Daily Archives: January 6, 2012

Concert: Lara Downes brings fantastically fresh takes on Bach’s Goldberg Variation Aria to Gallery 345 on Jan. 13

Posted by —

0

Vienna-educated San Francisco native pianist Lara Downes has thrown off the stiff cloak of tradition in favour of something much more freewheeling and stylish.

On Friday the 13th, Toronto has its first opportunity to hear Downes live. At Parkdale’s Gallery 345, Downes presents 13 ways of Looking at the Goldberg, Variations on Bach’s Aria, a 45-minute cycle of musically imaginative riffs, bookended by Bach’s original “Aria” (in the same way it is in the original Goldberg Variations).

This past fall, Downes released an album of the work, commissioned in 2004 by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Michigan for veteran American pianist Gilbert Kalish. Not only are the new pieces by well-known composers such as William Bolcom, David Del Tredici, Jennifer Higdon and Lukas Foss a treat, but Downes’ studio interpretations radiate an intense magnetic force wrapped in flawless technique and a silken touch.
Continue reading →

Spot the piano

Posted by —

0

Australia’s Queensland Art Gallery has created a living installation where colour-mad Japanese artist Yaoi Kusama painted a series of rooms and furnishings white, then gave coloured polkadot stickers to all young visitors.

Kusama even created an online game for this show. If you want to know more, click here.

Nazi-era intersection of the artistic imperative and personal expediency a study in grey moral sludge

Posted by —

0

Corporations cloak environmentally dubious practices with “sustainability” programs that greenwash their image. We, as consumers, repeatedly choose low price over choosing goods tied to fair trade and labour practices.

And how many of us have made small, incremental moral compromises in our daily personal and professional lives for the sake of protecting our pride or livelihood?

Such small things make the scale of what happens in totalitarian states completely unimaginable, to me, at least. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pause to reflect on it from time to time.

Classical guitarist Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the ARC Ensemble and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music has written a remarkable essay for the Orel Foundation that neatly summarizes the messiest of issues: the intersection of the artistic imperative and personal expediency in Nazi-era Germany. Continue reading →