The New Yorker‘s classical music critic Alex Ross has been named a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, otherwise known as the genius grant.
The Observer‘s Doree Shafrir profiled Mr. Ross in 2007, describing his book, The Rest Is Noise, as follows :
The culmination of 10 years’ worth of work, Noise is a Read MoreThe New Yorker‘s classical music reviewer Alex Ross, (whom the Observer‘s Doree Shafrir considers the best listener in America) and The New York Times‘ (mostly) jazz writer Ben Ratcliff have been firing off emails about pop, jazz and classical to each other and posting them on Slate for the past few days. They’re Read More
News bulletins were declaring the classical-record business dead, but I noticed strange spasms of life in the online CD and MP3 emporiums. When Apple started its iTunes music store, in 2003, it featured on its front page performers such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Read More
In March 1978, when the country was still in the throes of discomania, New Yorker classical music critic Alex Ross bought his first LP: a recording of the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s 9th Symphony. He was 10 years old. Given that Mr. Ross didn’t discover Bob Dylan until he was in his 20’s, this isn’t Read More
June 20, 2006, was a lovely Tuesday summer evening. In Carroll Gardens, the strip of neighborhood restaurants along Smith Street buzzed pleasantly. At the tiny eatery Saul, a throwback group of middle-aged to elderly folks, many of them Italian-Americans, were raising their glasses to one of their favorite sons: a real-estate broker named Allan Gerovitz. Read More
June 20, 2006, was a lovely Tuesday summer evening. In Carroll Gardens, the strip of neighborhood restaurants along Smith Street buzzed pleasantly. At the tiny eatery Saul, a throwback group of middle-aged to elderly folks, many of them Italian-Americans, were raising their glasses to one of their favorite sons: a real-estate broker named Allan Gerovitz. Read More
Anyone can be a bad cabaret artist; all it takes is no talent. You see it all the time, I’m afraid-often enough to notice, anyway. “That’s a shame,” you think with pitying eyes as you wonder what compels them to do it. What makes the ungifted performer get up onstage and perform?
I haven’t a Read More
Wednesday 27th
Have you ever wondered why New York is always teeming with Oscar parties, but you never hear anything about Grammy parties? We’ll tell you why: Rock stars can’t dress! Their idea of a snappy outfit is a shredded T-shirt over some tights, and maybe some kind of big shearling coat. Also: The Read More
