The New Criterion

Author

Alexander Coleman

Alexander Coleman was a long-time contributor to The New Criterion and a close friend of the editors. He died on June 17th, 2002. He was 67 and had been battling cancer for over a year. We met John in the early 1990s at a monthly seminar on modernism sponsored jointly by The New Criterion and New York University, where John taught Spanish literature from forever (as he said) until his (early and eagerly sought) retirement in 1997. From the start, it was clear that John was a man of rare wit, capacious learning, and eager if gently ironical curiosity. At those seminars, John displayed his easy mastery of literature--not just Spanish and Latin American literature, but the entire modernist tradition. He was an expert in Borges (whose work he translated, edited, and expounded), and had a deep grasp of Eliot, Henry James, Stevens, Santayana, and many other figures. But it soon became clear that John's greatest passion was for music. He had an impressive command of the classical repertory, and, we are told, an equally impressive command of jazz. Indeed, John did not discriminate among genres: only between good music and bad, the excellent and the false, sentimental, or poorly executed. In order to distinguish himself from another writer named John Coleman, our John Coleman had always written under the name Alexander Coleman. He published on a wide variety of subjects literary and musical. For The New Criterion, he wrote delightfully erudite pieces on such neglected figures as the Portuguese novelist and man of letters EÃ§a de QueirÃ³s, an abundance of music criticism, and incisive "fever-chart" reports on the cultural situation in the (generally balmy) places his inveterate travels took him. We include here a brief Coleman sampler that shows something of John's range of interests. John's charm was as invigorating as his cooking was delicious. You knew you had entered the circle of his affections when he began addressing you as "Doctor" or "Maestro," forms of address that his friends found irrepressibly infectious. John's passing is a loss for our readers, who will no longer have the benefit of his engaging criticism. For us, the loss is deeper. It is hard to believe that we will no longer be welcoming him around our table, glass of wine in hand, pertinent anecdote on tongue's tip. Farewell, Maestro. We shall miss you.

Articles

The gypsy balladeer (Books) , October 2002, 65
A review of Collected Poems, by Federico Garcia Lorca.

Toscanini in his letters (Features) , July 2002
The great conductor as revealed in his letters.

Houses of repute (Books) , March 2002, 68
A review of Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera, by Johanna Fiedler, Covent Garden: The Untold Story, by Norman Lebrecht, Valery Gergiev and the Kirov: A Story of Survival, by John Ardoin.

"Dallas" auf Deutsch (Music) , December 2001, 67
On the legacy of Richard Wagner.

Berg's femmes fatales (Music) , June 2001, 59
On Lulu by Alban Berg.

Authentically bland (Books) , April 2001, 70
A review of A Century of Recorded Music, by Timothy Day.

Genial improvisations (Books) , January 2001, 79
A review of This Craft of Verse, by Jorge Luis Borges, edited by Calin-Andrei Mihailescu.

Orpheus in Hell (Books) , October 2000, 67
A review of Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits, by Michael H. Kater.

Quiet alarm, deep foreboding (Letters) , May 2000, 41
Alexander Coleman's letter from Vienna

Life in Basqueland (Notebook) , April 2000, 85
On The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky

Rosy nights at the opera (Features) , March 2000, 23
On Richard Strauss

¿O plomo o plata? (Letters) , December 1999, 36
Letter from Mexico

At last, the promised land? (Music) , May 1999, 59
Review of Moses und Aron by Arnold Schoenberg, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York

EÃ§a de QueirÃ³s (Features) , April 1999, 28
On the influential Portuguese novelist

Three Late Poems (Poems) , March 1999, 39
On the poetry of Jorge Luis Borges

Two at City Opera (Music) , January 1999, 55
Reviews of The Cunning Little Vixen & Of Mice and Men at the City Opera, New York

Concert note (Music) , December 1998, 61
On the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, conducted by Yuri Temirkanov, at Carnegie Hall.

Alicia de Larrocha at Carnegie Hall (Music) , May 1998, 43
On a recent performance by the Spanish pianist

The Sibelius question (Music) , February 1998, 51
On the London Symphony Orchestra's performances of Sibelius at Avery Fisher Hall & “The Sibelius Symposium” at the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse, Lincoln Center, New York

At City Opera: a warhorse & a dark horse (Music) , November 1997, 50
On the City Opera season & Dvorak’s day at St. George’s Church

Sviatoslav Richter, 1915-1997 (Notebook) , October 1997, 78
A commemoration of the renowned pianist

The Virgilian agenda (Music) , September 1997, 49
A consideration of the composer on the publication of Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle by Anthony Tommasini

Juilliard plays Stravinsky (Music) , April 1997, 46
On the Juilliard Symphony's performance at Alice Tully Hall, New York