Last Wednesday I attended the first of a series of subscription concerts by the New York Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman as violin soloist and conductor. For the first half of the program, Zukerman played the solos in violin concerti by Bach and Mozart. After intermission, he conducted the orchestra in Stravinsky's Concerto in D and Mozart's Symphony No. 39.
Attending a Zukerman concert always gives me a nostalgic pull, because one of my earliest concert … <Read More>
I attended two concerts this past weekend presenting interesting contrasts between the modern setting of an ancient text and real "ancient music." On Saturday night, I attended the New York Philharmonic's subscription concert, on which Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, a "scenic cantata" written in the 1930s setting verses by monks from a medieval monastary in Bavaria, was the principal work. On Sunday night, I attended Musica Nuova's presentation at Le Poisson Rouge of a "pastiche" opera … <Read More>
I was privileged to attend Lang Lang's piano recital at Carnegie Hall last night. This was an exhilarating event, because Lang Lang is an exciting pianist, a technical wonder, a poetic master… Even though one might disagree with this or that aspect of a particular interpretation, there can be no doubt that the man is a formidable artist, always worth hearing.
The program consisted of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 1 in Bb, BWV 825, … <Read More>
Symphony Space, the fine facility on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is home – among many other groups – to Opera Moderne, which specializes in chamber opera of reasonable recency. Last night they presented "The Turn of the Screw," a chamber opera by Benjamin Britten based on a ghost story by Henry James. With a handful of props, imaginative costumes and projections, they managed to put on a creditable production of this challenging opera. … <Read More>
Last night I attended the NY Philharmonic's performance in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, and experienced how dramatically the sound can differ based on a slight adjustment in seating. The acoustic quirks of that hall are notorious.
My regular subscription seat for my Saturday night series is in 2nd Tier, Box 4, and I find the sound there to be rich, deep, and reasonably well blended. For last night's concert, however, I had used the … <Read More>
The brilliant pianist Jeremy Denk has initiated a relationship with Nonesuch Records, and celebrated their first release – a Ligeti-Beethoven recital – with an event this evening at Le Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village hot spot for music.
The recording showed up at J&R Music last week, and as a big-time Denk fan I had to acquire it, even though I knew I would be hearing him play must of the album tonight. It is … <Read More>
In 1978 the long-lost manuscript of Georg Philipp Telemann's opera, Orpheus, resurfaced. NYC Opera selected the neglected piece to close its 2012 season of wandering, coming to rest in the tiny auditorium of El Museo del Barrio on 5th Avenue at 104th Street. The venue was a discovery for me – and, in the end, a bigger discovery than the opera.
I generally enjoy Telemann's music. His concerti, sonatas, and sacred and secular choral music … <Read More>
For its 2011-12 season, Peoples' Symphony Concerts celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Marlboro Music Festival by booking exclusively individuals or groups that have had the Marlboro summer experience. It was most fitting that this season ended with the participation of Peter Serkin, eminent concert pianist and son of Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin. Serkin joined with the Shanghai String Quartet for a rousing rendition of Dvorak's Piano Quintet. During the first half of the concert, … <Read More>
I attended the Saturday matinee performance of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", the 1949 Broadway musical (Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Leo Robin, Book by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields, adapted from Ms. Loos's novel of the same name), semi-staged by New York City Center Encores! as the last show of their 2011-12 season. It was a brilliant closing for the season, because this is an absolutely lovely show and all the elements came together for … <Read More>
Once again, I've had so many concerts to attend over a short period of time that I have fallen behind in writing about them individually, so herewith a quick summing up:
May 1 – Matthias Goerne, baritone, and Leif Ove Andsnes, piano, in recital at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium. Goerne and Andsnes carefully selected from among the songs of Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich to create a thematic recital , intermingling selections from Mahler's Knaben … <Read More>