Category Archives: The Lesser Blog

Tetzlaff’s Triumph

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

David Hume says somewhere in his philosophical works that you can’t be proud of the Pacific Ocean—the idea being that you need to have some sense of relationship or ownership to warrant pride, and no one can own the Pacific … Continue reading →

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Glass and Reich

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

Perhaps the most interesting thing about hearing the music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich together—as last week’s three concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music allowed New Yorkers to do—is the discovery of how very different they are. It’s … Continue reading →

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Up Close

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

I have always loved the Pacifica Quartet, but I have never before listened to them play from five feet away. Last night, sitting in the front row of the Cosentino Winery’s barrel room, I was practically as close to the … Continue reading →

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Perfect Programming

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

One of the reasons to attend summer musical festivals is that the work of deciding what’s likely to be worth hearing has already been intelligently done for you. In the case of Music@Menlo this is especially true, since the deciders … Continue reading →

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Purposeful

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

The Old Woman is many things, but a linear narrative in dramatic form it is not. Adapted from a Daniil Kharms story by Darryl Pinckney and staged by Robert Wilson, this astonishingly inventive production, now playing at BAM, is faithful … Continue reading →

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Impromptu

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

I might be wrong, but I think it was Alan Ayckbourn who said that when he was very young and first going to the theater, he always hoped that something would go wrong, because that would lend any performance an … Continue reading →

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Four Nights of Music

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

The Bay Area has been a hotbed of concerts recently, and I’ve been out four nights in a row to something good. This would be a record of sorts even for New York, and in my part of California it’s … Continue reading →

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Tetzlaff in San Francisco

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

There could be no finer way to spend a Sunday evening than listening to Christian Tetzlaff perform Bach’s solo pieces for the violin, and Sunday, May 11 was no exception to this. Davies Hall did not fill up completely, but … Continue reading →

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Heavenly Handel

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

First, I just want to crow about the fact that I spotted the baritone Douglas Williams nearly a year ago, when he appeared briefly on the multi-faceted Ojai North! program dreamed up by that year’s artistic director, Mark Morris.  In … Continue reading →

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Sigmar Polke

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Wendy Lesser

The Sigmar Polke retrospective that just opened at the Museum of Modern Art is enormous, filling ten galleries plus the second-floor atrium, and covering the German artist’s entire career, from 1963 (twenty-two years after his birth) to 2010 (the year … Continue reading →

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