Joni Mitchell:  Big Yellow Taxi

Joni Mitchell: Big Yellow Taxi

Of all of today’s jaw-dropping political insanities, the fact-free, capricious dismissal of climate change strikes me as the most destructive and short-sighted. We can’t lose time, we can’t blame it on China, we can’t just tweet it away. I’ve been thinking obsessively...
Tchaikovsky: A Tear Trembles

Tchaikovsky: A Tear Trembles

One tiny step for mankind: I finally finished the program for NYFOS’s Tchaikovsky concert next January. It had been about 82% done for several months, and I kept swearing I just needed a weekend to polish it off. But the longer I looked at the playlist, and the more I...
Rob Schwimmer: Holding You in My Arms

Rob Schwimmer: Holding You in My Arms

At the Thursday performance of Rodgers, Rodgers, and Guettel I met a man I had only heard about: pianist, composer, and thererminist Rob Schwimmer. Rob is a close musical associate of Adam Guettel’s, and a friend of Michael Barrett’s. He was very warm to me after the...
Leonard Bernstein: Take Care of This House

Leonard Bernstein: Take Care of This House

I had planned a different Leonard Bernstein tune to finish out my most enjoyable stint as “Song of the Day” blogger, but the events of last week compelled me to swap out my initial choice, so: some other time. Politics and musical theater have always gone hand in...
Cy Coleman: Our Private World

Cy Coleman: Our Private World

My “Song of the Day” blog began this week with an enchanted train; in actuality, a wheezy rickety commuter train on the Long Island Rail Road.  Today, I’ll turn to the “prince of wheels—the luxury liner of locomotive trains”:  the Twentieth Century, Ltd., which zoomed...