92Y Announces Summer Season of Streaming Concerts

Millions of viewers have experienced 92Y's classical online concerts since Garrick Ohlsson inaugurated the series in mid-March. Now, 92Y is proud to announce its Summer Season of classical concerts, twelve enticing and adventurous programs streaming July 7 - August 27.

The summer season boasts eight live streams from the artists' own spaces, followed by four premiere broadcasts of previously recorded concerts. With a few exceptions (noted below), all concerts will air on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm, Eastern time. 92Y is now offering a subscription package: $50 for all eight live streams, or $10 for single tickets. Visit 92y.org/tickets/uptown/subscription/summer-concert-series for details. The previously recorded concerts are free; a full schedule appears below.

The season's theme is Time and Other Travel, as acclaimed recitalists transport the listener to realms and eras accessible only in the imagination. Opening with pianist Michael Brown in Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy, Time and Other Travel spans from medieval balladry to contemporary scores, with appearances by the Danish String Quartet, Colin and Eric Jacobsen of The Knights (92Y's upcoming Ensemble in Residence), pianist Jeremy Denk, star harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and others. Of notable interest is pianist Inon Barnatan's Time Traveler Suite, in which pieces by Adès, Bach, Barber, Brahms, Couperin, Handel, Ligeti, Rameau, and Ravel are played in a single arc without pause - an entrancing voyage through styles and epochs.

August 4- 13 brings In the Moment, a festival of improvisation featuring an exciting and eclectic array of artists. Violinist Jessie Montgomery and bassist Eleonore Oppenheim's virtuosic duo big dog little dog defies genre while weaving tapestries of string-driven sound. Jazz pianist Kris Davis, lauded as one of the brightest lights of her generation, dazzles with spontaneous invention. Israeli pianist Matan Porat revives a bygone art by creating a witty improvised score to Buster Keaton's silent film The General. Distinguished pianist Robert Levin closes the series by improvising new pieces in the style of Mozart and his peers on themes submitted by the audience.

Tuesday, July 21 (7:30 pm EDT): Michael Brown, piano - new stream

Michael Brown's artistry is shaped by his creative voice as a pianist and composer, praised for his "fearless performances" (The New York Times) and "exceptionally beautiful" compositions (The Washington Post). As a keynote to July's theme of travel, he offers Schubert's Fantasie in C Major "Wanderer," and from his forthcoming album, Ravel's shimmering, virtuosic Miroirs.

Thursday, July 23 (7:30 pm) Inon Barnatan, piano - new stream

Barnatan, called "one of the most admired pianists of his generation" by The New York Times, broadcasts an imaginative program under the title Variations on a Suite. The program of individual movements by a stylistically diverse group of composers - Bach, Handel, Rameau, Couperin, Ravel, Thomas Adès, Ligeti, and Barber - performed as a single unit, without pause.

Tuesday, July 28 (7:30 pm): Jeremy Denk, piano - new stream

Winner of a MacArthur "Genius" fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Jeremy Denk is one of America's foremost pianists. Described by The New York Times as "an artist you want to hear no matter what he performs," Denk will stream a recital of works by Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin.

Thursday, July 30 (7:00 pm): Colin Jacobsen, violin + Eric Jacobsen, cello - new stream

Brothers Colin and Eric Jacobson, co-founders and Artistic Directors of The Knights, celebrate their upcoming, multi-year collaboration with 92Y. The distinctive program features Ravel's Sonata for violin and cello, plus works of singer/songwriter Aiofe O'Donovan and the Jacobsens themselves, interspersed with poetry by Walt Whitman. (Please note the 7 pm starting time.)

Friday, July 31 (2 pm): Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord - new stream

Esfahani - described by the New Yorker as a "rebel harpsichordist" - brings a distinctly contemporary sensibility to this all-Bach program, performing a selection of Three-Part Inventions, the French Suite No. 3 in D Minor, Partita No. 6 in E Minor, and the Italian Concerto in F Major. Alex Ross has noted Esfahani's "crisp articulation, headlong momentum, and savvy theatrical effects... Esfahani's vitality is infectious: the crowd responded with whoops and with shouts for encores. (Please note the 2 pm starting time.)

IN THE MOMENT: A FESTIVAL OF IMPROVISATION

Tuesday, August 4 (7:30 pm): big dog little dog - Jessie Montgomery, violin + Eleonore Oppenheim, bass - new stream

big dog little dog is the mild-melding duo project of violinist/composer Jessie Montgomery and bassist/songwriter Eleonore Oppenheim. Their music has been described many ways, but perhaps the most apt so far has been "post-minimalist groove Americana." The pair use an improvisational composition technique that draws on many genres, and their experience as native New Yorkers, to create lush, cinematic soundscapes that are by turns sweeping and achingly intimate.

Thursday, August 6 (7:30 pm): Matan Porat, piano

Israeli pianist Matan Porat is a living master of a highly challenging and specialized art: improvising accompaniments to silent films, in this case Buster Keaton's 1926 comedic masterpiece, The General. Applying split-second timing and keen imagination to the task, Porat captures and amplifies the various moods - humorous, exciting, and tender - of this classic action/adventure/comedy. Premiere broadcast, recorded at 92Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall.

Tuesday, August 11 (7:30 pm): Kris Davis, piano - new stream

In 2019, The New York Times chose Kris Davis' CD Diatom Ribbons as its No. 1 "Jazz Album of the Year." Wrote Giovanni Russonello, "Davis...has spent years as her generation's powerhouse pianist in waiting. No longer. On Diatom Ribbons, her skills...come fully into focus. Ms. Davis builds her compositions on crooked patterns and splintered loops that somehow become a kind of magnetic touchstone, bringing together wildly diverse musicians in tangled unity." This recital will be improvised from start to finish.

Thursday, August 13 (2 pm): Robert Levin, piano - new stream

Pianist and musicologist Robert Levin is widely credited with reviving the tradition of improvising cadenzas to piano concertos of Mozart and Beethoven, as the composers themselves once did. For this program, he will play works by Mozart, and improvise in the Classical style on themes submitted by the audience. (Please note the 2 pm starting time.)

Thursday, August 20 (7:30 pm): Benjamin Bagby, voice and Mediaeval harp

Singer, harpist, and scholar Benjamin Bagby performs his enthralling rendition of the epic medieval poem Beowulf, which tells of the titular hero's battle against the monster Grendel. Speaking, chanting, and singing in the original Anglo-Saxon with projected translations, Bagby creates an entire world with only voice and six-string harp, in the ancient tradition of the great bards. The Washington Post called his performance of Beowulf "astounding... Bagby held his audience spellbound for 75 uninterrupted minutes...those of us fortunate enough to experience it can only feel gratitude and awe at his achievement." Recorded in February at 92Y.

Tuesday, August 25 (7:30 pm): Danish String Quartet

Premiere broadcast of the Danish String Quartet's 92Y recital debut, from November 2018. Their program consists of Haydn's Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2, and the first of Beethoven's Op. 59 groundbreaking "Rasumovsky" quartets. Reviewing a recent performance of the lavishly-praised foursome, Justin Davidson of New York magazine wrote, "When they were done, the audience jumped with the thrill of having witnessed such a thing."

Thursday, August 27 (7:30 pm): Avi Avital, mandolin

This is the premiere stream of Between Worlds, Avi Avital's 2016 performance at 92Y, which featured Ksenija Sidorova on the accordion and percussionist Itamar Doari in a program that explores the borders between folk and classical music. Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim of The New York Times has called his playing "nothing short of electric," while Gramophone wrote, "If Avi Avital's intention is to do for the mandolin what Andrés Segovia did for the classical guitar, he's already well on the way."

Current and previous programs can be viewed at 92y.org/archives/topics/concerts.

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