Concert Review: Conducting Well is the Best Revenge

Alan Gilbert returns the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He's back: Alan Gilbert returned to the New York Philharmonic last week.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2017 The New York Philharmonic.

The New York Philharmonic celebrated the 175th year of its existence this week with a traditional, decidedly 19th century program of Weber, Mozart and Beethoven. The choices on the program were clearly meant to echo those early Philharmonic days, when Uri Corelli Hill led the ensemble in concerts at the Apollo Rooms down on Broadway. Leading this pleasant but most conservative concert: former favorite son and former music director Alan Gilbert, who ended his tenure at the helm of America's oldest orchestra earlier this year.

Concert Review: Who You Gonna Call? Dust-Busters!

The Israel Philharmonic ends its Carnegie Hall run.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic in flight. Photo © 2014 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

There is a long history between conductor Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Mehta has enjoyed thirty years at the helm of this Tel Aviv-based ensemble, which continues to serve as a much-loved international musical ambassador for their home country. On Thursday night, Mr. Mehta and his players offered their third and final program at Carnegie Hall this week: an evening of overture, concerto and symphony played in the traditional order. It was not exactly a thrilling experience.

Concert Review: Business As Unusual

The Budapest Festival Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Man and baton: Budapest Festival Orchestra music director Iván Fischer
in a pensive moment. Photo © 2015 Budapest Festival Orchestra/Channel Classics.

Founded in 1983, the Budapest Festival Orchestra is a relatively recent addition to the ranks of central Europe's great ensembles. Under the direction of Iván Fischer, these Hungarian players always offer something fresh, from Lincoln Center stagings of the great Mozart operas to powerhouse readings of the great works of the 19th and 20th century. On Thursday night, the Hungarian band returned to Carnegie Hall for a conventional concert program (overture, concerto, symphony) that proved, in its execution to be anything but ordinary.

The Five Scariest Scenes in Opera

We look at harrowing moments in honor of Halloween.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The man who came to dinner: John Tomlinson as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni.
Image from the 1984 film Amadeus © The Saul Zaentz Company/Orion Pictures.

Opera is more than just pretty voices against an orchestra: it is an art form that has fascinated listeners for five centuries. And ever since Monteverdi's >i>L'Incoronazione di Poppea

, composers have gleefully shown bloodshed, murder, rape and (in the case of Hansel und Gretel) cannibalism.
In honor of the month of October and the approach of Halloween Superconductor offers a list of five operatic moments that make us clutch our arm-rests: the most nail-biting, terrifying, out-right harrowing scenes from five famous operas.

(Note to our readers: If you haven't seen Elektra, Rigoletto or Tosca yet (and they're all on the Metropolitan Opera's schedule this season) beware: there be spoilers after the jump.)

Concert Review: His Aim is True

Edward Gardner energizes Mostly Mozart. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The always serene Edward Gardner in 2013 at the BBC Proms.
Photo © 2013 The British Broadcasting Company.

Sometimes a fresh baton is needed. That was the case this Friday evening at the Mostly Mozart Festival, where conductor Edward Gardner stepped up to lead the Festival Orchestra in familiar works by Mozart (natch) Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber. Although this program, featuring guest pianist Steven Osborne was nothing out of the ordinary for such a long-running event, but the musicians seemed to be playing with fresh energy and vigor.

Concert Review: 100 Nights of Fun and Games

André Watts celebrates a Philharmonic milestone.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

André Watts. Photo by Steve J. Sherman © CM Artists.

On Thursday night, the pianist André Watts made his one hundredth appearance with the New York Philharmonic. The program, which featured the soloist playing Rachmaninoff's well-loved Second Piano Concerto also marked the second appearance of an exciting young conductor, Juraj Valčuha, who is giving his first set of subscription concerts this weekend at Avery Fisher Hall.

Let's flash back for a moment, to Jan. 1, 1963. The Philharmonic was in a crisis. Leonard Bernstein had just learned that Glenn Gould had cancelled due to illness. The eccentric Canadian pianist was scheduled to perform Liszt's First Piano Concerto in a subscription concert. Bernstein turned to Mr. Watts, then 16, to play the solo part. Two weeks later, a repeat of the same concerto was broadcast on television, and an international concert career was launched.

Enough history. The Rachmaninoff work is well-known, from its distinctive opening of tolling bell-intervals to its famous main theme, later rewritten as a Sinatra ballad ("Full Moon and Empty Arms"). The bells open the piece played by the soloist's left hand long before the orchestra enters. This doleful sound that evokes the composer's love of Russian church music. Mr. Watts expanded on this idea in the first movement, letting loose a free-flowing stream of melodic ideas and good-natured musical argument with the orchestra.