Opera Review: Smoke Gets in His Eyes

The Orchestra Now plays Respighi and Wolf-Ferrari.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Don't say we didn't warn you.

In his capacity as a musical archeologist, Leon Botstein unearths little-heard compositions, and leads them before the discerning ears of those who attend his orchestral concerts. In his other job, he is the president of Bard College, that bastion of liberal arts learning on the Hudson River near Peekskill. Starting last season, Dr. Botstein combined these jobs, emerging as the leader of The Orchestra Now, comprised of Bard's masters' candidates setting forth upon the concert stage. This ensemble played Carnegie Hall Friday night as part of its spring concert season, with Dr. Botstein on the podium.

Concert Review: Fountains, Poems and Pictures

The New York Philharmonic plays Carnegie Hall.
by Ellen Fishbein

Renée Fleming appeared with the New York Philharmonic on Friday night.
Photo © Decca Classics.

On Friday night, the New York Philharmonic made a rare appearance on the stage of Carnegie Hall, with a short program that was rich and engaging despite its brevity. Alan Gilbert conducted two orchestral favorites, framing the world premiere of Swedish composer Anders Hillborg's The Strand Settings. The new work featured soprano Renée Fleming in her only appearance with the orchestra this season.

Concert Review: Going Out with a Bang

The CSO concludes its three-night Carnegie Hall stand.

Conductor Riccardo Muti.
Photo © Chicago Symphony Orchestra

by Paul J. Pelkonen
Last night was the final concert for Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's at Carnegie Hall this season. It offered New Yorkers a chance to hear a program that was successful in Chicago: an unconventional triptych of works by Dvorak, Respighi and the lesser-known pianist-composer Giuseppe Martucci.

The concert opened with Dvořák's Fifth Symphony, the work that marks the start of the composer's mature period. (Prior to the publication of a new edition of the Czech composer's symphonies in the 1950s, this piece was widely known as Symphony No. 1.) It remains a marvelous, if under-performed example of the composer's style.

Mr. Muti led a bold, robust account of the score, with the rich cellos and potent horns of the CSO to the fore. The conductor leapt (literally) into the rollocking main theme, drawing precise, almost Bach-like harmonies underneath the swaggering main subject. The bold, brassy performance drew unexpected early applause from a few concert-goers, who were either overcome by the piece or simply didn't know better.