Concert Review: Brought To You By The Letter "B"

Juanjo Mena conducts Beethoven and Bruckner.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In search of transcendence: conductor Juanjo Mena.
Photo © 2016 Columbia Artists Management Inc.

On the same day that the New York Philharmonic announced the appointment of Jaap van Zweden as its 26th music director, the orchestra was scheduled to perform two classic works from the 19th century. On the podium, Juanjo Mena, the Spanish conductor who is music director of the BBC Philharmonic. He was leading the Beethoven Violin Concerto (with soloist James Ehnes) and Bruckner's Symphony No. 6, a lesser-known example of that composer's art. Interestingly, this is the type of conservative program that might be ideally suited to Mr. van Zweden's talents.

Concert Review: From Russia, With Flash

Daniil Trifonov returns to the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

West Side story: The pianist Daniil Trifonov at play in New York.
Photo by Dario Acosta for Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics

The pianist Daniil Trifonov is just 23, and stands at the leading edge of a young crop of pianists who are making that most staid of instruments exciting again. On Friday, Jan. 2, Mr. Trifonov joined the New York Philharmonic for the orchestra's first concert of 2015, the second of four performances featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff's fearsome Piano Concerto No. 1.