The Five Best Orchestral Concerts: Spring 2017

We look at the five best concerts of the spring season that was.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

As I'm on vacation this week, we're going to be looking back at some of the most memorable performances of the year 2017 (so far, anyway.) Here are the best symphonic concerts, from shows seen at Carnegie Hall (including Daniel Barenboim's nine-concert Bruckner cycle) to as far away as Osaka, Japan. Oh yeah. I went to Japan in February. Anyway, here's the reviews, all written by yours truly.

The Year in Reviews: The Operas of 2015

The ten best opera performances of the year that was.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dangerous curves: Marliss Peterson's performance in Lulu was a highlight of 2015.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2015 The Metropolitan Opera.

Despite the untimely death of Gotham Chamber Opera, 2015 was largely a successful year for the art form in the New York area and elsewhere. Here's the ten best opera performances that this reviewer saw this calendar year. All titles link to full Superconductor reviews. Chronological order with the oldest first.

The Season in Reviews: Fall 2014-Spring 2015

The best concerts we saw this year on Superconductor.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pierre-Laurent Aimard brought exceptional Bach and Boulez to Carnegie Hall this season.
Photo © 2015 Universal Music Group/Deutsche Grammophon.

The 2014-15 season is in the books. Here's a rundown of the ten best concert performances seen this year, drawn from the exhaustive and intensive archives of Superconductor. Relive the best performances of the year...or else, find out what you missed. All quotes are from Superconductor and the reviews are in rough chronological order.

The Year In Reviews: Classical and New Music Concerts 2013

Superconductor looks back on the best of the concert hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Boston's Symphony Hall in 1912. Now there's a frozen yogurt place across the street.

Here at Superconductor I go to a lot of concerts. I hear a lot of music. Here's our list of thirteen performances in 2013 that were memorable and worth a second look. Ladies and gentlemen, (some more of) the best concerts and choral performance of last year.

The Year in Reviews: Opera 2013

Superconductor recalls the best opera performances of 2013.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A bird in a gilded cage: Christine Goerke in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

As the year is ending we are finally getting to our end-of-2013 wrapup. This was supposed be to be a Top Ten list but I think it's going to be a lucky thirteen--it was a pretty good year for opera!

Here are the best opera performances (and operas in concert) that I saw this year in chronological order. All links lead to the full reviews.

Cataclysmic Concerts: The Best of 2012

The year in concerts, recitals and chamber music.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Some say the world will end with fire. But this didn't actually happen either.
Image from The Day After Tomorrow © 2004 Centropolis Entertainment/20th Century Fox. 

With the exception of a certain often-mentioned iPhone alarm (that disrupted a Jan. 11 concert by the New York Philharmonic) there weren't too many in-concert disasters in 2012.  Or maybe I spent the whole year going to the wrong performances?

Here is a "dozen sampler" of shows that stood out in 2012, from avant-garde chamber works to a unique walk in a freezing cold garden of song. This is  part of our ongoing Year in Reviews series here on Superconductor. 

Berlin Philharmonic: The "completed" Bruckner Ninth at Carnegie Hall.

"The questions asked by the descending opening theme of the first movement are answered by a dissonant, raging theme from the trumpets and horns. The whole is expressed in a gigantic double fugue over a thick texture of strings. Sir Simon Ratle and his orchestra poured themselves into this music."

San Francisco Symphony: American Mavericks

"Michael Tilson Thomas chopped fruits and vegetables, preparing a smoothie with the blender. He added a banana, and tasted it again. Eventually, he added some blocks and stones to the piano, playing tonal clusters on the strings. (Later, another musician tried the smoothie.)"

aron quartett at the Austrian Cultural Forum

"The aron quartett played the four movements with grit and earnest, with long melodic lines that unfolded from instrument to instrument. Plucked, scraped notes alternated with winding themes tossed from player to player in a performance that made a good case for more New York performances of Erich Zeisl's catalogue."

Opera-pocalypse! The Best of 2012

The Twelve Best Operas Performances of 2012.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

No this didn't actually happen this year. (The Mayans were wrong!)
 Framegrab from Armageddon © 1998 The Walt Disney Company/Touchstone Entertainment.

I saw a total of sixty-five operas in 2012 (sixty-six if I snag a ticket for Maria Stuarda on Monday night.) Here's the twelve best opera performances (overall) for the year that was supposed to end with us being hit by a flaming pyramid two weeks ago.

Anyway here's the best operas I saw this year. Rough chronological order.

Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera.
"Angela Meade brought her admirable instrument to the part, meeting the challenging high-and-low notes of the opening "Ernani, inviolame" and  the fiery duets and trios that form the backbone of this score."

The Ghosts of Versailles at Manhattan School of Music
"One of the joys of Mr. Corigliano's opera is seeing Beaumarchais bring his beloved characters back to life for one more romp. Figaro is older in this opera-within-an-opera, played here with energy and a rich low end by American baritone Nickoli Strommer. "

Notre Dame with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
"Stephen Powell walked a fine line between piety and desparation, using his potent baritone in the prison scene to convincingly portray the deacon's capricious, ambivalent attitude toward Esmerelda."

Salome with the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
"Nina Stemme didn't just sing--she embodied the title role, meeting the opera's exacting requirements with a huge instrument that proved capable of soaring heights and spine-tingling lows. This was the heroic soprano voice that New Yorkers have been starving for: real singing, thrillingly delivered with no compression or spreading above or below the stave."

¡Ay Marimba! The Worst of 2012

At least the Mayans were wrong.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The end of the world, Mayan-style....

Although there was no Mayan apocalypse, 2012 had its share of catastrophes on and off the stage in the world of classical music and opera. Here's our annual look at bad performances, worse managerial decisions, and the aftermath of one significant natural disaster.

2012 will forever be remembered around the Superconductor offices as the Year of the Ring Tone. It was on January 11th when a New York Philharmonic audience member had the alarm on his iPhone start playing the "Marimba" ring tone in the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony. That story went viral, and might be one reason you are here reading this list of the worst things about the last year in classical music. (We'll get to the happier stuff in the next few posts.)

Let's start with the Metropolitan Opera.