Kirov Orchestra and Chorus put power into Prokofiev’s film music

Not many orchestras and choruses will team up to perform two major Prokofiev pieces in the same concert, but the Kirov Orchestra and the Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre were more than up to the task on Tuesday evening at Avery Fisher Hall. With Valery Gergiev, music director of both ensembles, in command, Prokofiev’s “Ivan [...]

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Dudamel leads Israeli Philharmonic in high voltage Tchaikovsky 4th

Gustavo Dudamel, the gifted Venezuelan conductor, inspired the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra to give a thrilling performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 at Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon. The excitement created by Dudamel and the orchestra contrasted sharply with the obscure and solemn Bernstein pieces on the first half of the program. No matter; the audience [...]

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New York Philharmonic overpowers voices in Bernstein celebration

The New York Philharmonic, under its music director designate Alan Gilbert, partied a little too hard during second half of its concert on Friday night at Carnegie Hall, overpowering some of the featured soloists and chorus with too much sound. As a result, the program lost momentum. That was too bad, because the concert, which [...]

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Longwinded Dr. Atomic at the Met results in loss of power

I experienced the John Adam’s opera “Dr. Atomic” on Thursday evening at the Met and found it long winded. It’s terrific that Adams grappled with the Faustian bargain that Oppenheimer waged when the atomic bomb was created, but the long aria about Kitty Oppenheimer’s hair, the clichéd use of the American Indian as a counterweight [...]

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Gil Shaham shines in New York Philharmonic concert led by Andrey Boreyko

Gil Shaham’s blazing performance of the Khachaturian Violin Concerto lit up Avery Fisher hall in a New York Philharmonic concert on Wednesday evening. His playing of the first movement, which is filled with numerous, treacherous, accelerated passages for the soloist, caused the audience to break out in spontaneous applause. Shaham also captured the melancholy of [...]

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Jeremy Denk gives brilliant recital at Zenkel hall

Last night, Jeremy Denk gave a superb concert of music by Ives and Beethoven at Zankel Hall (which is part of Carnegie Hall) in New York City. Denk chose the daunting task of playing Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass 1840-60” and Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier.” Both works [...]

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Met’s La Damnation le Faust strikes bargain with high tech and succeeds

The wonders of modern technology enhanced the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Hector Berlioz’s “La Damnation de Faust.” I experienced the performance on Monday night and came away impressed with how state-of-the-art wizardry can create a cinematic spectacle to tell of Berlioz’s episodic work. Supported by an exceptional cast of principals and an outstanding chorus, [...]

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Kirov Orchestra/Valery Gergiev on fire – blows away audience

The Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under its music director Valery Gergiev gave an incredible all-Prokofiev concert at Avery Fisher Hall this afternoon. The orchestra unleashed a dark, burnished, husky, full-bodied, and blood-pumping sound that just washed over the near-capacity audience. It was a baptism by sound. When these folks step up the volume, [...]

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Le Six(th)

Not one, but two live accounts of Mahler’s Rubik’s Cube of a symphony was released this week, one on the LSO Live label featuring Valery Gergiev making his Mahler recording debut, the other was released on the LSO Live copycat label CSO Resound under the baton of the seasoned Mahler veteran Bernard Haitink. At a [...]

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Baroque Alive!

In many ways, music outside of the Classical to Romantic era, whether before it or after it, has a lot in common. Such similarities may not show themselves musically, but in other ways. Just as there are festivals for modern music, and locations where the modern will always be heard, there are the same festivals [...]

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