Larry Fink's "Vanities' at Schmidt-Dean

On disrespecting Streep and Beatty

Larry Fink's latest exhibition is like an extended browse through the "Parties" pages of Vanity Fair. The show probably holds more interest for movie fans who want to see some of their favorite stars with their guards down.

Andrew Mangravite

Nov 01, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Heath Brothers: Vintage jazz at the Perelman

Good riddance to jazz clubs?

Even in their 80s, the jazz legends Jimmy and Tootie Heath still make terrific sounds together. They differ on just one issue: Does jazz sound best when served in clubs or in concert halls?

Lewis Whittington

Oct 29, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Andrew Bird in Wilmington

Love me, love my sound equipment

Has technology changed the nature of musical performance? If a concert involves recordings, in what sense should it be considered a “live” performance?

Judy Weightman

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Classical Symphony's "likeable music'

Do I hear a saxophone?

Karl Middleman presented five pieces, including a world premiere, that prove the music of the last 70 years can be just as likeable as any divertimento penned by Mozart and Haydn.

Tom Purdom

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Hamptons Abstract Expressionists in New York

Out in the Hamptons

David Findlay Jr. has opened its new digs on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue with a double exhibition. “East End: Artists of the Hamptons” shows nine painters, sculptors, and graphic artists from the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, while “Walter Kuhlman: Images from the West” offers a suite of splendidly executed monotypes whose dim figures suggest a Dantesque progress.

Robert Zaller

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Mendelssohn Club with Orchestra 2001

From Poland to Istanbul

The Mendelssohn Club and Orchestra 2001 presented a joint concert that spanned a broad range of modern musical styles.

Tom Purdom

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

'Our Class' at the Wilma (1st review)

Where were you in the war, classmate?

In the devastating Our Class, the Polish Catholic playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek plumbs a monstrous (and true) subject: The lives of ten members of a school class in a Polish town whose Jews were incinerated en masse by their Catholic neighbors.

Steve Cohen

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

The end of the Orchestra?

Enjoy it while you can

The Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit featured Lang Lang's mannered performance of the Liszt First Piano Concerto between Faure's wistful Pavane and Shostakovich's epic Tenth Symphony. The Orchestra was in good form, but the looming question remains: for how long?

Robert Zaller

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 6 minute read

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Russian Suite'

Big names, hard work, dazzling technique... But what does it mean?

Are celebrity artists really the answer for the future of ballet? This performance by the former Bolshoi icon Alexei Ratmansky offered too much of the ballet confection that's immediately pleasing to the taste of audiences, and little of substance or meaning.

Jonathan M. Stein

Oct 25, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

John Logan's "Red' at Suzanne Roberts (2nd review)

The agony and the agony

John Logan's Red dramatizes the ageless tension between art and commerce. Yet not every artist was as angry and even paranoiac as Mark Rothko.

Steve Cohen

Oct 23, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read