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Category Archives: Music

Waiting for Bruckner

Christoph von Dohnányi, guest conductor New York Philharmonic Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center Friday, December 11, 2009 at 8:00 PM MOZART | Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364. Soloists: Glenn Dicterow (violin), Cynthia Phelps (viola) BRUCKNER | Symphony No. 4 I dream of the day when a full cycle of Bruckner’s symphonies can come to New […]

ZANKEL HALL | Peter Serkin

Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 7:30 PM Peter Serkin, Piano SCHOENBERG | Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11 DEBUSSY | 6 épigraphes antiques KURTÁG | Selections from Játékok: Pen Drawing, Valediction to Erzsébet Schaár; (…and round and round it goes…); Portrait; The mind will have its freedom… WUORINEN | Scherzo CHOPIN […]

ALVIN AILEY | Festa Barocca

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at NY City Center Sunday, December 6, 2009, 7:30 PM Festa Barocca (2008), choreographed by Mario Bigonzetti; music by G. F. Handel; costumes by Marc Happel. This is a big, ebullient, full-ensemble piece that captures the spirit of the baroque—as its title and Handel soundtrack properly assert (and as its […]

LA SCALA Opening Night in HD | Carmen

[Anita Rachvelishvili before her admirers] If I were to reduce to a single word Anita Rachvelishvili’s La Scala debut yesterday as Carmen (the HD simulcast of which I saw at Symphony Space), it might be “sovereignty.” She reigned supreme. This Carmen was the center around which all else could only hope to hold and the […]

CARNEGIE HALL | Vladimir Feltsman

[the first Grandioso motif from Liszt’s B Minor Sonata] Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8 PM Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage Vladimir Feltsman, Piano SCHUBERT | Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960 SCHUBERT | “Der Müller und der Bach,” S. 565, No. 2 (arr. Liszt) SCHUBERT | “Wohin?,” S.565, No. 5 (arr. Liszt) LISZT | […]

METROPOLITAN OPERA | From the House of the Dead

[the trash collectors] Leoš Janáček, From the House of the Dead [Z mrtvého domu] Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 8PM Production: Patrice Chéreau Associate Director: Thierry Thieu Niang Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen Main Cast: Willard White (Alexandr Gorjančikov), Eric Stoklossa (Aljeja) Stefan Margita (Filka Morozov) How to make a narrative of so relentless yet monotonous, time-ravaging and […]

Lang Lang and Papa Lang

Seeing Lang Lang twice this season at Carnegie Hall brought to mind a remarkable clip from his Carnegie appearance back in November 2003 — a piano-erhu duo with his father that has since become an occasional set-piece. For all the childhood-obliterating pressure Lang Guoren put his son through—recounted by the latter, corroborated by the former—their […]

CARNEGIE HALL | Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Symphony #7

[program for the New York premiere of Mahler’s 7th, from the Carnegie Hall archives] Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Hampson, Baritone MAHLER | Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Symphony No. 7 I will never know the Seventh well enough, but strongly suspect that Barenboim could know it […]

CARNEGIE HALL | Mahler’s Symphony #6

[Sextner Dolomiten in Südtirol, where Mahler completed his Sixth Symphony] Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Pierre Boulez MAHLER | Symphony No. 6, ‘Tragic’ Of the four concerts in this series I have attended, last night’s account of the Sixth has emerged as the most impressive. A world plunged deep and […]

CARNEGIE HALL | Mahler’s Rückert Lieder & Symphony #5

[the Scherzo from Mahler’s 5th in ms at the Morgan Library] Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 2 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Quasthoff, Bass-Baritone MAHLER | Rückert Lieder & Symphony No. 5 Daniel Barenboim resumed the podium this afternoon for an indefatigable account of Mahler’s Fifth, following Pierre Boulez’s three-night vigil through the […]