I was at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, tonight for the New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Daniel Harding, with Joshua Bell as soloist for Peter I. Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.  The concert began with the very brief "Flourish with Fireworks" by Oliver Knussen, and concluded with Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), the early 20th century ballet that revolutionized music and for many marks the beginning of the "modern" era.

Le Sacre should … <Read More>

I attended the London Philharmonic Orchestra's concert at Carnegie Hall last night.  Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski led the orchestra in Matthias Pintscher's "towards Osiris" (2005), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, K. 219 (nicknamed the Turkish Concerto due to an episode in the Rondeau movement), and Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 4, Op. 98.  Janine Jansen was the soloist in the Mozart concerto.

I had a mixed reaction to this concert.  On the one hand, … <Read More>

I seem to be having very good luck with concerts this season.  Again this week I have enjoyed three extraordinary concerts.  On Monday evening at Carnegie Hall, I heard a gripping program by two outstanding British musicians, tenor Ian Bostridge and composer-pianist Thomas Ades.  On Thursday, I heard another outstanding Englishman, Daniel Harding, conduct the New York Philharmonic in Deryck Cooke's performing edition of the sketches Gustav Mahler left for a tenth symphony.  And, tonight, … <Read More>

This week the New York Philharmonic is presenting a program that could have been presented, at least theoretically, in 1800.  I attended the Saturday night rendition.  Guest conductor & keyboard artist Jeffrey Kahane brought his great enthusiam and energetic advocacy for the classical repertory of the late 18th century on what is becoming an annual affair between the west coast artist and the east coast orchestra.

On the one hand, this can be considered a … <Read More>

The confluence of subscription series and single ticket purchases for me was so heavy over the past ten days that I couldn't find the time to post individual blog items about all the events I was attending.  The programs have just piled up, and now I'll do a quick summary:

Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble.  I attended both of the concerts conducted by Van Nevel with members of his Huelgas Ensemble as part … <Read More>

The Brooklyn Philharmonic has been reborn! 

In recent seasons, the orchestra that used to give concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) faded from view, as finances and the inability to retain a music director put an end to those concerts and reduced the organization to sending chamber ensembles around to schools, churches and other such venues.  But a core group of determined folks decided that Brooklyn should have a real orchestra again, and … <Read More>

I got to hear the Irish Chamber Orchestra play their New York debut concert at Alice Tully Hall on Monday night, October 31.  Despite the Hallowe'en observance, they were in normal concert dress.  Their conductor for the occasion was South Africa-born Gerard Korsten.  I had never previously heard of this conductor or ensemble, but was there courtesy of Peoples' Symphony Concerts, which offered tickets to their donors, for which I must thank them, because it … <Read More>

This afternoon the American Symphony Orchestra directed by Leon Botstein presented the first of this season's three Classics Declassified concerts at Symphony Space.  The subject was Mahler's Symphony No. 1.  As usual, the format was that Botstein gave a talk with some illustrative passages played by the orchestra, then they performed the entire piece, and finally there was a question & answer session with the audience.

I thought Botstein's talk was a bit incoherent at … <Read More>

Sometimes a new recording comes along that really just blows me away – and such is the new release by Norbert Schuster, the vocal ensemble amarcord, and the instrumental ensemble Cappella Saggitariana Dresden, titled "Jauchzet dem herren alle welt: Schutz und Italien," volume 2 of their series Musik aus der Dresdner Schlosskapelle. 

This artfully assembled program takes one through the long career of the greatest 17th century German composer, Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672), interspersing samples of … <Read More>

Tonight I got to attend a live performance of Carl Nielsen's 3rd Symphony for the first time — which tells you something about how neglected this composer is in the United States.  I've been in love with this music since I first heard it in 1977, have numerous recordings, bought a score (that was a real treasure hunt), and know the piece intimately, but it almost never gets played here.  And now, wonder of wonders, … <Read More>