New York Classical Review

Freely individual playing colors outside the lines in Vienna Philharmonic’s Strauss, Sibelius

Even the orchestral tone poems of Richard Strauss, their scores larded with tantalizing verbal hints such as “Of the Great Longing” or “Song of the Night Wanderer,” tend to slip off the analyst’s hook ...
New York Classical Review

Young pianist proves a fine colorist with brilliant technique in Schumann, moderns

Auerbach’s Ludwigs Alptraum (Ludwig’s Nightmare), composed in 2007 for the International Beethoven Competition in Bonn, was a dark reflection on that composer’s two fantasy-sonatas of Op. 27, with ...
New York Classical Review

Nelsons, Vienna Philharmonic stumble in Carnegie opener

The Vienna Philharmonic with conductor Andris Nelsons plays Kurtág’s Petite musique solennelle, Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6, 8 p.m. Saturday; and Strauss’s Also sprach ...
New York Classical Review

Liu serves up technical thrills and uncertain interpretations at Carnegie recital

Lack of certainty is an underrated quality in classical music. The norm is to value repertoire performances that aren’t just technically precise but have a sense that the ideas about the music are ...
New York Classical Review

Experiential Orchestra, attentive audience become partners in rewarding Pärt evening

The Experiential Orchestra, led by James Blachly, performed music of Arvo Pärt Thursday night at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Photo: Sandy Choi Carnegie Hall hosted two concerts last October ...
New York Classical Review

Tesori’s “Grounded” scores a dark triumph in Met season opener

Emily D’Angelo stars as Jess in Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera “If Odysseus came home every day,” sings fighter pilot Jess to her husband in Jeanine ...
New York Classical Review

Ensemble Connect roves widely in American program

Ensemble Connect, the professional-development program for young musicians founded by Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School, ...
New York Classical Review

A starry cast delivers an imposing, powerful “Don Carlos” in belated Met premiere

Matthew Polenzani in the title role and Etienne Dupuis as Rodrigue in Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera The Metropolitan Opera returned from its February hiatus ...
New York Classical Review

Met’s “Tales of Hoffmann” offers dark Romanticism and a feast of female voices

Benjamin Bernheim with admirers in the title role of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Karen Almond / Met Opera E.T.A. Hoffmann, spinner of bizarre tales in the early ...
New York Classical Review

Mäkelä, Orchestre de Paris conjure a spectacular “Firebird,” visceral “Rite”

A hundred and eleven years ago, a ballet audience in Paris experienced “the shock of the new” as never before, when the primitive rhythms and dissonances of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring ...
New York Classical Review

The Big Easy: Trifonov makes it all sound effortless, even the “Hammerklavier”

Daniil Trifonov performed Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall. Photo: Dario Acosta Listening to Daniil Trifonov’s recital in Carnegie Hall Tuesday night, one’s first thought was, this pianist is such a ...
New York Classical Review

“Dead Man Walking” powerfully opens Met season, video excess apart

Joyce DiDonato and Ryan McKinny in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Karen Almond/Met Opera It was a long trek, but Dead Man Walking finally made it the last mile to the ...