Best of 2023 Concerts and Art Exhibits

Best Concerts:

 

Okay, so I got a little preoccupied, forgot to fix a broken link, and didn’t get around to finishing my (personal) best of 2023 lists. Belatedly, here is my list of favorite concerts  and favorite art exhibits.

 

Tom Paxton

 

 

I saw numerous concerts last year, but several stood out. First, a shout to one at the end of 2022 at the Whately Town Hall. Tom Paxton turned the packed venue into a giant living room that felt so much like a farewell tour that there were many moist eyes as audience members sang along to their favorites from an icon of the Folk Revival.

 

Mary Chapin Carpenter

 

 

The best show by far came from Mary Chapin Carpenter, who appeared at Northampton’s Academy of Music in August. The AOM is not a great venue for amplified music, but MCC’s sound crew squeezed out the best sound I’ve ever heard there. She is also the consummate pro who knows how to sing a song, not just scream it. 

 

Breabach

 

Close on MCC’s heels were five  Celtic shows at Bombyx in Florence: Altan has been around since 1987, but the band breathed new life into their performance rather than just mailing it in like so many veteran acts do. I had heard recordings of the Scottish band Breabach, but I was pleasantly surprised by how energetic and exciting they were on stage. Speaking of which, Ireland’s Lunasa has long been an instrumental group but they’ve added singer/guitarist Colin Farrell (no, not that guy) who allows the band’s repertoire to expand. It was a great show. If you’ve never seen fiddler extraordinaire Eileen Ivers, you don’t what Celtic music sounds like when it melds with other musical forms. Ivers plays with passion and fire. I also caught the farewell tour of Clannad, who are coming off the road after 52 years. You’d never know they’re in their geriatric years!

 

That’s a segue to mentioning Judy Collins who appeared at the AOM. She’s 84, but still sings like an angel. Every now and then you hear her shift to a lower register, but she recreated her album Wildflowers and transported us back to 1967. How she can still sing like that is like asking how Catherine Deneuve still looks gorgeous.

 

The AOM saw another goodbye in its John Prine Tribute lineup as part of the Back Porch Festival at the AOM. A solid lineup of local musicians formed a band that fronted various guest artists to celebrate Prine’s life and amazing repertoire of songs poignant and funny.

 

Finally, Lisa Bastoni’s show at the Parlor Room was simply a warm throwback to the days when folk music didn’t need more than a guitar and a sweet voice.

 

If you’re wondering if I saw any bad shows, yeah, one. Lisa Lambert at the AOM, which was like an LGBTQ version of Hee Haw. She has some chops, but her voice also audibly broke and strained.

 

Best of the Art World:

 

This needs to be broken into several categories. Some of our most joyous moments took place behind our computer listening to the amazing talks from Jane Oneail, founder Culturally Curious (https://iamculturallycurious.com/ )Jane makes you understand and care about art you never thought you’d like.

 

 

 

But I really need to parse the shows because we were lucky enough to be in Europe in May. It’s hardly fair to compare our favorite experiences to gallery shows Stateside. If you’re ever in Lucerne, Switzerland, a must go is the Sammland Rosengart. (It’s not the city art museum.) In the private Rosengart Collection you will see voluminous numbers of canvasses from Pablo Picasso (above) and Paul Klee (below) and I liked both immensely. In fact, I liked the Klees in Lucerne more than what I saw in Bern’s Paul Klee Museum.

 

 

 

If you consider medieval churches art–and you should–Chartres might be the best of France given that Notre Dame is still under reconstruction. If not Chartres, then certainly the jewel box Ste. Chapelle in Paris.

 

 

Chartres

Ste. Chapelle

 

The above said, of all the repositories I’ve ever entered, Musée D’Orsay in Paris might be my favorite. If you like Impressionism, Fauvism, Post-Impressionism, or pretty much any other kind of art, sculpture, or photography from the years 1848-1914, it is the place to go. Even the revamped train station that houses it is spectacular. The only thing restricting your enjoyment is that it’s so rich that your brain might explode from trying to take it all in.

 

Cezanne

Monet

 

 

 

Paul Signac

Van Gogh

 

There are huge galleries on both sides & 3 floors

 

We saw some fine shows back home as well. Three stood above the rest. A show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts devoted to John Singer Sargent and fashion was sprawling and amazing. A trip to the Cloisters in New York City, where I hadn’t been in decades, was almost as good as visiting Cluny in Paris. But I give a slight # 1 nod to a show of Edvard Munch and Nature at the Clark Institute of Art.  

 

Edvard Munch's "Starry Night"

 

 

We didn’t actually see any disappointing exhibitions, large or small. As for the latter, if you’re ever in the area, pay a visit to the Brattleboro Museum of Art in Vermont. When you don’t have a huge endowment or permanent collection, clever curators can do a lot with limited resources. Few do it better than, in New England parlance, the folks “up to Brat.”  

 

Rob Weir