Monthly Archives: September 2010
Quotation of the Week
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th September 2010People like to say that buying a house is the biggest purchase you’ll ever make. Well, the median price of a home in 2008 was $180,100. Having a baby is like buying six houses, all at once. Except that you can’t (legally) sell them—and after 13 years they’ll tell you they hate you. Jonathan Last…
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Roman Rabinovich Opens Lubbock Symphony Orchestra Season
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th September 2010Twenty Four year old Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich will open the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra’s 2010-2011 season with a performance of Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto. Maestro Tomasz Golka will also conduct Smetana’s Overture to the Bartered Bride and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #6. Below is a complete performance of the Prokofiev concerto with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra recorded…
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Or Son Sei Mesi
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th September 2010Puccini’s cowboy opera, La Fanciulla del West, is returning to the Met this season after an absence of 17 years. 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the opera’s world premiere at the Met. Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso sang the leads under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Puccini supervised the production which was directed by…
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Sergey Romanovsky
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th September 2010Sergey Romanovsky is a young Russian tenor who is just at the beginning of what promises to be a major career. Listen to these excerpts and you’ll be very impressed. I think he was a student when the first two of these recordings were made. This is a major talent that I hope develops without…
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Greenland to Toronto – The Clelia II
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th September 2010Below are a few additional thoughts about the Greenland to Toronto trip described in earlier posts. The Ship The 4000 ton Clelia II was built in 1990. It was one of Renaissance Cruises small ships. After the demise of that line it was a private yacht and was often chartered. It currently is one of…
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Greenland to Toronto – Part 3
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th September 2010On Friday August 20 the Clelia II anchored at Hebron, Labrador. It is the site of an abandoned Moravian mission. The history of the settlement is not a happy one. Founded in 1831 the mission disbanded in 1959. The health and living conditions of the native occupants were not good. In a lose lose situation…
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Joseph Epstein Cancels His Subscription to the NY Times
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th September 2010The writer Joseph Epstein has written a short essay on why he has canceled his subscription to The New York Times. I’m surprised it took him this long. Maybe it’s because he’s from Chicago and didn’t grow up reading the paper. I’m from Brooklyn and can remember when the paper was at the acme of…
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Greenland to Toronto – Part 2
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th September 2010On Monday, August 16, the Clelia II was in the ice fjord near Ilulissat – aka Disko Bay. Fog is very common here at this time of year; but we were lucky. The sky was clear, the wind calm, and the temperature around 50. In other words, the weather was as good as it ever…
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