
Konstantin Scherbakov (piano)
[Naxos 554.842]
7:11am: Thespis: Galop
Sir Arthur Sullivan
Dublin RTE Concert Orchestra
Andrew Penny (conductor)
[Marco Polo 223.460]
7:16am: Symphony #2 "Little Russian": IV
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Russian National Orchestra
Mikhail Pletnev (conductor)
[DG 449.967]
7:27am: Bolero, Op. 51/3
Jeno Hubay
David Freuhwirth (violin)
Henri Sigfridsson (piano)
[Avie 0042]
7:36am: Il Turco in Italia: Overture
Gioacchino Rossini
National Philharmonic of London
Riccardo Chailly (conductor)
[Decca 400.049]
7:46am: Artist's Life
Johann Jr Strauss
London Philharmonic
Franz Welser-Moest (conductor)
[EMI 54089]
7:57am: The Temple of Glory: Gigue
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Jean Lamon (conductor)
[CBC 5229]
8:07am: Piano Trio, K. 502: I
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin)
Andre Previn (piano)
Daniel Muller-Schott (cello)
[DG 0006099]
8:16am: Violin Concerto: III
Antonin Dvorak
Midori (violin)
New York Philharmonic
Zubin Mehta (conductor)
[CBS 44923]
8:27am: The Brooklet (Wohin?)
Schubert/Rachmaninoff
Frederic Chiu (piano)
[Harmonia Mundi 3957054]
8:36am: Morning, Noon and Night: Overture
Franz von Suppe
Vienna Philharmonic
Zubin Mehta (conductor)
[CBS 44932]
8:46am: Triple Concerto B-flat Major
Georg Philipp Telemann
Combattimento Consort
[Olympia 342]
8:58am: Suite for Strings: English & French Gigues
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Musica Antiqua of Cologne
Reinhard Goebel (conductor)
[Archiv 0001413]
9:07am: Berceuse
Gabriel Faure
Yan Pascal Tortelier (violin)
Ulster Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor)
[Chandos 8792]
9:12am: Cello Concerto B Minor
Antonin Dvorak
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)
Berlin Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan (conductor)
[DG 413.819]
9:55am: Liebestraum #3
Franz Liszt
Daniel Barenboim (piano)
[DG 415.118]
10:07am: Symphony #24
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
[Philips 412.954]
10:19am: Piano Concerto #3
Ludwig van Beethoven
Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Vienna Philharmonic
Karl Bohm (conductor)
[DG 413.446]
10:55am: Fandango
Luigi Boccherini
Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
[Delos 3144]
11:07am: Finlandia
Jean Sibelius
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Petri Sakari (conductor)
[Naxos 557.986]
11:16am: Piano Quintet "The Trout"
Franz Schubert
Domus
[Virgin Classics 90801]
11:55am: To His Servant Bach, God Grants a Final Glimpse
Graeme Koehne
Guitar Trek
[ABC 432.698]
12:07pm: Concerto, RV 428 "The Goldfinch"
Antonio Vivaldi
Emmanuel Pahud (flute)
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti (conductor)
[EMI 47212]
12:17pm: An English Suite
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
English String Orchestra
William Boughton (conductor)
[Nimbus 5366]
12:38pm: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concentus Musicus of Vienna
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)
[Teldec 244.809]
1:07pm: Flute Quartet, TWV 43/d3
Georg Philipp Telemann
Musica Antiqua of Cologne
Reinhard Goebel (conductor)
[Archiv 0004283]
1:15pm: Piano Concerto #3
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Stephen Hough (piano)
English Chamber Orchestra
Bryden Thomson (conductor)
[Chandos 8507]
1:53pm: Carmen Suite #2
Georges Bizet
French National Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa (conductor)
[EMI 63898]
2:07pm: Voices of Spring
Johann Jr Strauss
New York Philharmonic
Zubin Mehta (conductor)
[CBS 44942]
2:14pm: Symphony #3 "Organ"
Camille Saint-Saens
Peter Hurford (organ)
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit (conductor)
[London 410.201]
2:50pm: Symphony F Major (Op. 3 #5)
Johann Christian Bach
Hanover Band
Anthony Halstead (conductor)
[CPO 999.268]
3:07pm: Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances
Alexander Borodin
Royal Philharmonic
Adrian Leaper (conductor)
[Naxos 557.986]
3:19pm: Piano Concerto #20
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Maria Joao Pires (piano)
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
Armin Jordan (conductor)
[Erato 55003]
3:53pm: Cantata #42: Sinfonia
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Consort
Roy Goodman (conductor)
[Hyperion 66501]
4:07pm: Estudiantina
Emil Waldteufel
Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra
Michel Swierczewski (conductor)
[Nimbus 5264]
4:15pm: Impromptu in A-flat Major (Op. 90 #4)
Franz Schubert
Alfred Brendel (piano)
[Philips 456.727]
4:24pm: Bergensiana
Johan Halvorsen
Bergen Philharmonic
Karsten Andersen (conductor)
[NKF 50013]
4:36pm: Concerto #6
Graf Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer
I Musici de Montreal
Yuli Turovsky (conductor)
[Chandos 8481]
4:46pm: Ivan Susanin: Waltz
Mikhail Glinka
USSR Symphony Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov (conductor)
[Melodiya 10-00166]
4:53pm: Sinfonia with Trumpet, G. 23
Giuseppe Torelli
Thomas Hammes (trumpet)
European Chamber Soloists
Nicol Matt (conductor)
[Brilliant 92401]
5:07pm: Romance #1 for Violin & Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Shlomo Mintz (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Giuseppe Sinopoli (conductor)
[DG 423.064]
5:16pm: Damnation of Faust: Hungarian March
Hector Berlioz
Boston Pops
Arthur Fiedler (conductor)
[RCA 61249]
5:22pm: Fantasy on Polish Airs
Frederic Chopin
Misha Dichter (piano)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
[Philips 411.123]
5:37pm: Banquet Music, Part 2: Conclusion
Georg Philipp Telemann
Musica Amphion
Pieter-Jan Belder (conductor)
[Brilliant 92177]
5:46pm: Concert Waltz #1
Alexander Glazunov
Philharmonia Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov (conductor)
[Melodiya 10-00162]
5:57pm: Trio Sonata, Op. 5 #7: II
George Frideric Handel
The Brook Street Band
[Avie 2068]
6:07pm: Flute Concerto G Major (H. 445): III
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Patrick Gallois (flute)
CPE Chamber Orchestra
Peter Schreier (conductor)
[DG 439.895]
6:13pm: Etude of virtuosity, Op. 72 #6
Moritz Moszkowski
Mikhail Pletnev (piano)
[DG 471.157]
6:16pm: Horn Concerto #4 E-flat Major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Peter Damm (horn)
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
[Philips 422.330]
6:33pm: Recorder Sonata, Op. 5/10
Gottfried Finger
La Ricordanza
[MDG 505.1381]
6:40pm: Dancing Master: Virgin Queen, Bobbing Joe
John Playford
Les Witches
[Alpha 502]
6:46pm: Symphony #2: IV
Robert Schumann
Revolutionary & Romantic Orchestra
John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)
[Archiv 457.591]
6:56pm: Keyboard Sonata (K. 1)
Domenico Scarlatti
Ivo Pogorelich (piano)
[DG 435.855]
7:00pm: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

8:07pm: Scherzo Capriccioso
Antonin Dvorak
Philadelphia Orchestra
Wolfgang Sawallisch (conductor)
[EMI 49114]
8:23pm: Piano Concerto A Minor
Edvard Grieg
Murray Perahia (piano)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis (conductor)
[CBS 44899]
8:54pm: Canon
Johann Pachelbel
English Concert
Trevor Pinnock (conductor)
[Archiv 415.518]
9:07pm: La Belle Helene: Overture
Jacques Offenbach
Luxembourg Radio Orchestra
Jean-Pierre Wallez (conductor)
[Forlane 13151/52]
9:17pm: Sonata A Minor "Arpeggione"
Franz Schubert
Gil Shaham (violin)
Goeran Soellscher (guitar)
[DG 471.568]
9:44pm: Cappriccio italien
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Berlin Philharmonic
Seiji Ozawa (conductor)
[DG 427.354]
10:07pm: Italian Concerto
Johann Sebastian Bach
Angela Hewitt (piano)
[DG 419.218]
10:21pm: Symphony #51
Joseph Haydn
L'Estro Armonico
Derek Solomons (conductor)
[CBS 39685]
10:50pm: Concerto, RV 548
Antonio Vivaldi
Maurice Andre (trumpet)
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Sir Neville Marriner (conductor)
[EMI 47012]
11:07pm: Violin Concerto #2
Henryk Wieniawski
Isaac Stern (violin)
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy (conductor)
[Sony 66830]
11:30pm: Violin Sonata, K. 296
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Frank Peter Zimmerman (violin)
Alexander Lonquich (piano)
[EMI 49712]
11:48pm: Oboe Concerto D Major
Georg Philipp Telemann
Sarah Francis (oboe)
London Harpsichord Ensemble
[Unicorn 9128]

In The Shadow Of The Culture Palaces: The NGA Celebrates American Music And The Freer/Sackler Celebrates Old & New Music From Japan, Turkey, And India

Music from Japan

Saturday, February 24, 2007, 7:30 pm, Meyer Auditorium, Freer Gallery

Junko Tahara, biwa (lute); Kohei Nishikawa, flutes; Akikuni Takahashi, percussion

Pre-concert gallery tour, 6:45 pm

Hear this all-star trio, direct from Japan, perform new and traditional music for the ancient Japanese lute, accompanied by flutes and percussion. Joining Junko Tahara, a master of the rarely heard biwa, are Kohei Nishikawa on fue (Japanese flute) and percussionist Akikuni Takahashi. All three are longtime members of the acclaimed Pro Musica Nipponia. Their program ranges from medieval narrative songs to a newly commissioned work by Masataka Matsuo. Presented in cooperation with Music From Japan, Inc. (New York).


Ahmet Özhan Ensemble

Thursday, March 15, 2007, 7:30 pm, Meyer Auditorium

Pre-concert tour, Arts of the Islamic World, 6:45 pm

This year marks the eight hundredth birthday of the great poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Rumi, who inspired the formation of the Whirling Dervishes and remains one of the world's best-selling authors in any language. Join this yearlong celebration of Rumi's enduring religious and literary legacy. Made possible with support of Koç Holding.

Ahmet Özhan is Turkey's leading interpreter of Rumi songs and other Sufi music. He makes a rare visit to the United States to perform not only with Whirling Dervishes at the Library of Congress (March 13) but also in recital with his musical ensemble at the Freer. Presented in cooperation with the Embassy of Turkey.



Chanoyu: Japanese Tea Ceremony

Saturday, March 31, 2007, 12 to 2 pm, Meyer Auditorium

Join masters and students from Nakamura Gakuen University in Japan for a demonstration of chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony. Curator of Ceramics Louise Cort provides commentary.



New Chamber Music from Japan

Sunday, April 1, 2007, 2 pm, Meyer Auditorium

Ruckus, with Retsuzan Tanabe, shakuhachi

Pre-concert tour, Arts of Japan, 1:15 pm

Three leading Japanese composers are on hand for the Washington premiere of their works for shakuhachi (bamboo flute), flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and piano. Composers Hiroyuki Itoh, Hiroyuki Yamamoto, and Shirotomo Aizawa participate in a discussion after the concert, which concludes the Music of Japan 2007 conference at the University of Maryland.


An Encounter with Rumi: Gardens of the Heart

Thursday, April 12, 2007, 7:30 pm, Meyer Auditorium

Two great musical traditions from India and Turkey meld their sources in imagery of nature. Neva Özgen, one of the few female masters of the Turkish kemenche (fiddle), draws upon the Sufi repertoire inspired by the poet Rumi and recites his evocative poetry on garden themes. Bansuri flutist Deepak Ram, a senior disciple of the great Hariprasad Chaurasia, joins her along with Diana Rowan on troubadour harp and Tupac Mantilla on percussion.

Enjoying the Flowers: Chinese Music and Drama

Sunday, April 22, 2007, 12 & 2:30 pm, Haupt Garden (rain location: Meyer Auditorium)

Relax in the beautiful Haupt Garden adjacent to the Sackler and enjoy rarely heard nanguan music and drama, a Chinese tradition dating from the sixteenth century. Hear the bittersweet song "Painting of One Hundred Flowers," an instrumental piece that depicts a plum tree blossoming, and a scene from the romantic drama Enjoying the Flowers. Members of the Gang-a-Tsui Ensemble, direct from Taiwan, perform, introduced by Chinese music scholar Nora Yeh of the Library of Congress.

Slanty Eyed Mama

Saturday, May 5, 2007, 7 pm, Meyer Auditorium

Pre-performance gallery tour (East Meets West), 6:15 pm.

Trip-hop spoken-word sensation Slanty Eyed Mama comes to DC with a concert of sonic poems, electric violin arias, and satirical politico-comic commentary that deconstructs images of Asians in America. The duo is made up of two Juilliard-trained "good Asian girls gone wild." Classical violin virtuoso Lyris Hung traded her bow for a guitar pick and rock 'n' roll sampler, and award-winning actor-writer Kate Rigg dominates the microphone with her wicked Nuyorasian lyrics. Dissect the show in a post-performance question-and-answer interrogation with the artists. This program is intended for mature audiences

Details for Freer/Sackler Performance Series

*

February 18
Mark Kaplan, violinist, and Yael Weiss, pianist
Music by Carter, Feigin, and Sessions
Presented in honor of Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965, as part of the Sixty-second American Music Festival
6:30 p.m.
East Building Auditorium, National Gallery of Art
Concert Notes

February 25
Alan Feinberg, pianist
Music by Babbitt, Cage, Feldman, Helps, Ives, and Nancarrow
Presented in honor of Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965, as part of the Sixty-second American Music Festival
6:30 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Concert Notes

March 4
The Contemporary Music Forum
Music by Cage
Presented in honor of Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965, as part of the Sixty-second American Music Festival

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Concert Series















Anton Henning - Interieur No. 321

Image credit: (c) Anton Henning 2007. All rights reserved. Via Frieze Art Fair 2007 (London). With thanks.

Following Success Of International Land Mine Treaty, Forty-Six Non-Militaristic And Humane Nations Push For 2008 Treaty Banning Cluster Bombs

"Forty-six nations adopted a declaration Friday calling for a 2008 treaty banning cluster bombs, saying the weapons kill and maim long after conflicts end and inflict ''unacceptable harm'' on civilians, particularly children.

Some key arms makers -- including the U.S., Russia, Israel and China -- snubbed the conference of 49 nations. Of those attending, Poland, Romania and Japan did not approve the final text.

But organizers said the declaration was needed despite the absence of key nations to avoid a potential humanitarian disaster posed by unexploded cluster munitions.

Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles which scatter them over vast areas, with some failing to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years after conflicts end until they are disturbed, often by civilians.

As many as 60 percent of the victims in Southeast Asia are children, the Cluster Munition Coalition campaign group said. The weapons have recently been used in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon, it said. The U.N. estimated that Israel dropped as many as 4 million bomblets in southern Lebanon during last year's war with Hezbollah, with as many 40 percent failing to explode on impact.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry said: ''During the recent conflict in Lebanon Israel used no munitions that were outlawed by international treaties or international law.''

Regev said if the declaration ever evolves into a treaty, then Israel would examine it and decide then how to respond.

Children can be attracted to the unexploded bombs by their small size, shape and bright colors, activists say.

While the document is not binding, organizers and activists hope it will pressure nations into halting the use of cluster bombs. Norway hopes the treaty would be similar to one outlawing anti-personnel mines, negotiated in Oslo in 1997.

''If you need proof that you can conclude a treaty without the United States, Russia and China, look at the land mine treaty,'' said Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch. Despite rejecting that treaty, Goose said, the major powers have stopped deploying land mines and the number of civilian casualties has been cut in half since 1997." ...

Associated Press "46 Nations Call for Cluster Bomb Ban" New York Times February 23, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/
AP-Norway-Cluster-Bombs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
















Cluster Bomb.

Photo credit: www.aerospaceweb.org. With thanks.

In Which Mr Cogito Asks About National Savings At A National Tax Reform Seminar Sponsored By The American Enterprise Institute In The Nation's Capital

...

"R. Glenn Hubbard: Thanks, Dale. At this time, some questions from the audience?

Garth Trinkl: Thank you for the presentation, I'm Garth Trinkl from BEA, but I am speaking for myself. Could you tie your efficient tax reform discussion into your earlier question to Dr. [The Honorable Edward] Lazear [Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers] about his chart three? I attended a tax reform discussion 20 years ago, "Tax Reform for the 21st Century" held in 1986, and many of the speakers indicated then that the tax reform would lead to increased economic growth and increased national savings.

So, could you talk a little more about net domestic savings, the business, the international components, the personal components of that, and could you tie that in, perhaps, to 1997? You talked about going back to 1997, the GDP level and the national wealth level. You talked about the revenue neutrality of this efficient tax reform proposal. Tying it all together, as my question cannot do, how do you see your efficient tax reform program addressing net domestic savings? And will it return net domestic savings to perhaps six percent over the next 10 years, including the revenue neutrality points that you made?

Dale Jorgenson [Samuel W. Morris University Professor at Harvard University]: That is a very important comment. I forgot to mention something that I should have mentioned, and that is that you have heard the executive summary, the paper is pretty long as you can see from the version that has been distributed to you. But there is an even longer version. So suppose your appetite is whetted by this challenging intellectual exchange, and you want to read the book-length version – well, here it is. It is a book called Lifting the Burden. You can tell that we are into catchy titles right? Lifting the burden, the tax burden, and it is co-authored with Kun-Young Yun.

Kun-Young Yun was, like many people here at one time, a Harvard graduate student, and we have collaborated in this area for a number of years. And he is now a professor in Korea, but he has a second life as a politician. He is now the leader of the Conservative Opposition in the Korean parliament. And I do not know what his views about US tax policy are, but I know he is following this debate. So I just wanted to mention that fact.

Now, let us go back to your question about saving. It turns out that the downward trend, as majored in the saving rate, and I think Eddy's figures are as good as indicators that I could produce on this subject, and I have produced figures, as you know, on the subject, is something that has been going on for a long time, at least 20 years. And so we go back to the 1987 reform. My analysis, and that of my co-author, we have done this in collaboration and separately, is that that did have a big boost, even though it did not do very much towards leveling the playing field between housing and business, because it leveled the playing field among different kinds of assets, which is something that I emphasized in my early life as a tax reformer.

So we do not know a lot about the story of the saving rate and why it is not keeping up with the investment rate, but that has been with us now for at least 20 years. So we have had a pretty healthy investment rate, it is just the Lazear story. But what we did not emphasize is that it goes back a long way. So I think that has to do with the international tax treatment of income. I think it is not a big mistake to focus on the fact that Microsoft, for example, which is known for its generosity, is also a big player in the transfer of income to Ireland.

And so, a lot of income that is accruing to foreigners in Ireland, for example, is accruing to US entities, namely, Microsoft and other high-tech firms that may have a manufacturing presence there, that may have a distributional presence there, but they have got a big financial presence there. And it does not take a lot of people. It just takes a pretty good-sized computer and a couple of really smart, sharp, pencil people, they used to be called. And so they get huge tax benefits. That is one of the reasons that a lot of tax experts point to the fact that US earnings from foreign investments turn out to be roughly comparable to foreign earnings of their investments in the US, despite the fact that this appears to be a situation where there is a lot more capital flowing out.

So how do we explain that? Well, I think the fact is that a lot of this so-called foreign source income, foreign source investment turns out to be US domestic investors who have these international vehicles. But I do not know that, and that is not dealt with in the book, but that is my offhand impression.

R. Glenn Hubbard: Maybe one other quick question for Dale if somebody has..."

Corporate Income Taxation and the Economy American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research June 2, 2006 Transcript















Addressing the press, President George W. Bush stands with Ed Lazear of the Council of Economic Advisers, left, and Al Hubbard of the National Economic Council, in the Rose Garden Friday, April 28, 2006. "I'm joined my two top White House economic advisors. The reason why is because we've had some very positive economic news today: the Commerce Department [Bureau of Economic Analysis] announced that our economy grew at an impressive 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of this year. That's the fastest rate since 2003," said President Bush. "This rapid growth is another sign that our economy is on a fast track."

Photo and caption credit: White House photo and caption. Photo by Eric Draper. With thanks.

In Which Mr Cogito Pauses, Removes His Spectacles, Wipes Away A Tear, And Wonders Whether His Ship Has Finally Come Home To Harbour

DEAR FRIEND,

MY NAME IS MRS. LARISA SOSNITSKAYA, PERSONAL SECRETARY TO MR. BORIS MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY,THE ARRESTED CHAIRMAN/CEO OF YUKOS OIL AND BANK MENATEP SPB IN RUSSIA WHO IS PRESENTLY IN JAIL. I HAVE THE DOCUMENTS OF A LARGE AMOUNT OF FUNDS WHICH HE HANDED OVER TO ME BEFORE HE WAS DETAINED AND TRIED IN RUSSIA ON CHARGES OF TAX EVASION AND FOR FINANCING POLITICAL PARTIES (THE UNION OF RIGHT FORCES, LED BY BORIS NEMTSOV AND YABLOKO, A LIBERAL/SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY LED BY GREGOR YAVLINSKY) OPPOSED TO THE GOVERNMENT OF MR.VLADMIR PUTIN,THE PRESIDENT THEREBY LEADING TO THE FREEZING OF HIS FINANCES AND ASSETS.

AFTER SEARCHING THROUGH THE BOOKS OF YOUR COUNTRY'S CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES HERE IN RUSSIA I AM CONTACTING YOU TO ASSIST ME TO RE-PROFILE THE FUNDS AND EQUALLY INVEST SAME ON HIS BEHALF. THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF FUNDS TO BE RE-PROFILLED IS FORTY SIX MILLION DOLLARS (USD$46,000,000.00) AND YOU WILL BE PAID 20% FOR YOUR MANAGEMENT SERVICES.

AS SOON AS I RECEIVE YOUR ACCEPTANCE IN MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS THUS: laskaya-2007*excite.com I WILL SEND YOU THE NECESSARY DETAILS AND MY IDENTIFICATION.

YOURS SINCERELY,

MRS. LARISA SOSNITSKAYA.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY RESPONSE TO THIS EMAIL WILL NOT BE APPRECIATED OR ANSWERED, PLEASE WRITE ME VIA MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADRRESS THUS: laskaya-2007*excite.com FOR FUTURE CORRESPONDENCE.

NB: YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT THIS NEW SCAM HERE.














Mr Cogito at work in his Bureau's winter-domed Employee Park on a so-called Casual Friday. In his hands is the Economic Report of the President -- February 2007 [February 12, 2007], prepared by the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Photo credit: (c) www.womenrussia.com/blacklist10.htm With thanks.

Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, Philip Glass, And Christopher Hampton To Explore 19th And 20th Century America At War Through Film And Opera In Fall 2007

"PBS and WETA Washington, DC, announced today one of the most comprehensive community engagement initiatives ever created by public television to accompany the national airing of Ken Burns's film, THE WAR, an exploration of World War II told through the experience of individuals in four American towns. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funding the community engagement effort, including the local programming and other initiatives. The project will include grants to public television stations in all 50 states to produce local programming as well as community engagement and educational outreach initiatives.

THE WAR, a co-production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, DC, is a seven-episode, 14-hour film directed and produced by Burns and his long-time co-producer, Lynn Novick. The film will premiere on Sunday, September 23, 2007, on PBS.

"We could not be more pleased with the level of outreach PBS, WETA and CPB have committed to our project," Ken Burns said. "World War II consumed the entire country, but in very different ways. We are hopeful that through local programming many of the stories of the war that go above and beyond what could be included in any one film are documented and that people throughout the country have an opportunity to share their experiences."

John Boland, PBS Chief Content Officer, said, "Community engagement is a major part of what public television stations do everyday. PBS is unique among broadcasters because our local stations can tap into their deep community roots to give even greater meaning to national programming, and this is happening on an unprecedented scale with THE WAR. Our goal is to create a national discussion about the experience of World War II -- really about the human experience of war -- by allowing people throughout the country to speak directly to their family members and neighbors and share their stories through the work of their local public television stations."

WETA, the Washington, DC, PBS station, will award the CPB-funded grants to public television stations in all 50 states. WETA is expected to announce the grant recipients this March. In collaboration with a diversity of local community groups, public television stations will reach out to a broad range of veterans and their families to capture the stories that make up the rich mosaic of America. In total, public television stations will target thousands of individual stories to be shared locally on-air, online and through community events and activities." ...

PBS and WETA Washington, DC, Announce Unprecedented National Community Engagement Campaign to Accompany Ken Burns's Film on World War II Press Release EARTHTimes.org February 22, 2007

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/
news_press_release,64575.shtml


*

Appomattox

An opera by Philip Glass
Libretto by Christopher Hampton
Music by Philip Glass

Fri. October 5, 8 pmWed. October 10, 7:30 pmSun. October 14, 2 pmTue. October 16, 8 pmThu. October 18, 7:30 pmSat. October 20, 8 pm

It was a turning point in American history, and the climax of a powerful personal drama about two proud men. After four years and the loss of 600,000 lives, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to his Union counterpart, General Ulysses S. Grant, in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, bringing the Civil War to an end.

The intense emotions of this landmark day and the historic weeks leading up to it are compellingly conveyed by the hypnotic music of Philip Glass in this highly anticipated world premiere. The dazzling creative team includes Academy Award winner Christopher Hampton (librettist), two-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe (director) and acclaimed champion of new music Dennis Russell Davies (conductor).


Robert E. Lee: Dwayne Croft
Ulysses S. Grant: Andrew Shore*
Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies*
Director: George C. Wolfe*
Set Designer: Riccardo Hernandez*
Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell*

*San Francisco Opera debut

San Francisco Opera Web-site















German World War II tower on Jersey coast.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons. With thanks.

ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT A SINGLE MINUTE OF AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC ON WETA-FM PUBLIC RADIO IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL

Sharon Percy Rockefeller, I Paid My Dues But Where Did Our Tokenist Fifteen Minutes Of Daily American Classical Music Go?

The New Classical WETA 90.9 FM

Thursday, February 22, 2007

6:07am: Symphony #5: IV
Franz Schubert
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)
[Teldec 4509-91184]
6:13am: Valse (for piano 6 hands)
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Anna & Ines Walachowski (pianists)
[Berlin Classics 0017332]
6:16am: Rondo, K. 386
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Murray Perahia (piano)
English Chamber Orchestra
Murray Perahia (conductor)
[CBS 39224]
6:27am: Hungarian Dance #11
Johannes Brahms
Berlin State Symphony Orchestra
Otmar Suitner (conductor)
[Denon 74597]
6:36am: Roses from the South
Johann Jr Strauss
Johann Strauss Orchestra
Willi Boskovsky (conductor)
[EMI 47052]
6:46am: Symphony #8: III
Antonin Dvorak
Cleveland Orchestra
George Szell (conductor)
[Sony 63151]
6:54am: Tancredi: Overture
Gioacchino Rossini
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Jaime Laredo (conductor)
[Nimbus 5078]
7:07am: Sleeping Beauty: Waltz
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein (conductor)
[CBS 44725]
7:12am: Prelude #4
Cesar Cui
Jeffrey Biegel (piano)
[Naxos 555.557]
7:16am: Oboe Concerto #1
George Frideric Handel
Brynjar Hoff (oboe)
English Chamber Orchestra
Ian Watson (conductor)
[Libra 1002]
7:25am: French Military March
Camille Saint-Saens
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy (conductor)
[CBS 38290]
7:36am: Clarinet Concerto B-flat Major: III
Theodor von Schacht
Dieter Kloecker (clarinet)
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Hans Stadlmair (conductor)
[Orfeo 290.931]
7:46am: Arabeske
Robert Schumann
Nelson Freire (piano)
[Decca 0001228]
7:54am: Alessandro: Excerpts (3)
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Musica Antiqua of Cologne
Reinhard Goebel (conductor)
[Archiv 445.824]
8:07am: Characters of the Dance
Jean-Fery Rebel
Musicians of the Louvre
Marc Minkowski (conductor)
[Musifrance 2292-45974]
8:16am: Concerto, RV 452
Antonio Vivaldi
Burkhard Glaetzner (oboe)
Leipzig New Bach Collegium Musicum
Max Pommer (conductor)
[Capriccio 10.116]
8:24am: Caprice #24
Nicolo Paganini
Angele Dubeau (violin)
La Pieta
[Analekta 28723]
8:36am: Symphony #11
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
London Philharmonic
Erich Leinsdorf (conductor)
[MCA 9808B]
8:46am: The Roman Carnival
Hector Berlioz
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Paul Paray (conductor)
[Mercury 434.328]
8:56am: Snow Maiden: Dance of the Tumblers
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein (conductor)
[CBS 36728]
9:07am: Gadfly: Romance
Dmitri Shostakovich
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Leonid Grin (conductor)
[Capriccio 10.298]
9:14am: Symphony #7
Ludwig van Beethoven
Vienna Philharmonic
Simon Rattle (conductor)
[EMI 57445]
9:55am: Le Ridicule Prince Jodelet: Sinfonia
Reinhard Keiser
Berlin Academy for Old Music
[Harmonia Mundi 90.1852]
10:07am: Swedish Dances
Max Bruch
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Kurt Masur (conductor)
[Philips 420.932]
10:18am: Piano Concerto #15
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
English Chamber Orchestra
Jeffrey Tate (conductor)
[Philips 426.305]
10:43am: Oboe Concerto B-flat Major
Johan Helmich Roman
Per-Olof Gillblad (oboe)
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Ulf Bjorlin (conductor)
[EMI 49646]
11:07am: Flute Trio #3 "London"
Joseph Haydn
Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute)
Isaac Stern (violin)
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)
[CBS 37786]
11:19am: Symphony #1 "Spring"
Robert Schumann
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
David Zinman (conductor)
[Telarc 80230]
11:52am: Variations on a Theme from "Alruna"
Ludwig Spohr
Thea King (clarinet)
English Chamber Orchestra
James Judd (conductor)
[Hyperion 66300]
12:07pm: Capriccio Espagnol
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
Kees Bakels (conductor)
[Bis 1387]
12:23pm: String Quartet #12 "American"
Antonin Dvorak
Cleveland Quartet
[Telarc 80283]
12:49pm: Divertimento, K. 137
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I Musici
[Philips 412.120]
1:07pm: Macbeth: Ballet Music (Act III)
Giuseppe Verdi
Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
Roberto Abbado (conductor)
[RCA 62651]
1:18pm: Piano Concerto #2
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam
Bernard Haitink (conductor)
[London 414.475]
1:54pm: Trumpet Sonata, G. 7
Giuseppe Torelli
Thomas Hammes (trumpet)
European Chamber Soloists
Nicol Matt (conductor)
[Brilliant 92401]
2:07pm: Gold and Silver Waltz
Franz Lehar
Vienna Volksoper Orchestra
Franz Bauer-Theussl (conductor)
[Philips 412.883]
2:16pm: Piano Trio, Op. 1 #1
Ludwig van Beethoven
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)
Itzhak Perlman (violin)
Lynn Harrell (cello)
[EMI 47455]
2:49pm: Concerto, RV 407
Antonio Vivaldi
Markus Nyikos (cello)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Hans Maile (conductor)
[Schwann 11624]
3:07pm: Polonaise Brillante #2
Henryk Wieniawski
Maxim Vengerov (violin)
Ian Brown (piano)
[EMI 57916]
3:17pm: Symphony #93
Joseph Haydn
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
[DG 429.776]
3:41pm: Concerto, BWV 1053
Johann Sebastian Bach
Andras Schiff (piano)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Andras Schiff (conductor)
[London 425.676]
4:07pm: La vie parisienne: Overture
Jacques Offenbach
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestr
Louis Fremaux (conductor)
[EMI 63023]
4:12pm: Sinfonies de Fanfares: Rondeau
Jean-Joseph Mouret
Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)
English Chamber Orchestra
Anthony Newman (conductor)
[DG 0005042]
4:16pm: Symphony #12
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concentus Musicus of Vienna
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)
[Teldec 9031-74728]
4:33pm: Symphony #2: IV
Ludwig van Beethoven
Revolutionary & Romantic Orchestra
[Archiv 439.900]
4:41pm: Gade (Lyric Piece, Op. 57 #2)
Edvard Grieg
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
[EMI 57296]
4:46pm: Concerto, RV 455
Antonio Vivaldi
Pierre Pierlot (oboe)
Venetian Soloists
Claudio Scimone (conductor)
[Erato 4509-92130]
4:56pm: Dardanus: Rigaudons
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Jean Lamon (conductor)
[CBC 5229]
5:07pm: Cello Concerto F Major : IV
Nicola Fiorenza
Gaetano Nasillo (cello)
Ensemble 415
Chiara Banchini (conductor)
[Harmonia Mundi 050302]
5:12pm: Coppelia: Waltz
Leo Delibes
Cincinnati Pops
Erich Kunzel (conductor)
[Telarc 80625]
5:16pm: The Marriage Contract: Overture
Gioacchino Rossini
Haydn Philharmonia
Ezio Rojatti (conductor)
[Nuova Era 6726]
5:23pm: Symphony #2: IV
Johannes Brahms
Cleveland Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnanyi (conductor)
[Teldec 244.972]
5:34pm: Octet #1 B Major
Carl Stamitz
Consortium Classicum
[CPO 999.081]
5:46pm: Trio Sonata E Minor (BWV 528)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Heinz Holliger (oboe)
Tabea Zimmerman (viola)
Christiane Jaccottet (harpsichord)
Thomas Demenga (cello)
[Philips 422.328]
5:56pm: Waltz C-sharp Minor (Op. 64 #2)
Frederic Chopin
Jon Kimura Parker (piano)
[Telarc 80147]
6:07pm: Concerto, RV 583: I
Antonio Vivaldi
Giuliano Carmignola (violin)
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Andrea Marcon (conductor)
[Archiv 0003849]
6:12pm: Ruins of Athens: Turkish March
Ludwig van Beethoven
Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York
Richard Kapp (conductor)
[CBS 37216]
6:16pm: Symphony #36 "Linz": IV
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
English Baroque Soloists
[Philips 422.419]
6:29pm: Piano Quintet: I-Allegro
Robert Schumann
Menahem Pressler (piano)
Emerson Quartet
[DG 445.848]
6:39pm: Concerto for Lute & Flute, SC 9: IV
Silvius Leopold Weiss
Richard Stone (lute)
Gwyn Roberts (flute)
[Chandos 0707]
6:46pm: Symphony #9
Michael Haydn
Slovak Chamber Orchestra
Bohdan Warchal (conductor)
[CPO 999.153]
6:54pm: Dubinushka
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
London Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Jaervi (conductor)
[Chandos 8783]
7:00pm: The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

8:07pm: Les Horaces: Overture
Antonio Salieri
Philharmonia Orchestra
Pietro Spada (conductor)
[ASV 955]
8:13pm: Piano Concerto #22
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Alicia de Larrocha (piano)
English Chamber Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis (conductor)
[RCA 61698]
8:49pm: Night on Bald Mountain
Modest Mussorgsky
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner (conductor)
[RCA 61394]
9:07pm: L'Italiana in Algeri: Overture
Gioacchino Rossini
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit (conductor)
[London 433.074]
9:16pm: Cello Concerto #1 C Major
Joseph Haydn
Claude Starck (cello)
Cologne Chamber Orchestra
[Schwann 316.024]
9:43pm: Masquerade Suite
Aram Khachaturian
Scottish National Orchestra
Neeme Jaervi (conductor)
[Chandos 8542]
10:07pm: Sheep May Safely Graze (from Cantata #208)
Johann Sebastian Bach
Philadelphia Orchestra
Wolfgang Sawallisch (conductor)
[EMI 85072]
10:13pm: Violin Concerto
Ludwig van Beethoven
Hilary Hahn (violin)
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
David Zinman (conductor)
[Sony 60584]
10:59pm: Bureaucratic Sonatina: I
Eric Satie
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano)
[Decca 470.290]
11:07pm: Concerto for Trumpet and 2 Oboes D Major
Georg Philipp Telemann
Ludwig Guettler (trumpet)
Leipzig New Bach Collegium Musicum
[Capriccio 10.016]
11:22pm: Violin Sonata #1
Gabriel Faure
Yo-Yo Ma (cello)
Kathryn Stott (piano)
[Sony 87287]
11:48pm: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Claude Debussy
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Andre Previn (conductor)
[Philips 426.255]













[Click on image for enlargement.]

Frederick Edwin Church, "Niagara," 1857, 42½ inches high by 90½ inches wide, oil paint on canvas, currently at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Image credit: salesianhigh.org and its Nineteen Century American Art Project. With thanks.