Peoples’ Symphony Concerts

Brilliant Chamber Music at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts

This afternoon Peoples’ Symphony Concerts presented a brilliant chamber music program at Town Hall in Manhattan.  Lise de la Salle, a marvelous young pianist, collaborated with string players from The Knights, a flexible chamber ensemble, to present a very “multicultural” program of music by Martinu, Mozart, Jedd Greenstein, Takemitsu, and Ravel.

Everything was impressively played, but what stays with me the most is the awesome Ravel Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, performed with great … <Read More>

KLR Trio at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts

This afternoon the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio performed a concert at Manhattan’s Town Hall under the auspices of Peoples’ Symphony Concerts.  This group has performed frequently at PSC, and their return is always welcome.  Since the retirement of the Beaux Arts Trio, they are probably the preeminent piano trio currently performing.

I was a bit put off prospectively by the conservatism of their program.  This program could have been given over 120 years ago: Beethoven’s Kakadu Variations, … <Read More>

Peoples’ Symphony Presents a Stellar Music from Marlboro Ensemble

Actually, I’ve never been let down by any Music from Marlboro Ensemble presented by Peoples’ Symphony Concerts over the years, but the group that performed at Washington Irving High School on Saturday, April 26, 2014, was about the best I’ve heard. The core group was a string quartet made up of violinists Itamar Zorman and Robin Scott, violist Samuel Rhodes, and cellist Brook Speltz. The normal procedure at the Marlboro Music Festival summer program is … <Read More>

Art Leonard’s Cultural Diary – March 22 through April 16, 2014

I’ve had a busy few weeks, both in terms of attending things and in terms of work having to get done, as a result of which there is a big pile-up of programs for me to write about, so herewith a diary of brief comments about the events I’ve attended from March 22 through April 16. I have omitted comment about the Jeremy Denk piano recital at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, which I wrote about separately … <Read More>

Jeremy Denk Piano Recital at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts

Tonight Jeremy Denk presented an intriguing piano recital as part of the Arens Series of Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, presented at Washington Irving High School’s nicely-refurbished auditorium. Denk presented an eclectic program of Mozart, Ligeti, Byrd and Schumann.

As a long-time attender of Peoples’ Symphony programs, I feel like I’ve watched Denk grow up at the keyboard, since he has appeared several times over the years. Now a mature artist, he hasn’t lost that childlike wonder … <Read More>

March Musical Diary, Part II – Ending Spring Break with a Bang!!

New York Law School’s Spring Break period this year was March 8-16. I ended it with a real bang, attending concerts on five consecutive days (overlapping the beginning of classes): Thursday, March 13 – Vienna Philharmonic led by Andris Nelsons at Carnegie Hall; Friday, March 21 – Les Delices, Five Boroughs Music Festival, at the King Manor Museum in Jamaica, Queens; Saturday, March 14; Saturday, March 15 – New York Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert … <Read More>

A Concert Diary for the First Half of March 2014 – Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Peoples’s Symphony Concerts, Houston Symphony

The first two weeks of March have been quite busy, and again I’ve fallen behind in posting about my concert-going experiences. So here is a quick catch-up.

I had a double-header on Saturday, March 1, attending the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Prince Igor in the afternoon, and a piano recital by Alexandre Tharaud at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts in the evening.

The Met’s new production of Prince Igor, produced an designed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, takes a … <Read More>

Cultural Diary – January 27 2014 through February 9 2014: From Marc Andre Hamelin to Bill Finn

Didn’t expect to see those two names in the same headline? Well, I’m multicultural…. I’ve been so consumed with writing about legal developments that I now have a backlog of cultural events upon which to comment, so here goes:

On January 27, I attended a recital by the Canadian-American pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the recital auditorium under the main stage. Hamelin likes to play unusual repertory, so the biggest single piece … <Read More>

Kuok-Wai Lio – Fantastic Young Pianist at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts

The announced artist for this afternoon’s Peoples’ Symphony Concerts program at New York’s Town Hall was the eminent Hungarian pianist, Radu Lupu. But, alas, Mr. Lupu was ill and had to cancel several concert dates, including this one. In his place, we had a young fellow, Kuok-Wai Lio, in his mid-20s and just starting out on the concert circuit. This recital was undoubtedly a big break for him, and he made the most of it.… <Read More>

Busy Culture Week: Kill Your Darlings, A Time to Kill, Peoples’ Symphony Concerts (Borromeo Quartet & Richard Stoltzman), Thor

A little bit of this, a little bit of that….  I already wrote about the Ned Rorem 90th Birthday Concert that I attended on Tuesday night (Nov. 5), but wanted to mention my other expeditions of the week.

On Monday night, I saw “Kill Your Darlings” at Film Society of Lincoln Center.  I thoroughly enjoyed this tale based on real events.  It focuses on Allen Ginsberg’s first year as a student at Columbia University, and … <Read More>