Steve Smith
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Frank J. Oteri has rightly reminded me that the MET Chamber Ensemble performance about which I waxed enthusiastic yesterday was not, in fact, the New York premiere of Wuorinen’s Dante Trilogy. That distinction is held by Jeffrey Milarsky and Ensemble 21, who presented the works at Miller Theatre on April 22, 2003. Let the record…
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I had a bad feeling as I sat in Zankel Hall late this afternoon, waiting for the concert by James Levine and his MET Chamber Ensemble to get started. Frankly, it was impossible not to notice the strikingly large number of empty seats. For a while, it seemed that the event might have been better…
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“The world turns on its dark side. It is winter.” I wish I could claim that I was reminded of the opening words of A Child of Our Time as I arrived in Boston via the Fung Wah bus by fits and starts on Saturday afternoon, thanks to an unseasonable, slushy snowstorm. But to be…
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At the urging of Frank J. Oteri — friend, accomplished composer and chief instigator of the altogether invaluable NewMusicBox (where he, Molly Sheridan and others chart the very lifeblood of contemporary American composed music) — I started the day with a spin of Rehearsing My Choir (Rough Trade) by the Fiery Furnaces, which Frank recommended…
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On Thursdays at the office, I typically spend my entire work day listening to CDs I haven’t heard before, by artists I may not know, in the process of assembling the colossal concert-listings section Time Out New York runs every week. (I’m talking about the big rock/jazz/world music/etc. section here; I deal with the classical…
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I’d love to talk about why I strongly disagreed with certain aspects of Jeremy Eichler’s fine review in Wednesday’s New York Times, of the mostly outstanding Peter Mennin concert the Juilliard School of Music presented at Alice Tully Hall on Monday night. (To my mind, Mennin was a much more original and affecting voice than…
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This was only a matter of time. Given that my day job allows me ridiculously generous access to the rich abundance of live music available in New York City, yet doesn’t generally provide an arena in which to talk about those performances after the fact, it was probably inevitable that — once I got over…
Night After Night 