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Giulio Cesare at the Lyric Opera of ChicagoThe New York Times, November 6, 2007
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Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr at Zankel HallThe New York Times, November 3, 2007
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Les Arts Florissants at Lincoln Center’s Rose TheaterThe New York Times, October 31, 2007
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Itzhak Perlman with the Perlman Music Program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Joshua Bell with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie HallThe New York Times, October 30, 2007
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Night After Night turned two years old today, and I wish I had something suitably momentous to share for the occasion. I don’t, but at the very least I can provide a scattered handful of observations, tidbits and links. Last week a reader asked me announce in advance the gigs I would be going out…
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More than a week after my return from vacation, I still feel like I’m in catch-up mode. (That’s normal, actually; what’s different here is that I wonder whether I’ll ever catch up.) So instead of my usual wordiness, here are a few quick hits: I still have fond memories of a Cleveland Orchestra concert led…
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(Posted this afternoon on the TONY Blog, slightly tweaked.) We were less than impressed with the highly touted, immensely hyped new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor that opened the Metropolitan Opera’s current season last month: Dull sets, uninspiring direction and uneven performances resulted in a presentation effectively salvaged single-handedly by the leading lady, Natalie…
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American Composers Orchestra at Zankel HallThe New York Times, October 22, 2007
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"A Daunting Composition, Approached With Daring"The New York Times, October 18, 2007 A succinct, newsy article about the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble‘s newly issued recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Regular readers of Alex Ross’s blog have heard about this rather amazing project a few times now, and those who…
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Sasha Cooke at Zankel HallThe New York Times, October 18, 2007 See also Charles T. Downey’s enthusiastic review of Cooke’s recent Washington, D.C. recital at Ionarts.
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Early Music New York at the Cathedral Church of St. John the DivineThe New York Times, October 15, 2007
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I spent several years of my childhood in Jacksonville, Florida, and grew up for the most part in League City, Texas, roughly at the midway point on I-45 between Houston and Galveston. You can believe me, then, when I say that I know from hot and humid. Even so, Vietnam is a smack in the…
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There was a certain symmetry to the opening and closing of my now-concluded vacation. A five-hour dangle in the Hong Kong airport (thanks to a delayed connecting flight from Chicago!) had me arriving at my hotel in Ho Chi Minh City at around 2 a.m. on September 27. And a three-hour delay at LAX this…
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Hong Xu, Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Juilliard Orchestra at the Peter Jay Sharp TheaterThe New York Times, September 25, 2007
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There’s a lot to say about tonight’s prima of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera; unfortunately, I don’t have time to work through my feelings about it in any great depth. The performance, in short, was hit or miss — many things felt unsettled. Natalie Dessay provided a bold, athletic and characterful presence, gamely…
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"If Grant Had Been Singing at Appomattox"The New York Times, September 23, 2007 A conversation with Philip Glass about two major operatic events coming up this season: the premiere of Appomattox at San Francisco Opera on October 5, and the first Metropolitan Opera production of Satyagraha next April. Despite nearly 30 years separating Glass’s creation…
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Trombonist Jeb Bishop, who participated in Thursday night’s performance by the Globe Unity Orchestra in Harlem (described in the post immediately below), stopped by here and provided a couple of comments regarding certain things that I wrote. I’m pulling his comments up for plain view, because I think both are important: thanks for the kind…
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There’s something irresistable about the sound of a free-improvising big band up close and in your face: winds and brass roaring and swirling in a hot caldera of molten sound, drums pattering and cymbals slashing, a pianist darting out now and again for surprising little cameos. Since it was founded in 1966, Alexander von Schlippenbach’s…
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I get to see a lot of amazing things in my line of work, but it’s hard to overstate just how excited I’d been all week long in anticipation of this afternoon’s outing. Thanks to my much esteemed colleague The Determined Dilettante, I was able to attend today’s matinee performance of King Lear, produced by…
Night After Night 