This year, once again rather than attending the Seattle International Film Festival, I will be in the city of cities partaking in the abundance New York has to offer. This begins with Japan Society, and their shared screenings with The Metrograph, presenting the incomparable cinema of Mikio Naruse. Through the two-part, 30 film series, screened entirely on rare prints imported from collections in Japan, the two cinemas host this most explicit of examples of, "The Auteur as Salaryman", in their combined, "Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us". Across the way at Film Society at Lincoln Center, Jia Zhang-ke's masterful generational journey, "Caught by the Tides" begins it's US theatrical run with the director in attendance, alongside Roberto Minervini's "The Damned", and a retrospective of the films of the rarely screened Odersan filmmaker, Kira Muratova. To properly take in the city is to immerse oneself in music, film, dance and cinema premieres. Among these this year, are performances as diverse of the Metropolitan Opera's presentation of the opera most lauded by Alex Ross in his books and writing for the New Yorker, Richard Strauss' "Salome", and the same night, across Manhattan the avant-ambient leanings of Cosey Fanni Tutti's "Industrial Art" are on exhibit at Maxwell Graham. In which the Throbbing Gristle founder explores feminism, freedom and the politics of the personal, with "Time to Tell".
No time in New York would be complete without a day revisiting the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection on view on the fourth and fifth floors, and while there, experiencing Christian Marclay's staggering audio-visual installation, "The Clock". The run of Christian Marclay's installation at MoMA marks the work’s return to the United States for the first time since 2016, and for the first time to New York in nearly a dozen years. Of which the artist himself says of this superhuman work of assembly and editing, "‘It Became a Nightmare’: Christian Marclay on Creating Global Smash 'The Clock'". Similarly, an afternoon will be occupied at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the unmissable array of 14th to 19th century paintings on display, as well as the 19th and early 20th century wings on offer in the Robert Lehman Collection. In addition to the work in The Met's permanent wings, there is also an assembly of romantic paintings presented in, "Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature", and an exhibition of John Singer Sargent's work from his time in Paris. Following a day at the museums, Tim Hecker's engaged noise sculpting is on display at Public Records. Whatever you do, don't refer to Hecker's dissonant washes of sound as auditory products for wellness culture, the composer has established, "Tim Hecker Helped Popularize Ambient Music. He’s (Sort of) Sorry". After days on end of museum hopping, the opera, gallery openings and cinema screenings, most every night will be coming to a close during Ron Carter's 88th Birthday Celebration at the Blue Note, and in the AM hours to the tune of late-night sets at Midtown's Tomi Jazz.
The weekend commences with the highest density of performances to be found annually in Brooklyn, encapsulated in the three day, fifty performance, fifteen venue, Long Play Festival. Programmed and conceived by one of the central the East Coast mainstays of New Music and modern classical composition. In just a few short years, Bang On A Can have assembled a festival of a caliber which, "Long Play has Risen to the Top of New York Classical Music Festivals". From this formidable roster, this year's highlights include, Kim Gordon with Kassie Krut and I.U.D. at Pioneer Works, American Opera Projects plays Arvo Pärt at South Oxford Space, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids at BRIC Ballroom, Body / Head, Foodman, and Emptyset at Public Records, Carl Stone and Akaihirume at Issue Project Room, Moritz von Oswald Presents: Silencio at Roulette Intermedium, Salamanda at Public Records, Max Richter and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, David Lang's "Darker", performed by Ensemble Signal at BRIC Ballroom, Tashi Wada with Julia Holter at Public Records, Sophia Jani "Six Pieces for Solo Violin", performed by Maiani da Silva at Issue Project Room, Ensemble Offspring plays Iannis Xenakis, Tujiko Noriko, Niecy Blues, and the Ben LaMar Gay Quartet all in rapid succession over the course of one day at Public Records. With the festival coming to a close around the American minimalist composer Terry Riley's 90th Birthday Tribute performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars, Pete Townshend, Gyan Riley, Krishna Bhatt, Valentina Magaletti, Nicole Mitchell and Suphala, at Pioneer Works.
