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>
New York Philharmonic
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>
The NY Philharmonic Returns – Two Fine Concerts after Spring Tour
The New York Philharmonic was off on a tour last month, then returned to dedicate June to “Alan Gilbert’s Playlist,” the idea that the season would close with a selection of conductor Gilbert’s favorites. But first, there was a distinguished young guest conductor, Lionel Bringuier, to present a bit of a grab-bag program of mainly lighter works that was sheer fun to hear. I attended the Saturday performance on June 15.
The concert got off … <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>
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>
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>
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>
A Busy Saturday in NYC: Metropolitan Opera’s “Maria Stuarda” and New York Philharmonic in Brahms and Sibelius
I had a busy musical Saturday, attending an afternoon performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” at the Metropolitan Opera and an evening performance by the New York Philharmonic.
The Metropolitan was broadcasting the Donizetti opera live to movie theaters worldwide in high definition video, so one had to put up with the cameras-in-motion that can occasionally be distracting in the house. On the plus-side, perhaps, is that the performers, conscious of being broadcast, may be … <Read More>