On April 27, I attended a performance by the extraordinary new music band, Alarm Will Sound, directed by Alan Pierson at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall as part of the series “collected stories” curated by composer David Lang. Lang’s series extended over a week of concerts, with this one come towards the end. The idea of this program was to bring together some diverse examples of music intended to illustrate a story of some sort, in … <Read More>
Christopher Rouse
From Machaut to Sondheim – A NYC Weekend Cultural Diary
This was a very busy weekend on my concert schedule — actually, an extended weekend since it began on Thursday night — so I have much to report. On Thursday night I was at the New York Philharmonic from a program that included the NYC premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Oboe Concerto, played by the NY Philharmonic’s excellent principal oboe player, Liang Wang. On Friday night I attended “Armida: A Baroque Opera Celebration” presented by New … <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>