by Peter Cates Leonard Cohen Songs from a Room Columbia/Legacy-88697047402, CD, recorded 1968. Quebec-born singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was arguably most well-known for Hallelujah but, back in the 1960s, his Suzanne and That’s No Way to Say Goodbye held their own as very frequently sung. The lyrics dealt with politics, loneliness, integrity, faith – the […]
by Peter Cates Grieg Peer Gynt Suite No. 1; Symphonic Dances; Two Elegiac Melodies Sir John Barbirolli conducting the Halle Orchestra; Mercury MG 50164, LP, recorded August 9, 1957. Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) forged a musical style that was compounded of his life experiences amidst the beauties of the Norwegian landscape; health issues and one major […]
by Peter Cates Paragraphs from E. B. White I offer two paragraphs from E.B.White’s One Man’s Wheat in which he writes about the movies from the sweet peace of his Brooklin, Maine, farm in May 1939: “There is no movie house in this town so I don’t get to many pictures; but I keep in […]
by Peter Cates Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Ida Czernecka, pianist, with Laurence Siegel conducting; Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballet excerpts; Alberto Lizzio cond.; Orbis CCC 001, CD, recording date unknown. Ida Czernecka was born in 1949 in Bratislava, Slovakia, and has lived there since. She is well-known there as a pianist and teacher but […]
by Peter Cates Last week, I listened to a live link, via computer, from the Bucharest, Romania, Radio Hall; it is one of two major venues in that city to see classical music concerts, the other being the Atheneum. And very frequently, these concerts can be heard worldwide on romania muzical. The concert featured the […]
by Peter Cates A poem very suited for Mother’s Day from Elijah Parish Lovejoy (written when he was already living in the Mid-West during the 1830s and would be killed on November 7, 1837, by an angry mob for his anti-slavery editorials, two days short of his 35th birthday) taken from the 1854 Native Poets […]
by Peter Cates A few weeks ago, I covered E.B. White. Today I have an opening paragraph from his April 1939 entry in One Man’s Meat: Saturday. A full moon tonight, which made the dogs uneasy. First a neighbor’s dog, a quarter of a mile away, felt the moon – he began shortly after dark, […]
by Peter Cates The Carol Sudhalter Quartet Live at St. Peter’s Church; Carol Sudhalter, baritone sax and flute; Patrick Poladian, piano; Kevin Hailey, double bass; and Mike Campenni, drums. Alfa Projects AFPCD194, CD, a recorded live concert, from March 7, 2018, at New York City’s St. Peter’s Church. Carol Sudhalter, now in her 70s, has […]
by Peter Cates Heckle and Jeckle 4 cartoons, posted on YouTube. From 1946-1952. Among the funniest animated characters, right up there with Foghorn, Wiley and Bugs, were two blisteringly arrogant magpieish partners in crime, Heckle and Jeckle. These semi-birds/buzzards of too many feathers were among the creations of animator Paul Terry (1887-1971); he launched Terrytoons, […]
by Peter Cates Ginastera String Quartets 1 and 2 Henschel Quartet; Arte Nova-ANO 721250, cd, recorded December 9, 10 and 14, 1999. Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983) was born in Buenos Aries, Argentina, to a Catalan father and Italian mother. In addition to composing a huge legacy of […]