CLASSICAL NOTES
Ever since Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt established herself as the premiere 21st-century Bach pianist, one regards every new repertoire vista with special anticipation.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YRYXVGQ4HVHLFHMEVNM6QPGJIE.jpg)
Hewitt meets Scarlatti. Ever since Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt established herself as the premiere 21st-century Bach pianist, one regards every new repertoire vista with special anticipation. At her 8 p.m. Tuesday recital at the Kimmel Center, she pairs Bach contemporary Domenico Scarlatti with later composers of his adopted home, Spaniards Albeniz and de Falla. No doubt Scarlatti won't be quite as refined as usual. Information: 215-569-8080 or www.pcmsconcerts.org.
- David Patrick Stearns
Accordion mashup. If you've never given much thought to the accordion, much less its diaspora across time and culture, a concert film to premiere Thursday at the Wagner Free Institute of Science promises to correct the knowledge gap. Conceptual artists Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere discovered in the Wagner's archive that the institute hosted concerts in the 19th century, and they revived some of that Victorian music - but in a very different context. Their film, Memory of a Time Twice Lived, was shot in Philadelphia and Mexico City and explores 20th-century mythic heroes, the Wagner collection, the 1962 French science-fiction film La Jetée, and late Mexican masked wrestler El Santo. Along the way, you'll hear performance footage from a concert at the Wagner that includes the William Tell Overture and Washington Post March - played by the New York Mexican Norteño band Jarana Beat, which includes guitars, drums, vocals and, yes, the itinerant accordion. www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org.
- Peter Dobrin
Laurie and her dog. Does Laurie Anderson really expect the world to listen to her talk about her dog for an hour and call it an artistic experience? This singer/songwriter/social commentator is devoting her latest film and Nonesuch-label CD to her longtime (and now deceased) rat terrier, Lolabelle. Even having met the animal in question, I regarded this new project suspiciously. However, the story becomes an exploration of animal perception, loss, and post-9/11 New York with the sort of depth that has marked Anderson's work in recent years. Is it poetry? Music? Storytelling? I call it unforgettable. - D.P.S.
EndText