Dance in NYC: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at White Light Festival

September 27, 2017January 18, 2018 arts-NY 1 Comment

Dance in NYC: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at White Light Festival

Jessica Lang Dance with Orchestra of St. Luke’s in Stabat Mater on November 1-2, 2017

Pergolesi's Stabat Mater at Lincoln Center White Light Festival in NY — Jessica Lang’s production of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater / Photo credit: Karli Cadel / Image courtesy of Glimmerglass Festival

White Light Festival presents a New York premiere of Jessica Lang Dance company production of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater on November 1-2, 2017. This year the festival is focusing on faith and its humanistic inspirations. Sacred music of Psalms is a perfect medium to highlight the sorrow, compassion, and hope for redemption and peace. Pergolesi’s delicate and sensitive music in Stabat Mater is being masterfully combined with the fluidity and lightness of movements by Jessica Lang’s dancers.

Pergolesi was born Giovanni Battista Draghi in Jesi, Italy which at the time was part of Papal States. Because his family was originally from Pergola, he was given a nickname of Pergolesi which was a common practice at the time.

Pergolesi is best known for his sacred opus Stabat Mater which was finished in 1736 right before the composer’s death from tuberculosis at age 26. The piece was written for an annual meditation on Good Friday in honor of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater had replaced the score by A. Scarlatti. Sacred psalms were not the only musical genre favored by the composer. Pergolesi’s operatic works made strong influence on his contemporaries and helped to establish the wide popularity of opera buffa. His operas were performed in Naples, Rome as well as Paris where they resulted in some tensions between those who preferred a more serious style over the new winds of theatrical productions.

The original music score for Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater was composed for soprano and alto soloists, violin I and II, viola and basso continuo (cello and organ). The recoding by London Symphony Orchestra with Claudio Abbado conducting is considered a staple of the sacred music genre.

So powerful is the music of Pergolesi that it made a place for itself in the modern world of movies and films. One of them, Farinelli (1994), a highly acclaimed Italian/French movie, was awarded the best foreign language film at the Golden Globe in 1995 and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

Jessica Lang and her dance company had premiered this production of Stabat Mater at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in 2013. The lightness of the company dancers’ movements and the melting of gestures to the music are the hallmarks of this company style. They blend incredibly well with the delicate voices carrying the melody making a natural extension of the music projecting it into space.

White Light Festival is being presented by the Lincoln Center. With the NewYorkPass your can enjoy a free tour of the historic Lincoln Center and much more. The New York Times calls the White Light Festival “the psalms bonanza” presenting “a dozen concerts featuring 1,000 years of music by composers including Bach, Handel, Telemann and Arvo Pärt”.

Book your tickets here.

Venue: Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, NY

Dates: November 1-2, 2017

Jazz in NYC: Fred Hersch Solo Piano at Village Vanguard

October 24, 2017January 18, 2018 arts-NY

Jazz in NYC: Fred Hersch Solo Piano at Village Vanguard

Piano-jazz master and composer with solo performances at a legendary NYC club on October 31 – November 2, 2017

piano jazz NYC Village Vanguard Fred Hersch — Fred Hersch / Photo credit Jim Wilkie

It’s a well known fact that every jazz musician is dreaming about performing at the Village Vanguard, a celebrated New York jazz spot. Going there is part of a sacred ritual for music fans, and for the musicians, it’s a recognition of their mastery and acceptance in the world of jazz. Pianist and composer Fred Hersch is a regular presence on the club schedule and will be performing there October 31 – November 2, 2017.

Fred Hersch is a celebrated figure on the international jazz scene. He came to fame in 1984 when he debuted with Horizons. His very sophisticated style of introspective and emotionally rich music is gaining in its depth with each appearance and recording. Hersch plays with his highly acclaimed trio, in solo concerts and in collaboration with other musicians. One such collaboration with another remarkable pianist Sullivan Fortner has taken place early in October 2017 at Bard College organized by the Catskill Jazz Factory.
An established pianist and a bandleader, Hersch is also a well-known composer and jazz educator. Being nominated for ten Grammy awards, the last two in 2017, and named a 2016 Doris Duke Artist puts Hersch at the top of the list of contemporary jazz musicians. His very personal story of near-death health crisis, a remarkable come-back and an openness about his experiences all contribute to his very distinct status among the musicians. A profile in the WallStreetJournal by Ted Gioia calls this return to life “a miracle” which brought Hersch music to the level “that doesn’t get any better than this”. Hirsch’s latest album Open Book was released in September 2017.

While jazz remains Hersch’s passion and major preoccupation, he is also a talented storyteller, with a lot to share with his readers. His new memoir “Good Things Happen Slowly” was released in September 2017. NPR’s Terry Gross interviewing Hersch had described the story in the book as what “it was like to be closeted in the jazz world, and then come out as gay and as having AIDS”.

Hersch talent is clearly reaching new highs with each new show, and the upcoming appearances at the Vanguard will surely be no exception.

Book your tickets here.

Venue: Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue, NY

Dates: October 31 – November 2, 2017

Art in NYC: Robert Motherwell Exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery

September 15, 2017January 18, 2018 arts-NY 1 Comment

Art in NYC: Robert Motherwell Exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery

Early Paintings

Chelsea Art Gallery NYC exhibition Robert Motherwell paintings — Robert Motherwell, La Belle Mexicaine, 1941;
©Dedalus Foundation, Inc./ Licensed by VAGA / Image courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery

This well-researched exhibition at Paul Kasmin gallery in Chelsea presents the early works by an American abstract expressionist artist Robert Motherwell . The show includes 18 works from 1941 to 1951 when the artist was actively searching for his style and its meaning. In 1941 he started studying studio art at Columbia University after pursuing a PhD degree in philosophy at Harvard. Building up on his interest in modernist writings and poetry, he turned to the visual arts while traveling to Europe in the late 1930s. His other influences were from the exiled surrealists leaving in New York City at that time such as Max Ernst, Duchamp, Masson. In particular, an idea of letting out the unconscious through the process of “automatic” drawing made a considerable effect on Motherwell and was further developed in his later works alternating between figurative and abstract images.

His travels to Mexico City in 1941 brought him in contact with a Chilean painter Roberto Matta, another promoter of abstract expressionism. The works made at the time of that trip, La Belle Mexicane (Maria) and Three Figures are included in the exhibition and are on public view for the first time.

Another strong influence apparent in the selection of works on view is by Piet Mondrian, the founder of De Stijl movement who had his first exhibition in New York in 1942. The minimalism of De Stijl style adapted to convey the sorrows from the Spanish Civil War can be seen in The Sentinel (1942), Recuerdo de Coyoacán (1942) and The Spanish Prison (Window) (1943-1944). It is well documented that the Spanish Civil War made a huge impact on Motherwell. His cycle of paintings Elegy to the Spanish Republic is now at the Guggenheim museum. Robert Motherwell’s book with the same title gives more ground to the subject of the cycle.

The works from the later years in the current show are turning more to abstract with an idea of automatic painting getting into action. At that time the artist also started experimenting with collages on paper and became known for his innovative style in the medium. An expose Robert Motherwell: Early Collages covers 60 works from that period.

The gallery is open Tue – Sat, 10am – 6pm

Venue: 293 Tenth Avenue, NY Dates: September 07 – October 28, 2017

The Met Fifth Avenue Roof Top Garden: The Theatre of Disappearance by Adrian Villar Rojas, April 14 – October 29, 2017

May 25, 2017January 18, 2018 arts-NY

Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theatre of Disappearance at The Met Fifth Avenue Roof Top Garden

On view April 14 – October 29, 2017

The Roof Top Garden of the Met Fifth Avenue Museum is hosting a fascinating exhibition titled “The Theater of Disappearance” by Argentinean artist Adrian Villar Rojas. The exhibition, which includes 16 large sculptures by Villar Rojas, is intertwined with multiple other events under the same umbrella title this year including film series at Berlin Film Festival and visual art shows in Greece, Austria and Los Angeles. This overarching theme seems timely today as our accelerated pace of life with at times endless pileup of stuff leads to its opposite, a void or disappearance.

Villar Rojas came to fame when at the age 32 he was selected to represent Argentina at the 2011 Venice Biennial. His next big engagement on the international art scene was at the Documenta 2013 and Istanbul Biennial 2015. Villa Rojas is known for making life-size sculptures from large animals caring heavy loads as at the Istanbul Biennial to the ruins of tumbled staircase at MoMA PS1 “LA INOCENCIA DE LOS ANIMALES” in 2013.

For current installation at the Met the artist used spectrometry and 3D scans of the artifacts from the Met collection mixing up the time periods, places, ideas and facts. Ideally the viewers have to visit this installation after seeing the originals on the floors below. The FT review notes that at times it seems that the artists is “undoing all of art history”. The ArtNews reports about Rojas’s laborious study of the Met Museum collection encompassing its all 17 departments as well as interviews with the staff as part of the creation process.

The photos from Art Summary blog lets you get a taste of the exhibition:

Photographs by Corrado Serra. Artist’s Statement The Met’s history as an institution is a testimony to America’s path as a nation. Its doors opened in 1870 with a large collection of plaster casts of sculptural masterpieces. By the mid-twentieth century, genuine artifacts had displaced the copies. Departments quickly emerged, dividing the cultural endowment into regions […]

via The Roof Garden Commission: Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theatre of Disappearance at The Met Fifth Avenue, April 14 – October 29, 2017 — Arts Summary

The Roof Top floors had to be redone with the tiles created by the artists for this installation . The particularly designed greenery were added as well as the bar. The effect of the spectacular Manhattan skyline in the background accentuates the bacchanal in the garden. Come and see it yourself.

For museum hours and more click here.

Enjoy your free visit to the Met museum with NewYorkPass!

Venue: The Met Museum on Fifth Avenue Time: till October 29, 2017

April – October 2017 Fall Art in NYC: CHIHULY at New York Botanical Garden

April 26, 2017January 18, 2018 arts-NY 1 Comment

April – October 2017 Fall Art in NYC: CHIHULY at New York Botanical Garden

Open from April 22 – October 29, 2017

World-renowned glass sculpture artist Dale Chihuly returns to New York Botanical Garden with his new installation CHIHULY. The exhibition includes 20 works combining early drawings and the latest creations.

“CHIHULY, a major new exhibition at The New York Botanical Garden spotlights world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s bold innovation in a variety of media throughout his celebrated career. Chihuly’s first major garden exhibition in New York in more than ten years features more than 20 installations and includes drawings and early works that reveal the evolution and development of his […]

via CHIHULY at New York Botanical Garden, April 22 – October 29, 2017 — Arts Summary

Dale Chihuly’s art blends easily with the nature, so this year installation at the NYBG is not the first experiment in that regard. The New Botanical Garden gives these innovative art works a genuine environment. In an interview with the ArtNet Todd Forrest, the NYBG’s vice president for horticulture and living collections stressed that “the combination of art and nature that exemplifies Dale Chihuly’s art is something that is very close to our hearts at the New York Botanical Garden.”

Chihuly came a long way in reaching the level of expression he is presenting to the public today. After years of studies and work at the top art schools in the US, he studied glass blowing at the Venini factory on the island of Murano off Venice, Italy. There and elsewhere in Europe he was able to experiment with the techniques, colors and materials that now make integral parts of his installations.

The exhibition at the NYBG is highlighting the interplay not only between the glass creations and the nature but also between daylight and nighttime illumination. The garden will open late for the visitors to experience this magic. Check the hours here.

Enjoy your free visit to New Botanical Garden with your NewYorkPass!

In addition to the art and nature there will be summer concerts in the garden. The opening concert in the series on Friday June 16, 2017, the French Connection, is featuring vocal sensation Camille Bertault and Alphonso Horne on trumpet.

Venue: New York Botanical Garden, NY

Date: April 22 – October 29, 2017

Author: arts-NY

Dance in NYC: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at White Light Festival

Dance in NYC: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at White Light Festival

Jessica Lang Dance with Orchestra of St. Luke’s in Stabat Mater on November 1-2, 2017

Jazz in NYC: Fred Hersch Solo Piano at Village Vanguard

Jazz in NYC: Fred Hersch Solo Piano at Village Vanguard

Piano-jazz master and composer with solo performances at a legendary NYC club on October 31 – November 2, 2017

Art in NYC: Robert Motherwell Exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery