Thanksgiving list

25 NOT YOUR USUAL ARTS-ORIENTED THINGS I’M THANKFUL FOR

25. Lesser-known works by: Samuel Barber, Bela Bartok, Ferruccio Busoni (which is everything), Aaron Copland, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss

24. Broadway. (Plays, naturally, since I write them, but even a good musical. At their best, still one of the great American creations. At their worst...)

23. 20th Century choreography of great ballets, old and new. (Sorry, the 19th Century choreographers were a little too formulaic. Actually, the 19th Century a lot of things were too formulaic. Am I the only person that doesn’t love Rossini?)

22. Old movies. (Meaning anything made before I was born. A partial list of directors whose works I would gladly watch over and over: Alfred Hitchcock, Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder, John Ford, Akira Kurasawa, Jean Renoir, Ernst Lubitsch, Ingmar Bergman, Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger, Charlie Chapman. A partial list of directors whose works I find painful to watch over and over: Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang--yes, I know he was influential, but that doesn’t make them any better, Frank Capra...every one of his films has a completely ludicrous villian and an exasperating “oh, come on!” moment.)

21. Old movie scores. (A partial list of favorite “movie” composers: Bernard Hermann, Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Least favorite? Dmitri Tiomkin. So he wrote a few pop tunes that are good. Big deal. Mostly his scores don’t even support the story well: happy music for “sad” situations, cuts that go on too long, starts at the most inopportune moments, slivers of music that are far too short. He is the Frank Capra of movie composers: grossly overrated.)

20. The recorded legacy of Mstislav Rostropovich. (He knew everyone who was anyone in music during the 20th Century. And so many great composers wrote masterpieces for his immense talent. I only heard him “live” once...at Carnegie Hall, a magical place anyway. I will never forget it.)

19. J. S. Bach’s slow movements (in every “form” he wrote in. I love them all. See? I threw in someone even morons have heard of, so no complaining.)

18. The delightfully one-of-a-kind dances of Merce Cunningham. (He will be missed.)

17. The Metropolitan Opera (Far less conservative than it used to be, and still a home for great singers--if a few too many not-so-great ones--and great operas you won’t see anywhere else around here, like War and Peace, Kat’a Kabanova, Lulu, Moses und Aron, Les Troyens, Rusalka, etc.)

16. The works of British composer--just in case you haven’t heard of him--Harrison Birtwistle that scare the masses (meaning three quarters of them. But, contrary to popular belief, some of his pieces are taken in stride by most of the British.)

15. The wonderful writings and public advocacy of Tony Kushner. (And another new play is coming to New York! Not to mention the revival of Angels in America.

14. The operas of German composer Hans Werner Henze. (Okay, any form he writes in.)

15. Really cleverly written animated movies, old and new. (Go, Pixar!)

14. Great recordings of musical works I will probably never hear “live”. (Like works by Per Norgard, or Frank Martin or Roberto Gerhard or Thomas Ades--though I have heard one of his pieces “live”.)

13. Living in a city that has some of the greatest art in the world. (I live in New York of course.)

12. Popular music from circa 1920 to circa 1955. (From some of the greats like Gershwin, Arlen, Ellington, Berlin, etc. and recorded by Horne, Sinatra, Garland, Fitzgerald [!] Armstrong, etc.)

11. Every note Alban Berg wrote.

10. (Almost) every note Benjamin Britten wrote--he wrote a some music when he was young that isn't so hot. (He could write wonderfully for any instrument or group of instruments or voice or voices in any-and-all combinations thereof, in any “classical” form, large or small...but especially opera. He was the 20th Century Mozart, though he lived to be much older.)

9. Stephen Sondheim’s entire oeuvre. (He would probably hate that word. I REALLY want to meet him. I may become a stalker.)

8. Berlioz--everything by him and about him. (Read his autobiography and then the two-part biography by David Cairns. Great stuff!)

9. Poetry. (From ancient Greek plays to the latest issue of THE NEW YORKER. Most of the major poets, especially Dante and Shakespeare [see, I named someone else that any moron has heard of] Walt Whitman and Dylan Thomas and e e cummings and T. S. Eliot, though you need footnotes for some of his. And too many not-so-major ones who are nonetheless worthy. Try James Merrill for a great poet who has been somewhat forgotten but is one-of-a-kind.)

8. Songs, cantatas, operas, oratorios by: Dominick Argento, Hector Berlioz (yes, I know I already mentioned him) Emmanuel Chabrier, Anton Dvorak, Georges Enesco, Carlisle Floyd, Berthold Goldschmidt, Hans Werner Henze (yes, I already mentioned him, too, but I like him so much, he’s worth repeating), Jacques Ibert, Leos Janacek, Reinhard Keiser, Gyorgy Ligeti, Frank Martin (another repeat), Per Norgard (ditto), Jacques Offenbach, Sergei Prokofiev (okay, I’m repeating myself a bunch, but this is vocal music especially), Roger Quilter, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Schreker, Michael Tippett, Viktor Ullmann, Ralph (not pronounced “Raife” like some people think) Vaughan Williams, Kurt Weill, No X (sorry, I hate Xenakis), and Alexander Zemlinsky. This doesn’t mean I don’t love all the more famous composers, but everyone would say them.

3. Meeting so many composers, musicians, dancers, actors, artists, etc. in New York since I’ve been here. The arts surround you here, if you just stop to notice.

2. Performing music so new, no one has ever heard it before. (Thank you, my friends, for writing for me. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have the honor.)

1. Making music with the man I love. Happy Thanksgiving, my genius musician, wonderful friend, best ambassador for the classical saxophone in the world, lover, beautiful husband. May we make music until we’re too old to hear it anywhere but in our dreams.

And if you're wondering who any of these people are or why I like them, just ask. I could write books. Maybe I should.