Saturday, December 19, 2015

Kurt Masur, for music


My everyday memory of Kurt Masur,
who died in Greenwich the other
day, is based on luminous analog
recordings of Beethoven, meticul-
ously pressed in Japan. But my
primary memory is shared by mil-
lions; and my dearest memory, by
possibly a few hundred San Fran-
ciscans who heard him conduct
Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra,
rather less in front of us than
from within us.

Absolutely no one who lived an-
xiously through the swift demise
of the postwar division of Ger-
many, will forget Masur's exer-
cise of immense cultural pres-
tige as director of the Gewand-
haus, in demanding humane treat-
ment of East German citizens
then assembling for their free-
dom; in his patient call for dia-
logue, between the belatedly col-
lapsing government, and a people
he participated in leading from
unimaginable imprisonments.

But there was nothing in this
public intervention, that bore
an element unembodied in the
stupefying warmth of tone he
extracted from this Orchestra.
We loved that instrument, and 
we drew our own hopes from it. 
It is one of the intricately
accidental evolutions of German
culture, and has been one of its
most exacting proving grounds,
since before Félix Mendelssohn
undertook its leadership, as an 
assimilated Jew.

Who can be surprised to know,
he was responsible for the re-
invigoration of the New York
Philharmonic? Who can wonder,
that his guest conducting vis-
its to San Francisco were in-
stantly sold out? 

After conducting the Gewand-
haus that night in San Fran-
cisco, Kurt Masur unaccount-
ably found himself not seized
by one of the city's aggres-
sive hostesses, and strolled
across the street to a little
pizzeria called, Spuntino. I
could not believe my eyes as
he strode in with 2 or 3 as-
sociates, to stand in line to
order an after-concert bite 
to eat. I could not resist 
requesting his autograph. 


You know it well - the swirl-
ing, weeping fog that late; 
yellow, looming lamps of elec-
tric buses, the silence of the
cruising Jags, the belches of
the Porsches. Guys in baseball 
collars, watching limo's doub-
le-park. But, too, a tautening 
line of music, in chills that 
shouldn't soothe, but are our
beaker of refreshment, beneath
lights that flicker on.

Like a kid at the ball park, 
I shivered to offer thanks.
I don't recall that I slept
that night, and I'm sure, I
didn't mind.




























Jack Hurrell
  





Friday, December 18, 2015

"How do you shave in there?"






Audrey Hepburn cornered
Cary Grant in a Paris
hotel lift and finally
got to the bottom of
one of the great impon-
derables of American
cinema, in Stanley Don-
en's farcical thriller,
Charade (1963). I went
to see the movie with
a Dartmouth freshman
in my curiously end-
less rôle as a younger
sibling, not yet of the
shaving class, myself.







By the time of his
commencement, my in-
terest was no longer
academic, as I had
crossed the hirsute
frontier, yet still
not into the land of
road trips to the near-
est licensed premises.
Oh, I might tag along.
I even learned the cus-
tom of the determined
drive, to the nearest
place like Vassar.



But there was a frontier toward which no curiosity conducted me, toward which I really didn't venture. I saw it as a chore I could just as easily postpone. I don't mean to claim any profit by this flat procrastination, except to say that it strangely spared me any pang of abstinence. I had no sense of doing, anything; I had no sense of not doing, anything - but of course, this doesn't mean I was being very bright. Nor if it did mean anything, even to this day I could not responsibly say, it could mean only one thing. In all events, it did mean, I did not meet my Audrey Hepburn, until she was brought into my eating club as my friend's romance.





They still make fron-
tiers, I find; and I
have learned to take
them with a merrier
anticipation. Not with
any better perception,
nor with much advance
in method. But there
are pictures, to this
day, which can show an
edge or two to make
one smile, even about
oneself. Still, I know
never to expect obser-
vation to be welcomed 
as anything better than 
spying, without rever- 
ing farce.




























Stanley Donen
  director, producer
Peter Stone
  screenplay
Charade
Universal, 1963©

Robbie Beeser

Road guys
Georgia, Caucasus
Joonas Parviainen

Model for Damir Doma
Paris

Blond at border
Germany
Joonas Paraviainen














Sunday, December 13, 2015

Ombra mai fu





























Georg Friderich Händel
Serse
1738
Sir Roger Norrington
Orchestra of the Age
  of Enlightenment
David Daniels
  counter-tenor
1998

Snøhetta
Operahuset
Oslo
2008

Joonas Parviainen