“The Critic’s Notebook,” by the Editors (original) (raw)
The Owl and the Nightingale: A New Verse Translation, by Simon Armitage (Princeton University Press): “Freak, why don’t you disappear?/ It sickens me to see you here.” So sweetly sings the nightingale of The Owl and the Nightingale, opening a heated exchange that lasts well over a hundred pages—the owl clearly does not heed the other bird’s words. Their invective ranges from the timeless (you’re weird-looking) to the decidedly medieval (your birdsong inspires men to lechery and women to adultery, while mine inspires sinners to repent). But the poem ends before the dispute does, with the two birds flying off together to find a wise man who will adjudicate their argument. The anonymous twelfth- or thirteenth-century “debate poem” has been newly translated from Middle English by the poet and scholar Simon Armitage, so twenty-first-century readers may decide for themselves whose putdowns pack more punch. —SM
Kirill Petrenko. Photo: Chris Christodoulou.
Berliner Philharmoniker at Carnegie Hall (November 17–19): In November 2022, I heard Kirill Petrenko conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in a visionary performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 at Carnegie Hall. His deft handling of Mahler’s tricky tempi and some breathtaking rubato in the chaotic yet jubilant finale cemented in my mind a symphonic night for the books. I look forward to Petrenko’s return to Carnegie with Berlin this Sunday for another Symphony No. 7: Dvořák’s, together with Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead and Korngold’s Violin Concerto (featuring Hilary Hahn in the solo spotlight). Two more nights of music will follow, including Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 on November 18 and a repeat of Sunday’s concert on November 19. —IS
Louis Langrée. Photo: Chris Lee.
“The Orchestra of St. Luke’s: Louis Langrée Conducts Beethoven,” at Carnegie Hall (November 14): The French conductor Louis Langrée concluded a long and well-received tenure in the United States last season, having led the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 2013 to 2024 and directed the much-mourned Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center from 2003 until its axing in 2023. Now the newly appointed director of Paris’s Opéra-Comique, Langrée returns for a concert with New York’s stalwart Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as he makes his debut with that orchestra and oversees the solo debut of Sterling Elliott, a former OSL musician, in Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 2. Valerie Coleman’s Fanfare for Uncommon Times makes its Carnegie Hall debut, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, so full of passion and “Bacchic fury,” as Donald Tovey called it, rounds out the program. —IS
Rosario Candela & the New York Apartment: 1927–1937, by David Netto, Paul Goldberger & Peter Pennoyer (Rizzoli): While the Beaux-Arts gave the apartment house its Romantic language at the turn of the last century, in the 1920s Rosario Candela scored his luxury towers in the music of bel canto. Colorful turns of phrase informed his architectural compositions, as hidden entrances, unexpected archways, and stepped penthouses gave his buildings their operatic intrigue. Rosario Candela & The New York Apartment: 1927–1937, a luxurious new book from Rizzoli befitting its subject matter, looks both to the designs of the Sicilian-born architect and those residents who had designs of their own on what are still some of New York’s most coveted buildings, including 740 Park Avenue, 1040 Fifth Avenue, and One Sutton Place, which illustrates the book’s cover. Author David Netto includes additional essays by Paul Goldberger, Peter Pennoyer, and Aerin Lauder for this definitive statement on high-society cooperative living. —JP
View of the southeast side of the Isaac Bell House, 1933, Newport, Rhode Island. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington.
“The Isaac Bell House Restoration and Legacy,” at the National Arts Club (November 12): In the shingle-style houses of McKim, Mead & White, the architectural historian Vincent Scully recognized “an experiment in the screening of space and the manipulation of light.” The Isaac Bell House (1882–83), one of Newport’s early gems, epitomizes the experiment with its multiple porches and varied interiors. It is a structure in which “varieties of space and light blend together into an ample harmony,” as Scully described it, and visitors to the house today can still observe its pleasing forms. Tomorrow a panel at the National Arts Club will discuss the origins of this open-to-the-public landmark and its more recent restoration work. —BR
Podcasts:
“Music for a While #91: Theme songs.” Jay Nordlinger, music critic of The New Criterion_, talks music—but, more important, plays music._
Dispatch:
“Democrats & never-Trumpers blame the voters,” by James Piereson. On the response to the election.
By the Editors:
“The Aftermath: Trump’s Victory Sparks Media Outrage & National Introspection”
Roger Kimball, American Greatness
From the Archive:
“The outdoor kid,” by Stefan Beck (December 2014). On the hundredth anniversary of John Muir’s death.