Classical Music/Opera Listings Including Joseph William Mallord JMW Turner

Opera

★ ‘THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO’ (Friday through Sunday) After 61 years, Amato Opera, the scrappy mom-and-pop company run with devotion by Anthony Amato and, until her death in 2000, his wife, Sally, will close down for good with a production of Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.” The final performance is 0n Sunday night. At Amato Opera presentations, the makeshift orchestra usually consists of a keyboard instrument and a handful of woodwinds. And the theater is tiny, although that makes for intimate operatic experiences. But for decades opera lovers have embraced Amato and its mission, which has brought affordable productions to the public, given young singers exposure and fulfilled the dreams of older amateurs who make their livings in other fields but are passionate about singing. Mr. Amato, 88, has found it too hard to continue. The farewell production of Mozart’s most popular opera, performed in English translation, should be a joyous and meaningful send-off. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Amato Opera Theater, 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, amato.org, (866) 811-4111; sold out.

(Anthony Tommasini)

Classical Music

AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Sunday) Leon Botstein devotes his program to works by the Israeli composers Paul Ben-Haim, Odon Partos, Mordecai Seter and Josef Tal, who emigrated from Europe in the 1920s and ’30s and established the foundation on which contemporary Israeli composers have built (and which they have rebelled against). Ben-Haim, the best known of the group, is represented by his “Fanfare to Israel” and his Symphony No. 2. Included as well are Tal’s Symphony No. 2, Seter’s “Midnight Vigil” and Partos’s “Ein Gev” Symphonic Fantasy. At 3 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $28 to $57.

(Allan Kozinn)

★ BANG ON A CAN MARATHON (Sunday) Energetic new-music lovers gather at the World Financial Center Winter Garden each year for the annual Bang on a Can marathon, part of the River to River festival. This year the eclectic event includes selections from Phil Kline’s “John the Revelator”; a work composed for nine saxophones; and one for pipa and tabla with string quartet. In “Braun KSM2” even coffee grinders get a chance to shine. Performers include Wu Man and the stellar ensembles Ethel and Signal. The program also includes the United States debut of the choral group Ars Nova Copenhagen, led by Paul Hillier. At noon, World Financial Center Winter Garden, West Street, south of Vesey Street, Lower Manhattan; (718) 852-7755; bangonacan.org; free.

(Vivien Schweitzer)

BARGEMUSIC (Friday through Sunday, and Wednesday) The weekend at this floating concert hall begins on Friday night with two radically different wind quintets, both composed in the first quarter of the 20th century: August Klughardt’s 1901 Quintet in C, a sweetly Romantic work, and Arnold Schoenberg’s 1924 Quintet (Op. 26), an early essay composed using the 12-tone techniques Schoenberg pioneered. If you prefer a more conventional program, the violinist Mark Peskanov oversees a set of piano trios: by Haydn (in E flat, Hob. XV:22), Mozart (in D minor, K. 442) and Beethoven (the “Archduke,” Op. 97). And on Wednesday the pianists Sara Buechner and Shih-Yu Cheng offer a program of Gershwin favorites, including the Three Preludes, two-piano versions of “Rhapsody in Blue,” the “I Got Rhythm” Variations, and the “Cuban” Overture. Included as well will be a few rarities: four Foxtrot Improvisations, transcribed from early recordings and player piano rolls. Friday, Saturday and Wednesday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m.; Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083, bargemusic.org; $40; $35 for 65+; $20 for students on Friday; $35, and $20 for students, on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday; $30 for 65+ on Wednesday. (Kozinn)

DA CAPO CHAMBER PLAYERS (Monday) This superb new-music ensemble devotes its final program of the season to works that combine live and electronic sound, composed by Judith Shatin and Richard Teitelbaum for the occasion. At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $20; $10 to $25 for students and 65+. (Kozinn)

★ ENSEMBLE ACJW (Sunday) To conclude the season, the Ensemble ACJW, the chamber group comprising top-notch postgraduate musicians from the training academy jointly run by Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute, is branching out. The ensemble is presenting a series of free Neighborhood Concerts in sites throughout New York City. On Sunday it performs as part of the music series at Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church in Upper Manhattan. The program offers Beethoven’s Septet in E flat and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor. Though saddled with a cumbersome name, the Ensemble ACJW is always impressive. At 3 p.m., Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church, 178 Bennett Street, west of Broadway between 189th and 190th Streets, Washington Heights, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org. (Tommasini)

THE LITTLE ORCHESTRA SOCIETY (Tuesday) Dino Anagnost conducts a program called “Venetian Carnivale,” celebrating the music of Vivaldi, Handel, Bach and Scarlatti. Soloists include the soprano Julia Kogan and the harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper. At 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $25 to $40. (Schweitzer)

MANNES BEETHOVEN INSTITUTE (Wednesday) The Mannes Beethoven Institute, now in its ninth year, focuses on the composer’s solo and duo sonatas, trios and string quartets, with private lessons, master classes and recitals. On Wednesday the baritone Thomas Meglioranza, the cellist Peter Stumpf and the pianists Ignat Solzhenitsyn and Thomas Sauer offer a program including “An Die ferne Geliebte” (Op. 98), the Sonata in C for Cello and Piano (Op. 102, No. 1) and the Piano Sonata in A (Op. 101). At 8 p.m., Mannes College the New School for Music, 150 West 85th Street, Manhattan, newschool.edu/Mannes, (212) 580-0210; $20. (Schweitzer)

★ ANNE-MARIE MCDERMOTT (Sunday) The invaluable Free for All at Town Hall series, presented by Twin Lions Inc., a nonprofit concert production company, returns on Sunday with the first in a series of three enticing programs. As its name indicates, the mission of the series is to present high-quality free music on Sunday afternoons, first come first served. The first event of 2009 is a recital by the excellent and adventurous pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, who, as it happens, inaugurated the series in 2003 in a joint recital with the violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Ms. McDermott will play three Haydn sonatas, the premiere of a sonata by Charles Wuorinen and the United States premiere of Clarice Assad’s “When Art Showed Up.” At 5 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824 ; tickets required. Assigned seats are distributed starting at noon on the day of concert. (Tommasini)

NEW YORK CITY MASTER CHORALE (Sunday) The inventive British composer Tarik O’Regan’s evensong setting, “Dorchester Canticles,” was composed as a companion work for Leonard Bernstein’s ebullient “Chichester Psalms.” Thea Kano leads her choir in both works, as well as in the premiere of a score written for the concert, “The Journey,” by Aaron Fruchtman. Mr. Fruchtman’s four-movement score about the opening of the Oregon Trail, based on diaries from the time, is narrated by Bruce Dern. At 3 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $25 to $60. (Kozinn)

★ NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Thursday) The last four weeks of the New York Philharmonic’s subscription series season will serve as a farewell both to and from Lorin Maazel, who is concluding his seven-year tenure as music director. Mr. Maazel will conduct four successive programs that will offer, among other works, Britten’s “War Requiem” and, to conclude, Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand.” For the program that begins on Thursday Mr. Maazel has chosen Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 4, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto (with Philip Smith, soloist) and Ravel’s “Bolero.” Of special note will be the performance of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto featuring the Philharmonic’s amazing and ageless principal clarinetist, Stanley Drucker, retiring after an incredible 61 years. Mr. Drucker joined the Philharmonic when he was 19. At 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; sold out. (Returns, if available, will be sold before the concert.)

(Tommasini)

★ NEW YORK YOUTH SYMPHONY (Sunday) The New York Youth Symphony concludes its 46th season of concerts at Carnegie Hall with a program highlighted by Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, conducted by the orchestra’s dynamic music director, Ryan McAdams. This impressive ensemble, with a pool of more than 100 players, makes up in enthusiasm for whatever it may lack in technical finesse. It is always exciting to hear a repertory staple performed by eager and gifted young people who are often playing it for the first time. At every concert the orchestra gives the premiere of a work by a young composer. On Sunday it will be “Recurrent Dream” by Trevor Gureckis. Jennifer Zetlan, a young soprano in her Carnegie Hall debut, is the soloist in the Mahler. The program opens with Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.” At 2 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $10 to $45. (Tommasini)

RIVERSIDE SYMPHONY (Wednesday) This inventive ensemble, conducted by George Rothman, has just released a CD of works by Marius Constant, and, to celebrate, the orchestra is performing Constant’s “Turner” — a musical impression of three paintings by J. M. W. Turner — as the anchor of a program that also includes Schubert’s Symphony No. 2 and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Tim Fain is the soloist in the Prokofiev. At 7:30 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $35 to $50. (Kozinn)

UNDISCOVERED ISLANDS (Friday) New Amsterdam Records promotes stylistically omnivorous composers whose music encompasses genres including pop, classical, jazz and electronica. The label’s Undiscovered Islands festival concludes its four-week run with a multimedia chamber opera by Missy Mazzoli and Stephen Taylor called “Song From the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt.” The NOW Ensemble accompanies the singer Abigail Fischer; Gia Forakis directs. The program also includes a preview of William Brittelle’s symphonic rock epic “Television Landscape” for vocalist and large ensemble. At 8 p.m., Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street, at Water Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, (718) 222-8500, undiscoveredislands.com; $12. (Schweitzer)

WORKS AND PROCESS (Sunday and Monday) Ear and nose will be catered to during the world premiere of “Green Aria,” a “ScentOpera” with a libretto by Stewart Matthew, who collaborated with the fragrance designer Christophe Laudamiel and the composers Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson. Music and scents will be “performed” in the dark, using a customized scent organ that pumps the fragrances to “scent microphones” attached to each seat. There is no singing; after a prologue, the score and the scents will convey the story. On Sunday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., and on Monday at 4:30, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Peter B. Lewis Theater, Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3587, worksandprocess.org; sold out. (Schweitzer)

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: June 2, 2009
A classical music entry in the Listings pages on Friday about a concert on Wednesday by the Mannes Beethoven Institute at Mannes College the New School for Music, 150 West 85th Street in Manhattan, misstated the time. The concert will be at 8 p.m., not 2 p.m.

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Rare Works by Goya, Fragonard, David and Joseph William Turner at Sotheby's July Old Master Paintings

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, An Equestrian Portrait of Manuel Godoy, Duque de la Alcudia, oil on canvas, estimate: £2.5-3.5 million. Photo: Sotheby's.

LONDON.- Sotheby's forthcoming sales of Old Master Paintings and Drawings to take place in London on Wednesday, July 8 and Thursday, July 9, 2009 will bring to the market a superb selection of rare works by renowned French, Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, Italian and British Old Masters as well as a single-owner sale of Renaissance and Baroque masterworks from the collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson. Among the artists to feature in the Old Master Paintings Evening Sale are Daddi, Dell’Abate, Metsu, Guercino, Zurbarán, Guardi, Fragonard and Goya and the 48 lots have an estimate in the region of £24 million. A large proportion of the works come to the market with exemplary provenance, having either been in private collections for many years or actually never having been offered at auction before. The centrepiece of the Old Master Drawings sale will be a long-lost masterpiece by Jacques-Louis David, which has not been seen in public since it was exhibited in Brussels in 1925.

Spanish highlights:
An important equestrian portrait of Don Manuel Godoy, Duke of Alcudia by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), estimated at £2.5-3.5 million, will spearhead the selection of Spanish works. A remarkable political and military figure who swiftly rose to power on the strengths of his talents and much-commented-upon relationship with Queen María Louisa and King Carlos IV, Don Manuel Godoy was undoubtedly the most powerful man in Spain during the reign of Carlos IV. Goya undertook the portrait of him in 1794, at the height of his own career, following his appointment as Pintor del Rey in 1786 and Primer Pintor de Camara in 1789, and although details surrounding the precise commission of the painting are unknown, the work can be accurately dated to 1794 as Goya refers to the picture in a letter to a childhood friend.

The portrait ranks among the most important paintings by the Spanish artist ever to come to auction. With its magical Goya atmosphere and signature Goya sky, the painting has been extensively exhibited.

Francisco de Zurbarán’s (1598-1664) imposing portrait of Doctor Juan Martinez Serrano - an ecclesiastic and professor from Segovia - comes to market in remarkable condition and with superb provenance, having not been on the market for nearly 40 years. The painting in soft and subtle tones was discovered in 1969 by Jose Lopez-Rey and since this time scholars have dated it to the 1630s. It has an estimate of £800,000-1,200,000.

A third notable work with Spanish links is a depiction of St George on top of the slain dragon by Jorge Inglés (active 1455-1485), an artist of English origin who was working predominantly in the Spanish region of Castile in the third quarter of the 15th century. This work is also in excellent condition and is estimated at £400,000-600,000.

French highlights:
With an estimate of £2.5-3.5 million, a pair of portraits by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) will lead the French offerings. The two decorative portraits entitled A Young Woman Adorning her Powdered Coiffure with a Spray of Roses and A Young Blonde Woman with a Garland of Roses around her Neck are mature works by the French artist and they epitomise his skillful combination of virtuoso paintwork and Rococo elegance that made Fragonard one of the most brilliant and versatile painters of 18th century France. Almost certainly dating from the early 1770s - one of the most brilliant and fertile periods of the artist’s career - the portraits are very similar in subject and style to a number of other paintings from this date. Previously unrecorded and unpublished, the two magnificent portraits became a major addition to Fragonard’s known oeuvre when they were exhibited for the first time in New York in 2005 and the forthcoming sale will be their first appearance at auction.

Dutch and Flemish highlights:
Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s (1564-1637/8) finest version of The Massacre of the Innocents - the renowned composition devised by his father - comes to the market in fine, original condition and with an estimate of £2.5-3.5 million. Breughel the Younger produced many versions of the well-known scene, the original of which is in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court today, and the number and general quality of the younger Breughel’s works suggest that he was very familiar with his father’s original painting. The impact of The Massacre of the Innocents composition – both in terms of the horror of the narrative and the veiled political comments – was, and still remains, very powerful.

A three-quarter-length portrait by the Antwerp-born Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), estimated at £1-1.5 million, depicts Endymion Porter, the diplomat, connoisseur and courtier to Charles I who was a close friend and confidante of van Dyck. The Portrait of Endymion Porter was on loan to the York City Art Gallery for many years and more recently it was included in the Van Dyck and Britain exhibition at Tate Britain earlier this year. Never offered at auction before, the painting has descended through the same family collection since 1798.

Endymion and van Dyck first met on the artist’s initial visit to England in 1620- 1621 and this portrait, painted a few years later in Antwerp in 1628, represents the first in a series that the artist undertook of his great friend. It is also one of his earliest portraits of Englishmen and it is emblematic of his role in introducing a progressively more engaging and psycho-analytical portraiture style to England. Van Dyck portrays his friend and patron in a striking yet intimate and refined pose and his rich satin doublet and great clock are those of an elegant and dashing courtier; a man of great character and personality is clearly presented. Van Dyck later captured his relationship with Endymion in a double portrait of them together side-by-side and this work today hangs in the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Endymion was the only Englishman to receive such an honour.

The sale will also feature remarkable works by Gabriel Metsu (1629-1669) and Adriaen Coorte (1660-1707). Metsu’s A Woman Selling Game from a Stall, estimated at £1.2-1.8 million and, comes from the Fermor-Hesketh family collection at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire and is one of the most important and largest works by the artist to ever appear on the auction market. A still life of a vine twig with fruit by the much sought-after Adriaen Coorte, estimated at £300,000-400,000, was included in the first exhibition devoted to the artist in 1958 but has since been hidden away from public view in a private family collection. Works by Coorte, a painter of outstanding quality and originality, are rare to the market as only a mere 64 pictures by him are known to exist today.

Italian highlights:
A rare figurative work by Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) and a Venetian view by his near contemporary Michele Marieschi (1710-1743) are two of the most important Venetian works in the sale and they are estimated at £800,000-1,200,000 and £600,000-800,000 respectively. Guardi’s dazzling interior is a relatively early work by the artist – it is believed to date from the 1750s – and it is one of only a small number of the artist’s paintings that depict the interior of a Venetian palazzo. Although best known for his landscapes, Guardi was a skilled narrative painter, as is shown in A Ridotto with Masked Figures Dancing and Conversing. In this work he captures the Sala grande of the ridotto in Palazzo Dandolo in the San Moise district of Venice and he delights in intimating the relationships between characters through gesture and pose. The ridotto was a public space of entertainment where aristocrats, the middle-class and prostitutes could interact and given that most attendees wore masks, they often became a location for illicit amorous liaisons and conspiratorial plots. Guardi painted several similar views of the ridotto at Palazzo Dandolo and all are closely related in terms of the figures they contain. Marieschi’s beautiful and well preserved Venetian cityscape captures The Grand Canal from the right bank and the Church of San Stae.

Nicole dell’Abate’s (1509/12-1571) large-scale oil on canvas The Taking of Carthage: Hasdrubal’s Wife Denouncing Her Husband Before Scipio, estimated at £800,000-1,200,000, will offer a rare opportunity to acquire a work from the artist’s time in France as, with the exception of a number of drawings, very few painted works from this period in his career survive today. After a successful career as a painter of large-scale decorative schemes in his native Modena and in Bologna, dell’Abate was summoned to France in 1552 to assist Francesco Primaticcio at the Court of Henri II and he worked extensively at Fontainebleau.

Three panels by Luca di Tommè (active in Siena 1356-1389) dating from circa 1350 are each estimated at £400,000-600,000. The panels - which portray Saint Michael, Saint Bernardo degli Uberti and Saint Giovanni Gualberto - were almost certainly commissioned by the Arte della Lana or Wool Merchants Guild for the Vallombrosan Church of San Michele in Siena and originally formed part of the central register of a larger polyptych dedicated to the Virgin and Child. Neither the church nor the complete altarpiece survived but the panels did and they exist today in an extraordinary state of preservation.

Further Italian highlights will be two gold grounds by Bernardo Daddi (1290-1348) depicting St John the Evangelist and St Francis, estimated at £600,000-800,000, and a life-size portrayal of the penitent Magdalen by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino (1591-1666). The Penitent Magdalen, estimated at £600,000-800,000, is one of a series of five life-size paintings of saints commissioned by Cardinal Fabrizio Savelli in Bologna in 1649; Savelli was appointed Papal Legate in Bologna in September 1648. The five pictures in the series are all of similar dimensions but the Penitent Magdalene is the only female in the series.

British highlights:
A Portrait of Baron de Robeck Riding A Bay Hunter by George Stubbs (1724-1806) is one of the undoubted highlights of the British pictures in the sale and the magnificent painting - one of Stubbs most heroic images - carries an estimate of £2-3 million. The painting dates from 1791, the year in which the artist’s fortunes greatly improved; in 1790 he had received a commission to paint a series of famous racehorses to illustrate a history of The Turf and then early 1791 saw the beginning of his substantial patronage to the Prince of Wales. John 2nd Baron de Robeck was a colourful Swedish nobleman whose father had been ennobled in 1750 by Frederick I of Sweden and the heroic pose in which he is captured - showing him on a rearing horse - has its origin in several famous equestrian portraits by earlier Old Masters such as Velázquez, Titian and Van Dyck.

J.M.W. Turner’s (1775-1851) Virginia Water, estimated at £500,000-700,000, dates from the late 1820s and it is one of two watercolours of the same title that were engraved for The Keepsake Annual in 1830. The second watercolour, which also shows the Chinese fishing pavilion, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886 but its whereabouts are unknown today. The watercolour on offer captures Virginia Water in Berkshire from an easterly direction; it takes the view from near the road (now the A30) and shows the lake looking towards the Chinese pavilion, which was demolished in 1936. Close to the pavilion is a fishing boat fitted with an awning and the Royal Standard, indicating that the King is onboard and in the foreground a military band plays onboard an elegant barge being towed by a rowing boat. On the calm water’s surface are two buoys decorated with the Cross of St George, which is also shown on the flag at the stern of the bands elegant barge. Such ceremonial elements suggest the date to be April 23, which is St George’s Day, the King’s official birthday and also coincidentally, Turner’s birthday. The watercolor has superb provenance having descended through the same family collection since 1913 - a period of almost a century - and having never appeared on the auction market before.

John Constable’s (1776-1837) dramatic landscape Storm Clouds over Hampstead, estimated at £300,000-500,000, depicts a windswept day and the full powers of Mother Nature. The dark blue and grey storm clouds are captured being driven by a strong westerly breeze and the merest hint of tree tops on the lower right hand horizon serve to emphasise the enormity and scale of the view. Rarely found in other such cloud landscapes, two birds are depicted joyously wheeling on the wind. Constable is known to have painted more than 100 cloud studies during his career but few examples are as significant in scale and power as Storm Clouds over Hampstead. The sky is a key component in all of Constable’s landscape works.

OLD MASTER DRAWINGS
The centrepiece of the dedicated Old Master Drawings sale at 11am on Wednesday, July 8 will be a long-lost masterpiece by Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), which has not been seen in public since it was exhibited in Brussels in 1925. Entitled Alexander Watching Apelles Painting Campaspe, the drawing is a large, elaborate and highly sensual composition that dates from 1813 and it is the most important work by the artist to appear on the market for many decades. It is estimated at £600,000-800,000. No other work of comparable quality and significance by the artist is currently known to remain in private hands.

Very soon after it was executed, the drawing was acknowledged as one of David’s masterpieces and the artist himself clearly thought very highly of it as he presented it in 1820 to his most respected pupil, Baron Gros. Thereafter the drawing passed, by way of further presentations, through several illustrious hands, but subsequently disappeared from public view and throughout much of the 20th century it was known only from various admiring mentions in the literature. In 2001, however, the drawing was rediscovered in a private collection, but although it has since been widely published, it has not been on public exhibition since 1925 – some 84 years ago.

David first explored the potential of subjects from classical history nearly two decades earlier, when making his iconic 1780s paintings that defined the image of the French Revolution. By 1813, however, he seems to have been less interested in the political messages to be derived from classical subjects, and more interested in their purely visual potential. This drawing is the definition of what Ancient Greece meant to David during the latter part of his career, and represents the culmination of his relationship with the classical world. It sees him revel in the classical purity of both the beautiful figure of Campaspe and of the setting, while also apparently relishing the contrast with the erotically charged nature of the subject.

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Chill out, it’s just the jet stream | Joseph Mallord William JMW Turner

Getting a little tired of shivering through the barbecue and waiting for a 90-degree day before plunging into the pool? Get used to it. Meteorologists warn that a persistent, southward displacement of the jet stream is responsible for the relatively cooler and wetter weather that much of the northern half of the U.S. has been experiencing this spring. But things could be worse — a lot worse.

Back in 1816, the eruptions of Mount Tambora in present-day Indonesia sent massive quantities of dust into the upper atmosphere, blocking enough sunlight to induce bone-chilling, crop-killing weather around the globe and earn the moniker “The Year Without a Summer.” Crop failures occurred from China to New England, and temperature swings from hot to near-freezing were frequent occurrences.

Even so, 1816 wasn’t a complete loss. The unusual weather sparked greater migration from rocky New England, helping to settle the fertile regions of Western New York. The stunning sunsets are said to have inspired English landscape artist J.M.W. Turner. And Mary Shelley and her friends decided to stay inside during much of their vacation in Switzerland, where she penned “Frankenstein.”

Still, all this cool and rainy weather is a little scary. We’d like a bit more of yesterday’s sunshine. Not for our sake, mind you, but those tomatoes sure could use the help. The lawn, meanwhile, is doing just fine.

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Picasso Museum Director Appeals for Return of Stolen Sketchbook Including Two Of Joseph William Turner's Paintings

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Anne Baldassari, the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, has appealed for thieves to return a sketchbook by the artist that was stolen last week.

“It’s an interesting notebook from a scholarly standpoint, as documentation,” she said in an interview. “On the market, it’s worth nothing, especially since it was stolen.”

The book was taken out of a locked glass case using special tools. It follows other thefts where artworks have been removed from European museums, some of which have later been recovered, such as two versions of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

Paris detectives are investigating the disappearance of the book of 33 pencil drawings, dated 1917-1924. It measured 16 centimeters by 24 centimeters (approximately 6 inches by 10 inches), with a shiny red cover bearing the word “Album” written in gold.

TV and newspaper reports estimated that the book was worth 8 million euros ($11.1 million), although Baldassari said this figure was too high. She said the book contained small-format, unsigned pencil sketches, and some of the sheets had drawings on both sides. The estimate, she said, was based on the average price of a Picasso drawing multiplied by the number of sheets in the book, and the sketches in question are not worth that.

“The only people interested in this sketchbook are major museums: We recently bought a sketchbook ourselves, to prevent it from being destroyed and dismembered,” said Baldassari. “It allows us to preserve all evidence of the work of Picasso.”

‘Give It Back’

She urged the holder of the work to keep it in one piece and return it. “To destroy an object in an attempt to increase its value is absurd,” she said. “The person in whose hands it is should find a way of giving it back.”

London-based dealer James Roundell, of Simon C. Dickinson Ltd., said he could not value the stolen work, because he had not seen it. He described Picasso as a “prolific drawer” who kept sketchbooks of all sizes, sometimes for years.

“They’re quick-fire notations which he then uses to develop into bigger-style paintings,” said Roundell. “Sometimes his sketches can be just a few lines, which is effectively of academic interest.”

“When he actually works them up and colors them and dates them, they become separate works of art in their own right,” he said.

At Sotheby’s June 25 day sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London, a November 1970 pencil drawing by Picasso titled “Femme Assise” of a seated nude, measuring 23.8 centimeters by 31.8 centimeters, is up for auction at an estimate of 40,000 pounds to 60,000 pounds.

‘Amateurish’ Theft

To Robert Read, the head fine-art underwriter at insurer Hiscox Ltd., the theft “looks fairly amateurish.”

“If you want to commit an art crime, theft is the dumbest one to do: It’s got the poorest return,” said Read. “The probability of getting caught is much higher.”

Referring to the sketchbook, Read said it was “a tall order getting rid of it for any meaningful amount of money” as art thefts get huge publicity, and are remembered years later.

“Eventually someone tries to convert it into cash, and that’s when it comes back out into the open,” said Read.

Dealers point to recovered versions of Munch’s most famous work “The Scream.” One was stolen in 1994 and returned later that year. Another was robbed in 2004 and recovered in 2006. Two J.M.W. Turner paintings belonging to Tate were stolen from Frankfurt’s Kunsthalle Schirn in 1994 and later recovered.

Baldassari -- chief curator of the 2008-9 exhibition “Picasso et les Maitres” in Paris, which placed the artist’s works beside masterpieces he admired -- is shutting the museum this year for a 20 million euro refurbishment.

The Picasso Museum opened in 1985 in a 17th-century building to house more than 500 paintings and sculptures -- as well as thousands of drawings, engravings and archives -- that the artist’s heirs gave the French state in lieu of inheritance tax. The museum’s contents represent a fraction of what Picasso retained until his death in 1973.

The museum has a complicated layout, steep ramps and stairs, and wiring and air conditioning that need updating. The plan is to move the offices to another building and make space for as many as 700,000 to 800,000 visitors a year.

Another interesting post including Joseph William Mallord Turner's impressionist art, landscape paintings, landscape oil paintings, watercolour printmaker, abstract landscape paintings!

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Italian paints a picture of artist Joseph William Mallord JMW Turner

FRANCESCO Da Mosta, the Italian architect, author, historian, film maker and TV presenter, attracted a sell-out crowd to the National Gallery of Scotland for a talk on the Turner and Italy exhibition.

Da Mosta, best known for his BBC series Francesco's Venice, was a special guest at the Royal Academy on The Mound for the talk on artist JMW Turner.

The ticketed event was one of the best-selling talks at the Gallery in recent memory, with all tickets selling out in half an hour.

The presenter discussed the Italy JMW Turner would have experienced in his visits during the 18th century and to what extent it has changed today.

The major exhibition celebrates the love affair between the artist and Italy, exploring his enduring relationship with the country, and charting the inspiration it gave him to create some of the greatest images of Romantic art.

The is the only UK showing of the blockbuster exhibition, which includes oil paintings, watercolours, sketchbooks and books from Turner's own library.

Wow! Interesting Work from an italial painting of Joseph William Mallord Turner's impressionist art, landscape paintings, landscape oil paintings, watercolour printmaker, abstract landscape paintings!

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A Composer Best Known for a Creepy TV Tune

Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times

George Rothman leading the Riverside Symphony, with Tim Fain on violin, on Wednesday, in their last program of the season.

In the late 1950s the CBS television network offered $200 to any composer who could write a catchy, creepy signature theme for its new sci-fi show, “The Twilight Zone.” The winner was Marius Constant, a French modernist composer of Romanian descent. Sadly, no other work by Constant, who died at 79 in 2004, will ever attain the pop-culture status of the “Twilight Zone” theme, 30 seconds of music that he tossed off in a single afternoon for kicks.

Constant has champions in the composer Anthony Korf and the conductor George Rothman, the artistic director and the music director of the Riverside Symphony, founded in 1981. This enterprising orchestra ended its season on Wednesday night at Alice Tully Hall with an intriguing program that opened with a little-known Constant work, “Turner: Three Essays for Orchestra.” This 20-minute score from 1961 was inspired by three paintings by the visionary British artist J. M. W. Turner.

During the middle decades of the 20th century, when contemporary music fell into warring stylistic camps, Constant remained above the ideological fray and was consequently brushed aside. Arriving in Paris as a young man in 1946, he studied with Messiaen, a complex modernist, but also with Tony Aubin, who had written successful film scores. Not surprisingly, “Turner” abounds with both intellectual rigor and cinematic immediacy.

In “Rain, Steam and Speed,” the first movement, slashing outbursts set off ruminative episodes in which thick, piercing Messiaenesque chords unfold, almost like astringent, strangely celestial chorales. In “Portrait of Himself,” a searching, restless thematic line threads through the overall orchestral haze of pungent cluster chords. Only in “Windsor,” the finale, does the music break into an episode in which a steady foursquare pulse interrupts the atmospherics. Here the “Twilight Zone” composer emerges, though Constant might have objected to such a description.

The performance Mr. Rothman drew from the Riverside Symphony was richly colored, suspenseful and compelling. He and his players were also excellent in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which followed, with the brilliant young American violinist Tim Fain as soloist.

In this early work from 1917, Prokofiev takes an unconventional approach to the concerto. A breathless middle movement, a scherzo, is surrounded by two essentially slow, though deceptively stately, outer movements. The opening Andantino is a masterly exercise in writing genial music that steadily builds in agitation and activity without really increasing the tempo.

Mr. Fain brought technical finesse, lyrical ardor and cagey control to his alluring performance. He gave a rippling, zestful account of the scherzo and dispatched the streams of intricate scales and ornate passagework of the final Moderato with ease.

A hit with the audience, which nearly packed the house, this boyish virtuoso offered a sizable solo encore, “Arches.” It is a 10-minute, volatile and technically arduous work by the American composer Kevin Puts, and he played it scintillatingly.

The performance of Schubert’s Symphony No. 2 in B flat that ended the program was a little bland and shaky at times. Still, it was somehow just right to hear this joyous work from Schubert’s late teens after the adventures with Prokofiev and, especially, Constant.

Cool orchestra! Inspired by Joseph William Mallord Turner still! It would be nice to see Joseph William Mallord Turner's impressionist art, landscape paintings, landscape oil paintings, watercolour printmaker, abstract landscape paintings.

Turner's bridge, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria Walk ID 4155

'Ruskin's View'. Photograph: George Hopkins/Alamy

Walk in a nutshell
You start at the 14th-century Devil's Bridge, which, as legend would have it, was built by Lucifer himself in a failed attempt to snare a human soul. From there you take bridleways up to "access land" (see below) which will really test your navigational skills. Fine views of the whole Lake District skyline will be your reward. Although this area of the Lake District tends to be overlooked by walkers who have their sights set on higher things, the scenery has inspired a number of great artists.

Why it's special
Kirkby Lonsdale was loved by Victorian painters, especially JMW Turner and John Ruskin. Although Turner led a secretive and unsociable life, today he is regarded as the artist who revitalised landscape painting, and a pioneer in the study of light, colour and atmosphere. His style is said to have laid the foundation for impressionism. He painted a view of the river Lune from St Mary's church in Kirkby Lonsdale that inspired artist and art critic John Ruskin to write: "'I do not know, in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine." The view, signposted from the town, became known as "Ruskin's View".

Keep your eyes peeled for
Stone steps going up the wall on both sides of the track between waymarks 11 and 12. They are not stiles for footpaths; if you climb them you will find a square sheepfold containing a huge boulder. This is a sculpture made by artist Andy Goldsworthy, in 1993, as part of the UK Year of Visual Arts in Cumbria.

But bear in mind
The middle section is the part most demanding to navigate. Although you will find narrow paths and some walls to follow, there is no signposting as it is open access and you can choose your own route across the moorland. It is well worth doing as the higher ground is unfrequented and has outstanding views, but clear weather and lots of confidence are needed.

Recover afterwards
There is a caravan serving tea and snacks at the Devil's Bridge. It is very popular with bikers on Sundays.

If it's tipping down
At the Station House Pottery Workshop and Tearooms near Kirkby Lonsdale, test your own artistic skills by painting pottery. Painting sessions take about two hours. No booking is required and you can take your fired masterpiece home the same day. stationhousepottery.co.uk

How to get there

By car
Kirkby Lonsdale is just south of Junction 36 on the M6. It lies on the A65 between Settle and Kendal (there is a bus service between the two) and at the junction with the A683, which runs north to Sedbergh. There is free parking on the old road, both north and south of the Devil's Bridge near this junction.

By public transport
The nearest train station is Wennington. From there, bus 81B runs to Kirkby Lonsdale. There are also buses from Lancaster and Oxenholme.
Step by step

1. The walk begins on the A683 just north of its junction with the A65. The Devil's Bridge and the snack bar are behind you as you look across the road to the more southerly car park. Cross the A683 and walk to the end of the car park (in fact, the old road) and, where it bends to the right, you will see a smaller lane joining on the left.

2. Go up this lane, passing a stile and footpath on the left and then a caravan park behind the hedge. You reach the entrance to the site where there is a gate and a signposted bridleway, all on the left.

3. Turn left and follow the bridleway until you reach a T-junction with another. (Note that this is where you join the route on the way back.)

4. Turn right. The bridleway will eventually become surfaced as it winds through a small group of houses before joining a lane. At the junction turn right, and a few metres away you will see a lane going off left on a right bend.

5. Turn left here; it is signposted to Settle and Cowan Bridge. You will pass beneath a bridge of a disused railway, where on the left is a signpost to Wandales Lane pointing to a track on the right.

6. Turn right in the direction of the signpost and walk parallel to the old railway line. When the path divides, keep by the hedge on the left to a farm gate and a stile.

7. Cross the stile and turn left, cutting the corner to where a hedge juts out. Then follow the hedge up to a farm gate and stile on a lane. Turn right and, just in front of you, you will see a farm track on the left with a signpost marked "Public Bridleway Fell Road".

8. Turn left on what is a farm track and when it divides just before the now gentrified farm, take the right fork, signed "Bindloss Barn". Just past the barn, there is a gate with another visible behind it.

9. Go through the first gate and turn right. An enclosed route leads to a gap in a wall where you turn left to see an enclosed bridleway.

10. Walk to the end to a farm gate.

11. Go through and turn left. A short way along this bridleway, which is enclosed all the way to a road, you will find plenty of suitable places to picnic. After 1km, you come to a fell road where the bridleway continues on the far side.

12. Turn right up the lane for about 800m, when you'll see an enclosed footpath signposted on the left.

13. Go up the track to a gate, the views on the left to the Howgills and the Lake District improving as you climb.

14. Go through the gate and turn right, following the track, which now has a wall, only on your right. Soon this is left behind, but the track is still easy to follow and you should look to your left for a hill, which has what looks like a crag on top. You will see a faint path going up it - this is what you will follow when you have reached a gateway, through a wire fence, across the track.

15. Go through the gateway and up the path on the left, which is steep in places. At the top you will discover that the crag is an enormous cairn; there is also a substantial shelter here. If you pass the cairn, you will see, ahead of you, a low, marshy area and, behind it, a ridge with two flat summits.

16. There is only one way across the wall surrounding the summit, which is the next waymark. Turn left and follow the path, still faint, but now to the left. It drops to a wall, where you find a gate.

17. Turn right and follow the line of the wall uphill and you will find that it joins the one surrounding the summit. This avoids the marshy area and leads to an opening in the wall.

18. Go through, turn right and make your way to the trig point.

19. Now return to the gap in the wall, but instead of going through it, continue with the wall on your left. There is a faint path and the ground drops to a corner made by two walls, just the other side of a stream.

20. Cross the wall by a newly constructed step stile, about 20m to the right of the wall junction. Once over, follow the wall on your left again until it makes a distinct curve to the left.

21. At this point, you need to go straight ahead to the shallow dip on the right of the little rise in front of you. Here you should be able to pick up a path, perhaps only a sheep track, but it leads you into the next valley, where you turn left alongside a stream. Gradually the path becomes more definite.

22. Follow the path down towards the plantation, the stream on your left, sometimes close, sometimes more distant. You reach some sheepfolds and then a huge pile of stones.

23. From here, the path curves to the right, though as this takes you in the wrong direction, you should look for any track that branches off to the left. You are making for a narrow, unfenced lane that runs along the bottom of the fell. As this is access land, you can ignore the track and just go straight down from the pile of stones, but the track is easy walking and it brings you to the lane without difficulty.

24. When you reach the lane, turn left and follow it over a cattle grid. Now watch for a bridleway signposted on the left.

25. Go along the bridleway, which rises and then levels out. About 800m along it there is a low post on the left with signposts. On the right is a farm gate through which a stream may be flowing.

26. Go through and up a little rise where you can have your last view of the distant scenery. A good path develops alongside a wall on the left and this then changes so that the path is enclosed down to a farm gate.

27. Go through this gate and the one just past it. You will find an easier gate to open at a right angle to the second one as well as a dodgy ladder-stile hidden away in a corner. A farm access track leads downhill to a road.

28. Go down the lane opposite, past the 20mph sign. Notice the handy bench on the left. The lane leads to Casterton, where on the right just by the church you will see a footpath sign. (To reach the pub, go straight on past the church to the war memorial on the main road and turn right.)

29. Turn down this little alley on the right, which leads to the main road.

30. Cross the road and follow the stone wall down to its end. Then turn right, when you will see a yellow arrow on a stone post by Beckside.

31. This directs you between the buildings and to the group behind them.

32. Go to the right of the building marked as Crookenden House and to the gate on the right of the green garage. Go through to a roofless barn in a corner, where a signpost points downhill to a gate.

33. Follow the wall down to the gate, go through and turn left. Follow the field edge to a stile leading into a wood.

34. The path through the wood is easy to follow, even though it fades at times. There is a signpost at a difficult point and you soon emerge from the wood to meet a path at right angles.

35. Turn left and you come to a gate in a few moments.

36. Go through and turn right on a wide track. This bends to the right by the entrance to a house, runs along the edge of a field on your left and brings you to a signpost pointing to the left when it reaches woodland again.

37. Go through the kissing gate and up the right-hand edge of the field. Turn the corner, passing a large footpath sign, and at the end of the building next to it you will find a kissing gate.

38. Go through and up the drive of the house to a green triangle made where it meets another drive.

39. Turn right and follow the drive until you are in sight of a large house. On the left is a kissing gate with a footpath sign.

40. Go through and a little to the left, where you will see that a wide path has been marked out between wire fences.

41. Follow this to a stile on the main road.

42. Cross the stile and turn left. You need to take special care here, as the road is bendy. When it is safe, you need to cross to the right of the road and not very far along it, perhaps 200m, you will find a sign for Casterton Golf Course and a sign saying "Public Bridleway Laitha Lane".

43. Turn into this bridleway and follow it until you meet another one coming from the right, this one signposted for Kirkby Lonsdale.

44. This was waymark 4 on the outward journey, so turn right and retrace your steps to the Devil's Bridge.

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Turner's Bridge