Let’s get the gripe out of the way first. The New York Philharmonic’s season-closing “Music of Conscience” series is a very fine idea, but what Brahms’s Tragic Overture and Mozart’s C Minor Piano Concerto have … » Read

American Ballet Theatre’s annual Metropolitan Opera House season, now in its third week, is celebrating the tenth anniversary of Alexei Ratmansky’s tenure as the company’s artist in residence. His 16th ballet for ABT, The … » Read

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, UK—Among the U.K.’s ever-growing manifest of country-house opera companies, there are two that stand out. Glyndebourne remains the pack leader, by some distance, but the summer rival that has that house’s … » Read

MILAN--An event as self-consciously conspicuous as Beijing’s first China International Piano Competition was always bound to court controversy. When 18-year-old Canadian Tony Siqi Yun won the first prize of $150,000, commentators suggested … » Read

There can be little doubt they broke the mold when they made Meredith Monk. Still going strong at 76, the American composer, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer is unique, an artist who has been strutting her stuff since the 1960s and cut her … » Read

The New York Philharmonic is winding up its current season with a series of concerts provocatively titled “Music of Conscience.” Featuring works by composers responding to political tyranny (Beethoven and Shostakovich on this first … » Read

On Thursday, May 16 th , Music of the Americas presented the New York premiere of Claude Vivier’s opera Kopernikus (1979) at Issue Project Room in Downtown Brooklyn. Vivier (1943-1983) was born in Montreal and spent time in the 1970s in … » Read

GLYNDEBOURNE—There were fireworks onstage and off for the launch of Glyndebourne’s 85 th season on May 18. Patrons were invited to stand on the lawn at the end of the evening as the skies lit up to mark the 25th anniversary of the … » Read

It’s a brave Brit who labels his program “England’s Orpheus” with all the attendant expectations, but fortunately Iestyn Davies has the musical chops to back it up. The British countertenor’s May 16 recital in the … » Read

Frequently feted during his lifetime but even more frequently misunderstood, left-wing German composer Hans Werner Henze’s “Cuban years” are perhaps the least appreciated period in a long and multi-stylistic musical career. … » Read