Concert Review: Oceans of Love and Time

Jaap van Zweden pairs Dark Waves with Wagner.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Jaap van Zweden in orchestral ecstasy.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The New York Philharmonic.

When Jaap van Zweden was announced as the new music director of the Philharmonic, he was seen by pundits and punters alike as a firm, conservative voice designed to return America's oldest orchestra to its role as guardian of the standard European repertory of the 19th and 20th centuries. This week, he confirms that hope with a performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre. However, the program opens with the New York premiere of Dark Waves, a masterful 2007 composition from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams.

Concert Review: Let Me Drown

Novus NY plays Become Ocean.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

(This review is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell.)

The composer John Luther Adams who won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Become Ocean.

St. Paul's Chapel, located in the long shadow of the World Trade Center is one of the oldest and most historic churches in New York. On Thursday afternoon, the last matinee concert of the annual music series sponsored by Trinity Church featured another historic occasion: the second New York pperformance of Become Ocean, the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition by John Luther Adams. This concert, featuring contemporary orchestra Novus NY under the baton of Trinity Church maestro Julian Wachner, paired Mr. Adams' creation with works by contemporary composers Luna Pearl Woolf  and Jessica Meyer. All three composers were in attendance,

Concert Review: Put Them Together, and What Have You Got?

The American Modern Ensemble plays SubCulture.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Samples of an electrocardiogram (pictured) were used in the New York premiere of
Robert Paterson's I See You at SubCulture.

The Chamber Music of America conference is in town and New York is thrumming to the sound of scraped, plucked, bowed and strummed fiddles of all shapes and sizes. On Thursday night in the subterranean depths of SubCulture, that fabulous concert venue tucked neatly under Bleecker Street, the American Modern Ensemble hosted a concert dubbed String Theory: a marathon showcase of modern chamber music, featuring three other chamber ensembles and a stack of world premieres.