Category: music

When a writer for the magazine spoke to pianist Hélène Grimaud, “she was shocked to learn her reason for coming to Chicago. ‘I’m playing [Beethoven’s] Fourth [Concerto], aren’t I? Am I not playing the Fourth?!?’ she asked. As he double-checked the CSO website, Manning assured her she was to play ‘Emperor,’ Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto… Hours later, Ukranian pianist Valentine Lisitsa was subbed in for Grimaud.”

Three years ago, the company had to postpone the world premiere of Grendel when the computer controlling some elaborate and expensive stage machinery malfunctioned. Now the same problem is bedeviling L.A. Opera’s latest high-stakes production, the first installment in its Ring cycle: a “computer glitch” caused two different machinery problems during a performance last week.

“As I walked up to 65th and Broadway one recent evening, Tully’s interior, bubbling with cafe life, had a way of waving me over. The auditorium itself offered close contact with the sound. Intermission was a snug but not claustrophobic experience. Overheard conversations tended to be about the music. The Kimmel isn’t quite like this, not yet.”

“Missing: An erhu, a two-stringed Chinese instrument made of python skin, bamboo, horse hair and rosewood. Last Seen: Feb. 28, in front of Merkin Concert Hall. The case is reminiscent of Yo-Yo Ma’s leaving his cello in a New York City taxi in 1999. Except that beloved stringed instrument, worth $2.5 million, was found within a matter of hours in a citywide police search. The owner of the missing erhu, Wang Guowei, an esteemed musician, has not had that fairytale ending.”

“Many an opera plot is set in motion by a wicked curse that generates terrible heartache and loss. These days, it looks as if the real world of opera has been hit with a curse every bit as pernicious. … Even fundamentally healthy companies are scaling back on the number of productions or performances.”

“Perhaps in forty years the latest incarnation of Tully will no longer give much pleasure, but, for the moment, this handsomely tailored, sharp-toned venue is exactly what Lincoln Center needs. You no longer walk into the hall with the clammy sensation of having arrived in classical-music limbo.”

“Some opera companies around the U.S. have reacted to hard times by cutting back on their adventurous programming, but the Minnesota Opera is doing the opposite. It has launched a $5.5 million initiative intended to infuse the operatic repertoire with new works.”

“The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, beset by the same economic woes hitting most performing arts institutions, has dismissed four employees – a third of its administrative staff – and opened the door to canceling its May 9 performance, the last of its three subscription concerts.”

Board VP and acting CEO Jeri Crawford: “Because [the orchestra’s brush with insolvency has] been all brought out in the open, it seems like there is this renewal in the community. There has been this new synergy between the board and the guild and between the musicians. […] The reality that there might not be a philharmonic really shook people up.”

“Whatever one’s take on 33 Variations” – the new play by Moisés Kaufman starring Jane Fonda – “as a theater piece, it is an innovative and engrossing exercise in music appreciation.” Anthony Tommasini offers playgoers some background info on the Beethoven masterwork at the heart of the script.