Concert Review: Music of (Easy) Conscience

The New York Philharmonic opens a three-week festival to end its season.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Jaap van Zweden leading the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2019 The New York Philharmonic.

The New York Philharmonic is in the endgame of its spring 2019 season, the orchestra's first with Jaap van Zweden as its music director. That endgame is a three week festival dedicated to "music of conscience". This loose aggregation covers symphonies and a new opera by David Lang in the coming weeks, with the connection between works being the creation of music at times of great social and political storm and stress. On Tuesday night, Mr. van Zweden led the last concert of the first program of the festival pairing pieces by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Though these two men lived in very different times and political climates, each work had the benefit of being readily familiar to even the most conservative members of the audience.

Concert Review: He's Ready For His Close-Up

Frank Huang takes the spotlight at the Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Taking solo flight: concertmaster Frank Huang at the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The New York Philharmonic. 

The New York Philharmonic welcomed conductor Juraj Valčuha to its podium on Wednesday night. The Slovak conductor led a program which focused on the particular confluence of European and American music that characterized the first half of the 20th century, in a program of works by Korngold, Rachmaninoff and Samuel Barber.