CHICAGO—At any experimental music function, taking the good with the not-so-good is a given. Experiments, by definition, sometimes fail. That made the end-to-end dazzle of this year’s Frequency Festival (Feb. 20 to 25), anchored at … » Read

LONDON—When Simon Rattle recorded The Jazz Album back in 1987 it became clear that here was a British conductor with an affinity for American music and an instinct for Gershwin. Likewise, his lasting friendship with John Adams can be dated … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—Alexander Scriabin, to put it mildly, had a multi-track mind. His never-realized dreams for Mysterium called for a seven-day, appeal-to-all-senses piece to be staged in a cathedral built for the occasion in the Himalayan … » Read

Even though Émigré is billed as “an oratorio,” it bears quite a few of the earmarks of opera. It names its characters, specifies the settings of their scenes, and derives much of its impetus from the conflicts among … » Read

Taking to a topless Bösendorfer grand piano situated smack-dab in the middle of Zankel Hall on a recent Friday night, Timo Andres got busy immediately with the world premiere of Fiddlehead, a new piece he’d written for the occasion. … » Read

Since arriving at the Los Angeles Opera as music director in 2006, James Conlon has reveled in presenting works by composers silenced by the Nazis during World War II and since forgotten. His “Recovered Voices” project has brought … » Read

BOSTON—Forty-five years ago, the Boston Civic Symphony fired its brilliant young maestro, Benjamin Zander, for playing too much Mahler. When the entire orchestra resigned in protest, Zander started his own Boston Philharmonic, with Mahler … » Read

In the Metropolitan Opera’s new Forza del destino , it isn’t “destiny” that propels the characters across time and terrain; it’s socio-political upheaval. Mariusz Trelinski’s production (seen at its February 26 … » Read

Another season, another chance for a living choreographer or two to contribute something lasting to the legacy of the preternaturally prolific George Balanchine. Four decades after his death, the current six-week winter chapter of The New York … » Read

An initial reading of the synopsis for Erismena can be daunting. The scenario for Francesco Cavalli’s 1655 opera trades in the disguises and mistaken identities so prevalent in Baroque dramaturgy, along with tangled lines of desire and … » Read