OT: Kennedy Center Honors on TV Tonight.

[Kibitzer]

At 9:00 p.m. on CBS, the complete program honoring Mavis Staples, Al Pacino, Eagles, Martha Argereich and James Taylor will be shown.

Looking to 2017 my wish list of honorees includes Sherrill Milnes, either Gene Hackman or Alan Alda, and either Mark O'Connor or Bela Fleck. Anyone have names to add?

 

[VAMike23]

At 9:00 p.m. on CBS, the complete program honoring Mavis Staples, Al Pacino, Eagles, Martha Argereich and James Taylor will be shown.

Looking to 2017 my wish list of honorees includes Sherrill Milnes, either Gene Hackman or Alan Alda, and either Mark O'Connor or Bela Fleck. Anyone have names to add?

Always a favorite ! I never miss it.

I'm not a big fan of the new production team but it's not nearly enough of a downtick to affect my love for this show. (Aretha was fabulous last year, and that was under the new team, so it's not like I can't stand what they're doing. )

 

[bags27]

There has been lots of criticism of the honors for 2 reasons, both of which are on display tonight. 1. honoring a lot of rock 'n rollers as a play toward greater TV ratings. I'll leave that debate to others. (BTW if you haven't yet caught the rockumentary, "The Eagles" on Netflix, you're missing something fantastic; easily the best of that genre I've ever seen.) 2. honoring non-Americans. In this case, it's the incomparable Martha Argerich. You don't have to love classical music to appreciate what a courageous and interesting and accomplished life she's led. She's a personal hero of mine.

 

[Kibitzer]

Always a favorite ! I never miss it. I'm not a big fan of the new production team but it's not nearly enough of a downtick to affect my love for this show. (Aretha was fabulous last year, and that was under the new team, so it's not like I can't stand what they're doing. )[/QUO

There has been lots of criticism of the honors for 2 reasons, both of which are on display tonight. 1. honoring a lot of rock 'n rollers as a play toward greater TV ratings. I'll leave that debate to others. (BTW if you haven't yet caught the rockumentary, "The Eagles" on Netflix, you're missing something fantastic; easily the best of that genre I've ever seen.) 2. honoring non-Americans. In this case, it's the incomparable Martha Argerich. You don't have to love classical music to appreciate what a courageous and interesting and accomplished life she's led. She's a personal hero of mine.

Another big criticism (WashPost) is the about 2:1 ratio of male:female honorees. Still a great annual event.

 

[Kibitzer]

Looking to 2017 my wish list of honorees includes Sherrill Milnes, either Gene Hackman or Alan Alda, and either Mark O'Connor or Bela Fleck. Anyone have names to add?

 

[JordyG]

Just happy to see 75 year old Martha Argerich get her due. Her doing Tchaikovsky's 1st is still the benchmark, although some go on and on about Horowitz and Toscanini.

 

[Kibitzer]

Just happy to see 75 year old Martha Argerich get her due. Her doing Tchaikovsky's 1st is still the benchmark, although some go on and on about Horowitz and Toscanini.

How about Van Cliburn -- in Russia!

 

[JordyG]

There has been lots of criticism of the honors for 2 reasons, both of which are on display tonight. 1. honoring a lot of rock 'n rollers as a play toward greater TV ratings. I'll leave that debate to others. (BTW if you haven't yet caught the rockumentary, "The Eagles" on Netflix, you're missing something fantastic; easily the best of that genre I've ever seen.) 2. honoring non-Americans. In this case, it's the incomparable Martha Argerich. You don't have to love classical music to appreciate what a courageous and interesting and accomplished life she's led. She's a personal hero of mine.

Yeah, Argerich is one of mine as well. Funny you should mention Eagles. They were always one of my favorites and one of the very few bands of that era I never had the pleasure of seeing. I did see The James Gang and Poco however.

 

[JordyG]

How about Van Cliburn -- in Russia!

For the almost clinical way of his playing and the bombast with which it was received, yeah, 3rd. But listen to Argerich and Horowitz and it's a distant third for me.

 

[msf22b]

The Japanese young woman who is playing may have more chops than anyone, Horowitz included.

 

[JordyG]

The Japanese young woman who is playing may have more chops than anyone, Horowitz included.

Chops is one thing, interpretive ability AND chops, something else. To me the young pianist with both is Danill Trifonov. Astounding.

 

[bags27]

The Japanese young woman who is playing may have more chops than anyone, Horowitz included.

That's the extraordinary Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang.

Everyone know the Horowitz history with the Kennedy honors? Like Bob Dylan, incredibly shy, and insisted that he would only accept if he were alone in the auditorium in the middle of the day. So, he never got it.

 

[msf22b]

That's the extraordinary Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang.

Everyone know the Horowitz history with the Kennedy honors? Like Bob Dylan, incredibly shy, and insisted that he would only accept if he were alone in the auditorium in the middle of the day. So, he never got it.

Thank you for the correction....Senior moment, I heard her in China was she was 17
Becoming a real artist, not just a key plunker.

 

[JordyG]

That's the extraordinary Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang.

Everyone know the Horowitz history with the Kennedy honors? Like Bob Dylan, incredibly shy, and insisted that he would only accept if he were alone in the auditorium in the middle of the day. So, he never got it.

Horowitz the original metrosexual. Shy, finicky, particular, and mannered. There should be an award for those who have passed.

 

[VAMike23]

On an absolute level, the program was still enjoyable. On a relative scale, however, tonight's show was broken up into far too many pieces , robbing most of the tributes of momentum. The prior practice of a single long exposition followed by artistic tributes performed back to back was usually much more effective by comparison.

Many of the vocals also seemed less inspired than usual, at least as far as the mix that was delivered on-air (Cynthia Erivo was one wonderful exception). I suspect a fair bit of auto-tune is being used in the post--something I never detected before---and that we're getting a much more compressed and processed version in the final broadcast than in the past overall. Performances were generally too polished, with nary a wrong note or departure from the established melody. Suspicious :-P

I miss the sense of frisson that often marked past tributes. Aretha's performance last year had it in spades and did not sound like a post-processed and compressed version of the Queen of Soul. Most of tonight's stuff did. Seger appeared to be practically screaming his vocal, and while he sang quite a bit off axis , it still should have sounded different than it did, IMO.

The Shakespeare reading by L Fishburne (and ____?) was completely flat! It's rare that this format succeeds, but tonight's attempt was especially 'blah.'

I still enjoyed it but yes--I'm an insufferable critic when it comes to this program ! Lol !

 

[meyers7]

(BTW if you haven't yet caught the rockumentary, "The Eagles" on Netflix, you're missing something fantastic; easily the best of that genre I've ever seen.)

It is fantastic. I've watched it numerous times.