Stars and Genius shined through branches of nature

The Mostly Mozart Festival brought a lot of refreshing energy to the city this year. Programs full of feelings, of history, of passions. It was a re-encounter with the real genius in humankind. That genius that has been placed aside due to so many factors of our era. In key words, it was a real Festival of art.

Perhaps Mozart has taught us that there is beauty in everything that can be discovered. The programs of this year showed the audience opportunities to get some balance in a big chaos. More than the traditional chaos of daily life, this year's festival was about a reorganization of the chaos in a stream of master composers of previous years.

I believe that the festival's impact on the city's life was outstanding. Following up opinions from critics, from music lovers, from performers, from the crowd around Lincoln Center, it was obvious that the huge project made everybody shake. This challenge to our daily routines, made many look for the real human creation, to be more attentive, to find the beauty beyond the common, to think more in order to improve our perception of humanity and to look for the best in everyone.

Being able to praise grandiose masters in the piano like Mr. Nelson Freire was a big pleasure for New Yorkers. No doubt about it when Mr. Freire was the center of standing ovations one after the other during his performances. These occasions with Mr. Freire on stage showed that the contact with purity and reality of music happens through a different path more than simple appreciation of technical skills. Mr. Freire touched the hearts of concertgoers with his delicate playing, with his emotional performance, with his humble presence topped with his pleasant smile.

The orchestra players showed, in this Festival, their professional maturity, their integral ability to adjust to changes, their sincere coordination, their skill to dialogue and sing with their instruments, as well as their respect for the audience at the Avery Fisher Hall. Respect that means love for what they were playing and their response to conductors from different schools of music in terms of traditions.

The programming was simple and complex at the same time. The programing exposed Beethoven and Stravinsky to their highest levels contrasting their creativity with Mozart's. This interesting trend in the festival made the common audience think and re-think about classical music. It made me wander how much is hidden in the enormous laboratory of the auditive stimulation.

Definitively, it was a shaking interval in the cultural tradition of cultural life in NYC. It was a summer interval of connection with the grandiosity of intellect that survives wars as well as natural disasters, illness, death. Just thinking about the early physical death of Mozart, the auditive condition of Beethoven, and the overwhelming Tuberculosis attacks around Stravinsky's family made me change my perception of common problems.

Possibly, the energy of this festival was able to shake the east of America and mother nature almost stop it with an earthquake but went with a hurricane. However, stars can go through branches.

It has been painted:

"Stars appear as diamond shapes of flat white nested in black shadow. The ramped-up contrast is risky, but effective"
(Sheila Farr in Visual Arts: Striking surprises from Joseph Goldberg, Seattle Times art critic)

" . . . and stars, blank whites, peer out from black holes. The painter is pressing the extremes of contrast in what he realizes is a meager effort to imitate the effortless contrasts he sees daily in the desert"
(Regina Hackett in Goldberg's encaustic landscapes are worlds unto themselves, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Art Critic)

Unforgettable ...

Photo: "Stars through branches" (2004) by Joseph Goldberg - Encaustic on linen over wood panel. Private collection of Dr. Gemzel Hernandez