My concert listening this weekend was firmly grounded in the Romantic movement.  On Saturday night at the New York Philharmonic, I heard performances of Karol Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1 and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4, two gorgeous late-romantic effusions.  Then on Saturday afternoon I heard Garrick Ohlsson play a selection of pieces by Frederic Chopin and Enrique Granados, thus bridging from the early days of musical romanticism to its final gasps.  (By interesting coincidence, … <Read More>

In its first concert back at the newly-renovated Church of the Ascension on Fifth Avenue at 10th Street, the Voices of Ascension Chorus & Orchestra directed by Dennis Keene presented an evening of Vivaldi on Thursday night, offering up the Gloria RV 588, Laetatus sum RV 607, and Magnificat RV 610, punctuated by a performance of the famous Concerto in C for Two Trumpets, RV 537.  The 24-member chorus and 13-member instrumental ensemble were joined by a handful … <Read More>

Last night's performance by Osmo V

Tonight I attended the spectacular recital by Israeli-born, New York-based pianist Inon Barnatan at Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Washington Irving High School.  I had not heard of Barnatan prior to receiving the announcement of this concert, but a visit to his website filled me in nicely before the event.  Barnatan has studied with many fine teachers and has had concerto debuts with several leading orchestras in the U.S. and abroad.  He has one solo commercial recording to … <Read More>

American Symphony music director Leon Botstein's main focus has usually been on music from central Europe, but now and then he veers sharply away to examine other musical traditions.  Last night's concert at Carnegie Hall provided one of those excursions, presenting performances of rarely-heard music by three self-identified Spanish composers whose lives were affected by the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.  The result was a fascinating evening of discovery under the guidance of this … <Read More>

This evening I attended the latest concert in the Miller Theatre Early Music Series, presented at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square.  The guest artists tonight were Vincent Dumestre and Le Po

This was a busy cultural weekend for me: Nixon in China, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, and CBST's annual concert, this year titled "Spicy Tsimmes: Ethnic Flavors and Fusion From the Melting Pot of Israel."

The Metropolitan Opera finally presented John Adams' Nixon in China, which was premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 1987 and has been performed all over the place in the interim.  The production, directed by Peter Sellars, was borrowed from English National Opera, … <Read More>

Tonight I caught the last performance of the New York Philharmonic's brief flirtation this season with musical Scandinavia, with the great Finnish soprano Karita Mattila singing Sibelius (and Beethoven) and the orchestra tackling, after a lapse of almost 40 years, Carl Nielsen's 2nd Symphony (The Four Temperaments).   For a longtime fan of Nielsen's symphonies, this was really heavenly.  In almost 40 years of regular concert-going, I can count the live performances of Nielsen symphonies I've … <Read More>

Under Leon Botstein's leadership, the American Symphony Orchestra seeks out significant works that have not been played in the United States, gets parts prepared, gets soloists to learn them, and presents excellent concert performances.  That was certainly the case this afternoon in Carnegie Hall when they presented the United States premiere of Alberic Magnard's opera, Berenice.  The opera was written in 1909, premiered in 1911, and never made it to America, evidently, as the composer … <Read More>

Orpheus is the celebrated conductorless chamber orchestra, in which a core group of players works out the interpretation of each piece.  It is also a fearless group that is ready to tackle the most intricate works that one would never guess could be performed without leadership from a podium, and produces flawless performances.  Such was the case tonight in Carnegie Hall, as they went through a varied program of music by Schumann, Prokofiev, Penderecki and … <Read More>