The Year in Reviews: The Concerts of 2015

The best concerts and recitals of the year that was.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Mysingsö Beach Chair (pictured above) was a key component of
Goldberg, the experimental presentation of Bach at the Park Avenue Armory.
Photo from IKEA.com © IKEA.

2015 was a year of farewells. Pierre Boulez, having turned 90 quietly stepped off the podium. Kurt Masur passed away. Valery Gergiev ended his term with the London Symphony Orchestra and Alan Gilbert announced that he would be moving on from the New York Philharmonic. However it was also a very good year for concert music.

This year's concerts were in a variety of settings: Lincoln Center, NJPAC and even a beach chair in the middle of the darkness of the Park Avenue Armory. All that and more is in the list of the ten best concert experiences I had in 2015. All links lead to full reviews and all quotes below are taken from Superconductor articles.

Concert Review: Alone in the Dark

The experience of Goldberg at the Armory.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Marina Abramović re-invents the concert experience with Goldberg
at the Park Avenue Armory. Photo by James Ewing © 2015 Park  Avenue Armory.

Off came my wristwatch, a trusty concert-going companion of many years. My iPhone was turned off and put in my bag next to my iPad, also off. Bag and grey Marillion fleece jacket were put in locker No. 42 and I locked it and took the key. I stood in line with other concertgoers, some there for the music: Bach's Goldberg Variations, others for the auteur of our evening: performance and conceptual artist Marina Abramović . The bringing together of these forces is called Goldberg, and is Ms. Abramović's latest stage work.