This Week's Free ArtsJournal newsletter for 11/17/2019

Today’s announcement by the Metropolitan Museum about the “exceptional bequest” by trustee emerita Jayne Wrightsman (who died in April at 99) omits mention of a crucial way in which this windfall of some 375 objects, along with “substantial [but unspecified] additional funding,” is indeed “exceptional”. – Lee Rosenbaum

At last week’s very sparsely attended press preview for this week’s major auctions, I got a chance to chat about Sotheby’s era of uncertainty with four of the company’s principals. – Lee Rosenbaum

The Estonian kannel is primarily a plucked folk instrument, but these two young ladies — both of whom have studied music academically — had not played it until they found one, and decided to see what would happen if they approached it fresh. Their outside-the-box attitude here yields unexpectedly sophisticated and orchestral arrangements. – Michal Shapiro

Given the emphasis on increased diversity of representation for artists featured in the permanent collection — female artists, in particular, are more abundantly represented in the current hang and stand up to comparison with their more renowned male colleagues, and two special exhibitions reflect the museum’s increased attention to African-American artists — the apparent failure to include Native Americans in the new MoMA’s inaugural displays is beyond comprehension. – Lee Rosenbaum

To my ears, Porgy and Bess is the highest creative achievement in American classical music. Conrad L. Osborne is not convinced. A crucial sticking point is the anomaly my book exposes: it is an opera with two endings. – Joseph Horowitz