Andre Previn’s opera based on Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire” was composed for the San Francisco Opera about fifteen years ago, had a successful premiere, but had never received a staging in New York. Renee Fleming, the soprano for whom the leading role of Blanche Dubois was written, is an artist-in-residence at Carnegie Hall this season, and was able to enlist the Orchestra of St. Luke’s to include a semi-staged version of the … <Read More>
Music
Busy Cultural Calendar – Suzuki at the NYP, Don Carlo at the Met, Marlboro Musicians at PSC, The Revisionist at Cherry Lane Theatre, The Lying Lesson at Atlantic Theater Co.
From the title of this posting, you can see that I’ve attended quite a few things over the past few weeks, and I’ve been too busy to write about them individually, so herewith a summing up.
On March 8 I was at the New York Philharmonic to hear Masaaki Suzuki, making his debut conducting the orchestra, in works by Mendelssohn and Johann Sebastian Bach. The program had a nice symmetry, beginning with Bach’s motet “Singet … <Read More>
Busy Musical Calendar – NYCO at BAM, ASO at SS, NYP (Carousel), CBST at SWFS
I’ve been so busy attending interesting musical events over the past few weeks that I’ve fallen behind in noting them here. So, here goes:
The New York City Opera, having foresworn Lincoln Center, is in its second year of wandering, with four operas on the schedule. The first two, which I’ve now attended, were presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I went to successive Saturday performances of “Powder Her Face” by Thomas Ades (music) … <Read More>
Phantasmata (Etc.) at the Philharmonic
Thursday night’s performance by the New York Philharmonic included the local premiere of the complete “Phantasmata” by Christopher Rouse, followed by Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo: A Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra” with soloist Jan Vogler, and concluding with Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 68. Music Director Alan Gilbert conducted, and Mr. Rouse, the Philharmonic’s composer-in-residence, was present for the festivities.
“Phantasmata” is a three-movement suite. The second movement, “The Infernal Machine,” was completed several … <Read More>
Orchestral Weekend: NYP/Nelsons and ASO/Botstein
Two concerts attended this weekend: On Saturday night, the New York Philharmonic with guest conductor Andris Nelsons and violin soloist Christian Tetzlaff. On Sunday afternoon, the American Symphony Orchestra with conductor Leon Bostein. My experience was a combination of the memorable and the forgettable.
First, the memorable. For the second half of the NY Philharmonic concert, Nelsons led the orchestra in Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. I thought this was probably the best performance that … <Read More>
Orchestra of St. Luke’s – Heras-Casado Debut at Carnegie Hall
Last night I attended the Orchestra of St. Luke’s subscription concert at Carnegie Hall. Pablo Heras-Casado was making his first appearance at Carnegie Hall as principal conductor of the orchestra. Christian Zacharias was the piano soloist in Chopin’s Concerto No. 2, Op. 21. The program began with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, and continued after intermission with Hans Zender’s orchestration of five piano preludes by Debussy, concluding with the original 1841 version of Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. … <Read More>
The Singers and the Songs – NY Festival of Song: Kevin Puts & Friends – Meglioranza/Uchida New Winterreise Recording
Herewith some observations about two encounters with art song in recent days: a wonderful concert of new songs presented by the New York Festival of Song at the Jerome Robbins Theater at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and a new recording of Franz Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise, by baritone Tom Meglioranza and pianist Reiko Uchida.
The New York Festival of Song, which presents an extensive series of song recitals at Merkin Concert Hall (north of Lincoln … <Read More>
Bock & Harnick’s “Fiorello!” at City Center Encores!
I caught the Saturday matinee performance of the 1959 Pulitzer-Prize-winning musical “Fiorello!” presented by the New York City Center Encores! series on February 2. I was familiar with some of the music and lyrics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick from the original Broadway cast recording, but this was the first time I’ve been at a live performance, having not been present twenty years ago when this Encores series began with a performance of this … <Read More>
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Beethoven’s 2nd and 9th Symphonies at Carnegie Hall
I was at Carnegie Hall this afternoon for performances of Beethoven’s 2nd and 9th Symphonies by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. This was the concluding concert of their series of all the Beethoven symphonies over the past week, led by their music director and conductor, Daniel Barenboim. I have not previously heard this orchestra in concert, although I’ve heard some recordings. The orchestra brings together young Israeli Jewish and Palestinian musicians, who rehearse intensively together each … <Read More>
Symphonic Sondheim at the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic has a long-running love affair with Stephen Sondheim, having presented some of his shows in concert as well as special evenings devoted to his songs and instrumental music. Last night they tried something different – an entire evening of Sondheim with no singing! Of the six numbers on the program, four were orchestral suits based on Sondheim musicals (Sunday in the Park with George, Pacific Overtures, Into the Woods, and Sweeney … <Read More>