Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Belatedly catching up on the Winter Olympics, especially the figure-skating pair upon which China has been pinning its dreams. After near-misses at three prior Olympics, Shen Xue (31) and Zhao Hongbo (36) finally took the gold Monday—with a new world record. In the flawless clinching of each most critical moment one sensed the poignant history […]
Filed in Asiana, Dance, Love, Music, New York
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Also tagged carnegie, dyad, figure skating, Love, mariss janssons, rco, royal concertgebouw
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 8 PM Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, cond. Manfred Honeck Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage BRAHMS | Violin Concerto (Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin) MAHLER | Symphony No. 1 Encore: JOSEF STRAUSS | “Die Libelle”: Polka Mazur, Op. 204 Last night’s Mahler First with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony was the most seizing […]
[program for the New York premiere of Mahler’s 7th, from the Carnegie Hall archives] Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Hampson, Baritone MAHLER | Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen & Symphony No. 7 I will never know the Seventh well enough, but strongly suspect that Barenboim could know it […]
Filed in Music, New York, Opera
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Also tagged barenboim, boulez, orchestras, review, reviews, song of the night, staatskapelle berlin, symphonies, Thomas Hampson
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[Sextner Dolomiten in Südtirol, where Mahler completed his Sixth Symphony] Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Pierre Boulez MAHLER | Symphony No. 6, ‘Tragic’ Of the four concerts in this series I have attended, last night’s account of the Sixth has emerged as the most impressive. A world plunged deep and […]
[the Scherzo from Mahler’s 5th in ms at the Morgan Library] Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 2 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Quasthoff, Bass-Baritone MAHLER | Rückert Lieder & Symphony No. 5 Daniel Barenboim resumed the podium this afternoon for an indefatigable account of Mahler’s Fifth, following Pierre Boulez’s three-night vigil through the […]
Filed in Music, New York
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Also tagged adagietto, barenboim, boulez, conducting, conductors, lieder, orchestras, quasthoff, Rückert, staatskapelle, symphonies, weltschmerz
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A compelling essay in the May issue of Opera News by the Washington Post‘s Philip Kennicott persuasively addresses the vexing question of Mahler’s vital yet fraught relationship to opera: […] Opera-lovers tend to think of song and symphony as the rudiments of opera, as if opera were the natural apotheosis of two lesser forms. But […]
Filed in Music, Opera
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Also tagged barenboim, berlin, boulez, kennicott, lieder, lincoln center, michelle deyoung, nyt, oestreich, orchestras, parsifal, reviews, staatskapelle berlin, symphonies, the ring, tommasini, wagner
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Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Pierre Boulez Westminster Symphonic Choir, dir. Eberhard Friedrich Soloists: Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), Dorothea Röschmann (soprano) MAHLER | Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection’ For me, as for many Mahler devotees I’ve known or known of (and not only the fabled Gilbert Kaplan, for whom it was a […]
Filed in Music, New York, Opera, Philosophy
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Also tagged abbado, adorno, boulez, cellos, classical music, klemperer, michelle deyoung, Opera, orchestras, reviews, simon rattle, staatskapelle berlin, symphonies, symphony, tannhäuser, wagner
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 8 PM STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN, cond. Daniel Barenboim Thomas Quasthoff, Bass-Baritone MAHLER | Kindertotenlieder & Symphony No. 1 Last night began the Staatskapelle Berlin’s much-anticipated, ten-part Mahler symphonic and song cycle at Carnegie Hall. Three Maestros ‘B’ are here involved or invoked: conducted alternatingly by Boulez and Barenboim (the Staatskapelle’s General […]
Filed in Music, New York
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Also tagged barenboim, berlin, bernstein, boulez, Carnegie Hall, kindertotenlieder, lieder, mahler 1st, mahler first, quasthoff, staatskapelle berlin, Torsten Schönfeld
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8 PM Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Zubin Mehta Hugo Wolf | Italian Serenade Joseph Marx | Lieder: “Hat Dich die Liebe berührt,” “Selige Nacht,” “Zigeuner,” “Barcarole.” Soloist: Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano. Franz Schubert | Symphony No. 9, “Great” Encores: Johann Strauss Jr. | “Tritsch-Tratsch” Polka, Op. 214 & “Unter Donner […]
Filed in Music, New York
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Also tagged bruckner, mehta, orchestras, reviews, schubert, strauss, symphonies, vienna, vienna philharmonic, vpo
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