Robert Greskovic in The Wall Street Journal

[dirac]

The Wall Street Journal is offering free access to its site today. A search pulls up several articles by Robert Greskovic.

[Helene]

dirac.

If you search on "Robert Greskovic" among the access you'll be given are reviews of ABT's Sylvia, Ratmansky's The Bright Stream, and NYCB at Saratoga Springs.

All paths don't run smooth -- the first article to come up when I clicked the link was Barrymore Laurence Scherer's article on the Emerson String Quartet's recordings of the Shostakovich String Quartets ("You Don't Have to Be Russian To Play Shostakovich") I take issue with Mr. Scherer's assertion that "Until comparatively recently Shostakovich's quartets were best known through the Soviet recordings by the Beethoven and Borodin quartets, whose members were colleagues and friends of the composer." The Fitzwilliam String Quartet from Cambridge did a highly publicized and award-winning complete recording of the quartets in 1977, not only winning a Gramophone Award for Chamber Music that year for quartets 4 and 12, but also included in the magazine's "100 Greatest Recordings" list.

They performed the full cycle in NYC in the early 80's, to much acclaim.

But I digress .

Go straight to Robert Greskovic's dance reviews!

[kfw]

I take issue with Mr. Scherer's assertion that "Until comparatively recently Shostakovich's quartets were best known through the Soviet recordings by the Beethoven and Borodin quartets, whose members were colleagues and friends of the composer." The Fitzwilliam String Quartet from Cambridge did a highly publicized and award-winning complete recording of the quartets in 1977, not only winning a Gramophone Award for Chamber Music that year for quartets 4 and 12, but also included in the magazine's "100 Greatest Recordings" list.

The Manhattan String Quartet has also recorded and performed the entire cycle, and also to acclaim. Thanks for the link, dirac.

[dirac]

[The Manhattan String Quartet has also recorded and performed the entire cycle, and also to acclaim. Thanks for the link, dirac.

You're very welcome, kfw. It's nice of the Journal to let us in once in awhile.

[dirac]

Today’s WSJ had a review of American Ballet Theatre in Kudelka’s “Cinderella” in the “Personal Journal” section, on the last page, D10. A quote:

On the strength of the initial performances....connections between the composer’s ballet traditions and the choreographer’s “dramatic continuity” come across more like crossed wires than senstitive understanding. In his rush toward fluidity, Mr. Kudelka has largely bypassed the inherent beauty and expressive resonance of classical ballet dancing.

The Playbill article by Robert Sandla cited in Greskovic’s review:

http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/4612.html

"I had a great deal of prior knowledge of the score, having danced in Cinderella as a young dancer," Kudelka says. "I also knew that many productions of the ballet fall on their faces, because they try to ignore the music. It's a very sardonic and grown-up-sounding score for a childhood fairy tale, and in many versions those two qualities never meet. The ideas for my version emerge completely from the score. The music is comprised of short little pieces, and I tried to establish a dramatic continuity, so that things flow more fluidly. I also wanted to avoid the rags-to-riches theme; to me, this ballet is about personal transformation."