Archives for February 9, 2004

I heard from two readers apropos of last week’s posting about the “Alas, not by Johannes Brahms” anecdote that inspired my “Alas, not by me” running head. I feared the story was apocryphal. Alex Ross of The New Yorker wrote to say not so:

“Leider nicht von Johannes Brahms” is unquestionably by Brahms! He wrote the words on the autograph fan of Alice Meyszner-Strauss, the composer’s stepdaughter, next to the first notes
of the Blue Danube.

I wrote back to ask for a source, but answer came there none (not yet, anyway). Shortly thereafter, though, I heard from Phil Wade, who blogs at Brandywine Books. Phil sent along an excerpt from the obituary of Brahms that ran in The Musical Times in 1897:

Brahms was incapable of any mean or underhanded action. He never indulged in newspaper controversy, but kept his views to himself. . . . The catholicity of his taste is sufficiently shown by his immense admiration for the genius of Strauss–in which he shared the views of Wagner and Von B

A friend of mine who sings jazz for a living started painting for fun last month. Like most jazz singers who live in New York and its environs, she’s as poor as an unemployed churchmouse, so she asked if I’d like one of her canvases for a birthday gift. She delivered it on Thursday, a semi-abstract study in black, white, red, and three shades of blue, done with a palette knife

I’m reading a new biography of Glenn Gould, Kevin Bazzana’s Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, which will be published in the U.S. this April by Oxford (it’s already out in Canada). Two passages caught my eye. The first is a list of Gould’s favorite books and writers:

“These hinterlands are frequently, even compulsively, crossed at one time or another by almost all who practise the arts, usually in the need to earn a living; but the arts themselves, so it appeared to me as I considered the matter, by their ultimately sensual essence, are, in the long run, inimical to those who pursue power for its own sake. Conversely, the artist who traffics in power does so, if not necessarily disastrously, at least at considerable risk.”

No, this isn’t a political commentary: I just posted a new Top Five entry about “The Artist’s Eye: Wolf Kahn as Curator,” which went up at the National Academy of Design last Friday (my birthday!) for a two-month run. I’ll sound off at greater length about this show at a later date, but for the moment, take a peek at the right-hand column, click the link for more information, then go. Soon.

I made it through the whole weekend without posting anything (except for two almanac entries and a couple of links, which hardly counts). And yes, I definitely had a happy birthday. Among other things, three beautiful women sang “Happy Birthday” to me at Caf

Courtesy of Byzantium’s Shores, a complete guide to taking (and faking) the Rorschach Test, including line reproductions of the actual inkblots used in the test.

More Lileks envy, this time inspired by his description of the slow movement of the Gershwin Concerto in F: