SAN DIEGO – As the orchestra pursued its search for a new music director to succeed Jahja Ling, an ambitious celebration of Americana drew a string of guest conductors, including one seen as an active candidate, James Gaffigan.
When it comes to concert hall acoustics, controlled comparisons are difficult, but the temptation was irresistible on a Chicago Symphony tour of new halls in Paris, Hamburg and Aalborg, Denmark, followed by two old gems.
SAN ANTONIO – The music for the live performance version bears no audible references to Mozart, leaving only an atmospheric backdrop of drones, pulses, and bursts. The sound design is too generically New Agey.
“Laissez-vous porter”--let yourself be carried away--is the motto of the Paris Opera’s 2017-18 season, and the upcoming program provides plenty of delights to get...
TORONTO - Except for an introductory work, the evening was given over to Canadian scores not receiving premieres. The five main pieces were premiered decades ago and written by composers who are no longer living.
HOUSTON — It was pure coincidence that produced the convergence of two controversial American presidents on Jan. 20. John Adams' Nixon in China reappeared in a 2004 production from St. Louis.
GLENDALE, Cal. – Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra couldn't have known that their "Lift Every Voice" Festival would coincide with the Women's March happening in Los Angeles and around the world.
LOS ANGELES – With the LA Phil under Zubin Mehta, Anoushka Shankar played her father’s Sitar Concerto No. 2, more a string of colorful moments than a unified whole. Or does that view just reflect Western conditioning?
SAN FRANCISCO - Michael Tilson Thomas combined the 'Blumine' movement from Mahler's Symphony No. 1 with Songs Of A Wayfarer and a semi-staging of Das klagende Lied. It was very clever, instructive programming.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Washington National Opera presented three new brief works in the latest edition of the company’s American Opera Initiative. What Gets Kept featured mezzo-soprano Daryl Freedman and tenor Frederick Ballentine.
DIGITAL REVIEW – A video release of Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach, with direction and design by Robert Wilson, looks as tradition-shattering and exhilarating as the opera must have been some 40 years ago when it was new.
DATE BOOK – The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has organized Canada Mosaic in celebration of the country’s 150th year. Commissions from the nation's many distinctive musical voices will ring out at orchestras coast to coast.
NEW YORK – Just a year out of bankruptcy, the New York City Opera is envisioning "the best of all possible worlds" in ticket demand for its 1982 staging of Bernstein's gem, tweaked by original director Harold Prince for the intimate Rose Theater.
NEW YORK – Matt Marks’ opera about the dancer and courtesan who was convicted as a German spy during the First World War, featuring a magnetic performance by Tina Mitchell in the leading role, comes up short dramatically.
NEW YORK - The Austrian composer's work, featuring Emanuel Ax, sometimes felt like listening to a multitude of opinionated voices competing for attention without one ever rising above the fray long enough to make a point.
DIGITAL REVIEW – A sensational live recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 with Staatskapelle Dresden, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2008, makes for a fascinating comparison with his Orchestre Métropolitain CD of the work.
DIGITAL REVIEW – The star of the Arabian Nights is the raison d'être for a massive 2015 violin concerto that composer John Adams calls Scheherazade.2. Leila Josefowicz possesses and devours it on a new recording.
NEW YORK – Tenor Vittorio Grigolo and soprano Diana Damrau headed a solid cast as the Metropolitan Opera kicked off the new year with Bartlett Sher's gorgeous production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, first seen at Salzburg in 2008.
