New York Classical Review

15/11/2024

Worlds collide with nature and noir as John Adams led the New York Philharmonic Thursday night.

The Gabriella Smith revolution came to David Geffen Hall Thursday night, as the California-born composer’s Lost Coast for cello and orchestra made its ear-opening New York premiere. John Adams conducted the New York Philharmonic in an evocative program that also included works by Arvo Pärt, Aaron...

15/11/2024

Worthy music vied with an unhelpful staging in the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky's "Lucidity" at On Site Opera Thursday night.

On Site Opera gave the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s Lucidity on Thursday evening at the Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It’s a hot ticket with all three remaining New York performances sold out, before the production opens at Seattle Opera next week.

14/11/2024

A first-rate cast brings the humor, romance and heartache to the Met's "La Boheme."

With over 500 performances, even a crowd-pleasing production like Franco Zeffirelli’s La Bohème can be hard to keep fresh, or even interesting. What’s more, this work has been presented more than any other at the Metropolitan Opera, which has been deeply involved with Puccini throughout the c...

13/11/2024

MItsuko Uchida and Marlboro Festival players offered a transcendent evening of chamber music Tuesday night at Zankel Hall.

https://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2024/11/uchida-and-marlboro-festival-players-offer-a-transcendent-evening-of-chamber-music/

13/11/2024

The second cast for the Met's "Tosca" seemed to still be finding their footing Tuesday night.

https://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2024/11/a-new-cast-still-finding-its-footing-in-mets-tosca/

11/11/2024

Pianist Mao Fujita proved an introspective yet compelling presence in his Carnegie Hall recital on Sunday.

The idea goes against some well-established principles. One is that we expect performers to be individuals, bringing their personal perspectives to the music. Another is that music is the “universal language,” an art without borders.

10/11/2024

The Gesualdo Six offered a moving musico-historic experience with "Secret Byrd" Saturday night, presented by Music Before 1800.

The program titled “Secret Byrd,” performed by The Gesualdo Six with Abendmusik Saturday at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine was an extremely moving experience on many levels. These ranged from the spiritual to the aesthetic, but historical context also played a vital role as well. Th...

08/11/2024

Miah Persson's Strauss and a Julia Wolfe premiere provided the highlights in the New York Philharmonic program Thursday night.

Color and detail are at the forefront of this week’s New York Philharmonic subscription program, led by guest conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Thursday night’s opening concert in David Geffen Hall was a punchy, often excellent but not unblemished sequence of Julia Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth, t...

07/11/2024

A mixed evening of Mozart from Maxim Vengerov and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall.

Since its founding in 1972, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has earned a reputation for superbly coordinated performances without a conductor. It is, so to speak, their brand.

03/11/2024

The Dessoff Choirs marked its centennial Saturday with a celebratory performance of Brahms' Requiem at Town Hall.

The performance Saturday afternoon at Town Hall by the Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra was more than just a concert. Certainly, the Dessoff, with soprano Joélle Harvey and baritone Will Liverman delivered Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with artistry and sympathy, but there was more than that happen...

01/11/2024

Susanna Mälkki made both the new and the familiar striking, fresh and memorable with the Philharmonic Thursday night.

Two repeats.

Though little more than a month has passed, the surprise of the New York Philharmonic season so far is how interesting it has been. Waiting two years for incoming music director Gustavo Dudamel means one guest conductor and program after the next. Instead of being scattered and unfocused, though, th...

31/10/2024

Angela Hewitt's style proved better suited to Baroque than Brahms Wednesday night at 92Y.

Angela Hewitt and Johannes Brahms are both antiquarians at heart, immersing themselves in very old music—she to perform it in concert, he to deepen his understanding of composition.

31/10/2024

Passing moments of dramatic vocalism apart, there was an overall sense of a work in progress with the Met's "Il Trovatore" Tuesday night.

This current stretch of the Metropolitan Opera’s season is all meat and potatoes, dense with revivals of Puccini and Verdi—Rigoletto, Tosca, La Bohème—for the next month. And meat and potatoes are good, but a steady diet is going to require good seasoning and expert cooking to keep it interes...

30/10/2024

In her New York debut Tuesday night pianist Yukine Kuroki displayed an uncommon touch.

One wouldn’t say Yukine Kuroki, who gave her New York debut recital Tuesday in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall as first-prize winner of the 2022 Dublin International Piano Competition, was an individual colorist at her instrument.

30/10/2024

Organist Karol Mossakowski madę a mighty sound in his New York debut Tuesday night, performing on the Casavant Frères instrument at the Brick Presbyterian Church.

There are few visceral musical delights greater than an organ recital with its extraordinary display of colors and dynamics. Karol Mossakowski’s New York debut on Tuesday evening at The Brick Presbyterian Church on Manhattan’s Upper East Side provided brilliant displays of both, as well as displ...

28/10/2024

Vox Luminis provided a moving experience with a Brahms-inspired German requiem collage Sunday, presented by Music Before 1800.

“Now, you will have no encore. Once you’re dead …”—director and bass singer Lionel Meunier smiled and shrugged. 

24/10/2024

Despite some rough edges Rafael Payare's return paid off with the New York Philharmonic Wednesday night.

Rafael Payare, the very model of a modern multiple music director, had successes here last year with his Montreal Symphony Orchestra and his San Diego Symphony.

20/10/2024

Patricia Kopatchinskaja set the Carnegie Hall stage ablaze Saturday night in Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Reflecting on Saturday’s impressive concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, one’s thoughts kept going back to the strings.