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: From Serenity to Oblivion

Stephen Hough in recital at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The always dapper Stephen Hough and friend.
Photo by Sim Canetty Clarke provided by Carnegie Hall. 

There's a three-word cliché used by tired (and too-wired) classical music journalistas to describe Stephen Hough. That cliché is the "thinking man's pianist." Cliché or no, he remains an intelligent and slightly aloof artist, who is most often heard in the concerto format. On Tuesday night, Mr. Hough, a dapper gent (who looks like he just auditioned for a certain BBC science fiction series) made his welcome return to Carnegie Hall for an evening of Debussy, Schumann and Beethoven.

Happy Birthday, Claude-Achille Debussy

The father of modern French music turns 150.

Claude-Achille Debussy

Today we're celebrating the sesquicentennial birth of one Claude-Achille Debussy, composer, pianist and artist extraordinaire. And we're also going to talk about the movies.

I had a "Debussy moment" the other day. I was watching a movie I've seen many times, David Fincher's The Game.

(Plot spoilers follow after the jump.)