Words and Music

From the Vault Dept. : The Glimmerglass Festival is on the brink of opening again, after the inevitable Covid-inspired summer off. Plenty of...

From the Food Vault Dept .: It’s been a decade since the review below ran in Metroland, and I’m pleased to note that the restaurant is still...

WITHOUT MUCH FANFARE (that came across my desk, at least), Sony Classics released a lavish 120-CD box set of conductor Eugene Ormandy’s Phil...

ANOTHER ONE OF my collaborations with Musicians of Ma'alwyck, here envisioning an audition that could have taken place at Albany's f...

NOTHING YOU READ HERE will prepare you for the experience of watching “Gunda,” the new film from Russian director Victor Kossakovsky. It’s a...

Guest Blogger Dept. : We had the opening chapter of Barry Pain’s masterful Eliza a few weeks ago; let’s see how she and her fussy husband ...

MOSAIC RECORDS, that scrappy little jazz-reissue house that specializes in offering handsome, thorough, excellently remastered sets, has bee...

 From the Terpsichorean Vault Dept .: No ballet at the Saratoga Performance Arts Center this summer, and I fear we’re getting accustomed to ...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : It was a rare treat to see and hear the Golub-Kaplan-Carr trio perform in 1984. They were a top-notch group...

From the Tech Vault Dept. : Here’s another tech oldie, my how-to about compiling a videotape from your existing footage by using a 1994 soft...

From the Culinary Vault Dept .: Twenty years ago I was well into a barbecue craze that had me buying a succession of smokers and perfecting ...

From the Operetta Vault Dept. : Looks like the Bard Summerscape Festival will be back on its feet this summer (2021), and I look forward to ...

FIRST THERE’S A SMALL SENSE OF BETRAYAL. Mark Bittman’s cookbooks are reliable foundational items for any culinary collection, offering sati...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : While poring through old pieces to post here, I play a game with myself: What did I venture out to review 2...

MY SCARLATTI ODYSSEY began with LPs of Ralph Kirkpatrick’s recordings – on the Odyssey label, in fact – after which I was lured to the piano...

From the Theater Vault Dept .: Given my reaction to some of the recent musicals that I’ve been sent to review – recent to me meaning post-19...

Guest Blogger Dept. : Indiana-born George Ade sprang to fame with the publication of Fables in Slang, which first appeared serially in the C...

From the Culinary Vault Dept. : We’ve been very loyal to Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In, the one-of-a-kind burger joint in Scotia, NY, which is ope...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : Contemporary classical music has had a strong area champion in the Dogs of Desire, an Albany Symphony-based...

From the Theater Vault Dept. : This review speaks for itself, exposing me as the stick-in-the-mud that I am, a man whose early diet of Gersh...