The New York Philharmonic's mini-Beethoven Festival this season consisted of a series of three programs conducted by David Zinman, whose recording Beethoven Symphony cycle with his Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra is widely regarded as having set a new standard for integrating early music performance practice insights with the power and color of a modern orchestra. Zinman's revelatory approach was fully on view in the opening work of Saturday nights performance of the third program, Beethoven Symphony No. … <Read More>
Music
“L’Arpeggiata” at Zankel Hall – Los Pajaros Perdidos
Wednesday night the European early-music ensemble "L'Arpeggiata" settled in for a four-concert run in New York, performing its opening show at Zankel Hall, the underground small auditorium of Carnegie Hall. I use the phrase "opening show" advisedly because L'Arpeggiata, under the savvy leadership of Artistic Director Christina Pluhar, does not play "concerts" in the traditional sense but rather puts on a show, in which many of the individuals on-stage assume the role of "characters" in … <Read More>
Weekend Diversity: St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; HIM at Soho Playhouse; “John Carter” at the Movies
Three weekend events to mention today: On Saturday night, I attend the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's concert at Carnegie Hall. On Sunday afternoon, I attended a performance of Clifford Streit's play, "Him," at Soho Playhouse. And Sunday evening I saw the new movie "John Carter," which was widely accounted a failure by critics who have little sense of humor and consider a very expensive film to be a failure if it was only the second … <Read More>
Weekend With the Masters: Beethoven, Stravinsky & Schubert
Saturday evening I attended the New York Philharmonic's performance of Beethoven's 2nd and 7th Symphonies and Stravinsky's Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. David Zinman was the guest conductor, and Peter Serkin played the piano solo in the Stravinsky. Then on Sunday afternoon, I attended the Peoples' Symphony Concerts program at Town Hall, composed entirely of music for violin and piano by Schubert, performed by Jaime Laredo (violin) and Leon Fleisher (piano).
The Philharmonic concert was … <Read More>
Another Weekend Culturefest: “Carrie”; Juilliard String Quartet; American Symphony Orchestra
Somehow the various series and subscriptions I have tend to intersect on weekends, and again I ended up attending three varied events over the last weekend in February.
On Saturday afternoon, it was the musical show "Carrie," a revival of a failed 1980s musical based on a novel by Stephen King, with music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and book by Lawrence D. Cohen. The MCC Theater production was in its final days … <Read More>
Weekend Opera Trifecta: A Barber, A Courtesan, and a Prima Donna
Sometimes the stars align and suddenly I find myself attending three operas in one weekend. (Actually, to the best of my recollection this is the first time I've actually attended three operas in one weekend!). Saturday matinee – Rossini's The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera. Saturday evening – Verdi's La Traviata at the NY City Opera performing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Sunday afternoon – Wainwright's Prima Donna, again NY City … <Read More>
Typically Provocate Concert by Sir Roger Norrington and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall
Sir Roger Norrington served as music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's for a few years in the early 1990s, and makes regular return visits. Last night at Carnegie Hall, he led them in a concert of the "Holy Trinity" of the first Viennese School of composers: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Despite the relative familiarity of the concert, it was, as usual with Sir Roger, an occasion for surprise and discovery.
They began with … <Read More>
A Culture Weekend in NYC – “Merrily We Roll Along” at City Center Encores, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York Polyphony at American Academy of Arts & Letters
Herewith a brief report on my very busy cultural weekend in New York City on February 11 & 12, 2012.
On Saturday afternoon, I attended New York City Center Encores' production of "Merrily We Roll Along," with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and original book by George Furth. As with every revival of this musical, which was unsuccessfully first produced in New York in 1981, tinkering has gone on. Since then Sondheim has written new … <Read More>
ASO at Carnegie Hall – “Orientalism in France”
Last night I attended a typically intriguing American Symphony Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall. Leon Botstein led the orchestra in a program of "French" music (counting Cesar Franck, Belgium-born, as French since he spent much of his career in Paris) inspired by oriental themes. There was music by Saint-Saens, Ravel, Delage, Franck and Bizet – the last a rare concert performance of the one-act opera, Djamileh, about the "love triangle" of an Egyptian lord, his … <Read More>
ECCO at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
Tonight the Peoples' Symphony Concert series presented a program by the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) at Washington Irving High School. It was a superb concert. This conductorless group of 18 young string virtuosi produces a rich, focused, well-balanced sound that proved ideal in that space, especially for the Beethoven Grosse fugue and Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. I don't think either performance could possibly be improved upon.
They also played Arnold Schoenberg's Suite in G … <Read More>