Canadians Twice Remember Fallen With ‘War Requiem’
By David Gordon Duke
BRITISH COLUMBIA - Two cities honored Remembrance Day weekend with Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. In Vancouver, a great tradition is upheld. In Victoria, under conductor Tania Miller, a first endeavor has shining worth.
LA Phil Launches In/Sight Venture: It’s Outta Sight
By Richard S. Ginell
LOS ANGELES — Remember the light shows of the '60s with live rock music that took you to other places - depending upon your intoxication level? The LA Phil is trying out the idea with a new concert series, minus the chemicals.
Series’ First Play Sees Charlotte SO Thrown For Loss
By Perry Tannenbaum
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Charlotte Symphony's new Thursday concert initiative faced an early challenge from the NFL, whose Carolina Panthers were at home and on TV Oct. 30. But the orchestra is experiencing good health.
In Berlin, ‘Hélène’ Not So Belle And ‘Tosca’ Is Teutonic
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN - The Komische Oper and Staatsoper opened the season with new productions that fell flat. Barrie Kosky's La belle Hélène offered strangely little Offenbach, and 'Tosca,' led by Daniel Barenboim, veered toward Wagner.
Pianist Or Artistic Chief, Buchbinder Is Purist At Heart
By Rebecca Schmid
VIENNA – Rudolf Buchbinder, who will play Stateside with the Boston Symphony under Thierry Fisher Oct. 16-21, is not a man of compromises. For several years, he has made only live recordings and usually travels without scores.
New Music Fuels Carolina Concerts By Pittsburgh SO
By Roy C. Dicks
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - From last year's Composer of the Year program, which was a celebration of local talent, the Pittsburgh Symphony hit the road with Elements, a suite of brief sound portraits by five Steel City composers.
Director’s Insight Sharpens ‘Giovanni’ At Chicago Lyric
By Andrew Patner
CHICAGO - A Robert Falls production with Ana María Martínez and Mariusz Kwiecień sets the action in a kind of free-floating Spain, close enough to our own era to show that the Don and Mozart are ever our contemporaries.
San Francisco SO Ives-Kubrick Fete Bizarre, Well Knit
By Jeff Dunn
SAN FRANCISCO – The plan looked puzzling on paper: two unaccompanied choral works in a bimodal program honoring Ives and Kubrick. But in his concert with orchestral and choral forces, Michael Tilson Thomas made clear his intent.
Picker’s ‘Fox’ Tale Merrily Romps At Opera San Antonio
By Diane Windeler
SAN ANTONIO – Is it wise to launch a new opera company in a new hall with a children's opera? The answer, based on Opera San Antonio's offering of Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, after a story by Roald Dahl, appears to be yes.
CD Roundup: Tchaikovsky miniatures, Rococo flute pieces and duo-violin works
By Roy C. Dicks: What's the Score?
CD Reviews: Tchaikovsky miniatures, Rococo flute works and duo-violin pieces
Bolcom Premiere Crowns 80th Year For Chicago Fest
By Kyle MacMillan
CHICAGO – The Grant Park Music Festival has long championed Pulitzer-winning William Bolcom, beginning with his landmark Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1986. Now comes Millennium: Concerto-Fantasia.
Swinging, Soulful B’way Cast Clicks In ‘West Side Story’
By Richard S. Ginell
Rejecting Leonard Bernstein's disjointed operatic approach, Michael Tilson Thomas' new recording is all of a piece, the sound of 1957 Broadway stretching confidently into fresh, tragic territory instead of a work at war with itself.
John Luther Adams Melds Music, Open Air Milieu For ‘Sila’
By Gail Wein
NEW YORK – To kick off the Mostly Mozart Festival, 80 musicians gathered in and around Lincoln Center's plaza pool for the premiere of Sila: The Breath of the World as the audience roamed. Spectacular weather played its part.
Hearing the Los Angeles Philharmonic Outdoors and iPalpiti Indoors
By Richard S. Ginell: From Out of the West
In the good old summertime in the Los Angeles area, classical music heads outdoors to Hollywood...
Spoleto Fest USA Turns Modernist With 2014 Lineup
By Perry Tannenbaum
CHARLESTON, S.C. – A new sense of adventure pervades Spoleto Festival USA, where the scales have tipped toward newer works. Among this year's offerings is the U.S. premiere of Michael Nyman's opera Facing Goya.
The Electric Don Ellis Remembered in a New Video
By Richard S. Ginell: From Out of the West
Why isn’t Don Ellis up there in the pantheon of big band jazz icons with Duke,...
Chicago SO Fetes Three Composers In ‘Truth to Power’
By Nancy Malitz
CHICAGO - A Chicago Symphony festival will celebrate Shostakovich, Britten and Prokofiev under guest Jaap van Zweden, who admires the composers' ability to "create beautiful flowers in the darkest of times."
Seattle Symphony Spotlights Carter In Label Launch
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW - Joining the go-it-alone recording trend, the Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot has issued an all-American release including Elliott Carter's Instances, written for them at the unbelievable age of 103.
Rouse and Adams Scores Make Carnegie Debuts
By Heidi Waleson
NEW YORK – The first two concerts in the fourth and final "Spring for Music" featured the New York Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony, the latter in the Pulitzer-winning Become Ocean by John Luther Adams (right).
