Concert Review: Between East and West Lies the North

Esa-Pekka Salonen and the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen in flight. Photo © Radio France.

In 2009, Esa-Pekka Salonen stunned the music world when he announced that he would step off the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to devote his life to his first love, composition. Thus, a Salonen concert (at least one that does not include his own compositions) is a rarity in New York, happening only a few times per season. On Saturday afternoon at Carnegie Hall, an eager audience gathered to hear his take on two repertory warhorses: Schumann's Symphony No. 3 ("Rhenish") and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, a sprawling, valedictory work that was almost catalogued as that composer's Symphony No. 9.

Concert Review: Storming the Cathedral

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays Schumann and Brahms.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yefim Bronfman on tour in Hungary.
Photo by Andrea Felvégi.

Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are known for careful programming choices. Take Saturday night's concert. The second of three dates this past weekend at Carnegie Hall, this program featured what is at first glance a thoroughly conservative pairing: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Yefim Bronfman) and Schumann's Rhenish Symphony, numbered as his Third but actually the troubled composer's final symphonic work.