A Shed Shimmers In Verdi Requiem With Film Gloss
NEW YORK – Conductor Teodor Currentzis, the tenacious Greek super force behind Siberia’s musicAeterna Orchestra and Chorus, brought a powerful performance of Verdi's Requiem to one of Manhattan's newer venues.
Coming Events: Collaborations Kick Off Season
DATEBOOK – With a Billy Budd in San Francisco to mark Melville's 200th (at right), a Sonatathon in Cincinnati for Beethoven's 250th, and novel new roles for composers and composer-performers, the 2019-20 season is ready to go.
The Devil Is At It Once Again In Heggie’s Latest
SAN FRANCISCO – In If I Were You, a Merola Opera Program commission, the composer’s captivating music and the outstanding performances at the Aug. 1 world premiere upstaged the oft-told tale of body-jumping souls.
Glimmerglass Lifts Verismo Mirror To American Tragedy
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – In Blue, Jeanine Tesori ’s new opera with librettist Tazewell Thompson, a black cop and his wife raise their son. A heated, raw, all-too-familiar story ensues, closely tracked by the singable, expressive score.
Grim ‘Don Giovanni’ Frames A Fine Cast In Concrete, Rebar
PARIS – Ivo van Hove’s dark production for the Paris Opera features modern dress and architecture. While it's faithful to the emotional life of the characters, viewers may miss the usual buffo style despite fine singing and acting.
Well-Proportioned ‘Passion’ Highlights Carolina Bach Fest
By Perry Tannenbaum
CHARLOTTE – The sound of silence during the climax of a powerful St. Matthew Passion provided what may have been the most dramatic moment of the second annual Charlotte Bach Festival. Tenor Steven Soph sang the Evangelist.
Unreleased Coltrane CDs Stir Up The Jazz World – Again
Everyone in jazzland seems to be weighing in on the release this week of Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album, a previously-unknown 1963...
Quartet Summons A Time And Place In Musical History
By Anne E. Johnson
NEW YORK – The Diderot String Quartet, playing on period instruments, evoked the thriving scene of Leipzig in the 1840s with a program of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn.
Teen Cellist Makes Brilliant CD Debut In Shostakovich
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Two gifted young musicians, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 19, and conductor Mirga Grazinyté-Tyna, 32, display wonderful rapport in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Cello encores round out the disc.
Handel’s ‘Esther,’ Pivotal Oratorio, Scores As Drama
By Kyle MacMillan
CHICAGO – It's easy to grasp what drew Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque to the early 1720 version of Esther. The nascent oratorio, a critical stepping stone in Handel's development, proved to be compelling in its own right.
Soprano Makes Rare Appearance, And Mesmerizes
By Heidi Waleson
NEW YORK - Many aspects of Anna Caterina Antonacci's special artistry were on display during her recital of French, Italian, and English repertoire with the fine American pianist Donald Sulzen at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall.
Tilson Thomas Masterminds Bold New Work Menu
By Richard S. Ginell
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - For a concert that brazenly tries to obliterate the boundaries of what a concert usually is, you might expect it to occur in a futuristic space. The New World Center’s Gehry/Toyota performance hall is just that.
In Graceful Debut, Dudok Foursome Thaws Winter Fest
By Kyle MacMillan
EVANSTON, Ill. – Unlike some modern quartets that put a premium on muscularity and punch, the fast-rising young Dutch ensemble called the Dudok Kwartet, in its North American debut, conveys more of an Old World sensibility.
Violinist Hadelich, Seattle SO Plumb Ligeti’s Concerto
By Jason Serinus
SEATTLE – A collaboration between soloist Augustin Hadelich and the Seattle Symphony under music director Ludovic Morlot transformed Ligeti's Violin Concerto into a deeply moving, heartfelt journey.
Sound, Sight Leap From The Concert Hall To The Web
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL – Video of live concerts can be costly to produce but a more compelling experience, and more effective marketing, than audio-only. Here are seven of the best orchestra websites that offer streaming video of concerts.
New ‘Tosca’ Launch At Met Survives Sweeping Exodus
By Susan Brodie
NEW YORK – New Year’s Eve marked the Metropolitan Opera's 951st go at Puccini’s “shabby little shocker.” There was nothing shabby about David McVicar's grandiose production. The shock: that it came off as well as it did.
Rattle, Berlin Aim To Tempt Appetite For Musical ‘Tapas’
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – Unsuk Chin's 11-minute Chorós Chordón leaves the listener wanting more. Premiered by the Berlin Phil and slated for an Asia tour, it is one of the brief musical "tapas" commissioned by chief conductor Simon Rattle.
Muti/Chicago Play it Safe with All-Brahms at Disney Hall
The CSO remains a phenomenal instrument – they never miss – yet the most phenomenal features about these performances were the little things.
Johan Halvorsen’s Violin Concerto In A Worthy Revival
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Violinist Henning Kraggerud, joined by the Malmö Symphony under Bjarte Engeset, makes an excellent case for Halvorsen's neglected virtuosic 1909 concerto in a pairing with Nielsen's Violin Concerto.
John Adams On Record – Part One
My most vivid memory of John Adams was way back near the beginning of his career, in 1983 in then-Avery Fisher Hall. His Grand...
