‘To America’
Feeling alive in a cemetery.
Magazine: Music
A Composer Who Matters
Penderecki had his own vision, all life through, and he was faithful to it, whatever it was at any given time.
On Motown
America’s best export.
Staggering Cornucopias
On books to read and music to listen to — or not.
Waxing Lyrical
In appreciation of some weird and wonderful lines.
Satchmo’s Smile
Too much, said Louis Armstrong’s critics, but they misread him.
Mahatma Jansons
Through Mariss Jansons, the great conductor, came nobility, humanity — a large-heartedness. He was extraordinary to encounter.
The Gospel According to Kanye
Chapter and verse on the rapper’s new verses.
A Critic’s Critic
On the late Martin Bernheimer.
The Turbulent Life of the Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed
A review of The Life of Lou Reed: Notes from the Velvet Underground, by Howard Sounes.