| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 11-May-2013 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd | The Tokyo String Quartet in musical farewells of Schubert, Haydn, and Bartók at 92Y |
 The Tokyo String Quartet played a kind of “meta-goodbye” concert this Saturday evening at 92Y. The performance, their last at this venue before the quartet is disbanded, featured three great composers’ own farewells, the final works written for string chamber ensembles by Schubert, Haydn, and Bartók. The Tokyo Quartet’s personnel has changed since its inception in 1969 – its current members are violinists Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda, violist Kazuhide Isomura, and cellist Clive Greensmith – and the group has existed in its current form since 2002.
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| 26-Apr-2013 Nasher Sculpture Center | Handsome animals: An evening of Cummings and Ives in Dallas |
 “It’s a contra-alto clarinet,” explained Ben Goldberg to an audience puzzled at the first sight of this long, coiled silver instrument. “But it can be used to clean your sink in an emergency.” The ensemble Tin Hat – comprising Mr Goldberg on clarinets (B flat and contra-alto), Carla Kihlstedt on violin and vocals, guitarist Mark Orton, and Rob Reich playing piano and accordion – appeared this past Friday on the latest presentation of Soundings, the new music series at the Nasher Sculpture Center.Read full review... | |
| 18-Apr-2013 AT&T Performing Arts Center: Hamon Hall | New and old: Orli Shaham plays Bolcom, Brahms, and Mussorgsky |
 Christian Steiner.jpg) Pianist Orli Shaham was in Dallas Thursday night for a recital at Hamon Hall, a small space located within the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Her performance of works by William Bolcom, Brahms and Mussorgsky, though uneven and hampered by a bad instrument, was full of humor and sensitive moments, and her spoken remarks helped add a personal touch to the already intimate setting.
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| 23-Mar-2013 St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church | Lamentations: The Orpheus Chamber Singers perform music for Holy Week in Dallas |
 “Please silence all electronic devices and refrain from talking. This evening’s program will be presented without intermission or breaks for applause. It is our hope that this structure will assist in providing a meaningful experience...” If I were to say, in 2013, that I had an unusual concert experience, you might assume the performance took place somewhere edgy or casual (a trend defined by (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York), featuring musicians in street clothes playing amplified household objects or something similarly avant-garde.Read full review... | |
| 11-Mar-2013 SMU: Caruth Auditorium | Dallas Chamber Music presents the Artemis Quartet: Mendelssohn, Ginastera, and Schubert |
 Caught completely unawares – hearing a group I wasn’t familiar with, and on a Monday evening at that – I ended up seeing the Artemis Quartet give the best performance of any kind that I’ve experienced in quite a while. The Berlin-based group, in the middle of a ten-day US tour that concludes on Sunday at Carnegie Hall, played Mendelssohn, Ginastera, and Schubert on a presentation of the Dallas Chamber Music series.
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| 16-Feb-2013 Meyerson Symphony Center | Impressions: Debussy, Rodrigo and Prokofiev at the Dallas Symphony |
.jpg) After a series of Pops concerts featuring John Williams’ film scores, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra returned to standard classical fare this weekend with Canadian guest conductor Julian Kuerti. Debussy’s Ibéria never really got off the ground, but Mr Kuerti and the DSO had better luck in music by Joaquín Rodrigo and Prokofiev. Pairing the Debussy with Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez made for an all-“Spanish” first half, a well-worn programming device.Read full review... | |
| 26-Jan-2013 Meyerson Symphony Center | Sturm und Drang: Minor-Key Mozart at the Meyerson |
 Capping off their two-weekend Mozart Festival, the Dallas Symphony played three minor-key masterworks this weekend, plus one major-key selection. Music in minor keys is the exception to the Mozartian rule – only two each of the 27 piano concerti and 41 symphonies are in minor. Perhaps Mozart saved minor keys for truly extraordinary musical statements, or else perceived his audiences (or patrons) to prefer his sunnier works. In any case, those minor-key works Mozart did write tend to be special for reasons surpassing their mere scarcity.
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| 19-Jan-2013 Meyerson Symphony Center | Turkish, sunny Wolfgang: Round One of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Mozart Festival |
 Outside.jpg) Verdi and Wagner may be turning 200 in 2013, but certainly that doesn’t make their music any more or less worth celebrating than it was last year, or will be in five years’ time. So why not mix things up and mark a prime number here and there? In honor of a certain upcoming 257th birthday, Jaap van Zweden led the Dallas Symphony Orchestra this weekend in the first of two programs comprising the DSO’s Mozart Festival.Read full review... | |
| 12-Jan-2013 Meyerson Symphony Center | A Romantic night out: Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Brahms at the Dallas Symphony |
 Mirroring the January ritual of all who indulge in one final dessert-binge before dieting to honor ill-fated New Year’s resolutions, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra got plenty of Romanticism out of their system this weekend before their Mozart Festival, set to last the remainder of this month. They hosted two young guest artists, conductor Pablo González and violinist Nicola Benedetti, for works by Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms.Read full review... | |
| 4-Jan-2013 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Manfred Honeck and the New York Philharmonic play it safe in Braunfels, Grieg and Beethoven |
 The Vienna Philharmonic, whose annual New Year’s Day performances of Johann Strauss are broadcast to some 50 million viewers worldwide, apparently aren’t the only ones giving themselves a pass on creative programming around the holidays. The New York Philharmonic and guest conductor Manfred Honeck eased gently into 2013 this weekend with an evening of audience favorites.
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| 22-Dec-2012 Symphony Space | Sounds of the city: New York composers featured in CONTACT! season opener |
| What influence does a place exert on art? Surely there is an agreed-upon “French” sound in music, a distinctive look to Flemish portraiture, but how different might the work of a Muscovite sculptor be from one based in St Petersburg? And in a global age, does place still matter? Read full review... | |
| 8-Dec-2012 St Barnabas Presbyterian Church | Music of Central and Eastern Europe: Bartók, Martinů and Dvořák in Dallas |
 The Dallas-area series Chamber Music International presented its second program of the season this Friday and Saturday evening. (This review is of the second concert, at St Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson, Texas.) Pianist Joyce Yang began the evening with Béla Bartók’s suite Out of Doors, followed by the Three Madrigals for violin and viola by Bohuslav Martinů, played by Jun Iwasaki and Atar Arad.Read full review... | |
| 4-Nov-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Vienna at the opera (and movies): Beethoven and Korngold with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra |
 Two Viennese masters, Beethoven and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, shared the stage in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s concerts this weekend. Maestro Jaap van Zweden conducted Beethoven’s Leonore Overture no. 3 and Symphony no. 5 in C minor, and in between these was joined by violinist Hilary Hahn for Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major.
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| 30-Oct-2012 Nasher Sculpture Center | Midori in Dallas: Experimental Beethoven, Webern and Crumb |
 The Soundings concert series opened its season Tuesday evening at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, with violinist Midori and pianist Özgür Aydin. Although the series typically focuses more on contemporary music, Midori offered the program she’s been touring with in celebration of the 30th anniversary of her debut, and it did not disappoint. She and Mr Aydin presented the three Beethoven sonatas written in A major, interspersed with a pair of works from the 20th century.
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| 6-Oct-2012 SMU: Caruth Auditorium | Filmless scores: Chamber Music International in Dallas |
 Chamber Music International kicked off its 27th concert season on Saturday evening at Southern Methodist University. The centerpiece of the program was John Williams’ Quartet La Jolla, and the other works all used various combinations of these instruments. Violinist Cho-Liang Lin (who played on all but one of the pieces) was joined by harpist Deborah Hoffman, cellist Joshua Roman and clarinetist John Bruce Yeh.
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| 29-Sep-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Russian Romantics: Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in Dallas |
 Kacper Pempel.jpg) The Dallas Symphony Orchestra have had a couple of high-profile guest performers in town for their most recent series of concerts. They presented works by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, a piano concerto and a symphony respectively, in a program that, although disastrously designed, was redeemed by some stellar playing.
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| 18-Sep-2012 City Performance Hall | Grand opening of the Dallas Chamber Symphony |
 Why establish a new orchestra, to perform in a new hall, across the street from an eminent opera company as well as one of the country’s premier symphony orchestras? It’s a good question with many possible valid responses, and I wish I had more of an answer after attending the grand opening concert of the Dallas Chamber Symphony this Tuesday evening.
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| 15-Sep-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Dallas Symphony Orchestra season opens with van Zweden and Joaquín Achúcarro |
 The fifth year of the Jaap van Zweden era at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra began this weekend with a program comprising audience favorites both flashy and serene. According to the printed program notes Mr. van Zweden, Music Director since 2008, selected “a program that demonstrates the superb technical and musical heights our orchestra has reached under his baton.” Modest, perhaps not, but warranted, definitely.Read full review... | |
| 10-Aug-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Death and life: Lutosławski, Bartók, and Mozart at the Mostly Mozart Festival |
 New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival continued Friday evening with three works, all marvelous and presented in reverse-chronological order. After Witold Lutosławski’s Muzyka żałobna, the orchestra and conductor Louis Langrée were joined by French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for Bartók’s Piano Concerto no. 3, and the concert concluded with Mozart’s Symphony no. 39 in E flat major.
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| 7-Aug-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Getting into the heads of Schubert, Berio, and Beethoven at the Mostly Mozart Festival |
 In their latest set of concerts, the Mostly Mozart Festival on Tuesday presented two works: one largely unknown, the other among the most beloved in the standard repertoire. The first, Luciano Berio’s 1989 Rendering, is fragmented and open-ended. The second, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5, “Emperor”, about as solid and decisive as they come. The MMF Orchestra and conductor Susanna Mälkki were convincing in the first half, and were joined by the extraordinary Garrick Ohlsson for the Beethoven.
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| 1-Aug-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Mostly Mozart Festival: A disappointing start |
 This year’s Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center opened on Tuesday evening and, to put it encouragingly, there will certainly be room for improvement as the festival continues. (The present review relates to Wednesday’s performance of the same works.) The all-Mozart opening program featured two soloists who raised the level of artistry by varying degrees in their respective performances, but in the two symphonic works, Maestro Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra seemed a bit detached from the task at hand.Read full review... | |
| 3-Jun-2012 Bass Performance Hall | In Love and War: Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata at the Fort Worth Opera Festival |
 The Fort Worth Opera closed their 2012 Festival on Sunday afternoon with the second of two performances of Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata, or the Nude Goddess. After hearing a strong Marriage of Figaro at the festival Friday evening, I had fairly high expectations, some of which were met, others not.
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| 1-Jun-2012 Bass Performance Hall | A Happy Union: Tradition and Youthfulness in the Fort Worth Opera’s Marriage of Figaro |
 The 2012 Fort Worth Opera Festival, now nearing its conclusion, presented the last of its three performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro on Friday evening. A traditional approach governed everything from the modest yet handsome sets to the conservative musical interpretation. This was combined with brilliant direction, casting, and acting to produce a Figaro that was laugh-out-loud funny and musically sensitive, highlighting the composer (and his equally great librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte) as the true star of the evening.
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| 21-May-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Unfinished Business: The Bamberg Symphony at Lincoln Center, Part Two |
 After an impressive Sunday afternoon of Webern, Schubert, and Brahms, the Bamberg Symphony outdid themselves Monday evening in repertoire by Beethoven and Ives, and another Schubert symphony. Christian Zacharias again joined Maestro Jonathan Nott, this time for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4. They then concluded their appearance in Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Season with The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives and Schubert’s Symphony in B minor, “Unfinished”.
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| 20-May-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Vienna New and Old: The Bamberg Symphony at Lincoln Center |
 The Bamberg Symphony played the first of their two concerts at Lincoln Center on Sunday. The program had something of a Viennese bent, with works by Anton Webern (of the Second Viennese School), Schubert (the first of the great Romantics to call the city home), and Brahms (who lived there most of his life). Jonathan Nott conducted and pianist Christian Zacharias performed on the concert’s second half. The Bambergers impressed with their warm sound, unified ensemble playing, and passionate engagement with the music.
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| 18-May-2012 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Maria João Pires and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall |
 The Philadelphia Orchestra was at Carnegie Hall this weekend, led by Chief Conductor Charles Dutoit and joined by pianist Maria João Pires, to perform works by Glinka, Chopin, and Ravel. After this season, American audiences will presumably be seeing less of Mr. Dutoit on this side of the Pond – his term in Philadelphia will be over, and he will continue in his position as Artistic Director of the Royal Philharmonic.Read full review... | |
| 20-Apr-2012 Nasher Sculpture Center | Virtuosity of Gesture: Anthony Marwood and Aleksandar Madzar |
 For its season finale, Soundings: New Music at the Nasher presented violinist Anthony Marwood and pianist Aleksandar Madzar in a program advertised as “a dialogue of caprice and masterpiece.” The evening featured works ranging from two or three minutes to half an hour in length, dating from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1980s, all thoughtfully presented and – last but not least – played quite well.
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| 31-Mar-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Music for Any Season: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Dallas |
 Christmas may have inspired much of the greatest holiday-related popular music, but in the Classical tradition, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (to say nothing of his St. John Passion and Easter Oratorio) points toward the influence of Easter. This piece, a gargantuan thing of beauty, was given three performances on the evenings leading up to Palm Sunday in Dallas, where the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Jaap van Zweden were joined by the Dallas Symphony Chorus and Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas, directed respectively by Joshua Haberman and Cynthia Nott.Read full review... | |
| 15-Mar-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Expressive Inner and Outer Worlds: Adams, Schubert, Strauss, and Shostakovich in Dallas |
 The Dallas Symphony Orchestra opened their latest series on Thursday with works by John Luther Adams, Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Shostakovich. The German baritone Matthias Goerne joined the DSO and Artistic Director Jaap van Zweden for a performance that was moving and powerful enough to far outshine a couple of puzzling managerial decisions.
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| 4-Mar-2012 Bass Performance Hall | Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Mei-Ann Chen: Beethoven, Schumann and Franck |
 The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra welcomed guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen and pianist Markus Groh to Bass Hall this weekend, and welcome guests they were indeed. Ms. Chen led the orchestra in Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and the Symphony in D minor of César Franck, with Mr. Groh joining them for the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor in between. It was a treat to hear a truly fresh and inspired performance of works that have come to be viewed by some – undeservedly so – as being staid warhorses of the repertoire.
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| 18-Feb-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Steps Retraced: Adams, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky in Dallas |
 It was your standard evening at the symphony: a brief standalone selection for orchestra, a flashy concerto, and, after intermission, a weighty symphonic masterpiece. Well, it seemed so on paper at least. The most recent series of concerts by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra presented three popular works in reverse-chronological order, which can be one of the more effective – and underexploited – approaches to programming.Read full review... | |
| 4-Feb-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | A Fascinating Program of Mozart, Wagner and Debussy |
 In a concert featuring two works of Richard Wagner (one a concert piece, the other an adaptation from an opera score), the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under conductor Jaap van Zweden made their biggest statements in works by Mozart and Debussy. The fascinating program paired the Wagner works, one in each half, with those of the supposedly more “demure” high-classicist and arch-Impressionist. After Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, guest soloist David Fray joined the DSO for Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor, K466.Read full review... | |
| 27-Jan-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Gregory Raden and Jaap van Zweden in works by Mozart and Schubert |
 Bert Hulselmans.jpg) On the two hundred and fifty-sixth birthday of Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, a voice over the loudspeaker announced the arrival of the more succinctly-named Emmitt Smith to the stage of Dallas’s Meyerson Symphony Center. Mr. Smith, the legendary former Dallas Cowboys running back and Super Bowl MVP, in turn introduced the true man of the evening, Dallas Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director Jaap van Zweden, recently named Musical America’s 2012 Conductor of the Year.Read full review... | |
| 17-Jan-2012 Bass Performance Hall | Joyce Yang plays Bach, Debussy, Liebermann, Schubert, and Schumann |
 Pianist Joyce Yang, silver medalist in the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, returned to Fort Worth for a solo recital this week. The eclectic program, in her words a “collage,” consisted of a broad mix of styles, well balanced and thoughtfully organized. She opened with Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, followed by Debussy’s Estampes and Gargoyles by Lowell Liebermann; after intermission it was a Schubert Impromptu (G flat major from the first set, Op. 90) and Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 12.
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| 29-Dec-2011 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Alan Gilbert, Anne Sofie von Otter and the New York Philharmonic in works of Haydn, Schubert and Ravel |
 The holiday season in New York can be a bit maddening, an unrelenting assault to the senses amid the crush of humanity present throughout the city. Luckily, then, the Philharmonic provided an evening’s respite with powerful and largely understated works by Haydn, Schubert, and Ravel. After Haydn’s Symphony no. 88 in G major, conductor Alan Gilbert and his players were joined by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for a set of Schubert Lieder, transcribed from their original piano accompaniments for the orchestra by Benjamin Britten and Max Reger.Read full review... | |
| 11-Dec-2011 Civic Opera House | Lyric Opera of Chicago presents a taut, effective Ariadne auf Naxos |
 The gist of Ariadne auf Naxos, Richard Strauss’ opera-within-an-opera, is this: a demanding patron insists on having his entertainment for a given evening – a burlesque act and an opera – combined into one work, greatly upsetting the archetypal “serious artist” composer of the opera. Already Strauss’ depiction onstage of a classical composer asks certain questions of the integrity of art, its place in society, and so forth.Read full review... | |
| 10-Dec-2011 Chicago Symphony Center | Michael Tilson Thomas and Jeremy Denk play unfamiliar classics in Chicago |
 The Chicago Symphony Orchestra hosted guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and pianist Jeremy Denk this weekend in works of Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms that felt familiar yet oddly fresh (or bizarre, depending on one’s point of view). The program comprised Mahler’s Blumine, a freestanding work originally used as the second movement of his First Symphony; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor; and the Piano Quartet in G minor of Brahms, in the 1937 orchestral arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg.
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| 19-Nov-2011 Bass Performance Hall | Rossen Milanov superb in Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Debut |
 Rossen Milanov has been in town leading the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in this weekend’s concerts. Milanov recently finished serving as Associate Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has compiled an extensive list of guest conducting appearances. His rapport with the musicians of the FWSO during this, his debut with the ensemble, was intimate and impressive.Read full review... | |
| 15-Nov-2011 Bass Performance Hall | Cosmopolitan Paris: An evening with Cho-Liang Lin and Jon Kimura Parker |
.jpg) What’s in a name, or for that matter, a label? Why does music “sound” German, American, French, or Russian? Violinist Cho-Liang Lin and pianist Jon Kimura Parker presented a duo recital at Fort Worth’s Bass Hall Tuesday evening, titled “An Evening in Paris”. Their thoughtful program consisted of works by French composers of the early twentieth century, and also by (long-time Parisian) Stravinsky. This kind of open-ended theme typically leads an audience to draw its own conclusions.Read full review... | |
| 6-Nov-2011 Copley Symphony Hall | Stephen Hough and San Diego Symphony in All-Liszt Program |
 As this year draws to a close, musicians and audiences have one last chance to celebrate the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt (1811-1886). The program this afternoon featured a couple of less-familiar orchestral pieces as well as the First and Second Piano Concerti. (Liszt’s orchestral works are infrequently performed, these ones especially so.) His Orpheus and two Légendes are tone poems, a genre pioneered by Liszt himself.Read full review... | |
| 22-Oct-2011 Modern Art Museum | Chamber Music Takes Flight: Di Wu and Nadine Asin at the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth |
| For the second concert of its 2011-12 series, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth featured pianist Di Wu and flutist Nadine Asin in works by J.S. Bach, Max Reger, Haydn and Shostakovich. Although one work didn’t include piano (Reger) and the piano part to another was of secondary importance (Bach), Ms. Wu was billed as the primary guest artist. She was a finalist in the most recent edition of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, held in Fort Worth, a distinction that confers a kind of celebrity in this city. Read full review... | |
| 20-Oct-2011 Meyerson Symphony Center | Style and Substance: Hannu Lintu at the Meyerson |
 Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu made a big impression in his début with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in a colorful program of Ravel, Chopin, and Stravinsky – Le Tombeau de Couperin , the Piano Concerto no. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21, and Petrushka, respectively. While the printed program notes suggested a “French” theme (France being the homeland of Ravel, and Paris specifically the adopted city of Chopin and Stravinsky), “the influence of the piano” could just as well have been a unifying thread.
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| 10-Sep-2011 Meyerson Symphony Center | Caution to the Wind: DSO’s Ambitious and Successful Opener |
 The standing ovation seemed to come with a good-natured caveat: “…but you didn’t need to show off!” This opening concert of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2011-12 season presented a program of daunting scope, challenging both to the musicians and their audience, with Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1 and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony side by side. Under the direction of Maestro Jaap van Zweden (now in his fourth year as music director), the DSO set an impressive standard for the rest of the season.Read full review... | |
