Pianist Andreas Haefliger at the Perelman

A thing for Wagner

The young German pianist Andreas Haefliger didn't seem fully engaged when he played Mozart and Liszt. Only when he got to Wagner did he seem to catch fire.

Steve Cohen

Mar 05, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Jeremy Gill works at Settlement (2nd review)

Book of hours, book of life

Composer Jeremy Gill placed two of his own works side by side with pieces by two of the 20th Century's greatest composers and tapped into the deeper currents of the classical tradition.

Tom Purdom

Mar 01, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Jeremy Gill works at Settlement (1st review)

Jeremy Gill's ancient sounds and rituals

Jeremy Gill's music is particularly concerned with sound qualities, to the extent that he'll move his performers to different parts of the hall during the course of a work. It seems to be a signature for this promising young composer.

Mar 01, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

London Symphony plays Mahler's Seventh

Mahler's ugly duckling

Mahler's Seventh Symphony is one of the most rarely performed of his scores, in part because it lacks (or eschews) the overall dynamic structure of his more popular works. But it's a satisfying work in the right interpretive hands, and Valery Gergiev was at least intermittently successful in it with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Robert Zaller

Feb 26, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Strauss's "Arabella' at AVA

Memo to Richard Strauss: Less is more

Richard Strauss wrote operas for big orchestras, but this intimate production on a tiny stage, with just a piano for accompaniment, enabled some of Arabella's long overlooked qualities to emerge.

Steve Cohen

Feb 23, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Higdon, Hahn and Curtis (2nd review)

The poet returns to her incubator

What makes Curtis Institute one of the world's great music schools? Jennifer Higdon's Violin Concerto, written for her former Curtis student Hilary Hahn, is a touching portrait of the relationship between a powerful talent and the unique institution that nurtured her.

Tom Purdom

Feb 22, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Jurowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra

A night of musical heroics

This stellar Philadelphia Orchestra concert, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and including a stunning rendition of the Beethoven Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili, ennobled the Classical repertoire as few concerts do.

Victor L. Schermer

Feb 22, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

OCP's "Roméo et Juliette' (2nd review)

She's a teenager— remember?

Is the Opera Company's fashionista version of Roméo et Juliette a travesty or a breath of fresh air? That's a matter of personal taste— and among teenagers, the response was surprisingly positive.

Steve Cohen

Feb 19, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Curtis Orchestra: Modern and post-modern (1st review)

Hope for the future

The Curtis Orchestra's midwinter concert under Juanjo Mena, with soloist Hilary Hahn, featured a fine new Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon, flanked by the rarely heard Hindemith Concert Music for Strings and Brass, and the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony. Hahn was superb, and the strings of the Curtis particularly distinguished themselves.

Robert Zaller

Feb 18, 2011 · Articles · 6 minute read

"Nixon in China' at the Met

A cable-news opera

The Met's debut production of Nixon in China contains mesmerizing tunes and excellent musical craftsmanship. Its libretto, however, lacks human drama and emotion. It's more of a documentary than an opera.

Steve Cohen

Feb 18, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read