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NYC Ballet Stravinsky Festival: Revelations at last.
Curtain calls during the NYC Ballet’s Agon Do you really know a piece of music when it’s only heard and not seen? With Stravinsky, possibly not. The composer always had an instinctual sense of...
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Beethoven rewrites himself (with help from the Philadelphia Orchestra)
Yannick Nézet-Séguin bows after the June 5 Beethoven 9th with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Between February 22 and June 5th, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”) rewrote itself — though the notes,...
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Music that changes the world – one catacomb at a time
Music – it is often said – is about one thing: Music. It only conveys itself. But it has magical adhesive qualities when in the company of words, ideas, subtexts, which is why the classical world has...
View ArticleThe Berlin Philharmonic dares us to love it – and we do
Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, sometimes subtitled “Song of the Night,” is the composer’s most wayward symphony. It’s not one of the pretty ones. With five seemingly mismatched movements, the 80-minute...
View ArticleModern pianists: Will they be everything to everybody? Hope not.
Pianists don’t come in complete packages anymore, or maybe never did. Artur Rubinstein and Clifford Curzon possibly fooled us into thinking that there could be a single classical pianist that you...
View ArticleMetropolitan Opera’s The Hours: Feeling the love (but from afar)
The Metropolitan Opera’s world premiere staging of The Hours – which opened Nov. 22 and plays through Dec. 15 – would be one of the season’s major cultural events if only because it’s three...
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Five, six, seven hours? With music by Feldman, Eastman, Cage and Hersch, how...
Length in music, along with time itself, stretches and compresses like an accordion, with only vague guidelines for overloading or underwhelming listeners, for leaving them hypnotized or fast asleep –...
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The Armenian National Philharmonic makes a magical stealth appearance at...
Why – I ask myself – was I so drawn to the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday (Nov. 15)? Tangible reasons include the presence of violinist Sergey Khachatryan – one...
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David Lang’s Christmas Crossing gift: A simply-told message for a world at...
Choral writing has become the soul of David Lang’s output – in a highly personal manner that’s firmly based on texts, has a strong sense of its purpose, and has perhaps hit a new level of directness...
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Russian liturgical choral music supports the Ukraine in an NYC Clarion Choir...
Russian sacred choral music – with its brooding bass lines and treble writing that reaches for the stratosphere – is express route to one’s soul, raising the question: Why is Alexander Levine one of...
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