V is for Verbier

Welcome back Dear Readers.

Sorry to have been away for so long.

Work has been keeping me extra busy

and I have been missing you all

while many interesting events have been carrying on.

Every year around this time

I dream of heading

to Verbier.

It is there, that for around two weeks,

many of the worlds most talented classical musicians assemble

to create.

This year the Verbier Festival started on July 17

and runs until August 2, so you have a weeks worth

of concerts to attend!

Some of the artists

attending include:

Charles Dutoit

Vadim Repin

Evgeny Kissin

Thomas Quasthoff

Yuri Bashmet

Martha Argerich

Susan Graham

Emanuel Ax

Jean Yves Thibaudet

Lera Auerbach

Angela Hewitt

Joshua Bell

Kim Kashkashian...

So for any of you who are heading to Geneva or Zurich

this is a must do side trip.

Some of the concerts you can still catch:

Tomorrow night - La Nuit Des Pianistes

Tuesday night - Portrait of Lera Auerbach - Composer, Poet, Pianist

Wednesday night - Carte Blanche a Jean Yves Thibaudet

Thursday night - Quatour Ebene performs Ravel, Debussy and Faure Quartets

and Saturday you won't want to miss a rare performance of a Mahler Piano Quartet.

Apres concert fetes should be fun as well

as there are many happening clubs and restaurants.

Relais & Chateaux property Chalet d'Adrian sounds nice.

Try their

" tagliolini with truffles and roasted langoustine

or seared frogs legs with garlic and giant, stuffed

and gratineed Lumaconi and Serac tartar."

Le Restaurant Pierroz sounds great too.

Here's what Frommer's had to say about it:

"The finest food in the Valais is served at this Relais & Châteaux selection. Roland Pierroz is one of the great chefs of Switzerland; gourmets drive across national borders to sample his light cuisine moderne and regional specialties. The menu changes frequently but could include roulades of carpaccio of sea bream with tomatoes en confit; a theatrical but delicious version of fried foie gras in a beet-and-onion "cage"; red mullet soup studded with shellfish; a divine poached chicken with truffles and baby vegetables (for two); and tournedos of lamb with a mousseline of local potatoes (rattes), garlic, and crispy sauerkraut. The cheese trolley emerges with at least 35 selections, followed by desserts such as a crisp and tasty apple tart with ice cream that is celestial. The finest meal we've ever had in Switzerland was had here."

I sincerely hope to attend this Festival one year.

Hoping you'll be able to make it as well.

Volume 26. New York and Miami

NYC

Senior Travel Correspondent Doug Wingate

had these postings to report from some of his recent travels.

The week after the Tony awards, I was in Manhattan again, and caught up on some of the 2009 award-winning shows I had not yet seen. Saturday afternoon, I saw one of the final performances of Ionesco's EXIT THE KING (see http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/theater/reviews/27ione.html ), the French, "existential" (or for Eastern philosophical fans, "Vedantic") farce about the eternity of life underlying our fleetingly temporal bodies, starring Susan Sarandon -- and also Geoffrey Rush in his Tony Award-winning best actor turn. The show was delightfully madcap (supported by comic wonder Andrea Martin, and by the equally expert Lauren Ambrose, best known perhaps for her amazing turn as Claire in HBO's Alan Ball masterpiece, SIX FEET UNDER), as well as profound -- good mix in my book! Sadly, it's limited 14 week run is already done.

The next day, I saw David Hyde-Pierce (multiple Emmy and Tony award winner) in a Manahattan Theater Club revival of a depression area comedy called ACCENT ON YOUTH, about the matter of growing older (hmmmmm, a common theme here? Maybe most appropriate given the age of the average Broadway audience!)

(see http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/theater/reviews/30acce.html ). Anyway, I think this limited run one closes on June 28, so there are maybe (depending on when one reads this) a few more chances to enjoy this comfortably charming comedy.

On Monday night, I saw NEXT TO NORMAL, new musical winner for Best Score, and also 2009 Tony Award winning Best Musical Actress Alice Ripley (see http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/theater/reviews/16norm.html ). The musical is about the modern American dysfunctional family, including the manic-depressive mother at its heart. Doesn't sound like typical "musical" fare, and indeed is not, but it nonetheless is exciting, fast-paced, liberally sprinkled with humor (mostly of the black variety) and interesting always. For those who follow Broadway, it was directed by the acclaimed director of past hits, RENT and GREY GARDENS. I'm glad I saw it!

MIAMI

Saw two new shows here in Miami, at the excellent ARSHT PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

( http://www.arshtcenter.org/ ), overlooking Biscayne Bay, just across from SoBe over the McArthur Causeway.

One was the still-on-Broadway Argentinian "performance art" piece, FUERZA BRUTA (see http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/theater/reviews/25fuer.html ). This dynamic show may not be for all theatergoers, but it is "exciting" in a good way! Read the Times review and decide for yourself if you'd like it. I did!

The other show was part of the Arsht Center's current festival of "short plays" including the Adult-themed UNDERSHORTS, shown only at 10 PM so as to discourage bringing the kids along (see http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/story/1077591.html ). I think the show has actually finished its extended Miami run, and will next be seen in Ft. Lauderdale June 25-28. The shows all were fine one act comedies, some not surprisingly much more effective than others. One stand-out actor was Stephen Trovillion

(see http://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Stephen_Trovillion/ ), an apparently sadly-underused Actors Equity, John Goodman-esque actor whose expert comic range that evening included a Jimmy Swaggart-style raunchy evangelical minister in a dominatrix tryst, a tres gay real estate broker in Sodom, and a dry-as-the-desert, jaded husband in a hilarious dinner a deux with his equally jaded wife. Look out for this guy. He's good, as in Goodman!

As always,

many thanks to Mr. Wingate

for his seasoned observations.

Singer, Spy, M. Butterfly!

Shi Pei Pu, Singer, Spy and ‘M. Butterfly,’ Dies at 70

By JOYCE WADLER

Published: July 1, 2009

Shi Pei Pu, a Beijing opera singer and spy whose sexually convoluted love affair with a French Embassy worker created one of the strangest cases in international espionage and was the inspiration for the Broadway show “M. Butterfly,” died in Paris on Tuesday.

Associated Press

Shi Pei Pu in the mid-1960s.

His death was announced to Agence France-Presse by an aide.

Mr. Shi (pronounced Shuh), who was convicted of espionage in France in 1986 along with his lover, Bernard Boursicot, was believed to be 70. He had also been believed for years to be a woman, at least by Mr. Boursicot, who served time in prison after the affair and became a laughingstock in France.

Mr. Boursicot, who is 64 and has been living in a nursing home in France while recovering from a stroke, showed no sadness when he learned of Mr. Shi’s death in a telephone interview.

“I’m not surprised,” he said, in a tone that suggested weariness with a former lover’s theatrics. “It is a long time he has been sick. Now it’s over 40 years.”

Asked if he had any sadness at all, Mr. Boursicot said: “He did so many things against me that he had no pity for, I think it is stupid to play another game now and say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free.”

In the 1988 Broadway play and the 1993 film “M. Butterfly,” Bernard Boursicot was depicted as a high-ranking diplomat and Shi Pei Pu as a beautiful female opera singer who met in 1964. In fact, Mr. Boursicot was a 20-year-old high school dropout who had finagled a job as an accountant at the newly opened French Embassy in Beijing. His few sexual experiences had been with male schoolmates, and he was determined to fall in love with a woman, he wrote in his diary.

Shi Pei Pu was 26 when they met, delicate and charming. He lived as a man and taught Chinese to the diplomatic wives. He told Mr. Boursicot that he had been a singer and a librettist in the Beijing Opera. One perfect night in the Forbidden City Mr. Shi told Mr. Boursicot a story no romantic could resist: Mr. Shi said he was a woman who had been forced to go through life as a man, because her father required a son. A short time later, the men became lovers, although the sex, Mr. Boursicot would later say, was fast and furtive, always carried out in the dark.

When the affair was discovered by the Chinese authorities, Mr. Boursicot passed them French documents, first from the embassy in Beijing and later from his posting at the consulate in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Mr. Boursicot spent most of his life outside China and was romantically involved with men and women. On his rare visits to Shi Pei Pu, sexual contact was circumscribed. On one visit, Mr. Shi presented him with a 4-year-old boy, Shi Du Du, who Mr. Shi said was their son.

In 1982, Mr. Boursicot — then living openly with a male companion, Thierry Toulet — was able to arrange for Shi Pei Pu and Shi Du Du to live with him in Paris. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu were arrested. Mr. Shi first told the police he was a woman, but he admitted the truth to prison doctors, showing them how he hid his genitals.

Shi Du Du explained the mystery of where he came from in his statement to the police: he was from China’s Uighur minority, he said, and had been sold by his mother. “It was not that my mother did not love me,” he said. ”We were starving.”

Mr. Boursicot, hearing that Shi Pei Pu was a man and always had been, sliced his throat with a razor blade in prison.

In 1986, Mr. Shi and Mr. Boursicot received six-year sentences for espionage. They were pardoned a year later. Mr. Shi is survived by Shi Du Du, who lives in Paris and who, Mr. Boursicot said, has three young sons.

Although Mr. Boursicot and Mr. Shi occasionally spoke over the years, relations were strained. Mr. Boursicot said that they last spoke a few months ago and that Mr. Shi told him he still loved him.

Mr. Shi enjoyed the spotlight, performing in public as an opera singer, but disliked talking about his romance with Mr. Boursicot, particularly the sexual specifics.

“I used to fascinate both men and women,” he said in a rare interview in 1988. “What I was and what they were didn’t matter.”

(Thanks to

Joyce Wadler at

The New York Times

& to

France Soir)

More than 20, 000 Singers! - The Singing Revolution

If by any chance you are heading to Scandinavia, Russia or The Baltics right now this is a truly amazing event that you should not miss!

Daniel Reuss conducts at the Estonian Song Celebrations

The EPCC’s chief conductor Daniel Reuss conducts at the XXV Estonian Song Celebrations „To Breathe as One“, which takes place in 2-5 July at the Song Celebration Grounds in Tallinn.

This year sing together more than 20,000 amateur singers of mixed, male, female, children’s choirs and professional choirs (EPCC among them).

Daniel Reuss is the only foreign guest conductor, he conducts on July 4 Bruckner’s “Ave Maria” performed by professional choirs.

The Song Celebration tradition began in 1869 and during the following years it has become one of the most important national events of the Estonian culture.

Additional information: www.laulupidu.ee

Volume 25. Barcelona

Welcome back Dear Readers.

So nice to visit with you again.

Global Around Town

Senior Travel Correspondent

Doug Wingate

has recently returned from a number of interesting trips.

Here is his mouth watering report from...

BARCELONA

I arrived in BCN on U.S. Memorial Day, Monday May 25, staying through Tues., June 2. Last year, I stayed at a fine 3 star hotel called SAGRADA FAMILIA (obviously named for the Gaudi masterpiece of BCN) which is steps away from the Cathedral and the metro stop of the same name.(By the way, for those on a budget -- and even for those "green" folk, and practical folk who just like public transport -- I highly recommend getting a Barcelona Card [available at the airport and at a few other tourist centers around town, including the Sagrada Familia metro stop!], which provides unlimited travel on ALL the city's various transport systems [metro, intra-city trains, buses, trams, and importantly, the express train to/fro the airport to downtown and the metro system. It's a great deal, plus it even provides some cool free stuff and discounts to stuff that one actually would like to do! The cards [used like any metro card] are available in various multiple-day amounts, such as 2, 3, 4 or a maximum of 5 days. As I was there for 9 days total, I bought both a 5 and 4 day pass.)Back to the SAGRADA FAMILIA hotel ( http://www.hotelsagradafamilia.com/entrada.html ), it's clean, modern (clear-glass-fronted mini-bars, flat screen TVs, complimentary wifi and even 2 individual guest computers in the lobby for those guests who came without a laptop!), insanely well-located, and even stylish in my opinion. Plus, a relative bargain -- even in well-priced BCN. My stay was under USD $1,000 for 8 nights! After staying there twice now, I can recommend it for all except those who demand "Deluxe" wherever they go. For those Deluxe-minded folk, try the historic MAJESTIC ( http://www.hotelmajestic.es/ ) or the even more celebrated modern masterpiece HOTEL ARTS

( http://www.hotelartsbarcelona.com/index.php?lang=en ) or maybe even the magnificent-looking new W BARCELONA HOTEL being completed in the Barceloneta part of town (opening Oct. '09) ( http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/property/overview/index.html?language=en_US&propertyID=3183 ), right on the Mediterranean, with a spectacular Dubai-style "windsail" design.On my nonstop JFK to BCN flight over on AA, I sat next to a Spanish UN representative, who had homes in Manhattan of course, as well as BCN and Madrid. Figuring he might know a few good spots to eat, I asked for his favorite places. He gave me two: EL LOBITO in the Barceloneta beach area, and LITTLE ITALY in the newly uber-hip BORN historic district (on the edge of the Barceloneta).

The day after my arrival, I wended my way down to the Bareloneta area (metro stop of the same name), to enjoy lunch at EL LOBITO see http://www.bcnrestaurantes.com/Eng/barcelona.asp?restaurante=el-lobito ), so named for its chef/owner (lobito means "little wolf" in Catalan), who was indeed on hand when I visited, making sure everything was ship shape at this prix fixe, set menu seafood spot. The meal was a progression of the finest the Mediterranean has to offer: beginning with a gorgeously colorful vegetable antipasto-type assortment dressed with olive oil and fine vinegar, through what seemed an endless supply of the freshest seafood courses, ranging from -- for example only -- delicate baby clams, langoustines, to an entire fish served whole, and finally finishing with a fresh fruit platter of impeccable ripeness. What really makes this place is the nonpareil freshness of every ingredient, which is simply prepared and served at the exact temperature and texture to enjoy it best. Go!As those of you who have been to BCN, know, NOBODY dines before 2 PM in the afternoon (except tourists at McDonald's and the like!), and 9 to 10 in the evening. I chose to make my main "fine dining" meal each day at lunch (which appropriately took a leisurely 2 hours or so), and then just tapas or other such tidbits in the late evening. A very good plan, especially in summer, when the sun doesn't set until nearly 9 PM anyway.On the next day, Wednesday, the city erupted in joy as their futbol team (U.S. baseball, football, and basketball combined -- in terms of public fascination) won the WORLD CUP, beating England's "NY Yankees-style" legendary Manchester team, in the final in Rome. Fireworks and major celebrations were nonstop!!!! The victorious world champion BCN team arrived home to a huge ticker tape parade through the center of town.

A day later, I dined at a Michelin one-starred spot called enticingly -- ALKIMIA (Alchemy, I assume!) (see http://www.foodandwine.com/restaurants/alkimia-barcelona-catalonia-barcelona ) -- and indeed, the chefs did indeed spin ordinary ingredients into culinary gold, like legendary alchemists of yore, often using modern molecular gastronomic techniques. As was the custom at most of the city's "restaurants de cuisine d'auteur" (as Catalan gourmet-aspiring chefs self-identify), the marvelous meal began with a few amuse-bouche gifts from the kitchen, including a marvelous "shot" of intense-tomato-infused water topped with a razor thin slice of dried tomato and the region's de rigeur celebrated iberico ham. I had put myself in the capable hands of the kitchen, and was rewarded with a wine and food pairing that included "el bonbon de huevo" -- a clever egg-like-looking (it only looked like an egg, thanks to molecular gastronomy wizardry) appetizer that was a savory inspiration. I followed that with a magnificant Amberjack fish course, and then a red mullet masterpiece, and finally a house dessert creation, that drew inspiration from a classic BCN folk dessert -- a "fried" croissant filled with cream -- sinfully delicious!

The next day, I dined at a favorite of mine from last year, SPEAKEASY (see http://www.travelandleisure.com/restaurants/speakeasy ), a wonderfully sumptuous spot, whimsically hidden within the celebrated 21 CLUB-inspired cocktail bar, DRY MARTINI ( http://www.drymartinibcn.com/ENGLISH_VERSION/engTotPresentacio.htm ), reached by passing THROUGH the kitchen! The bar is a fun way to while away some hours, but the restaurant SPEAKEASY is divine. It actually is located in the bar's liquor storeroom, which has been enchantingly transformed with sophisticated lighting into a glamorously sexy spot. One side of the room is occupied by a giant glass-fronted wine cellar, while the other walls are decorated with the places stock of all kinds of bottles of fancy boozes, expertly lit to look like objets d'art. The food here is just downright delicious. A favorite peasant dish in BCN is fried eggs on a fired potatoes. At SPEAKEASY, this peasant dish is transformed to food for kings, by its expert cooking and the addition of foie gras and asparagus! I followed that with a successfully creative Tuna Tempura roll with wasabi cream, finally finishing the meal with an amazing green apple "soup" with creme fraiche ice cream and accented with sliced grape tomatoes too. Sounds peculiar perhaps, but it was perfection to eat. (By the way, the "Barcelona Card" amazingly offered a 20% discount at this haute cuisine d'auteur bastion. Why? Who cares!)

On Saturday, I dined in the whimsically-named cuisine d'auteur restaurant MOO (see http://www.travelandleisure.com/restaurants/moo-barcelona-catalonia-barcelona ) inside the 5 star HOTEL OMM (another excellent choice actually for luxury lovers, who like their luxury Zen-like, [only a few blocks from the traditional Hotel Majestic]; http://www.hotelomm.es/index_eng.html ). Again, I put myself in the kitchen's auteur hands and their expert waitstaff. The menu offered some a la carte option, I believe, but also had an elaborate chef's tasting menu, plus a vegetarian tasting menu, and finally a seasonal tasting menu -- all in descending order of numbers of courses and price. When I inquired whether to try the veggie menu or the less expensive seasonal menu (that seasonal menu was only offered on the Catalan-written menu, by the way!!! If using the English menu, that option was mysteriously missing!), my female headwaitperson advised "I always go for the 'seasonal' option." I took her advice of course, and was delighted I did. She also chose wines for each of my 4 courses, which expertly matched my food. After several marvelous amuse bouches (e.g., a razor clam with emerald snow peas), I finally began with a "chocolate" and foie gras creation. That was followed by a cold strawberry/tomato/oyster soup poured tableside into a bowl fashioned out of a solid block of ice. I wish I remember what I had next, but my notes are illegible. Suffice it to say it was creative AND delicious!

That same Saturday evening, I attended a performance of Flamenco dance and music at the spectacular PALAU DE LA MUSICA CATALANA (see http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/classical-music-a-rebirth-in-barcelona ), in the Ramblas/Born area. The building alone is worth the price of admission, being a beaux arts glass and tile masterpiece, but happily, the show was also top notch.

Sunday, I attended the opera at BCN's magnificently restored grand opera house, TEATRO LICEU (see http://www.travelandleisure.com/thingtodo/nightclub/gran-teatre-del-liceu ), where I enjoyed an expert performance of Beethoven's only opera, FIDELIO.Apres opera, I finally tried LITTLE ITALY, the other spot recommended by my airplane seatmate (see http://realtravel.com/f-235995-barcelona_restaurant-little_italy ), in the uber-trendy BORN historic area. Sadly, I found it very good, but NOT of the caliber of EL LOBITO, or the other d'auteur restaurants I enjoyed on this trip. It's famous for its nightly (EXCEPT SUNDAY!) live jazz, so maybe that was part of my problem, since I was there on a Sunday!

Anyway, after a fine, but not inspirational, meal at Little Italy, I went "strolling" (one of the most fun things to do in BCN!) and stumbled upon a nearby Indian restaurant/night club called KAMA (as in Kama Sutra, I presume)(see http://shoponlinebarcelona.com/companies/view/Kama_Lounge?lang=en ). This was a lively place indeed, filled with folks far younger than I, all having a fun-filled time drinking exotic, Indian spice-inspired cocktails while entertained by house music and a giant screen featuring the hippest of current Bollywood dance numbers! By all means, stop in here for an out-of-the-ordinary meal, cocktail, or a late-night party!

Many thanks to Mr. Wingate for a wonderful report!

I can't believe I posted this on an empty stomach.

I'm racing to my kitchen immediately.

And Barcelona, with visions of it like Doug's,

is always towards the top of my list of

desirable destinations.

Do keep your eyes peeled for more of Doug's travels

in the weeks to come.

One of the Finest Films of the Year

Today was Father's Day, and after a lovely brunch with friends, and later a plate full of sliders and sweet potato fries, I settled in for a film. I'd stopped by the video store earlier in the hopes of finding something interesting and new to watch.

Little did I know that the film I picked would be one of the finest of the year.

I loved Doris Dorrie' s Cherry Blossoms.

It is a fine portrait of a loving older couple and a picture of what happens when one of them suddenly dies.

Here's Amazon's Product Description:

CHERRY BLOSSOMS is a tender, emotionally intense and profoundly moving story of marital love. Only Trudi knows that her husband Rudi is suffering from a terminal illness. She decides not to tell him and convinces him to visit their family in Berlin. Then, suddenly, Trudi dies. Rudi is devastated but vows to make up for her lost life. And so he embarks on his last journey - to Tokyo - in the midst of the cherry blossom festival, a celebration of beauty, impermanence and new beginnings.

Don't miss it.

The Passing of Two Greats

ALI AKBAR KHAN, 87

Bengali Musician Was 'An Absolute Genius'

By Robert E. Thomason

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 20, 2009

Ali Akbar Khan, 87, a Bengali musician who was regarded as one of the finest artists of Indian classical music who helped popularize the genre in the West through appearances on television, record and stage, died June 18 at his home in San Anselmo, Calif., of a kidney ailment.

The son of a revered musician and teacher, Mr. Khan began intensive training as a child and partnered with sitar player Ravi Shankar -- his future brother-in-law -- performing duets throughout India.

Mr. Khan was a virtuoso of the sarod, a 25-string instrument in the lute family. His chosen musical genre is based in part on the concept of the raga, which consists of improvised music based on a variety of scales. From these scales, or permutations of them, Indian musicians follow traditional forms but add their own inflections and feeling.

The late American violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who became one of his earliest champions in the West, said he considered Mr. Khan "an absolute genius, the greatest musician in the world."

Mr. Khan was appointed court musician to the maharaja of Jodhpur in 1943, and his international career launched under Menuhin, who organized a showcase of Indian music at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1955 and featured the sarodist.

About that time, Angel Records released Mr. Khan's first Western recordings of Indian music. His appearance on broadcaster Alistair Cooke's network television program "Omnibus" marked one of the first times Indian classical music was performed live on Western television.

"When I came in '55, because I was in Indian dress, people on the street in New York came out of the bars and shops and followed us," Mr. Khan told the publication Asian Week. "They asked me, 'Who are you? Where are you from?' When I said, 'India,' some of them didn't even know where it was. Or others who knew I was a musician asked funny questions like, 'How can you play music in India with all the tigers and snakes and monkeys you have to fight off?' "

As Indian culture and music began to infuse Western pop culture in the 1960s, widespread interest in musicians such as Mr. Khan grew. In 1967, he established the Ali Akbar College of Music in Berkeley, Calif., which he later moved to Marin County, north of San Francisco. He taught there while maintaining a schedule of performances and recordings such as "Shree Rag" and "Misra Piloo," both of which brought him critical acclaim.

In 1971, a civil war transformed Mr. Khan's homeland, called East Pakistan at the time, into the independent country of Bangladesh. The war created an immense humanitarian crisis among the already poor population. Former Beatles guitarist George Harrison, a student and performer of Indian music, assembled a number of musicians for a relief benefit concert held at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Mr. Khan and Shankar, whose divorce from Mr. Khan's sister strained their relationship, performed at the Concert for Bangladesh with musicians including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. An album and film of the concert were later released.

In an interview many years later, Mr. Khan said he had bad memories of the Madison Square Garden event. "That was not music but I'd say a war of music," he told Reuters in 2007, adding at one point he stuffed toilet paper in his ears to block out the noise.

Mr. Khan was born April 14, 1922, in British-controlled East Bengal, now Bangladesh. His family claimed a musical lineage that stretched back to a 16th-century court musician of the Mogul Emperor Akbar.

His father, Allauddin Khan, was regarded as one of the foremost Indian musicians of his time and had reportedly mastered more than 200 instruments. He said his father, who lived to be more than 100 and also taught Shankar, was "very strict. He never played with me, he never laughed, never smiled. He was a tiger. I wanted love from him. . . . The motive was that if you show that, too much love, then I was spoiled. At that time I was very angry, but now I am grateful."

The younger Khan debuted publicly at 13 and as a young man earned the designation "ustad," or master musician. He went on to compose his own ragas, a striking accomplishment because ragas are typically handed down by tradition. Over the years, Mr. Khan also composed scores for Indian films such as Satyajit Ray's "Devi" (1960) and the early Merchant-Ivory collaboration "The Householder" (1963).

Survivors include his wife, Mary, and 11 children from several previous wives. He said that in writing his family history, he surprised Mary when he admitted to a marriage that lasted a day. He called it "an accident. I didn't like the lady at all."

In 1991, Mr. Khan received a MacArthur Fellowship, widely known as the "genius" grant. He later received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

He once wrote of the sarod, "If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist -- then you may please even God.

Charlie Mariano, saxophonist, musical sojourner Charlie Mariano, the Boston-born saxophonist who gained world renown as a performer with his former wife, Toshiko Akiyoshi; Stan Kenton; and Charles Mingus, among many others, died yesterday at Mildred Scheel Hospiz in Cologne, Germany, his longtime home. Mr. Mariano, who had battled cancer for years, was 85.

“He was the dean of Boston jazz musicians,’’ says jazz impresario George Wein, a Boston native who resides in New York and was a colleague and friend of Mr. Mariano’s since the 1940s. “Charlie was a wanderer, and he left his mark wherever he went.’’

Born Carmine Ugo Mariano in 1923, he was weaned on his father’s beloved Italian operas and the big bands he heard on the radio: Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, whose saxophonist Lester Young became Mr. Mariano’s first musical hero. He would not get his own saxophone until his 18th birthday, but in short order, the ambitious young musician was playing nightly at Izzy Ort’s bar and dance hall in what was then known as Boston’s combat zone, for $19 a week.

Mr. Mariano was drafted in 1943, but never saw combat. He was tapped to play in one of the several small music ensembles that entertained at officers’ clubs. Near the end of the war, Mr. Mariano, who was stationed on an air base north of Los Angeles, heard Charlie Parker play live for the first time, during Parker’s first West Coast gig, at Billy Berg’s jazz club in Hollywood.

“He completely turned my head,’’ Mr. Mariano said of Parker in “Tears of Sound,’’ a 1993 biography of Mr. Mariano published in Germany. Taken with the sax great’s inventive harmonics, newfangled rhythmic figures, and breakneck tempos, “I chased Bird’s sound, his way of phrasing. I listened to his solos on recordings for hours, wrote them down, and played it.’’

As it was for many alto saxophonists, Mr. Mariano found his muse and musical foundation in Parker’s ground-breaking sound. After leaving the Army in 1945, he drifted to Chicago, then Albuquerque, picking up work where he could, and finally wound up back in Boston. When the big-band era began winding down and many local clubs were closed, the largely self-taught Mr. Mariano enrolled in music school for the first time, at the Schillinger House of Music, which would later be renamed Berklee College of Music.

Mr. Mariano started to develop his own sound under the tutelage of Joe Viola, and he became a fixture on Boston’s vibrant jazz scene, collaborating with Nat Pierce, Jaki Byard, and fellow students Herb Pomeroy and Quincy Jones. In 1950, Mr. Mariano released his first recording as a bandleader, and several years later founded the Jazz Workshop, a hands-on school that emphasized experience over instruction and later evolved into a popular nightclub.

At the end of 1953, the financially strapped Mr. Mariano received a life-changing call from Stan Kenton, who tapped the saxophonist for his big band. After a couple of years on the road, Mr. Mariano settled in Southern California, where he joined drummer Shelly Manne’s band and worked as a session player.

But he soon grew disenchanted with the hours spent behind the wheel of a car and the relentlessly “cool’’ jazz scene in L.A., and in 1958 Mr. Mariano accepted a teaching position at Berklee. He only lasted two terms before moving back west, accompanied by the young piano phenom Toshiko Akiyoshi.

The pair married in 1959 and over the course of several years bounced from New York, where they formed the Toshiko Mariano Quartet and Mr. Mariano performed and recorded with Mingus, to Tokyo, back to New York, and then to Boston, where Mr. Mariano returned to teaching in the mid-1960s.

“I had him for an ensemble, and every week he would stop the band and pick on somebody,’’ said Mr. Mariano’s former student, saxophonist Arnie Krakowsky of Boston. “Four, five, six weeks go by, and he didn’t stop me, and I thought I must be doing better than I think. Then one day, he stopped the band and pointed at me and said: ‘You. When you go home this weekend, I want you to tell your mother and father that you want to be a doctor or a lawyer.’ That was his way of telling me I needed to practice. When we saw Charlie walking the halls at Berklee, we would walk the other way. We were petrified of him. He was that good.’’

Mr. Mariano also became known for his work on the nadaswaram, a South Indian woodwind instrument he discovered on an extended trip to Kuala Lumpur.

After divorcing Ms. Akiyoshi in 1967, Mr. Mariano wandered the globe for years, commuting between the United States (he had yet another go teaching at Berklee) and Europe (where he eventually settled).

Following the formation of Osmosis, his early jazz fusion group, Mr. Mariano devoted his last several decades to exploring musical amalgams inspired by other cultures, as well as by pop and rock. He was diagnosed in 1995 with advanced prostate cancer and given a year to live by his doctors, but with the help of alternative therapies and conventional treatment he lived another 14.

“His music was the music of a traveler,’’ says Eric Jackson, longtime host of the WGBH show “Jazz with Eric in the Evening.’’ “Just look at the places Charlie called home in the course of his life. He was on a lifelong musical journey.’’

Mr. Mariano leaves his wife, painter Dorothee Zippel Mariano of Cologne; his sister Connie Rosato; six daughters, Sherry of Salisbury, Cynthia and Melanie Lamar, both of Merrimac, Celeste Perrigo of Berwick, Maine, Monday Michiru of Long Island, N.Y., and Zana of Toronto, Canada; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Mr. Mariano is being cremated in Germany, and the ashes will be entombed at the family grave in Boston.

By Joan Anderman

Globe Staff / June 17, 2009

(Thanks to The Washington Post & Boston Globe)

The Best Performances of the Beethoven Sonatas?

Hello again Dear Readers.

In recent weeks there has been a fair amount of discussion about the Beethoven Sonatas and which performances of them are the best. With so many brilliant pianists out there over the years, this can be a very difficult question to answer. Everyone will have a different opinion on this BUT I'd like to suggest that you take a look at this video (make a point of continuing on to the magical 2nd part as well) and marvel in Claudio Arrau and his interpretation of the

Arietta from the Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor op.111.

Claudio gets my vote.

Let me know what you think.

My Works

This shot from Copenhagen

Late Day Train

has always reminded me of Hopper.

My Works

Another shot from Tallinn.

This is

In the Manner of George Braques.

My Works

This is a

Yellow Land.

My Works

This is

The Way of the World.

My Works

From Paris

this is

Le Ville de Saumon

My Works

This is a

Wall of Wood and Brick.