About
I decided to start a blog for three reasons:
1) People felt that there should be a part of the Threepenny website that was available only online, not in the printed magazine.
2) Some of the things I wanted to write about seemed as if they would benefit from a slightly more timely response than our usual quarterly publication permitted.
3) I was seeing and hearing so much interesting art — especially in the areas of dance and music, though also in literature, theater, and the visual arts — that I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into The Threepenny Review without taking over the whole publication. And if you are not Diderot or Karl Kraus (and I am certainly neither), it is never a good idea to write the whole magazine yourself. But I figured the rules of blogs would allow me to monopolize one of those.
I struggled to come up with a good title for the blog and at first resisted using my own name, feeling (as those named Lesser are bound to feel) that diminishment is not necessarily a selling point. But then I figured that if people named Grudge or Drudge can use their names on websites, I should certainly not be abashed at calling this The Lesser Blog. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it.
Wendy Lesser
Editor, The Threepenny Review-
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Category Archives: The Lesser Blog
Again with The Hard Nut
I have to say, I never tire of it. I must have seen this Mark Morris production at least a dozen times over the course of the past three decades, and each time I see something new in it. I … Continue reading
A German Requiem
The first time I was ever in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, back in the fall of 2003, I heard Brahms’s German Requiem. It was the first time I’d ever heard the piece performed live, and it was not a work … Continue reading
Czechs, Etc.
This week the Czech Philharmonic came to Carnegie Hall for three concerts in a row, and so did a huge number of Czechs. You could distinguish them from the normal Carnegie denizens because a) they were all dressed up—the men … Continue reading
Superlative Quintets
I am in Berlin now—a long-planned trip, so not an immediate reaction to November 5, but an escape nonetheless. It is good to be away, even if only for a short time, from the horrific goings-on I read about daily … Continue reading
Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
Something interesting and unusual is going on in New York’s musical world, and it has been going on for 125 years. So why doesn’t everybody in the city know about it already? How long does it take for a great … Continue reading
The Knights and Other Nights
There are eight million music stories in the naked city. Here are three of them: October 24: Last Thursday marked my official return to Carnegie Hall this season, and it helped that I was hearing The Knights. This small, vigorous … Continue reading
Ainadamar
Whoever decided to hire a choreographer as the director of Osvaldo Goliijov’s Ainadamar at the Metropolitan Opera made an excellent choice, because the opera desperately needed the addition of dance to make it work. The plot is thin to begin … Continue reading
Berlin Music Diary
All told, I attended eleven musical events over the course of three weeks. As is usual in my Berlin stays, none was a waste of time. Another way of putting it is that all were at least worth the 35 … Continue reading
A Photography Show in Berlin
As I hinted I was going to, I spent late April and early May in Berlin. Normally what I would be writing about here are the excellent concerts I attended—and don’t worry, I will get to them in a later … Continue reading