LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Mendelssohn's Sorrow

Bach - Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor for Keyboard, BWV 903 (before 1723)
Mendelssohn - Fugue in E-flat major for String Quartet, Op. 81, No. 4 (1827)
Mendelssohn - Quartet in F minor for Strings, Op. 80 (1847)
Schumann - Arabesque in C major for Piano, Op. 18 (1838-39)
Schumann - Trio No. 1 D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 63 (1847)

"The height of our joys may be measured by the depth of our sorrows, and this final Winter Festival program visits extremes of the human experience. The darkness of Bach’s fugue is brightened in one by Mendelssohn; Schumann’s emotional piano trio is contrasted by the serenity of his Arabesque. But life’s thick clouds have often brought forth music of agonizing beauty: In his moving final string quartet, Mendelssohn openly grieves over the passing of his beloved sister."

LINCOLN CENTER

David Koch Theater
New York City Ballet

Rodgers: Broadway to Ballet

"Richard Rodgers transformed the Great White Way and established musical theater as we know it, and on the eve of his 115th birthday we honor his pioneering genius with three Broadway-inspired ballets featuring his heart-lifting and poignant melodies."

Carousel (A Dance)

• Music by: Richard Rodgers, arranged and orchestrated by William David Brohn
• Choreography by: Christopher Wheeldon
• Principal Casting: FEB 22, 24, 26: Tiler Peck, Zachary Catazaro*, Sara Adams, Kristen Segin, Devin Alberda, Daniel Applebaum
  

This charming distillation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic Carousel recalls the poignant romance and thrilling drama of the celebrated Broadway production. 

Thou Swell

• Music by: Richard Rodgers; Music Arranged by Glen Kelly; Orchestrations by Don Sebesky
• Choreography by: Peter Martins
• Principal Casting: FEB 22, 24, 26: Sara Mearns, Rebecca Krohn, Sterling Hyltin, Teresa Reichlen, Jared Angle, Amar Ramasar, Chase Finlay*, Ask la Cour (*First time in role)
  

Thou Swell embodies all the glamour of early-20th-century café society with its glittering décor, sumptuous fashion, and romantic Rodgers songs.

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

• Music by: Richard Rodgers, orchestrated by Hershy Kay
• Choreography by: George Balanchine
• Principal Casting: FEB 22, 26: Maria Kowroski, Tyler Angle, Russell Janzen*, Cameron Dieck, Alec Knight*, Harrison Coll, Daniel Applebaum*, Aaron Sanz (*First time in role)
  
  FEB 24: Sara Mearns, Andrew Veyette, Russell Janzen, Cameron Dieck, Alec Knight, Harrison Coll, Daniel Applebaum, Aaron Sanz
  

An audience favorite with showbiz glam, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a vampy ballet about a jealous Russian premier danseur and his hoofing American rival.

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert's 50th Birthday!

Happy birthday, Alan! Music Director Alan Gilbert is going all out for his 50th birthday, and you’re invited. Celebrate with this star-studded concert featuring Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Lisa Batiashvili, Yefim Bronfman, Renée Fleming, Frank Huang, and Pamela Frank. “This coming together of kindred spirits and people who love music and who love each other is all you can ask for,” says Alan.

Alan Gilbert - Conductor

Frank Huang - Violin

Pamela Frank - Violin

Emanuel Ax - Piano
Lisa Batiashvili - Violin

Joshua Bell - Violin

Yefim Bronfman - Piano

Renée Fleming - Soprano

J.S. Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043
Brahms - Andante — Piu adagio, from Piano Concerto No. 2
Beethoven - Allegro con brio, from Piano Concerto No. 3
Bruch - Finale — Allegro energico, from Violin Concerto No. 1
R. Strauss - "Morgen!"
Korngold - "Marietta's Lied," from Die tote Stadt
Dvořák/Arr. Kreisler, adapted by T. Batiashvili - "Goin’ Home," from Largo from Symphony No. 9, From the New World
Gershwin - An American in Paris

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic

Herbert Blomstedt - Conductor

Beethoven - Symphony No. 8
Beethoven - Symphony No. 7

"Beethoven’s sparkling Eighth Symphony is a compact, energetic charmer that zips right along; the Seventh’s infectious rhythmic drive and unrelenting momentum sweep you along and makes every part of you feel like dancing! Herbert Blomstedt conducts (“What he does is love music, and he communicates that love … with conducting that exudes delight.” — The Washington Post).

LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of New York

Joyous Mendelssohn

Huw Watkins - Piano
Orion Weiss - Piano
Paul Huang - Violin
Sean Lee - Violin
Matthew Lipman - Viola
Paul Neubauer - Viola
Paul Watkins - Cello

Beethoven - Variations in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 44 (1804)
Mendelssohn - Andante and Allegro brilliant for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 92 (1841)
Mendelssohn - Sonata in D major for Cello and Piano, Op. 58 (1843)
Chopin - Ballade in A-flat major for Piano, Op. 47 (1841)
Mendelssohn - Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major for Two Violins, Two, Violas, and Cello, Op. 87 (1845)

"Blessed with a loving family, a thriving career, and all the talent one could ever hope for, Mendelssohn was among the most fortunate of the immortal composers. In this program of glowingly optimistic music, we find Beethoven at his wittiest, the melancholy Chopin in a pleasant mood, and Mendelssohn contributing three of his sunniest creations.

Today we will immerse ourselves in a musical world filled with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to one of life's most treasured emotions: pure joy. We might have also titled this concert Fortunate Mendelssohn, as he was blessed with so many attributes that have traditionally been in short supply for so many great artists: financial security, a happy family, a thriving career, universal respect during one's lifetime, and emotional stability. Enabled by Mendelssohn's overwhelming talent, music poured forth from the composer that truly reflected the kind of personal exuberance that the lucky enjoy and that all crave. Today, we celebrate that precious, and often rare, human experience through music which penetrates the soul with good feeling.

Accompanying Mendelssohn's pieces on our concert are works in a similar vein by two composers very important to Mendelssohn. Only 18 at the time of Beethoven's death in 1827, Mendelssohn was among the first of the major composers to honor Beethoven with compositions reflective of the master's style. Chopin first heard Mendelssohn perform in 1828 and thereafter developed a mutually admiring relationship with him. Chopin and Beethoven— both famously moody—are represented in our program with works that show the kind of sunshine and good humor that came when the spirit moved them. How fortunate we are to have such music, forever there to lift our spirits."

PERFORMANCE

Metropolis
Marble Collegiate Church

This performance was one of the most creative events we've attended in New York City.  The organist played for over two hours as he matched his improvisation with the actions in the movie.  He was at times, suspenseful, at times fearful, at times frightened, at times romantic, and on and on.  He played continuous which means that the blowers for the pipe organ also worked hard for over two hours.

It was a treat!

COMPETITION

The Morgan Library and Museum
The George London Foundation Awards Competition Finals

The 46th George London Foundation Awards Competition offers substantial awards to the most promising performers through the annual juried competition for outstanding young North American opera singers.

The George London Foundation holds one of the oldest vocal competitions in the United States and Canada, offering among the most substantial awards to outstanding North American opera singers. In 2017 there will be 6 awards of $10,000 each, one of which will go to a Canadian singer and another to a singer preparing for a Wagnerian career. There will be 6 Encouragement Grants of $1,000 each. Honorable mentions of $500 will go to all finalists who do not receive an award. A pianist is provided for the preliminaries and the finals at no cost. Submission of the Application does NOT guarantee the Applicant an audition or grant.

18 young American and Canadian opera singers will perform with pianist Craig Rutenberg before a panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience at New York's Morgan Library & Museum, hoping to win a George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971.

Danielle Beckvermit, soprano
AaRon Blake, tenor
Michelle Bradley, soprano
Errin Brooks, tenor
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor
Jonas Hacker, tenor
Evanna Lai, mezzo-soprano
Will Liverman, baritone
Lauren Margison, soprano
Megan Marino, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Moody, countertenor
Andrea Núñez, soprano
Shea Owens, baritone
Cody Quattlebaum, baritone
Lara Secord-Haid, soprano
Carolyn Sproule, mezzo-soprano
Kyle van Schoonhoven, tenor
Brian Vu, baritone



The George London Foundation and George London Awards are named for the great American bass-baritone, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young singers. The announcement will be made by George London's widow, Nora London, the foundation's president.

This will be the final round of the 46th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition, one of the oldest and most prestigious vocal competitions in the U.S. and Canada. The singers will be competing for a total of $75,000 in awards, including five George London Awards of $10,000 each.

This year's panel of judges included soprano Harolyn Blackwell, mezzo-soprano Rosalind Elias, former Metropolitan Opera administrator Alfred F. Hubay, George LondonFoundation President Nora London, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, tenor and voice professor George Shirley, and baritone Richard Stilwell (who won a George London Award at the first competition, in 1971). The competition pianist is renowned collaborative pianist Craig Rutenberg.

Since 1971, the annual competition of The George London Foundation for Singers has been giving its George London Awards, and a total of more than $2 million, to an outstanding roster of young American and Canadian opera singers who have gone on to international stardom - the list of past winners includes Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Catherine Malfitano, James Morris, Matthew Polenzani, Sondra Radvanovsky, Neil Shicoff, and Dawn Upshaw.

http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2017/02/george-london-foundation-presents-a-heartening-show-of-young-opera-talent/

New York Classical Review

The George London Foundation, the brainchild of the great Canadian-American bass-baritone, exists to support the careers of young opera singers. Every year it awards singers who make their way through a competition made up of public recitals. The Final, held Friday afternoon at the Morgan Library, was both a testament to the talent the Foundation has honed through the competition, and a deeply affecting listening experience.

The concert was an exhibition of exciting vocal talent, and also of intriguing taste and discernment on the part of this new generation of singers. It was no surprise that the selection of arias (one for each of the eighteen performers) included famous ones like “Porgi amor” and “Tombe degli avi miei.” What was unexpected was the ambition shown through choices like the mad scene from Peter Grimes—sung with riveting directness by tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven—excerpts from the contemporary operas like John Adams’ Doctor Atomic and Flight by Jonathan Dove, and relative obscurities, like mezzo-soprano Evanna Lai’s tender rendition of “Things change, Jo,” from Mark Adamo’s Little Women. The reach for distinction, and the singers’ recognition of how these modern and contemporary arias fit into broader opera history, deepened the satisfactions of the vocalism.

All but one of the performances were technically and expressively accomplished, many were gripping, and the finest were stunning. The judges had the unfair task of picking five above all the others for the $10,000 top awards, but there were also three secondary awards, and each of the remaining ten singers received $1,000 (out of a total of $75,000 handed out).

Soprano Michelle Bradley won the George London-Leonie Rysanek Award, one of the top five, and she was easily the star of the day. With her gorgeous voice, rich, rounded, and violet colored, she sang Verdi’s “D’amor sull ali rosee” from Il Trovatore, and it was tremendous. Beyond the sheer beauty of her voice and her technical command, Bradley had clearly thought deeply about the music. The shape of her phrases distilled not only the character but the drama of the opera down to a musical essence.

There was considerable strength among the men, who made up ten of the finalists. Tenor Errin Duane Brooks sang “Siegmund heiß ich” form Die Walküre, and the strength, projection, and sheer excitement earned him the George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award for a potential Wagnerian singer. Will Liverman, baritone, also won one of the leading awards with his lovely, involved “Gregory’s Aria” from The Tsar’s Bride. Tenor Aaron Blake sang the Tomb aria from Lucia di Lammermoor, and though he sounded slightly stiff and constrained at first, his voice and expression opened up to a beautiful, vibrant emotional fullness, which earned him one of the top honors.

Soprano Lara Secord-Haid won the special award for a Canadian singer with a musical and subtle “Lied der Lulu,” by Alban Berg, from his opera Lulu.

Also unexpected quality was that there were two countertenors among the finalists. At 22, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen was the youngest in the finals, (and it was he who sang “Dawn, still darkness …” from Flight). Cohen’s voice had a prepubescent quality, which added to the intensity of his performance. Daniel Moody sang Oberon’s aria “I know a bank,” from Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (oddly, Britten and Gounod were the only composers represented twice). Moody was so inside the character that his singing seemed to come straight from the operatic stage.

A pair of arias from Gounod’s Faust provided two highlights of the concert. Tenor Jonas Hacker sang an affecting, sincere “Salut! demeure chaste et pure,” and bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum delivered a charismatic “Vous qui faites l’endormie,” relishing Mephistopheles’ devilish laugh.

Lauren Margison, a 24-year-old soprano, sang an elegant “Porgi amor,” idiomatic in the way she let the shape of Mozart’s music carry the expression. Mezzo-soprano Megan Marino’s “Connais-tu le pays,” from Mignon, was equally elegant, with a concentration on the musical line and the loveliness of her voice.

The baritone voices made up an exceptionally strong group. Shea Owens sang “Batter my heart” from Adams’ Doctor Atomic, and impressed with his expression while staying within the constraints of the music’s rhythms and phrases. The enormous power of the aria was focused through the deep warmth of his voice and the interpretive precision. Brian Vu sang “Kogda bi zhizn,” from Eugene Onegin, and the beauty of his voice carried the complex expression of Onegin’s feelings and social standing.

Craig Rutenberg did solid, yeoman’s work in the difficult task of accompanying 18 singers in different music. But it was the singers and the George London Foundation who provided the the dramatic and heartening music that made this such an impressive event, with the audience winners as well.

RECITAL

Merkin Hall
Young Concert Artists Series

Samuel Hasselhorn - Baritone

Songs by Schumann, Duparc, Britten, Dutilleux and Schubert

"An imposing stage presence, the baritone offered moments of emotion and pure musicality that will not soon be forgotten." (Crescendo Magazine - Interlochen)

"Charismatic German baritone ... Winner of the 2015 YCA Auditions, the 2012 International Schubert Competition in Dortmund, the "Prix de Lied" in the 2013 Nadia and Lil Boulanger Competition in Paris, and Laureate of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition in London ... Performances at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute, Marilyn Horne's "The Song Continues" at Carnegie Hall, and in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany, including Leipzig's Gewandhaus and Notre Dame in Paris ... Opera studies at the Hanover Music School and the Paris Conservatory."

"German baritone Samuel Hasselhorn’s performances, recognized for his charismatic stage presence and stunning vocal ability, have been praised for offering “moments of emotion and pure musicality that will not soon be forgotten” (Crescendo Magazine). He won First Prize at the 2015 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Second Prize at the 2015 Wigmore Hall Song Competition in London, and Third Prize in the Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart, Germany in 2016. Mr. Hasselhorn also captured First Prize in the 2013 International Schubert Competition in Dortmund, and the “Prix de Lied“ in the 2013 Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition in Paris.

He was invited to be a fellow at the 2014 and 2016 Ravinia’s Steans Music Festival and to sing at Carnegie Hall in Marilyn Horne’s “The Song Continues Series” in 2015. His first CD “Nachtblicke,” with lieder by Schubert, Pfitzner, and Reimann, was released in December 2014 on the Classicclips label. In addition to performing recitals in the U.S., Japan, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, and Germany, Mr. Hasselhorn has also appeared in the Gewandhaus Leipzig, at the International Händel Festival in Göttingen, Germany and at Notre Dame in Paris.

On the opera stage, he has performed the roles of Herr Fluth in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, and in 2016 he sang the lead role in Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann with the Studio de l’Opéra de Lyon. This season, he appears as Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanniwith l’Opéra de Lyon, and he makes his debut at the Leipzig Opera, where he will sing in a ballet production of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

During his first U.S. tour this season, Mr. Hasselhorn makes his recital debuts in Washington, DC and in New York in the Rhoda Walker Teagle Concert on the Young Concert Artists Series, and he appears in recitals at the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the Port Washington Library, the Levine School of Music, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church, Mary Baldwin College, and as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle.

Samuel Hasselhorn earned his degree in Opera Performance from the Hannover Music School, which also included a year of study at the Paris Conservatory. He has worked with Malcolm Walker, Marina Sandel, Jan-Philip Schulze, Susan Manoff, and Anne Le Bozec. He has also participated in master classes with Patricia McCaffrey, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kevin Murphy, Thomas Quasthoff, Helen Donath, Annette Dasch, Irwin Gage, Edith Wiens, and Martin Brauß. He has received a grants from the Walter and Charlotte Hamel Foundation and the Gundlach Music Award, and in 2010, he received a Top Prize at the National German Voice Competition in Berlin and an award from the Paul Lincke Association."

Singing Schubert...

Singing Wagner...

PERFORMANCE

Merkin Hall
Tuesday Matinée

Brown/Urioste/Canellakis Trio

Haydn - Piano Trio in E flat, H. XV No. 29
Chausson - Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 3
Michael Brown - New Work for Piano Trio (2016), composed for the BUC Trio
Mendelssohn - Piano Trio no. 2 in C minor, Op. 66

“These young award-winning musicians wowed the audience with their musicianship and stage presence." (PeoriaStory)

Pianist Michael Brown, violinist Elena Urioste, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis have established themselves as three of the most sought-after young virtuosos on the classical music scene today. Winners, individually, of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, Sphinx and Concert Artists Guild competitions, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center auditions, they have performed in prestigious venues across the United States and Europe, including Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, and London's Wigmore and Royal Festival Halls.

Another of their performances of the Haydn Trio in E flat...

Hear the artists playing a Beethoven Triple Concerto...

LINCOLN CENTER

David Koch Theater
New York City Ballet

The Sleeping Beauty

Choreography - Peter Martins (after Marius Petipa) - The Garland Dance choreographed by George Balanchine

Music - Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky

Watch this to get an idea of the craft...

"Taking the stage around Valentine’s Day, this enchanting full-length is one of NYCB’s grandest spectacles of dance, featuring luxurious sets and costumes, Tschaikovsky’s glorious score, and a cast of fantastical characters."

"Balanchine never mounted a production of The Sleeping Beauty. He did, however, choreograph The Garland Dance for the 1981 Tschaikovsky Festival, and his choreography is incorporated into Peter Martins’ staging of the ballet. For many years it was Lincoln Kirstein’s dream to mount the ballet at New York City Ballet. Thus, Martins chose Kirstein’s 80th birthday celebration, on May 4, 1987, to announce that the Company would produce The Sleeping Beauty. It is one of the most elaborate productions presented by the Company, requiring over 100 dancers, including students from the School of American Ballet. Martins' version is streamlined into Two Acts, that combine the drama and beauty of the original choreography with the speed and energy for which New York City Ballet is known."

I placed this video to show some of the technical considerations in dance...

A conversation with the three Auroras...

Hommage a Degas

On Broadway across from Lincoln Center

LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Mendelssohn on Fire

Schubert - Quartettsatz in C minor for Strings, D. 703 (1820)
Mendelssohn - Quartet in E minor for Strings, Op.44, No. 2 (1837)
Mozart - Adagio in B minor for Piano, K. 540 (1788)
Mendelssohn - Trio No. 1 in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op 49 (1839)

"Mendelssohn’s dazzling first trio raised the excitement bar for all piano trios to come. Before listeners rise to their feet at the finale’s conclusion, they’ll be left breathless by Schubert’s and Mendelssohn’s turbulent string quartets. Mozart’s sublimely meditative Adagio briefly breaks this program’s whirlwind pace before the fleet-fingered Mendelssohn has the final word."

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic

The scheduled conductor got sick late afternoon of the concert and the Philharmonic's assistant conductor stepped in!

Tchaikovsky - Francesca da Rimini
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

"The concert on February 9 at 7:30 p.m. is still scheduled to take place despite the snow. For updates, please call or email the New York Philharmonic Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656 or customerservice@nyphil.org."

"Our Tchaikovsky festival concludes with Semyon Bychkov (“one of the world’s most sought after conductors” — The Spectator) leading the Pathétique, the powerful musical utterance ranging from boisterous to melancholy. Plus the tale of Francesca and Paolo, whose illicit passion cast them into Dante’s Inferno, and a work by one of Tchaikovsky’s many successors in the Russian Romantic tradition.. "

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/arts/music/surprise-joshua-gersen-youre-about-to-conduct-the-new-york-philharmonic.html?_r=0

Surprise! You’re About to Conduct the New York Philharmonic

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI•FEB. 10, 2017

Joshua Gersen made his subscription concert conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic on Thursday. Chris Lee 

It was a tense scene at the New York Philharmonic on Thursday. Because of the snowstorm, the morning dress rehearsal for the final program of the orchestra’s Tchaikovsky festival was pushed to early afternoon. Halfway through, the conductor, Semyon Bychkov, felt ill with a stomach virus and had to leave. So Joshua Gersen, the Philharmonic’s 32-year-old assistant conductor, took the podium for the rest of the rehearsal.

With Mr. Bychkov still ill, Mr. Gersen made his Philharmonic subscription series debut a few hours later, leading impassioned and incisive accounts of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic poem “Francesca da Rimini,” a piece he had never conducted, and the intense “Pathétique” Symphony, a work he had previously led only in part.

In a brief telephone interview on Friday morning, Mr. Gersen, who on March 5 leads his New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall, described what turned out to be a milestone day in his burgeoning career. (The Philharmonic announced on Friday afternoon that he would again be replacing Mr. Bychkov that evening, with the final concert to come on Saturday.)

How much notice did you have about stepping in?

Maestro Bychkov had already rehearsed the “Pathétique” Symphony that afternoon. But during the break he seemed obviously unwell. He was taken to the hospital, just as a precaution. I took over the rest. When the rehearsal ended, around 4 p.m., word came that he would not be able to perform. So I had about three or four hours to adjust.

So, you got to rehearse “Francesca da Rimini,” a piece you’d never performed. But did you know the score?

It’s sort of the job of the assistant conductor to be at the rehearsals and learn the repertory. We’re there to cover all the performances, in the event something happens. So I knew the score.

And you did not get a chance to rehearse any of the “Pathétique” with the Philharmonic.

Right. It’s a standard rep piece I’ve studied many times. I conducted movements as a student and in workshop situations. But I’d never performed it in full.

Mr. Bychkov had already worked on his conception of the symphony with the players. Did you feel bound to adhere to his interpretation?

You have to in some ways adhere to what has been rehearsed. I tried to incorporate as much as I could. At the same time, the only way to do a piece like that is to do it the way I feel it. Otherwise it would have come across as disingenuous.

Most New Yorkers know you from your work as music director of the impressive New York Youth Symphony, a post you’re leaving at the end of this season. I’m sure working with student players, who are gifted and eager but need lots of help, hones a conductor’s technique.

Basically every problem that could possibly arise in conducting an orchestra comes up at some point with youth orchestras. The music director has to solve those problems in rehearsal and in performance. It’s good training. But conducting the New York Philharmonic without a rehearsal is a different animal. To have an orchestra like the Philharmonic up there with you is incredible. They certainly had my back all night and did such a wonderful job. I’ve gotten to know them well in the last year and a half. It meant a lot to feel that energy. It was quite a day.

PERFORMANCE

Merkin Hall
What Makes It Great

Dvorák's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major

Igal Kesselman - Piano

Harlem String Quartet

The patronage of Brahms launched Dvořák’s career, spurring his ascent from a penniless violist in the Prague Provisional Theatre Orchestra to an internationally recognized composer. Brahms supported Dvořák’s work financially and professionally and urged him to move from Prague to the cultural center of Vienna, but Dvořák resisted his influential mentor. Exploring one of the acknowledged masterpieces of the piano quintet form, host Rob Kapilow shows how Dvořák reinterpreted the tradition of Brahms, incorporating elements of Czech folk music and popular songs to create something utterly original and new.

Trailer for presentation...

LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
Lincoln Center's Great Performers

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Beethoven - Symphony No. 1
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4
Beethoven - Symphony No. 5

Iván Fischer - Conductor
Richard Goode - Piano

"Famous for his unconventional interpretations that play with everything from staging to tempos, conductor Iván Fischer approaches Beethoven like no one else. Fischer and his “consistently glorious” Budapest Festival Orchestra (New York Times) present Beethoven."

"For this all-Beethoven performance, conductor Iván Fischer guides his celebrated Budapest Festival Orchestra through the dawning originality of the composer’s First Symphony to land at the symphonic monument known universally as “Beethoven’s Fifth.” Pianist Richard Goode, “whose playing is invariably a revelation” (New York Times), joins for the Fourth Piano Concerto."

RECITAL

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 5th Avenue
Keyboard Music From and Inspired by La Serenissima

Daniel Hyde - Organ

Daniel Hyde—Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue’s new organist and director of music—explores the hugely influential Venetian style, with works ranging from luminaries such as Giovanni Gabrieli—the organist of Venice’s venerable St. Mark’s Basilica for nearly three decades—Merula, and Vivaldi (as arranged by Bach and Walther), to 20th-century homages by Ligeti and Tippett.

Venice stands as a monument to the improbable paradise where city meets sea. The Venetian Republic—also known as La Serenissima, or “the Most Serene Republic”—reached levels of maritime supremacy, democratic progressiveness, financial prosperity, and both cultural achievement and innovation, flourishing for 1,000 years before its fall to Napoleon in 1797. Carnegie Hall salutes La Serenissima’s dazzling artistic legacy with concerts that feature vocal masterpieces and virtuoso instrumental music. The celebration also extends citywide with events at leading cultural institutions, including panel discussions, theatrical events, and art exhibitions that not only examine the rich culture of the Venetian Republic, but also the scandalous, ribald, and libertine history that the passage of time has rendered less familiar.

A video about the festival...

Keyboard Music from and Inspired by La Serenissima


Daniel Hyde, Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue

In this “Grand Tour” of the hugely influential Venetian musical style, Organist and Director of Music Daniel Hyde performs a recital exploring works ranging from luminaries such as Giovanni Gabrieli—the organist of Venice’s venerable San Marco Basilica for nearly three decades—Merula, and Vivaldi (as arranged by J.S. Bach and J.G. Walther) to 20th-century re-imaginings by Ligeti and Tippett.

This recital is part of La Serenissima: Music and Arts from the Venetian Republic, a citywide Carnegie Hall festival celebrating the dazzling artistic legacy of Venice with musical performances across the hall’s three stages and events at more than a dozen prestigious partner organizations that include additional musical offerings, panel discussions, readings, theatre, lectures, seminars, and art exhibitions.

"Daniel Hyde finds all the beauty and pain in this spellbinding sequence: an hour of listening that is both of the moment and utterly timeless." The Independent

Program
Music by Gabrieli, Merula, Vivaldi (arr. J.S. Bach and J. G. Walther), Ligeti and Tippett

THEATER

The McKittrick Hotel
The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

New York Times Critic's Pick! 

- BEN BRANTLEY, NEW YORK TIMES 

The McKittrick Hotel has done it again! 

- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 

ABOUT THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is a transporting, music-filled folk theater fable, that unfolds within The McKittrick Hotel’s bar and music venue, The Heath, which has been transformed into a high spirited Scottish Pub for the occasion. The full Scottish cast straight from the National Theatre of Scotland perform among and around its audience, weaving an ingenious, lyrical and enchanting story told with live music throughout an intimate and supernatural setting.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/blog/theater-review-drink-up-and-be-dazzled-at-the-strange-undoing-of-prudencia-hart-121516



Theater review: Drink up and be dazzled at The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

When reviewing, sobriety is rather mandatory. Critics ought to arrive fresh and alert, the better to catch every nuance of story and staging. (Even at Cats, although I would gladly have accepted 10 milligrams of morphine before curtain.) So it was with profound ambivalence that I gulped down the whiskey offered me at the immersive, site-specific The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. I clutched several drink tickets, and two friendly fellows were lining up free shots along the bar. It would have been rude to refuse such a simple kindness.

Co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland (Black Watch) and written in cheeky rhyming couplets by David Greig, Prudencia Hart is perfectly enjoyable even without a chest-warming, peaty buzz. Director Wils Wilson stages this satiric fable inside an ad hoc Scottish pub in the Heath, normally the bar and music venue for the McKittrick Hotel (which also houses the long-running Sleep No More). The title character is a prickly academic (Melody Grove), whose specialty is folkloric literature (her dissertation is titled “The Topography Of Hell In Scottish Balladry”). At an academic conference, she trades barbs with her rival, cocksure and flashy Colin Syme (Paul McCole). Following a surreal bacchanal in a pub and a blizzard, Prudencia falls under the spell of a sinister stranger (Peter Hannah) who owns a vast library that enchants our learned heroine.

A witty send-up of literary theory and rom-coms that morphs into a real (and rather scary) mini-epic of damnation and obsession, Prudencia Hart keeps a fine balance between supernatural shocks and Fringe-like silliness. Wilson’s scrappy troupe tears around the room, pulling off audience-interactive shenanigans with adorable aplomb. They sing, they dance, and they risk life and limb on top of cluttered tables for our amusement. Someone buy those Scottish kids a round.

A trailer for an earlier version of the play...

 

RECITAL

Morgan Museum & Library
Young Concert Artists

Sang-Eun Lee - Cello
Carlos Avila - Piano

Schumann - Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
Shostakovich - Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
Beethoven - Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69

Hear the artist playing Bach...

Playing her YCA program at Merkin Hall...

22-year-old cellist Sang-Eun Lee has been hailed for her expressive artistry and dazzling technique. The Washington Post praised: “She is a prodigiously talented young artist with powerful technique and musical poise.” Ms. Lee has won top prizes in various international competitions; she won the 2014 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and First Prize at the 2014 YCA Auditions in Seoul, Korea. At 15, she won First Prize at the 2009 Johansen International Competition in Washington, D.C., Second Prize at the 2009 International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, and the Young Musician Prize of the Emanuel Feuermann Competition in Berlin. She was also awarded Germany’s Kronberg Academy Cello Festival’s 2009 Ingrid zu Solms Culture Prize.

Her 2016-2017 season includes performances at the Morgan Library and Museum, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Chamber on the Mountain, Tri-County Concert Association, the Evergreen Museum and Library, and an appearance as soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall. Last season, Ms. Lee made her acclaimed Kennedy Center debut, co-presented with Washington Performing Arts and supported by the Korean Concert Society Prize, and her New York recital debut, sponsored by the Michaels Award, on the Young Concert Artists Series. She also performed at Colgate University, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the Paramount Theatre, the Jewish Community Alliance in Florida, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the Music@Menlo Festival.

Ms. Lee has been invited to perform as a soloist with Korea’s leading orchestras including the Seoul Philharmonic under Myung-Whun Chung, the Suwon Philharmonic, the Prime Philharmonic, the Korean National University of Arts Orchestra, the Gangnam Symphony and GMMFS orchestras. She made her Seoul recital debut at the age of 13 on the Kumho Prodigy Concert Series and has given recitals at the Blue House in Seoul and the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Ms. Lee has been featured on KBS (the Korean Broadcasting System).

Born in Seoul, Korea, Ms. Lee attended the Korean National University of Arts, from the age of nine, where she worked with Myung Wha Chung and Sang Min Park. She is a grant recipient of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts, and currently attends the Curtis Institute of Music, working with Peter Wiley and (YCA Alumnus) Carter Brey.

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On the way out of the Morgan Library we visited the Emily Dickinson Exhibit.






https://www.wsj.com/articles/im-nobody-who-are-you-the-life-and-poetry-of-emily-dickinson-review-1485988331

‘I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson’ Review
At the Morgan Library & Museum, a treasure trove of objects offers a rare chance to truly meet the reclusive poet through both her work and her web of relationships.

By
Edward Rothstein •Feb. 1, 2017 5:32 p.m. ET

Daguerreotype of Emily Dickinson (c. 1847) Photo: Amherst College Archives & Special Collections/Millicent Todd Bingham, 1956

“Did you ever / read one of /her poems back / ward” the fragmentary lyric reads, “because / the plunge from the front over / turned you?” Emily Dickinson’s words are scrawled on coarse brown, awkwardly cut wrapping paper—as if the question came to the poet’s mind so suddenly it had to be captured on whatever scrap could be found. It is one of the small sensations at the winningly conceived exhibition “I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson” at the Morgan Library & Museum through May 28. She seems to be alluding to her own poems with their metaphorically condensed, startling language that plunges the familiar into paradox, the ordinary into the metaphysical. Dickinson’s beginnings can be so overturning (“It was not Death, for I stood up”) one might indeed be tempted to read backward.

There are other telling scraps here too, along with a selection of faintly penciled manuscripts discovered after the poet’s death at age 55 in 1886. She had mailed hundreds of poems to friends, but only 10 had been published during her lifetime, anonymously and presumably without consent. Her family found almost 1,800 others, many carefully sewn into small leaflets now preciously called “fascicles,” their slanted writing peppered with dashes. The last decades of Dickinson’s life were lived in near isolation, the poet staying in her parent’s home in Amherst, Mass.—her grandfather was a founder of Amherst College and her father had long been its treasurer—emerging from her room at times in white, like a wraith, avoiding most guests, her poetic cosmos circumscribed by her bedroom, her plants, her letters and her often ghostly script.

But in gathering nearly 100 objects—billed as the most ambitious presentation of Dickinsoniana to date—the curators, Mike Kelly, head of archives at Amherst College, and the Morgan’s Carolyn Vega, are intent not on the solitary poet’s mind but her “extensive web of relationships,” some established in youth, some in correspondence (as with the abolitionist minister and editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson) and some until death. They even continued, in contention, well beyond, since her estate was inharmoniously split between Emily’s great friend—her brother’s wife, Susan Dickinson—and her brother’s mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd. That is one reason it now also remains largely divided between Amherst and Harvard.

Otis Allen Bullard’s portrait of ‘Emily Elizabeth, Austin and Lavinia Dickinson’ (c. 1840) Photo: Houghton Library/Harvard University

A lovely portrait here from a more pastoral era (c. 1840) shows the poet as a child with her two siblings. And a recently discovered 1847 roster from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary shows a fellow student’s verse sketch of the 16-year-old Emily: “She is ever fair, and never proud / Hath tongue at will and yet is never loud.” On a touch screen we can leaf through the young Emily’s herbarium scrapbook in which over 400 plants were pasted, such close acquaintance later resonating in the poems.

The exhibition is circumspect—too circumspect—about the poet’s possible amatory relations, particularly since suggestions of same-sex attractions have become a staple of recent scholarship, but we see clearly that late solitude came at the cost of once-cherished intimacy. For her entire life she kept an 1850 invitation to a “Candy Pulling!!” by one presumed suitor (George Gould) and in 1876, we see here, she wrote a poem on its reverse (“I suppose the time will / come”) about relentlessly passing time.

We can see too why she did not court publication. “Blazing in gold and quenching in purple”—a paean to the setting sun—is shoehorned into an 1864 issue of the Springfield Daily Republican, framed by anecdotes about a blinded soldier and an “elderly woman” with rheumatism. But a friend chastised the “great poet” for her public reticence: “When you are what men call dead, you will be sorry you were so stingy.” Perhaps she is—though she might now also be wary of being harnessed so often to represent contemporary categories of identity.

The Morgan, unfortunately, did not provide transcriptions of the handwritten poems; they appear in the catalog and are recited on an audio tour, but the manuscripts present themselves more gnomically than they should. Prepare to visit first the vast online archives (at the Amherst College Digital Collections and the Emily Dickinson Archive) and then come here to be jostled by the remarkable traces of a poet who, in an 1883 letter to her young niece and niece’s friend, signaled perhaps, how much she had discovered in her circumscribed world: “Who has not found the Heaven—below— / Will fail of it above. / For Angels rent the House next our’s, / Wherever we remove.”

—Mr. Rothstein is the Journal’s Critic at Large.