Yearly Archives: 2016

DATE BOOK – The PBS broadcast of Lyric Opera of Chicago's world premiere production of Bel Canto, by Jimmy López and Nilo Cruz, leads off an ambitious series of premieres and novel opera projects in early 2017.

By David Shengold

Rewarding performances in Philadelphia conducted by Natalie Stutzmann and in New York under Kent Tritle offered a high contrast in styles, while conductor Andrew Davis' new CD proved a throwback to the grandiose Messiahs of old.

By Paul E. Robinson

DIGITAL REVIEW – Two prize winners in leading piano competitions show brilliant technique and poetry in Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes. A third surmounts Sergei Rachmaninoff’s cinematic Études-tableaux.

By Lawrence B. Johnson

NEW YORK – In a concise and yet monumental recital at Alice Tully Hall, baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber made a profound journey through Mahler songs about loneliness and life's consummation in eternity.

By Ken Keaton

DIGITAL REVIEW – Recently released CDs reveal a plethora of gifted young classical guitarists, some of them barely into their twenties, and a harvest of important new works (and new techniques) for the instrument.

By Lawrence B. Johnson

CHICAGO - The new Lyric Opera of Chicago production of The Magic Flute is a whimsical and musically enchanting show that keeps a traditional look while injecting the work with the feel of a suburban block party.

By Kyle MacMillan

CHICAGO – Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography of the Tchaikovsky holiday fantasy is a hit for the Joffrey Ballet. Set at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the new staging toes the line between tradition and innovation.

By Esteban Meneses

ORLANDO – Stuck in an airport between flights, American composer Lisa Bielawa compiled the random chatter of fellow travelers, which served as the basis for Drama/Self Pity, premiered by the Orlando Philharmonic.

By Arthur Kaptainis

MONTREAL – Since 1892, the Ladies Morning Musical Club has sponsored concerts in Montreal, although men can now attend and recitals are later in the day. Soprano Karina Gauvin offered art song, folk and cabaret.

By John Fleming

MIAMI BEACH – HK Gruber's U.S. premiere of into the open…, with percussionist Colin Currie and the New World Symphony, was a mostly somber memorial for Gruber’s longtime publisher at Boosey & Hawkes.

By Susan Brodie

PARIS – Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, featuring Elīna Garanča singing her first Santuzza, and Hindemith's Sancta Susanna share a Paris Opera bill that makes for an evening of fierce drama and satisfying music making.

By William Albright

HOUSTON – Redemption and transformation are at the heart of It's a Wonderful Life, given its world premiere Dec. 2 by Houston Grand Opera with San Francisco in line for next season. Is this opera destined to become a holiday tradition?

By Vivien Schweitzer

NEW YORK – When the curtain fell on Kaija Saariaho's opulent romance L'Amour de loin, the first opera at the Met by a woman since 1903, the loudest applause fell on the composer and conductor Susanna Mälkki, also a rarity.

By David Gordon Duke

VANCOUVER - The American mezzo-soprano's extragavant project, In War & Peace: Harmony Through Music, includes contemporary media, a period-instrument orchestra, and stage movement, along with stellar vocalism.

DATE BOOK — The New York Philharmonic starts off the new year swinging, with the world premiere of Wynton Marsalis' The Jungle. Here are more premieres promised at major orchestras in North America in early 2017.

By Michael Gray

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Amsterdam's famed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, led by Semyon Bychkov, bespoke its great Mahler legacy with a performance of the Fifth Symphony and a new work by Detlev Glanert on a U.S. tour.

By Bill Rankin

CALGARY - For their subtle concert at the University of Calgary, Toronto's Gryphon Trio and Canadian soprano Patricia O’Callaghan performed works from various traditions, including classical, pop, and cabaret.

“First, we’ll take Manhattan. Then we’ll take Berlin.” –  Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) These words were ringing through my head the week before Thanksgiving as the Berlin...

By Richard S. Ginell

DIGITAL REVIEW – Karajan's second Beethoven cycle, recorded in 1961 and 1962, sold nearly a million LP box sets. Now the DG label is offering the nine symphonies on a single Blu-ray audio disc at a stocking-stuffer price.

By Paul E. Robinson

DIGITAL REVIEW – Russian videos of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Glinka operas add greatly to our appreciation of a neglected repertoire, and in some cases imaginative direction adds an appeal that transcends national origins.