Rhapsody

"Rhapsody in August," which plays for one day only at the Charles, is unlikely to add much luster to the legend of the great Akira Kurosawa, but it's a surprisingly gentle, affecting movie.It's very much the movie of a man haunted by history -- or rather, a particular moment in history, 11:15 a.m., Aug. 9, 1945, when an American B-29 dropped a nuke on Nagasaki, Japan. If you ask, I'll defend the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, on the grounds that it probably saved a million American and Japanese lives.

Another pops program devoted to George Gershwin? Why not? This weekend's Gershwin feast being presented on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's SuperPops series will hardly be the last. Nearly 75 years after his death at the age of 39, the composer's hold on the public has never loosened. He was the epitome of Jazz Age creativity and sophistication, with an unfailing gift for melody and rhythmic vitality. "It's a challenge to choose a program," said BSO principal pops conductor Jack Everly, "because the repertoire, for all the brief time Gershwin had on this Earth, is of such high quality.

All I expect to remember about Friday's program in Meyerhoff Hall by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is the way Terrence Wilson played Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini."To judge from this performance, Wilson, 19, is one of this country's most gifted young pianists. He has a sound that is beautiful at all dynamic levels, near-infallible fingers and the sort of personal projection that can captivate almost any audience.What was most impressive about Wilson was his lyrical gift.

A big trend in classical music over the past several decades is historical authenticity, the attempt to re-create how works sounded when they were new. This usually involves repertoire from distant centuries, but pieces from relatively recent times can come in for the authentic treatment, too. A case in point is the latest Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program, devoted entirely to George Gershwin. This presentation, conducted by Marin Alsop and showcasing the superb French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, does raise an interesting question about the whole historic reclamation business.

"Miami Rhapsody" is the best movie Woody Allen never made.Tart, loose, fast, piquant and vivid, it's the story of a young woman teetering on the brink of wedlock, whose image of the institution of marriage has been seriously compromised by the adultery-o-rama transpiring all about her. Mama has her boyfriend, papa has his mistress, little sister has her boyfriend, brother has his mistress. There's a good deal of sex in the movie, none of it conjugal.The rhapsody of the title, then, is the game of perpetual musical beds.

Saturday evening's concert by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra may have been billed as a Spring Rhapsody, but if anyone came to Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts expecting pastel hues and light, frilly fare, they got disabused of those notions in a hurry. With works by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss on the bill, it was a night of big sounds and grand gestures. The program began with Rimsky's "Russian Easter Overture," a festive depiction of Russian Orthodoxy's Easter liturgy, complete with incense, icons, glowing candles, bearded priests, modal chants, fluttering angels and church bells chiming to the glory of Mother Russia's earthy, exotic celebration of the Resurrection.

A Silver Spring computer analyst accepted a plea agreement yesterday that could mean he'll spend the rest of his life in prison for raping two western Howard County women in 1992.William Kirk Evans, 52, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree rape in Howard Circuit Court. He withdrew an initial plea of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity.Evans was accused of breaking into the homes of the two women, forcing them to leave with him at gunpoint and taking them to his Rhapsody Lane home, where he forced them to have intercourse.

In what could be one of the most formidable challenges to Apple Inc.'s iTunes, the owner of MTV is teaming up with Verizon Wireless and RealNetworks Inc. on a new online music service. The service will combine MTV's floundering URGE digital music business with RealNetworks' Rhapsody music subscription business, through which users can access all the music they want online for $12.99 a month and up. In a conference call with reporters yesterday, RealNetworks chief executive Rob Glaser said the revamped Rhapsody is a major step toward creating what he calls a one-of-a-kind "jukebox in the sky" for subscribers using computers, cell phones or other portable devices.

Every person is supposed to have at least one story to tell: his or her own. But that doesn't mean we all have the skill to do our stories justice. The writer-director of An American Rhapsody, Eva Gardos, does have an amazing tale. In 1951, her wealthy, cultured mother and father fled Budapest with her older sister. Because Eva was an infant and unfit to make the journey, they left her behind. Until age 6, she lived with a peasant couple who loved her as if she were their child. When the Red Cross helped reunite her with her parents in America, she found herself wondering if her real home was with them or with her guardians back in Hungary.

The word "improvisation" derives from the Latin improvisus ("unforeseen") and ex improviso ("without preparation") and musically denotes the art of a completely spontaneous performance.In Western music -- practically up to the advent of recorded sound -- improvisation was all but indistinguishable from the craft of composition. Long before they became famous as "composers," musicians as various as J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Saint-Saens and Bruckner first made their names as extraordinary improvisers.

"He has such a flourish about him, doesn't he?" That's Marin Alsop, speaking about Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the French pianist with the scintillant technique, refined musicality and really great clothes. Thibaudet is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's soloist for two weeks, starting with an all-Gershwin feast that is being recorded for Decca, his longtime label. He'll play "Rhapsody in Blue," Concerto in F and the "I Got Rhythm" Variations. Next week, Thibaudet will take on a bravura piece by Liszt - "Jean-Yves is such a virtuoso," Alsop says, "a 21st-century Liszt."

The past year has been something of a whirlwind for Sara Bareilles, but last Sunday was especially dizzying. The unassuming pop singer-songwriter was on the red carpet at Los Angeles' Staples Center at the 51st annual Grammy Awards. She was up for two. Her smash, the catchy "Love Song," garnered nods for song of the year and best female pop vocal performance. "I couldn't believe I was there," Bareilles says, still sounding awe-struck. "It was one of the best days of my life. It was such a special experience.

The Preakness added two new starters yesterday when connections for Recapturetheglory and Racecar Rhapsody told Pimlico racing officials they are headed for Baltimore. Recapturetheglory, owned by Ronnie Lamarque and Louis Roussel, will be the only Kentucky Derby competitor to take on Derby winner Big Brown in the May 17 race. It is only the third time in the past 59 years a Derby winner has gotten off so lightly. "We know that we belong," Lamarque said. "Big Brown is a bear, but we're not going to [the Preakness]

Saturday evening's concert by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra may have been billed as a Spring Rhapsody, but if anyone came to Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts expecting pastel hues and light, frilly fare, they got disabused of those notions in a hurry. With works by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss on the bill, it was a night of big sounds and grand gestures. The program began with Rimsky's "Russian Easter Overture," a festive depiction of Russian Orthodoxy's Easter liturgy, complete with incense, icons, glowing candles, bearded priests, modal chants, fluttering angels and church bells chiming to the glory of Mother Russia's earthy, exotic celebration of the Resurrection.

In what could be one of the most formidable challenges to Apple Inc.'s iTunes, the owner of MTV is teaming up with Verizon Wireless and RealNetworks Inc. on a new online music service. The service will combine MTV's floundering URGE digital music business with RealNetworks' Rhapsody music subscription business, through which users can access all the music they want online for $12.99 a month and up. In a conference call with reporters yesterday, RealNetworks chief executive Rob Glaser said the revamped Rhapsody is a major step toward creating what he calls a one-of-a-kind "jukebox in the sky" for subscribers using computers, cell phones or other portable devices.

If you thought you saw a giant robot made entirely from Mountain Dew cartons walking last week near the Inner Harbor, it wasn't a hallucination. Neither was the Godzilla-like monster that you spotted in the same area a few years ago, each of its three heads warbling "The Bohemian Rhapsody." The extraordinary creatures were merely people on their way to Otakon, an annual convention that for the past 13 years has celebrated Japanese popular culture in Charm City. The Home of the Hon may well be a natural place for an event that attracts more than 20,000 eccentrics, err, participants each year -- nearly half of whom are in costume.

The harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler was 15 years old and trying to get a job with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in Manhattan when he met George Gershwin."

HOLLYWOOD - A decade ago, Eva Gardos was at a retreat with several friends including Eleanor Coppola, wife of director Francis Ford Coppola, and actress Colleen Camp. Each person was supposed to talk about herself - a prospect that made Gardos apprehensive. "I was really nervous about that time in my life about talking about myself," Gardos recalls. So she decided to get it out of the way and be the first to talk. Instead of discussing her current life, she suddenly felt compelled to recollect her unique childhood.