2009 Highlights #4: thearts!

Well, maybe this is cheating since the arts would land on any highlights list for me. But, I will be more specific and choose a few experiences that were particularly memorable for me.
Shakespeare: It was a banner year for me and Shakespeare. I was fortunate enough to take in at least three Shakespeare plays, including As You Like It, King Lear and Much Ado about Nothing. (Am I forgetting one? Maybe there were four...?) DC is a great Shakespeare town, with two great theaters entirely devoted to the bard's work and I have been fortunate enough to take in several of these great performances this year. King Lear was particularly notable.
Brandenburg Concertos: Or shall I say Concerti? This spring, we presented the Academy of Ancient Music at the Center for the Arts and they played a rare program consisting of all of the Brandenburg Concertos. What a great program! To hear them all together, in succession, on period instruments, and played with their historical expertise was pretty awesome. It reminded me how very much I do enjoy Baroque music. I've gotten so wrapped up in late romantic and 20th C. works that it is easy to forget both the simplicity and intricate complexity of those earlier works. Good for the soul, I say. Good for the soul.
Barnes Collection: I meant to write a more complete post on this weeks ago, but time just got away from me. At the end of November, I finally (!) made it up to the Barnes Collection just outside of Philly. This is one of the largest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in the world. The art itself is incredible, but it's not just the art that is notable about this museum. The founder, Albert Barnes, purchased almost all of the art himself and arranged it in the building where it is currently housed so that it could be available to engage and educate "common" people, including the workers in his factories, etc. Maybe one of the reasons, this collection was so attractive to me was because Dr. Barnes passion is similar to my own -- to engage anyone and everyone in the arts. But, his collection is unique -- not only for the incredible depth of art, but the fact that it is housed on his estate. So, it's essentially just a building on private property out in the suburbs. It's pretty cool that way. The collection is going to be moved downtown into a new space within the next two years, though, so I wanted to be sure to get there while it was intact in it's original habitat. I think the most striking thing, though, is the arrangement of the art. This is no typical gallery. This is room after room after room with every wall absolutely crammed full of art. It wasn't unusual for one wall to house 9 or 12 paintings. And, every wall was perfectly symmetrical. Oh, there's so much more I could say, but alas, I will lose you, dear reader. So, here's a picture instead.