Author Archive
Less Talk, More Rock
Neikrug’s New Concerto at the Philharmonic On a Friday afternoon, the New York Philharmonic began a concert with the Corsair overture of Berlioz. Then it was time for a new work, a concerto for orchestra by Marc Neikrug. The conductor, Alan Gilbert, did not stride to the podium to conduct. He and the composer ambled...
Yuja on Fire
And a visit by a venerable quartet For several years, we have called Yuja Wang a wunderkind, a phenom, a sensation. For how long can we keep talking that way? She’s 25 now. I figure we can continue for a couple more years. Most recently in New York, she played Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3...
Movie Star Music
Barber and Michael Hersch Make Lasting Magnificence A recent movie, The Deep Blue Sea, has a musical star, and by rights it should be “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” the hit song from 1932 (music by Harold Arlen, words by Ted Koehler). The movie takes its name from this song. So does...
Pinnacle Pianists
Bronfman and Perahia in Recital In the space of three days, New York heard two recitals by two major pianists: Yefim Bronfman and Murray Perahia. The former was born in Tashkent and became a New Yorker. The latter was born in New York and became a Londoner. Go figure. Bronfman played in Carnegie Hall, and...
Orchestral Rankings
Philadelphia and BERLIN Philharmonics Compete Carnegie Hall has hosted several orchestras lately, including one from a short train ride away and one from a longish plane ride away. The first was the Philadelphia Orchestra, the second the Berlin Philharmonic. The Philadelphians have gone through hard times in recent years, including bankruptcy. But they sounded their...
A Tale of Two Operas
Agility, power, wit and heft at the Met In the classic cartoons, opera singers are fat and often wear horns. You will see that in real life, too. But opera singers, like other people, come in all shapes and sizes, and so do operas. In consecutive performances, the Met staged operas on opposite ends of...
It’s Clarinet Month
Williamson, McGill, Meyer and Shifrin blow up Say what you will about piano playing, conducting, violin playing and, especially, composing: This is a very good age for clarinet playing, even a great one. We have Alessandro Carbonare, Martin Fröst, Kari Kriikku and Julian Bliss, among others. Four of those others played in New York during...
Delivering Thrills
When the Vienna Philharmonic plays a New Year’s concert, the program is Viennesey—Strauss polkas and all that. When the New York Philharmonic plays a New Year’s concert, the program is New Yorky. At least it was this year. Their program on New Year’s Eve consisted of Gershwin and Bernstein. The former composer, of course, was...
Doctor Atomic II
Des McAnuff’s Faust at The Met It was with Gounod’s Faust that the Metropolitan Opera opened its doors in 1883, and the company has done many a staging since. The latest production is in the hands of Des McAnuff. A veteran director, he has had hits on Broadway—e.g., Jersey Boys—and leads the Shakespeare festival in...
A Ring That Chimes
Enlivening Wagner’s third installment One by one, we are seeing the operas of Wagner’s Ring at the Metropolitan Opera, in a new production by Robert Lepage. We have now seen the third opera, Siegfried, the one that follows Die Walküre and precedes the finale, Götterdämmerung. Lepage has not made a Siegfried that will dance through...
M-M-M Good! Maazel, Masur and Mehta Return to Philharmonic
Among the New York Philharmonic’s guest conductors this season are three of the orchestra’s former music directors: Zubin Mehta, who was here from 1978 to 1991; his successor, Kurt Masur, who served until 2002; and his successor, Lorin Maazel, who served until 2009. Please note that, three times in a row, we had a music...
From Rosina to the Finland Station: Singers, a Composer and Sibelius
Since its debut in 2006, Bartlett Sher’s production of The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera has had a string of excellent Rosinas: Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Elina Garanca. They have all been different from one another, and they have all been sparkling. Add a fourth Rosina to the string: Isabel Leonard, the...
Carnegie’s Long Short Night
Gergiev and Mariinsky orchestra start season Carnegie Hall opened its season with an orchestra from out of town—way out of town: St. Petersburg (and not Florida). This was the Mariinsky Orchestra, known during Soviet times as the Kirov. Carnegie Hall will feature other orchestras from abroad this season: the Berlin and Vienna philharmonics, most promisingly....
Sharks, Jets, Sting and Others
Touring a trio of musical events The setup in Avery Fisher Hall was this: West Side Story, the movie, played on a big screen. The New York Philharmonic played the orchestra part. The singing was left to the people in the movie (or those who dubbed for them). By some wizardry, technicians were able to...
Facing the Music of 9/11
New York’s Hear Memorial concerts and other good intentions After 9/11, there were several memorial concerts here in New York. Then, for the next few years, there were many, many “9/11 pieces”—compositions “about” 9/11 or having to do with 9/11 in some way. This month, there are, or have been, 10th anniversary concerts. And we...
When Ballet and Music Are Equal Partners
Rodion Shchedrin at Lincoln Center, plus Koji Attwood at Mannes Early in its season, the Lincoln Center Festival highlighted the music of Rodion Shchedrin. Rather, the festival gave a taste of Shchedrin’s music—there’s a lot of it. He has become one of the most popular classical composers of today. Why’s that? For one thing, he’s...
When Ballet and Music Are Equal Partners
Rodion Shchedrin at Lincoln Center, plus Koji Attwood at Mannes Early in its season, the Lincoln Center Festival highlighted the music of Rodion Shchedrin. Rather, the festival gave a taste of Shchedrin’s music—there’s a lot of it. He has become one of the most popular classical composers of today. Why’s that? For one thing, he’s...
Weirdness at the Winter Garden
Rufus Wainwright and City Opera join forces City Opera arranged one of the weirdest musical evenings I have ever attended. The evening was a combination of pretentiousness, vulgarity, sincerity and sweetness. City Opera dubbed it “Rufus Wainwright Goes to the Opera!” That exclamation point seems to try a little too hard. The event was part...
A Liszt-Style Wizard
Jay Nordlinger on the pianist Cyprien Katsaris, plus some thoughts on the embattled City Opera We are in the middle of a “Liszt year,” meaning a Liszt anniversary year: The composer-pianist was born in 1811. In February, Jean-Yves Thibaudet played an all-Liszt recital in Carnegie Hall; in March, Evgeny Kissin played another one in the...
Getting Musical Fixes This Summer
Some friendly suggestions Summer is around the corner, and musical life in this city won’t stop. You can skip away to Bard, Caramoor or Glimmerglass, of course. But you can also stay here in the big bad city. I will give my sense of the highlights.
Conductors on Parade
James Levine, Yuri Temirkanov and Riccardo Muti at Carnegie Hall Taking the stage at Carnegie Hall, James Levine received hearty and heartfelt applause. Audiences have always greeted him with enthusiasm. But they are greeting him with extra enthusiasm now, for this reason: Owing to health problems, Levine has had to cancel many engagements. So every...
