Articles
6207 results
Page 465
Yannick and the Orchestra (5th review)
Rattle's ghost, R.I.P.
Under Yannick Nézet-Séguin's baton, the Philadelphians delivered more presence and more color to Mahler's Fifth than Simon Rattle's Berliners did. Nézet-Séguin makes his intentions clear to the musicians, perhaps because he, like most of his players, is a North American.
Articles
4 minute read
Yannick and the Orchestra: a dissent (4th review)
His missing ingredient: maturity
Yannick Nézet-Séguin can wow a crowd, but can he keep them? Haydn seemed closer to his own sunny disposition in his debut performances, but it's far too early for judgment yet. In the meantime, the Philadelphia Orchestra's Dutoit semi-era continues.
Articles
6 minute read
Dresden Staatskapelle's "Brahms Requiem'
Brahms and the magic carpet ride
Guest conductor Daniel Harding led a massive ensemble with firm control, but he sounded overly reverential and insufficiently emotive.
Articles
3 minute read
Lantern Theater's "Uncle Vanya' (1st review)
Empty lives, up very close and personal
Lantern Theater's production of Uncle Vanya is unusually intimate, shining more focus than usual on the unheralded characters in Chekhov's tragicomedy of dissolute gentry. The cast rises to the challenge.
Articles
4 minute read
Enda Walsh's "Penelope' in Brooklyn
Odysseus is coming, and, boy, is he steamed
In this existential tragic burlesque, the powerhouse young Irish playwright Enda Walsh redefines the unnamed suitors of Homer's Odyssey. Here they emerge as minor, vile characters— men we never even thought about until now.
Articles
3 minute read
Beau Willimon's "Spirit Control' in New York
One moment that changes everything
In Spirit Control, the high drama of an airport tower fades as a controller picks up the pieces years later. He's haunted by a tragedy; I was haunted by the aftermath.
Articles
3 minute read
Sign up for our newsletter
All of the week's new articles, all in one place. Sign up for the free weekly BSR newsletters, and don't miss a conversation.
Clint Eastwood's 'Hereafter'
In the realm of the absurd: Clint Eastwood confronts eternity
Clint Eastwood's Hereafter speculates about what may— or may not— lie in the Great Beyond. A brilliant opening sequence is worth the price of admission, but Eastwood, himself a professed skeptic, loads his dice too easily, and brings his plot lines together too patly at the end.
Articles
6 minute read
Yannick and the Orchestra (3rd review)
Mahler and Yannick: Two peas in a pod?
Yannick Nézet-Séguin's choice of Mahler for his introductory concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra was no accident: The two musicians share a great deal in common. In the process, Nézet-Séguin demonstrated why the sometimes-scorned Mahler deserves a place among the great symphonic composers.
Articles
6 minute read
Yannick and the Orchestra (2nd review)
A child shall lead them, or: 'You've got to see this guy conduct!'
Yannick Nézet-Séguin's childlike enthusiasm transformed his post-appointment debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra into one of the most joyous nights of music making I've ever seen or heard.
Pistoletto: '60s survivor at the Art Museum (1st review)
Survivor of the '60s
Michelangelo Pistoletto's work is a sort of time capsule of the '60s in the Italian arts. Like that tumultuous period, he's a man for whom art is a raging fever. He is totally involved in it, and he wants to involve other people in it.
Articles
4 minute read