Recommended viewing for Samuel Barber’s birthday: H. Paul Moon’s “Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty.” The award-winning documentary about the great American composer (world-famous for his “Adagio for Strings”) aired nationally on PBS back in 2017 and is now available for streaming on demand on Vimeo and elsewhere.
Watch the trailer here:
Barber makes a wish in 1977
Happy birthday, Sam! It’s a good day for a trip to the Barber.
While I think of it, on a slow news day, I want to remind everyone that the exhibition “Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature” is now on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. But not for much longer!
For all us latent Romantics – by which I mean those of us with a predilection not for flowers and candlelit dinners, but rather withered trees, wan moons, ruined monasteries, wayside shrines, lonely seashores, and heavy woolen cloaks – Friedrich is the ne plus ultra of emo German painters. Anyone with an extensive classical music record collection or a long acquaintance with literary paperbacks will recognize his work, which has adorned many an album and book cover.
I’ve been waiting for this show for months, ever since I was tipped off about it by H. Paul Moon, who saw it in Germany in 2023 (and made a five-minute film about it). For one reason or another, I hadn’t been able to make it in to the city for anything other than a concert or work since the show opened on February 8.
The other week, all at once, I became conscious of the sands of the hourglass, as I realized my calendar for the coming weeks was filling up fast, AND I DID NOT WANT TO MISS IT! In a rare act of spontaneity, I hopped the train on a rainy Friday for a whirlwind round-trip, at the heart of which I was able to spend a couple of hours at the Met Museum. It was 100-percent worth it.
Hard to believe, for an artist whose 250th anniversary was last year, that this is the first comprehensive exhibition of his works in the United States. I loved it! If it sounds at all appealing to you, if your taste runs to E.T.A. Hoffmann, Byron, Poe, or Wagner, there’s still time to brood, but you need to act soon. Hie thee to the Met by May 11!
For more information:
H. Paul Moon’s pictures at an exhibition:
My earlier post on the subject:
I used one of Friedrich’s most famous canvases to illustrate this post from 2022 about a favorite television series from the golden age of A&E. Does anyone else remember “The Romantic Spirit?”
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2024494677717812&set=a.279006378933326
To coincide with Good Friday, documentarian H. Paul Moon unveils his new film of Douglas Balliett’s “St. Mark Passion.” The film dropped at 8:00 this morning (3 p.m. Jerusalem time) and is now archived for viewing on demand.
If you don’t have time to listen it today, do try to catch it over the weekend. The idiom is attractive, the work is substantial and, although I only learned of it as the premiere showing was already in progress (I joined it about 45 minutes in), it strikes me as music that will bear repeated listening.
The performance was captured at New York’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and features the Theotokos Ensemble, with the composer himself directing and playing viol.
If you’re a regular attendee of concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Balliett’s name and visage may strike you as familiar – his twin brother, Brad, with whom Doug frequently collaborates (as the Brothers Balliett), is the PSO’s principal bassoonist. Brad is also on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School, so it’s possible you might recognize him from those places too!
Doug teaches at Juilliard as well, as a professor of Baroque bass and violine. He writes cantatas for weekly church services and leads the Theotokos Ensemble every Sunday at St. Mary’s Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. As a performer, he has played with many notable ensembles. Prior to its premiere, his “St. Mark Passion” was given a reading by one of them, William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants. Not bad!
He’s also a poet, and for three years, he hosted a radio show dedicated to living composers with his brother on WQXR.
Here’s Paul’s film of the oratorio. Try it; you’ll like it.
https://zenviolence.com/balliett
Learn more about Doug Balliett at his website.
Elaborating on the Brothers Balliett and the ten-point “manifesto” that governs their creative process:
https://www.dougballiett.nyc/brothers-balliett
Doug’s remarks about the Passion:
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