The Fishko Files
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Explore our Library of sound-rich radio essays on art and culture, from Toscanini to Chet Baker; from Ballet to Bonnie and Clyde.
Virtuoso
The Fishko Files
January 25, 2008
In the music world, being labeled a virtuoso is the highest compliment... or is it? WNYC's Sara Fishko considers the question, in this edition of the Fishko Files.
More To Do:
Marc-André Hamelin will be performing with renowned violinist Midori at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall next month. Click here for more information and tickets.
More To Hear:
Listen to Sara Fishko's Hour with Oscar Peterson, an in-depth interview with music.
You can purchase recordings of Marc-André Hamelin's "virtuosic" performance of Godowsky or the more "emotive" Haydn at amazon.com.
Cab Calloway
The Fishko Files
December 21, 2007
That notable date, December 25th, is also the birthday of the exuberant entertainer Cab Calloway of Hi-De-Ho fame. This year it's his centennial, which has Sara Fishko considering his vibrant legacy.
More:
This New Years Eve at the Apollo Theater: The Cab Calloway Orchestra performs "Minnie the Moocher" and other favorites led by Cab's grandson, Calloway Brooks.
You can purchase a great Cab Calloway compilation CD (with a Will Friedwald essay in the liner notes), or Calloway's entertaining autobiography from Amazon.com.
Don't be unhep! Learn what it means to be "togged to the bricks" with an online selection from Cab Colloway's Hepster's Dictionary.
Lives into Art
The Fishko Files
November 16, 2007
The upcoming film "I'm Not There" features six different actors playing Bob Dylan. This has Sara Fishko thinking about the problem of turning lives into art.
Audio clips of "Doctor Atomic" courtesy of San Francisco Opera.
War and Peace
The Fishko Files
October 19, 2007
A new, highly praised English translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace hit bookstores this week. In this edition of the Fishko Files, Sara Fishko turns the pages of this great classic.
More:
Purchase your copy of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's new translation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and King Vidor's slight but nonetheless entertaining film of adaptation at Amazon.com.
You can read more about Tolstoy and translation in Richard Pevear's fascinating essay in the New York Times by clicking here.
If you just can't get enough (or if you can) go see the 1968 Academy Award-winning, 7-hour Russian film adaptation of "War and Peace" now playing at Film Forum. Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, the film took seven years to make, included over 100,000 extras, and costing over $100 million (in 1960s dollars) is the most expensive film ever made.
David Goldfarb is the author of many articles and book chapters on Russian and Polish literature. His next popular publication will be the introduction to "The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories" by Bruno Schulz from Penguin Classics.
Moran on Monk
The Fishko Files
October 10, 2007
Today marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of one of the masters of American music, Thelonious Monk. Monk, who died in 1982, left numerous recordings in his inimitable piano style; and broke new ground with visionary compositions such as "Brilliant Corners" and "Round Midnight." As Sara Fishko tells us in this edition of the Fishko Files, hearing Thelonious Monk’s music for the first time can be habit-forming, as well as life-changing. It certainly was for Jason Moran.
Tonight's Thelonious Monk Birthday Events
Monk at 90
Jason Moran will participate in a conversation with distinguished Jazz critic Gary Giddens about Monk's music and legend. The event will include a solo performance by Moran.
Elebash Recital Hall - CUNY, The Graduate Center
6:30 - 8:00PM, 365 Fifth Avenue
Fazioli Piano Marathon
More than a dozen top jazz pianists are performing a mini-marathon tribute.
The Winter Garden
5:00 - 9:00PM, World Financial Center
For more of Jason Moran visit his website by clicking here.
You can purchase the Monk recordings of "Straight No Chaser" and "Round Midnight" at Amazon.com.
Remembering World War II
The Fishko Files
September 21, 2007
Once again, World War II is alive in popular culture. This year alone we can expect the launch of 3 new films, a 14-hour documentary TV series, and at least 8 new books on the subject. WNYC’s Sara Fishko, considers our endless fascination with the most documented event in history.
Recommended Reading by the authors heard in this File:
The Good War's Greatest Hits: World War II and American Remembering by Philip Beidler
At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture by James E. Young
Projections of War by Thomas Doherty
More:
Howard Hawks' 1943 film "Air Force" is available at amazon.com.
You can listen to a great selection of archival sound at "www.authentichistory.com".
Composers Who Perform
The Fishko Files
August 24, 2007
Last Tuesday another recording of Maurice Ravel's famous "Pavane" was released. That makes 20 in the past year alone, and each one of them is performed by a different musician with a personal touch. This proliferation of Pavanes has Sara Fishko thinking about classical composers, performance and the nature of interpretation.
Click here to learn more about the computerized restoration of the 1889 Brahms recording.
Some of the recordings heard in this File:
Sergei Rachmoninoff performs his "Oriental Sketch," 1917
Edvard Grieg performs his "To Spring" from Lyric Pieces op. 43 No. 6
Sergei Prokofiev performs his "Piano Concerto No. 3"
Rudolf Serkin performs Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 14, (Moonlight)"
Vladimir Ashkenazy performs Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 8, (Pathétique)"
Dmitri Shostakovich performs his "Prelude and Fugue No. 12"
Sviatoslav Richter performs Shostakovich's "Prelude and Fugue No. 12"
Sviatoslav Richter performs Shostakovich's "Prelude and Fugue No. 17"
Sergei Rachmoninoff performs his "Piano Concerto No. 2"
Robert Casadesus performs Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte"
Itzhak Perlman performs Brahms' "Hungarian Dances"
Bonnie and Clyde
The Fishko Files
August 03, 2007
It’s just 40 years since the release of the movie "Bonnie and Clyde." The film opened in the so-called Summer of Love, which was also the summer of rioting in New Jersey and new initiatives in the Vietnam War. As Sara Fishko tells us, the film made history sizzle; it also divided critics, thrilled audiences and opened creative doors. Here is the next Fishko Files.
More:
Get your own a copies of "Bonnie and Clyde" and Robert Kolker's A Cinema of Loneliness at amazon.
Stanwyck & Co.
The Fishko Files
July 13, 2007
Though her fans have been observing it all year, the official Barbara Stanwyck centennial is this Monday. In this edition of the Fishko Files, Sara Fishko considers the remarkable collection of strong-willed, distinctive Hollywood women who populated movies when the studio system was in full swing.
More:
Pre-order Jeanine Basinger's forthcoming book The Star Machine on amazon.
Read more from writer and critic Molly Haskell at her website.
Surveillance
The Fishko Files
June 22, 2007
Sixty years ago this month, the debut of a new radio show--using a hidden microphone--blurred the line between surveillance and entertainment. These days, as WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, the line is blurrier than ever. Here is the next Fishko Files.
More:
Profiling, an exhibition of two video-based, interactive art installations exploring issues of surveillance, is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art until September 9th.
Read more from Jonathan Raban, author of the novel Surveillance, at his website.
Buy the classic films Rear Window, and The Conversation at amazon.com.
Windows 
Windows 
Windows 
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- The Brian Lehrer Show: Before There was Stephen Colbert, There was George Carlin (July 02, 2008)
- The Leonard Lopate Show: Would You Survive? (July 02, 2008)