The New York Times has a brief video of Paul Jacobs playing the newly refurbished organ at Alice Tully. Jacobs's rendition of Bach's entire Clavier-Übung III on Tuesday night was quite a feat, although, as Jim Oestreich notes, he got off to a jittery start.... Nick Frisch, Noise's sometime Chinese correspondent, has a fascinating report in the Boston Globe on how Beijing audiences respond to a Westernized version of Chinese opera.... Blog worth noting: Killing Classical Music.... A Wagner in Israel Society is announced. (Via AC Douglas.) ... This weekend in NYC, Peter Lieberson's monodrama King Gesar has a return engagement at the Rubin Museum's new chamber-music series... William Steinway's diary from 1861 to 1896 will be available in an online edition next month, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. (Disclosure: my mom worked on this project as a volunteer.) ... Philadelphians, take note: the JACK Quartet is coming to town this Saturday with a program of Julia Wolfe, Helmut Lachenmann, and Gregory Spears (a premiere of a piece inspired by an artist residency at the Buttonwood Psychiatric Unit in Burlington County, NJ). The venue is the Ice Box at Crane Arts.... Brandon Stosuy of Stereogum has organized another DJ evening, for Sunday night. The venue is Veronica's, 105 Franklin St., Greenpoint; also participating are Drew Daniel (Matmos), Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors), and Alex Ross (Miss Teen Schnauzer). Our theme is "Dark Harvest," and I plan to go heavy on the Germanic noise: Einstürzende Neubauten, G. F. Haas, and, of course, Wagner.
