small pleasures at the Guggenheim

I spent the Sunday afternoon off at the Guggenheim. The main attraction was the impressive "I want to believe" by Cai Guo-Qiang, which certainly warrants another post (soon hopefully). I almost walked out of the museum door before half-heartedly picked up a museum catalog -- and that drew me back to the 3rd floor annex for the Karl Nierendorf collection. It seemed at first sight to be "just another dose of modern art" but ended up exceeding the modest expectation. There were several sparkles from a rather extensive Paul Klee collection along with his peers that very much placed thing in historical context.
Another one that attracted my eyes with the vibrant colors and shapes was Kandinsky's Small Pleasures (Kleine freunden). Pleasures are colorful, they come in all different shapes, and the overall picture is a mess once life is full of them! Aren't we all constantly indulging in many small pleasures: cook a few experimental dishes, read the economist, surf facebook, take pictures, post them to flickr and watch the new comments with excitement, read the audiobook Long Tail while waiting for my train ride, secretly taking note that most of my likes and dislikes are also in the "long tail", and spending a spring afternoon watching urban flowers, and fill my brain with imaginative museum pieces. Why not?

Paradise and the Peri

what is this, a free ad? yes, you smart. I'm singing this oratorio with the hudson valley singers in two weeks, and why not use my uncensored (and also unread) internet corner for a little publicity?

Only recently did I read and understand this epic oriental story. Making lists is a cliche way of summarizing experiences, let me put up with three items of threes for now:
There were three layers of stories in Thomas Moore's original Lalla Rookh: the traveling princess and the poet-storyteller, the quest by the Peri, and the three human stories intertwined with the Peri's own fate. Reminds me of the Arabian Nights. Three different artistic flavors in the original English, translated German, and the musical language, all more or less foreign to my ears. What I only heard in CD and has yet to be seen, is the magic coordination that Eugene make out of the three parts: the soloists, the orchestra, and us the chorus.

I'm proud to be part of this creation -- from a corner of the second soporanos, and I look forward to the performance:

What	Paradise and the Peri, an Oratorio by Robert Schumann
Who	Eugene Sirotkine, Conductor; Soloists - Carissa Castaldo, Natalya Kraevsky, MaryAnn McCormick, John Bernard, David Eckstrom and Robert Garner; Hudson Valley Singers, Chorus; New York Metamorphoses Orchestra
When	Saturday, April 26, 2008, 7 PM
Where	New York Society for Ethical Culture 2 West 64th Street (at Central Park West), NYC

Tickets? just email me or leave a comment here for a discount :)

Finally, I'd like to share a vivid listening experience by 张一帆 (in Chinese) three visual dipictions of the original poem, coutesy of J. Vail. Both of which I very much enjoyed.


left to right: Peri, Peri and the fallen warrior, Peri and lover's last sigh.