Mäkelä Confirms Why Concertgebouw Smiles While Others Are Pining
CHICAGO – The 27-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä's performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra left no doubt he will head a major U.S. orchestra. But when? Concertgebouw's already got him.
Baroque Fare Featured The Band, But A Singer Delivered The Drama
NEW YORK – As special guest of the touring Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suzuki, the British baritone Roderick Williams brought considerable artistic intelligence, dynamic skill, and easy ornamentation to arias by Bach and Telemann.
Capturing The Intimacy Of ‘Figaro’ In The Vast Space Of A Modern Hall
LOS ANGELES – The new LA Opera production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, in the 3,156-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, tested the communicative power of film director James Gray's colorful, burlesque-like take on the work.
‘Factotum’: The Barber, The Criminal, And Vibe Of A Black Urban Scene
CHICAGO – The opera by Will Liverman and DJ King Rico offers a glimpse into a modern Black community on this city's South Side. A dash of playwright August Wilson also was evident in the enticing world premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
A Japanese Tone Poem Conjures Formlessness Of World At Its Dawning
SEATTLE – Dai Fujikura's Wavering World, drawing on Japanese folklore to express "the humid wetness and wonder of creation," received its world premiere by the Seattle Symphony under Kazem Abdullah. Fujikura, far right, was on hand.
Stamping Film Auteur’s Satire Of Anti-Semitism With Music’s Potency
LOS ANGELES – The visiting Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by Matthias Pintscher, performed Olga Neuwirth's electronically infused score during a screening of the 1924 silent film Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews).
On Opera Stage, A Mom Agonizes Over Fate Of Son Driving While Black
BIRMINGHAM – “You are not who they see” carried a poignant real-world echo through dwb (driving while black), a one-act monodrama by composer Susan Kander and librettist Roberta Gumbel, produced at Opera Birmingham.
After Another Buffing, Adams’ ‘Golden’ Opera Is Brighter And Tighter
LOS ANGELES – In what amounted to its third world premiere, John Adams' Girls of the Golden West, presented by the LA Philharmonic with the composer conducting, combined notable and welcome brevity with newly sustained energy.
4,000-Year-Old Poetry Resounds Afresh In Very Modernist Music
NEW YORK – Clarice Jensen's The Exaltation of Inanna, a setting of poetic chants by Enheduanna, "the first author known by name in history" and the daughter of a high priestess, received its premiere in a concert at the Morgan Library.
A New Violin Concerto As Cosmic Dialogue, Search For Perspective
PORTLAND – Erkki-Sven Tüür described his Violin Concerto No. 3, which received its world premiere by the Oregon Symphony under David Danzmayr with soloist Vadim Gluzman, as "an individual trying to find inner harmony with his other self."
Ukrainian Orchestra Spreads Cultural Spirit In Extensive U.S. Tour
AVON PARK, Fla. – Ever mindful of the horror back home, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Ukrainian American conductor Theodore Kuchar, hopes to "show the U.S. public our music, our culture, and the greatness of Ukraine."
Oberlin Fetes Historic Black Grad, Reviving Oratorio At Carnegie
NEW YORK – A concert at Carnegie Hall by the Oberlin Conservatory orchestra and chorus peaked with the oratorio The Ordering of Moses by R. Nathaniel Dett, who in 1908 became the college's first Black bachelor of music recipient.
The Delicacy Of Suicide As Lyric Reflection In Lang’s ‘note to a friend’
NEW YORK – Based on the writings of Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, David Lang’s new opera score and libretto remain true to Akutagawa’s sentiment on being “duty bound to be honest” about the decision to take his own life.
Finnish Maestro Rouvali Fires Up The NY Phil — And Raises The Roof
NEW YORK – In two programs ranging from early Beethoven to Stravinsky and the modernist Anna Thorvaldsdottir, 37-year-old Santtu-Matias Rouvali displayed a keen sense of sonority as a mode of expression, and his listeners roared approval.
As String Quartet Vista Shifts, Young Ensemble Springs Up On Horizon
EVANSTON, Ill. – The string quartet world has seen significant turnover in recent years. Some noted foursomes are closing out their careers, but fresh faces are emerging such as the Isidore String Quartet, which played an auspicious concert here.
Prototype Fest Revives Bold Pre-Covid Spirit In Cluster Of New Operas
NEW YORK – After two seasons hamstrung by the global pandemic, the two-week festival, which has launched an impressive list of convention-defying new works, returned for a triumphant 10th-anniversary series of mostly live performances.
Inclusion And Handel’s Conqu’ring Hero Light NY Hanukkah Concert
NEW YORK – Curated by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the free program heard by 2,000 at the city's largest synagogue offered excerpts from Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabaeus and modern pieces on themes of inclusion and hope.
‘Tristan’ Project Redux: Multimedia Immersion As A Concert Triptych
LOS ANGELES – It was Back To The Future as the Los Angeles Philharmonic offered a reprise of 2004's semi-staged, three-part multimedia production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. The cycle directed by Peter Sellars repeats Dec. 15-17.
Violin Concerto Weaves Classic Strands: Fugue, Passacaglia, ‘Odyssey’
TAMPA – The Florida Orchestra and Jeffrey Multer, the concertmaster, gave the premiere of home-grown composer Michael Ippolito's imposing and impressive new work spun from, and sometimes reshaping, heroic narratives such as Homer's epic.
‘The Hours,’ New Opera Based On Woolf Novel, Maybe Just Needs Time
NEW YORK – Kevin Puts' opera, drawn from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and presented at the Met Opera, follows Clarissa Vaughan through one day of tribulations, sorrows and epiphanies. It gave a sense that too much was not enough.
