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Archive for the ‘Astor Piazzolla’ Category

John Malkovich in The Music Critic Created and Conceived by Aleksey Igudesman (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, April 17, 2026)

Posted in Aaron Wolff, Aleksey Igudesman, Astor Piazzolla, Claude Debussy, Eric Silberge, Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe, Frédéric Chopin, Gia Kancheli, Hyung-ki Joo, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Malkovich, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mario Gotoh, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Robert Schumann, Sergei Prokofiev, The Music Critic, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on April 17, 2026| 2 Comments »

[ATTENDED: April 17, 2026] John Malkovich in The Music Critic Created and Conceived by Aleksey Igudesman

Are you kidding me?  John Malkovich in Princeton?  Of course I’m going.

I had no idea what this show was about, but John Malkovich was going to be starring in it, 30 minutes from my house!  SO I grabbed us tickets.

So what is this exactly?  Well, it’s kind of a comic musical piece.  But it’s not exactly funny and it’s more musical.  Basically, a string quartet (and piano) plays some beautiful music and then John Malkovich tears it apart using actual quotes from critics at the time.  The criticism back then are brutal and, consequentially quite funny, especially when said to the performers directly.

Igudesman wrote this piece which includes some famous musical pieces (by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, Prokofiev, Ysaye, Kancheli, and Piazzolla) as well as one of his own.

Aleksey Igudesman has created a sardonic mix of the most evil music critiques of the last centuries written about some of the greatest works of music.

I didn’t know Aleksey Igudesman, but he performed with the show and his violin playing was terrific.  I have no idea if this show was written with Malkovich in mind (I assume so, see the end).   But Malkovich luxuriates in the role of the evil critic who believes the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev and the likes to be weary and dreary: “Schumann fancies himself a “composer”, while Brahms is a “giftless bastard” and Claude Debussy is simply ugly.”

Malkovich sat for much of the performance, listening to the music.  And then he would recite the scathing reviews.  By the middle of the show, the musicians started to argue back.  Especially pianist Hyung-ki Joo who directly addresses the critic and at one point even storms off. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 34: Jokes/Not Joking At All (18 December 2014)

Posted in Alternative Medicine, Arcade Fire, Art, Astor Piazzolla, Benjamin Rachlin, Caribou, Cats, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Christopher O'Riley, Cocteau Twins, Colin Barrett, Death, Dogs, Don Bartlett, Eliza Granville, Emily Berry, Essays, Five Dials, Gillian Mears, Jody Barton, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Karl Ove Knausgård, Kit Buchan, Leoš Janáček, Ludwig van Beethoven, Margaux Williamson, Matt Haimovitz, Nick Hornby, Noir, Parenting, Philip Glass, Short Story, Sigmund Freud, Stuart Evers, Sunita Solair, The Believer, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Basden on April 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

5dials34SOUNDTRACK: MATT HAIMOVITZ & CHRISTOPHER O’RILEY-Tiny Desk Concert #426 (March 14, 2015).

matthThere’s no introduction or fanfare for cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley’s Tiny Desk set.  They just start right in with a romping Beethoven piece.   I don’t know these two, but the notes say the duo has a new album out called Shuffle.Play.Listen., in which music by Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla mingles with Cocteau Twins and Arcade Fire.  There’s no contemporary music in this set, but it’s very cool nonetheless.

The Beethoven piece sounds alive and wild and very modern.  The Glass piece is slow and beautiful  The final piece is lively and playful (with hints of darkness).  It introduced as reminding O’Riley of a scene in The Unbearable Lightness of Being when Daniel Day-Lewis gets a quickie.

It’s especially fun to watch how animated Haimovitz is.  The set list:

  • Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C – IV. Allegro vivace
  • Philip Glass/Foday Musa Suso: The Orchard
  • Leoš Janáček: Pohádka – II. Con moto

[READ: April 6, 2015] Five Dials 33 Part II

After several themed issues of Five Dials we get back to the ones that I really like–random things thrown together under a tenuous idea.  It’s got some great authors and a surprising amount of large scale doodles–full page scribbles and some drawings that go from one page to the next (which works better online than in print).  Some of the giant illustrations also are fun–they are of jokey images like a memory stick that states I have only memories.  The art was done by JODY BARTON.

As with a previous issue there is a page of contributors and “The Unable to Contribute Page.”  These are journalists unfairly imprisoned (see more at cpr.org).  The Table of Contents is back, along with the FAQ: (more…)

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