BERLIN – Deutsche Oper Berlin’s production of Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s Edward II has a scandalous veneer in weaving the tale of the doomed 14th century British king and his gay lover. The audience takes it all in stride.
NEW YORK – Yuta Bandoh's sensuous Seesaw for violin, piano, and spatially-placed string trio had its world premiere among works by seven others in a weekend devoted to new directions in Japanese contemporary music.
BOSTON — Boston Symphony music director Andris Nelsons will lead performances of this unusual work Feb. 23-25 in Boston's Symphony Hall and Feb. 28 at Carnegie Hall. Sofia Gubaidulina is hoping to attend at least one of them.
BOOK REVIEW – The Political Orchestra by Fritz Trümpi provides important new information and a broader context for understanding how the two greatest orchestras in the German-speaking world were affected by politics.
VANCOUVER - The ensemble Nordic Voices presented works by a trio of living Norwegian composers, including Lasse Thoresen (right), plus music by Goffredo Petrassi and György Ligeti. The performances were magisterial.
Here is Part Two of my updated, expanded, 70th birthday discographical survey of John Adams’s music, parts of which were originally published in the...
CHICAGO – The first commission in the 43-year history of the Chicago Opera Theater unites the composer, drummer, and co-founder of The Police with the intense fantasy of Adolfo Bioy Casares’ novel The Invention of Morel.
TORONTO – Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has grown into a tall young man. He perches precariously on the edge of the bench and doesn’t quite know what to do with his knees. Fortunately, he knows exactly what to do with his hands.
BERLIN – Under the baton of Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic brings out the theatrical dimension of works by Rihm, Ligeti and Mahler. The Rihm premiere Gruß-Moment 2 was composed in remembrance of Pierre Boulez.
HOUSTON – The nine-day Houston Early Music Festival focuses this season on Baroque and Renaissance
vocal music in its infinite varieties. But it opened with Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, sans singing and dancing.
RALEIGH – The North Carolina Symphony under Grant Llewellyn showed why such undervalued orchestras merit the spotlight about to shine on them in the nation's upcoming SHIFT Festival at the Kennedy Center.
LOS ANGELES - Among the pieces in which the admired British composer Thomas Adès led the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall were two of his most recent works in U.S. and West Coast premieres.
CLEVELAND – Under the baton of Donald Runnicles, the Cleveland Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, and tenor Paul Groves offered an unflinching take on the bittersweet ambivalence of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.
DIGITAL REVIEW – Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson’s
Considering Matthew Shepard is a masterpiece, the essence of which will still speak to us,
especially at times of loss and suffering, for years to come.
NEW YORK - Through Feb. 21, the hall is presenting major artists in “La Serenissima, Music and Arts from the Venetian Republic,” which brings to life the sumptuous and vibrant arts of the flourishing republic.
BRADENTON, Fla. – The Sarasota Orchestra conducted by Anu Tali gave the first American performance of Symphony No. 6 (Strata) by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, composer of eight symphonies – No. 9 coming.
TORONTO – As part of its North American tour, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir sang solemn music of Arvo Pärt, Estonia's most famous composer, and Canadian music by composers of Estonian descent.
NEW YORK – Spooky! Mary Zimmerman’s new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka starring Kristine Opolais at the Met is a twisted hybrid bordering on a parody of convention. If capricious and confusing, it's also beautiful and intriguing.
DIGITAL REVIEW – Angela Hewitt has recorded Bach's Goldberg Variations using her own Fazioli piano, and Mahan Esfahani has employed a Huw Saunders harpsichord based on a Thuringian model of c. 1710, tuned with sharp keys in mind.
