Concert Review: Work Your Fingers to the Bone

The New York Philharmonic previews a new work by Julia Wolfe.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

On Monday night, the New York Philharmonic gathered music lovers and museum patrons at the Tenement Museum for a short program providing a first look at Fire in my mouth. This is the new oratorio by composer Julia Wolfe which premieres at the New York Philharmonic next Thursday. It is a 45-minute deep delve into the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which claimed the lives of 146 New York garment workers on March 25, 1911.

Concert Review: These Go to Eleven

The Vienna Philharmonic plays Ives and Tchaikovsky.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gustavo Dudamel. Photo by Sébastien Grébille.

For the last 176 years, the Vienna Philharmonic has staked its reputation on the Austro-Germanic symphonic tradition, bringing the music of composers like Schubert, Strauss and Suppe before the public with style and skill. However, Sunday's matinee concert, the third of three this weekend at Carnegie Hall, the great orchestra eschewed the Mozart and Beethoven for a refreshing focus elsewhere. For this concert, the orchestra and current guest conductor Gustavo Dudamel agreed to play symphonies by Charles Ives and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose only common thread was the unconventional and innovative nature of their work.

Concert Review: The Bleeding Hearts and Artists

The American Symphony Orchestra stands up for what's right.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland back in the day.
Photo from the estate of Leonard Bernstein.

A peculiar sense of existential dread hung over Wednesday night’s concert at Carnegie Hall, the first of the young season featuring the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its long time music director Dr. Leon Botstein. For this concert, titled “The Sounds of Democracy”,Dr. Botstein chose 20th century music by Leonard Bernstein, Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland, leading lights of American music in the last century but now largely ignored by the fast-food reality-television culture of the 21st.

Concert Review: The Moon in Your Pocket

A Tribute to Glen Roven at Spectrum.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The conjuror: composer Glen Roven's songs
were celebrated at Spectrum on Thursday night.

The evolution of the modern classical art song did not start in the concert or recital hall. No, the preferred performance venue was at the liederabend ("song evening"), a small-scale, informal salon performance with a singer, a pianist and the music of Schubert, Schumann or later, Brahms and Hugo Wolf. On Thursday night, the New York New Music Collective celebrated a modern song-master, Glen Roven with a program featuring world premieres of two song cycles by the Brooklyn-born composer.

Concert Review: Getting Carter

The American Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to Elliott Carter.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The composer Elliott Carter in his New York apartment in 1983.
Photo by Nancy Crampton courtesy Boosey & Hawkes.

New York's own Elliott Carter was the dean of modern music in this country, an artist whose vast output spanned orchestral works, songs and even opera. His music always looked relentlessly forward, breaking new ground even in his last works. On Sunday afternoon at Carnegie Hall Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra celebrated the memory of this great composer, who died on November 5 of last year at the age of 103. The carefully curated program offered six of Carter's pieces, spanning eight decades of his output and giving a glimpse at the wide variety of styles and music created over a long compositional career.

The Superconductor Interview: Out of the Wilderness

Contemporary composer Sean Shepherd is ahead of the curve.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Mountain man: composer Sean Shepherd is inspired by the great outdoors.
Photo by Jamie Kingham. © 2013 SeanShepherd.com

The Spring of 2013 is a big season for Sean Shepherd. The Brooklyn-based composer, a fast-rising star in the field of contemporary concert music, has two premieres scheduled. On March 3, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble will play Quintet, a new chamber piece. On April 18 at Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, the Cleveland Orchestra will unveil Tuolumne, a triptych of tone poems based on the Yosemite photographs of Ansel Adams.

Another Opening, Another Season, Another Show

Philharmonic opens with concert, free dress rehearsal.

The diva: Deborah Voigt sings at the
New York Philharmonic on Wed.

The New York Philharmonic season opens on Wednesday night, with a concert featuring Deborah Voigt singing "Dich, teure halle" from Wagner's Tannhäuser and the final scene of Richard Strauss' Salome. Alan Gilbert will conduct. 

Tomorrow morning at 8am, the Philharmonic will make tickets available for the orchestra's open rehearsal at 9:45am. Fans wishing to attend may line up in Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza in order to get tickets. Sponsored by Credit Suisse, the open rehearsal will feature a complete performance of that evening's concert. 

Music lovers lining up for tickets will also be elegible to receive an ITunes download card containing excerpts from last year's performances of Mahler's Sixth Symphony. Some lucky fans will also receive IPod Shuffles, pre-loaded with the orchestra's performance of the Brahms Fourth Symphony, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

The concert, which also includes two pieces by American composer Samuel Barber will be broadcast (with tape delay) at 8pm on Wednesday night. The performances will be shown on PBS as part of the Live from Lincoln Center series, and will also be carried on WQXR 105.9FM and as a live audio webstream on WQXR.org.

The Philharmonic's subscription season begins on Thursday evening with encore performances of Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, featured in the ensemble's Sept. 10 concert honoring the first responders, survivors and deceased of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Alan Gilbert conducts. 

For further information and tickets to the New York Philharmonic, visit NYPhil.org.