Concert Review: The Follies of Youth

The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Beatrice Rana onstage at Carnegie Hall with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the background.
Photo by Paul Vincent. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to Carnegie Hall on Friday night for the last of their appearances this season. For this program, Mr. Nézet-Séguin chose a pair of mostly forgotten and badly neglected early works by prominent Russian composers Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. These Russian rarities flanked the more familiar Third Piano Concerto by Serge Prokofiev with soloist Beatrice Rana.

Concert Review: Take Me to Church

Bernard Labadie unveils his visionary OSL Bach Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bernard Labadie (right) leads the new Orchestra of St. Luke's Bach Festival.
Photo by Dario Acosta.

"Tonight, we are in church." These words were spoken by Orchestra of St. Luke's president James Roe as he introduced Thursday night's program, Music of the Spirit, at Zankel Hall, the subterranean mid-sized venue that is part of the Carnegie Hall building. Bach was a man of deep religious conviction but the bulk of his church music, (aside from the major choral works like the Passions and the Mass in B minor) remains unknown to the casual listener. With this concert, the first night of a new month-long Bach festival by the Orchestra, the goal is to correct that oversight.

Concert Review: The Ignition Sequence

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

There comes a time in the career of an opera singer where, through either good fortune or exceptional skill, they rise from the ranks of the roster and ignite as a genuine operatic star. For the  Isabel Leonard, 2018-19 at the Metropolitan Opera was that year, where the mezzo-soprano rose to the occasion in three major roles: Marnie, Melisande and Sister Blanche in Dialogues des Carmelites. On Monday night, Ms. Leonard capped a season which featured performances as Marnie, Melisande and Sister Blanche with a performance at Carnegie Hall, accompanied by the MET Orchestra under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Concert Review: Two Tickets, No Paradise

Gianandrea Noseda conducts at Carnegie Hall.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gianandrea Noseda. Photo © 2017 Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino.

The Carnegie Hall calendar is released every year in the final week of January, but not everything on that august and immense document comes to fruition. The concert originally planned for this Sunday would have featured Gianandrea Noseda conducting Verdi’s grand opera  I Vespri Siciliani in its five-act entirety with the Teatro Regio di Torino. Its substitute: a two part choral concert with Mr. Noseda leading the National Symphony Orchestra, who are based in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center.

Concert Review: Slip-Slidin' Away

Valery Gergiev and Daniil Trifonov return to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

And carry a small stick: Valery Gergiev.
Photo © 2017 Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

Six years and some months ago, the pianist Daniil Trifonov made his debut at Carnegie Hall. On Saturday night, Mr. Trifonov re-teamed with Valery Gergiev, now at the helm of the MET Orchestra. Mr. Gergiev spent many years as a principal guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, and one assumes that the players remain familiar with his eccentric conducting style. This was the first of three scheduled spring concerts by New York's greatest opera orchestra, an annual tradition at this venue following the end of the opera season.

Concert Review: Faith Without Pause

Bernard Labadie leads Bach's Mass in B minor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bernard Labadie leads Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec
in Bach's Mass in B minor. Photo by Melanie Burford.

Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor is more than church music. It is a towering setting of the Catholic liturgy that while never performed in full in the composer's lifetime, can elevate the listener no matter what faith they profess. Its glories were on full display in Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night. The performance (mounted without an intermission) was by the period ensemble Les Violins du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec under the leadership of their founder Bernard Labadie.

Concert Review: The Fearless Academic

Mitsuko Uchida plays Schubert at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mitsuko Uchida and friend. Photo by Geoffrey Scheid.

There is nothing conventional about Mitsuko Uchida. At this stage in her career, the reigning grand dame of the piano recital has eschewed the traditional recital format for long concerts that are meditative studies on the work of just one composer. Luckily for Carnegie Hall audiences  this season, that composer is Franz Peter Schubert, whose work she is revisiting at the conclusion of a two year journey through his piano sonatas.

Concert Review: A Party of One

Michael Tilson Thomas has a big night at Zankel Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Michael Tilson Thomas elbows a score. Photo by Art Streiber.

The classical music world is a place where absolute power can rest in the hands (or the pen) of a single individual. On Thursday night at Zankel Hall, Michael Tilson Thomas (who is one of those individuals who is allowed such a privilege) was allowed an exercise in that kind of power. The composer, conductor and educator hosted this concert featuring pianist Yuja Wang and members of his Miami-based training orchestra the New World Symphony. He led the orchestral performances in its first and second half. And he wrote a good deal of the music performed.

Concert Review: A Night Out With Your Old Boss

Pablo Heras-Casado returns to the Orchestra of St. Luke's.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pablo Heras-Casado (standing) seen here leading the Orchestra of St. Luke's
returned to Carnegie Hall last Thursday night. Photo by Ferrando Sancho from the conductor's website. 

The tenure of Pablo Heras-Casado, for the first seven years of this decade at the helm of the Orchestra of St. Luke's was, by and large a positive one. It boosted the reputation of this excellent New York orchestra and gave the young conductor a chance to be heard on the biggest stages of New York. On Thursday night, Mr. Heras-Casado returned to the podium at Carnegie Hall to conduct the OSL in a program that looked forward and back, embracing the best of 20th century neo-classicism and continuing the ensemble's ongoing deep dive into the major works of Franz Joseph Haydn.

Opera Review: Zapped!

Handel’s shocking Semele strikes Carnegie Hall.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Lightning rod: Brenda Rae as Semele at Carnegie Hall
Photo by Steve J. Sherman for Carnegie Hall.

One does not always think of Georg Friedrich Handel as a paragon of musical experimentation. On Sunday afternoon, the English Concert, (which is in the middle of presenting an annual cycle of Handel masterpieces at Carnegie Hall) struck down that thesis. This year’s entry is Semele, a hybridization of opera and oratorio. Unusual in that it uses the oratorio formula and an English text (by the poet William Congreve) to tell a mythological tale, Semele flopped in 1744. Today, this work is regarded as one of the composer’s boldest and most impressive achievements. 

Concert Review: Symphonies Built for Two

Yuja Wang and Gautier Capuçon at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pierre Capuçon and Yuja Wang came together to play at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night.
Photo from Medici.TV.

When one thinks of the great composers of the late Romantic era, the mind turns to massive string sections, full-throated choirs of brass and a kettle-drummer thundering out the rhythms of the cosmos. None of these things were present at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, when pianist Yuja Wang gave a concert featuring herself paired with cellist Gautier Capuçon. This is one of several concerts Ms. Wang has given this year as part of her Perspectives residency at the venue, with varying degrees of artistic success. This proved to be a collaboration that bore the most succulent of fruit.

Concert Review: Time Standing Still

efim Bronfman returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yefim Bronfman, shown here in performance at the 92nd St Y,
returned to Carnegie Hall this week. Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The New York Philharmonic.

One of the pleasurable difficulties in covering so-called “classical” music concerts is encountering an artist for whom the word “criticism should not be too stringently applied. Such an artist is the pianist Yefim Bronfman, who returned to Carnegie Hall on Thursday night for a solo recital of Debussy, Schumann and Schumann. All the works chosen were executed at a very high level indeed.

Well, that was easy, wasn't it? Ok. Maybe a little more.

Concert Review: The Music Doesn't Lie

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Schubert at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yannick Nézet-Séguin (center) Jan Lisiecki (right) and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Photo by Ebru Yildiz for National Public Radio.

New York's relationship with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has undergone a fundamental change since the maestro added the music directorship of the Metropolitan Opera to his duties. On Friday night at Carnegie Hall, his entrance was met with a storm of applause for a conductor, who was leading his other ensemble, the Philadelphia Orchestra in a program of Schubert, Mendelssohn and a new piece by Nico Muhly. He has become a beloved and essential musical figure, who will hopefully only rise in prominence in the decade to come.

Concert Review: A Meeting of Kindred Spirits

Sir András Schiff pairs Schumann and Janáček at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sir András Schiff. Photo by Paul Schiffli for the Lucerne Festival.

"You have to understand that the two composers on this program have absolutely nothing to do with each other."

This remark, met with laughter from a packed Carnegie Hall, was delivered by the Hungarian pianist Sir András Schiff as part of a short lecture that he gave before the second half of Thursday night's piano recital. The concert consisted of four works, two by Robert Schumann and two by Leoš Janáček. Sir András pointed out that Janáček was only six years old when Schumann died in Bonn, Germany, and that while one of these men was raised in the German musical tradition, the other was completely self-taught.

Concert Review: Beyond the Realms of Death

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

New world man: Michael Tilson Thomas.
Photo by Vahan Stepanyan from michaeltilsonthomas.com

Gustav Mahler once said that "a symphony must be like the world." His Symphony No. 9 (the composer's last complete work) moves well beyond earthly experience. On Wednesday night, Michael Tilson Thomas and the Vienna Philharmonic tried to wring every drop of meaning from its four sphinx-like movements in a sprawling performance at Carnegie Hall. Stretching the endurance of musicians, audience and the music itself, their efforts may have met with some success.

Concert Review: When They Were Kings

The Vienna Philharmonic sets the wayback machine at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the Vienna Philharmonic on tour in Europe.
Photo by Filip Waldmann from michaeltilsonthomas.com.

Imagine dear reader, that it's forty-odd years ago. You're reading this review not on a screen but in the pages of a local black and white newspaper, written by a modestly compensated professional staff critic. In this time, the touring virtuoso is a revered figure in the interpretation of so-called "classical"  music. And the conductor, propped up by the determined efforts of a hugely profitable vinyl-based classical music industry, is still king. That's the heady era that was revisited in Tuesday's Carnegie Hall concert with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Vienna Philharmonic in the first of their two performances together this week.

Concert Review: A League of Their Own

The Vienna Philharmonic return to Carnegie Hall. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Fischer king: Adam Fischer leads the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2019 Carnegie Hall.

The first thing you notice is the sound.

It starts in the strings, warm, rich and wine-dark. The tone of the instruments is a little deeper and fuller than other ensembles. Then the horns, the Viennese horn in F that is narrower in bore and harder to play and keep in tune, with an antique valve design that allows for easier legato playing. The oboes are different, shorter and wider than the French instruments played by most professionals. Finally, there's the kettledrums: there are just two. They are small by modern standards, beaten copper bowls with goatskin heads. They have a pert voice of their own.

Concert Review: The Departed

The Orchestra of St. Luke's exercises its labor rights.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Where's the orchestra? Conductor Bernard Labadie stands alone.
Photo © 2019 Orchestra of St. Luke's

When an orchestra brings in a new music director, there is always a shift in terms of programming and focus. Consider if you will the Orchestra of St. Luke's that outstanding and flexible ensemble that gives regular concerts at Carnegie Hall, and its new boss Bernard Labadie. On Thursday night, the Orchestra played a program of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, celebrating the virtue of all things right, proper and classically structured.

Concert Review: The Baggage Handler

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Daniel Harding brought the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
in for a landing at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night. Photo © 2017 The Lucerne Festival.

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is the most famous musical export from the Netherlands. On Thursday night, the ensemble returned to Carnegie Hall for its first New York concerts since the ouster of conductor Daniele Gatti, who was released from his contract in August of 2018 following accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior. (Mr. Gatti is reportedly planning to sue.) His replacement for this North American tour is Daniel Harding, an Englishman who is not well known on American podiums, although he has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and led the New York Philharmonic in a memorable run of concerts in 2011.

Concert Review: Sweet and Sour Notes

Yuja Wang teams with Igudesman and Joo at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Wrapture: Yuja Wang (center) is unboxed by Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-Ki Joo.
Photo © 2019 Igudesmanandjoo.com

Last night's performance at Zankel Hall teamed virtuoso pianist Yuja Wang with the comedy stylings of Iggudesman and Joo. The comic duo (full names Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo) rose to prominence through a series of YouTube videos. They seemed unlikely stage companions for the virtuoso pianist (this concert is part of her ongoing Perspectives series)  although this collaboration is not new. At the start of the concert, the duo announced that Yuja Wang would not be coming onstage. Rather, out came Mr. Joo in one of her signature outfits: minimal chest wrap, short skirt and entirely too much leg.