By Rebecca Schmid In the final scene of Bach’s St. John Passion, staged by Peter Sellars at the Philharmonie on Feb.27, the members of the Rundfunkchor gather in meditation around a spotlight, the rest of the hall submerged in darkness. The body of Jesus has been quietly removed during a lament of Mary Magdalene, his […]
Read the rest of this article »By Sedgwick Clark The Vienna Philharmonic is in town for Carnegie Hall’s “Vienna: City of Dreams” Festival. Undoubtedly, music critics ranging from the Times to cub bloggers will swallow the orchestra’s p.r. bandwagon of tradition and aver how its magnificent sonority has remained the same over the years. I first heard the Vienna Philharmonic on […]
Read the rest of this article »Next week, the eightieth birthdays of two very different composers are celebrated in New York. On March 3rd, New York New Music Ensemble fetes English composer Harrison Birtwistle with a portrait concert at the DiMenna Center (details here). Cygnus Ensemble and several soloists perform the music of Mario Davidovsky on the 4th at Merkin Concert Hall (details here). While Birtwistle is best known for his stage works […]
Read the rest of this article »By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder We recently had a presenter call us and cancel an engagement “due to inclement weather” because the company’s flight was canceled and they could not arrive the day before the performance as required. The company offered to fly the next day and arrive on the […]
Read the rest of this article »Bryce Dessner – St. Carolyn by the Sea Jonny Greenwood – Suite from There Will be Blood Bryce and Aaron Dessner, guitars; Copenhagen Philharmonic, André de Ridder, conductor Deutsche Grammophon CD That crossover is not a “one size fits all” phenomenon is amply demonstrated by a new recording on DG. St. Carolyn by […]
Read the rest of this article »By Sedgwick Clark One of Yuri Temirkanov’s goals when he became music director of the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Philharmonic in 1988 was to give it a more “international” sound—to smooth over the deliberately edgy sonority cultured by the ensemble’s long-time maestro, Yevgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988). Why, I wondered? The orchestra’s four concerts of Russian music […]
Read the rest of this article »By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq. Dear Law and Disorder: We filed a P-1 petition for an orchestra that is to perform at our venue. The petition was approved and it includes the orchestra’s conductor. However, the conductor just informed us that he does not want to go the consulate and apply for his P-1 […]
Read the rest of this article »By: Edna Landau To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. I am often asked: How can I find opportunities to perform? There are several possible answers to this question but they all have one thing in common. There is a lot of work involved and there are no shortcuts that I am aware of. One […]
Read the rest of this article »by Sedgwick Clark Bernard Haitink led the Boston Symphony this week in a pair of concerts at Carnegie Hall. He made his debut with the BSO in 1971 and became its principal guest conductor in 1995 and conductor emeritus in 2004. This is his 60th season as a conductor. He was principal conductor of the […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: February 10, 2014 MUNICH — Creative exhaustion appears to have arrived for a whimsical, multi-year promotional campaign here. Its subject: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Its budget and goals: inscrutable. The thing would never have seen the light of day in the U.S., if only for legal reasons, and its existence […]
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