Steve Smith
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Jean-Paul Fouchécourt and Gaële Le Roi at Weill Recital HallThe New York Times, November 3, 2011 This thoroughly charming recital of French and Italian opera selections and songs was presented by the commendable Opera Lafayette, a Washington, D.C. company that specializes primarily in French opera of the Baroque and early Classical periods. Led by Ryan…
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The American Contemporary Music Ensemble at Joe's PubThe New York Times, October 28, 2011 This review covers a unique concert in which members of ACME played works by composers selected through a call for scores presented by the ensemble, the excellent new-music blog Sequenza21 and the Manhattan New Music Project, a non-profit music-advocacy organization. You'll…
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Photograph: Richard Termine for The New York Times The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, October 20, 2011
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Tri-Centric Modelling: Past, Present and Future(Le) Poisson Rouge/Issue Project RoomNew York City, USAThe Wire, September 2010 There was surely one burning question on the minds of the audience who packed the chic New York City nightclub (Le) Poisson Rouge to capacity on a Friday night for the first evening of Tri-Centric Modelling: Past, Present and…
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Photograph: Julie Glassberg for The New York Times eighth blackbird at the Miller TheatreThe New York Times, October 18, 2011
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Hilary Hahn and Cory Smythe at the StoneThe New York Times, October 13, 2011 The video embedded above shows the grand finale of Hilary Hahn's holy-rolling "Ives geek-out party" (her term) at the Stone, John Zorn's East Village new-music space, on Monday night. Hahn's disc of Ives's four sonatas, recorded with Valentina Lisitsa for Deutsche…
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Frédéric Chaslin accompanies Kirstin Chávez.Photograph: Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times Tobias Picker Composer Portrait at Miller TheatreThe New York Times, October 10, 2011 The title of this post refers to the notion of a concert that touches on multiple facets of a single composer's work over the course of an evening: the useful…
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Photograph: Lino Brunetti For at least the past several years, Michael Gira, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader behind the exquisite agonies of Swans, has been issuing a steady trickle of exclusive, limited-edition projects through the website of his label, Young God Records. Packaged with paper covers in plastic sleeves, these hand-numbered, signed and otherwise…
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Photograph: Roberto Sanchez Interview: CaifanesTime Out New York, Oct 6–12, 2011 In this article about the seminal Mexican alt-rock band Caifanes, recently reunited and now en route to New York's Hammerstein Ballroom for an October 12 show, I start by evoking the reunions of Led Zeppelin, Cream and the Pixies. For admirers of rock en…
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"In Brooklyn, a New Leader Who Knows No Boundaries"The New York Times, October 2, 2011 An article about the arrival of Alan Pierson as the new artistic director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, an esteemed ensemble that has known tremendous highs and disheartening lows over the years. At a time when the orchestra is not only…
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The Humans (Toyah Willcox, Chris Wong, Bill Rieflin, Igor Zarbzan), Highline Ballroom, Sept. 27, 2011 After 32 years as a singer, Toyah Willcox plays her first-ever show in New York City. Ms. Wilcox's personal set list for the evening (provided by An Official), transcribed: Sugar RushTitanium GirlLabyrinth *Love in a Different WaySmall Town PsychopathPlaying in…
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Tan Dun Martial Arts Trilogy in Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center Out of DoorsThe New York Times, August 15, 2011 Snapped with my iPhone, the image above depicts one of those moments described in the last paragraph of my Times review, when martial-arts movie images ceded to live-action video of Tan Dun conducting. Here he's leading…
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International Contemporary Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall and the Kaplan PlayhouseThe New York Times, August 9, 2011 Everything about these two Stravinsky-centric concerts was hugely admirable. But the opening stretch of the Tully concert — an unmanned "player piano" piece seguing into four small-ensemble pieces in tight sequence, accompanied by thoughtful lighting design — was…
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Photograph: Ruby Washington/The New York Times Joshua Bell with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher HallThe New York Times, August 8, 2011 Along with the amazing Ruby Washington photograph you see above, my review of last Friday's Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra concert is in The New York Times today. I'd previously stated that…
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Welcome back, my friends, to the show that repeatedly ends. Late June and early July were a time of uncertainty, with several disparate, largely unrelated issues and agendas conspiring to take up my attention. During the last week, though, a few key distractions were resolved at last. One tangible result, though perhaps not one of…
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Thinking back on the Batman and Detective comics I collected back in the early to mid 1980s, I remember preferring the issues drawn by Don Newton and Tom Mandrake, with strong, clean lines and clear depictions of the various characters in Doug Moench's hyperbolic dramas. The issues drawn by Gene Colan I felt less strongly…
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"Billy Bang, Jazz Violinist Inspired by Vietnam Experience, Dies at 63"The New York Times, April 17, 2011 Probably no more than a year after I moved to New York in 1993, my head full of dazzling notions about downtown-jazz royalty developed during previous years of listening and learning from afar in Texas, I was out…
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I didn't mean to let the blog slip again, honest. But the daily workload I manage is onerous enough on its own terms; factor in an impending vacation, and it was clear that something had to give. But that vacation, around nine days in Costa Rica from April 30 to May 8, did what it…
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New Juilliard Ensemble at Alice Tully HallThe New York Times, April 12, 2011
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21c Liederabend, Night One, at the KitchenThe New York Times, April 9, 2011 An outstanding event, but not my favorite piece of writing. Deadlines, word counts and basic human frailties are a continual challenge, and you don't win them all.
Night After Night 