The hits keep on coming from the P&C . . .
TUESDAY
In a review of Vaud Rats: Critic Sandy Katz writes that actor K. Brian Neel “channeled Robert Downey Jr. playing Charlie Chaplin.” I’m pretty sure that Neel was influence by Chaplin, but whether he was influenced by Downey playing Chaplin seems to be another matter entirely.
THURSDAY
In a review of the fourth chamber music concert at the Memminger: Critic Jeff Johnson writes about composer “David Papper’s Requiem, a short, intense composition, features three cellos …” In fact, the composer’s name is David Popper.
FRIDAY
In a review of The Burial at Thebes: The cutline says: “Catherine Hamilton plays the title role in The Nottingham Playhouse’s translation of Sophocles’ Antigone. In fact, the translation was done by Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet and translator of Beowulf, not the theater company.
In a review of the Imani Winds’ Music in Time concert: Critic Loretta Haskell writes that the first piece on the program was written by Jeff Scott, “the French horn ensemble member and composer-in-residence.” The Imani Winds are a woodwind quintet.
Later, Haskell writes that Wayne Shorter’s composition, Terra Incognita, is “a delightful tribute to the composer.” She later says that Terra Incognita is “translated as ‘Unknown Land.’”
Again, writing about the Shorter piece: The composer’s direction to avoid “playing measures together,” Haskell writes, “classifies it as ‘chance’ music.” That’s debatable. “What a welcome and lyrical addition to that 20th century genre!” I think she meant repertoire, but I’m not sure. I know she meant 21st century.
Then she writes that the Imani Winds concert is “what live music is about and is the Music in Times series at its best.” In fact, the series is called Music in Time.
Haskell also notes with authority that the piece by composer Gyorgy Ligeti “highlighted Ligeti’s masterful play between sound and silence.” Prior to the performance of Ligeti, the audience was told by the oboist that Ligeti was a master of playing with sound and silence.
2 Comments
In one of your earlier blog posts about VaudRats, you mentioned a City Paper review that would be forthcoming. I haven’t been able to find the review in the online list. I think the show closes Sunday–the positive review I sense the show would get might provide a welcome boost to attendance.
Jeff Scott, a member of the Imani Winds, does not play a woodwind instrument. He plays a wind instrument, yes, but one that is listed in tne brass section of the orchestra.
What exactly is the point of these little “gotcha” interpolations? To catch the Post-Courier out, as it were?
Clever yes, but they make you look small, petty. No one really thinks that the P-C coverage is anything to hold up as a standard; that hasn’t been the case for a long time, even before the acid-tongued Jones became a Charleston-based critic and lost his sting.
Surely there are better returns on the investment of so much energy.