This afternoon the New York Philharmonic winds up the unfortunately abbreviated Summertime Classics series directed by Bramwell Tovey, with a repeat of last night’s spectacular program, “The Planets – An HD Odyssey.” This was the second of two programs for this year’s series. The first, presented on July 3 & 4, was the annual “Star-Spangled Celebration.” The second program was performed on July 5, 6 and is repeated this afternoon, the 7th. Thus, the entire … <Read More>
Music
NY Philharmonic: Out With a Bang and a Shriek
The New York Philharmonic ended its regular subscription season last night with the last of three performances of a show conceived by Doug Fitch (Director/Designer), using music mainly by Igor Stravinsky to accompany a production titled “A Dancer’s Dream.” Several rows of seats were removed from the front of the orchestra section to accommodate an extended stage, where dancers and various technical assistants would use lighting, cameras, costumes, miniature toys projected on a big screen, … <Read More>
Chelsea Opera’s production of “A Distant Love: Songs of John and Abigail Adams”
On May 31 I received an email from Chelsea Opera inviting me to attend one of their two performances of “A Distant Love: Songs of John and Abigail Adams,” a “chamber opera” for two singers and string quartet by Gary Fagin (music) and Terry Quinn (libretto), with the idea that I would “review” the performance for my blog. I accepted the invitation and attended the second performance, which just concluded this afternoon, June 15.
The … <Read More>
Theater Diary – Spring 2013
This is a “catch-up” post for my theatergoing this spring, covering ten shows attended between March and May.
First I’ll comment briefly on the two City Center Encores productions that I haven’t yet mentioned on this blog. They are Rodgers & Hart’s “On Your Toes” and Strouse and Adams’ “It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman.” I found both of the productions up to the high standards of Encores, definitely meeting the series’ goal … <Read More>
NYC Musical Diary – More May Concerts – Detroit SO, Alarm Will Sound, Musicians From Marlboro
Being busy with final exams and grading, I haven’t been to as many concerts as usual over the past few weeks, but I wanted to comment about a few:
May 10 in Carnegie Hall I attended one of their “Spring for Music” concerts, a presentation of the four symphonies of Charles Ives by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I’ve been an Ives fan since high school days, when I performed the double bass … <Read More>
Early Music Weekend – Machaut Mass & Songs for a Parisian Spring
I found myself in Ithaca, N.Y., for a meeting at Cornell Saturday afternoon, so checked out the bulletin board in the Music Department building to discover that a student group was presenting a performance last night of Guillaume de Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest complete mass setting to survive (from the 14th century) and one of my favorite pieces of “early music.” I hastened to attend, of course. Graduate student Lorraine Fitzmaurice put … <Read More>
Cultural Diary – March 23 through May 1, 2013 – A Busy Season in NYC
Between work, concerts and theater, I’ve been so busy that I’ve generally avoided blogging about the things I’ve been attending over the past five weeks or so. This is a catch-up posting, briefly mentioning that things I haven’t had time to write about in longer posts. This post details the musical events (including opera). In another, I’ll address the theatrical ones.
Beginning at the beginning, with Richard Goode, and – surprise – ending with him … <Read More>
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Gabriel Kahane Premiere
I was blessed to be present in Carnegie Hall this evening for the first New York performance of Gabriel Kahane’s absolutely gorgeous song cycle, “Gabriel’s Guide to the 48 States,” performed by the composer with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. This was the final OCO Carnegie subscription concert of the season, and it really ended on a high note. Before Kahane’s piece, the ensemble performed the string orchestra version of Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht with silken … <Read More>
NY Philharmonic’s Brilliant Beethoven 2nd Symphony
I have quite an accumulation of concerts and theater events to blog about from the past several weeks, and I’ve been meaning to catch up with a cultural diary entry, but I couldn’t wait to write about tonight’s concert by the New York Philharmonic, so I’m jumping the line to do it while it is fresh in memory.
David Robertson, Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony, is this week’s guest conductor. Tonight’s performance was … <Read More>
East Coast Chamber Orchestra at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
The East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), a conductorless string ensemble made up of young musicians who, in their day jobs, perform with several leading orchestras and chamber music groups, comes together several times a year to perform for their own pleasure, evidently, and has now made several appearances on the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts series in New York, the latest this past Saturday, March 16, 2013, at the High School of Fashion Industries on West 24th … <Read More>