Classical Music Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 13

BWW Review: ORPHEUS AND ISSERLIS; PERFECT TOGETHER at 92nd Street Y
by Joanna Barouch - December 12, 2018

On Sunday, December 9, cellist Steven Isserlis brought his ebullient style to the 92nd Street Y in a concert with members of the string section of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra....

BWW Review: GLASS or HANDEL, Costanzo Can Handle Whatever's Thrown at Him
by Richard Sasanow - November 29, 2018

No one can accuse countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo of sitting around and waiting for projects to fall into his lap. GLASS HANDEL was first produced by the singer with Visionaire and Cath Brittan at Opera Philadelphia's (OP) O18 Operafest in September and presented in NY by OP and National Sawdust ...

BWW Review: Washington Concert Opera Serves Up a Seductive SAPHO
by Sam Abney - November 21, 2018

If you have ever attended an opera and thought 'all of these sets and costumes are so incredibly distracting' then Washington Concert Opera would be right up your alley. Stripping away the grandiose of an opera production, WCO presents their works in their most raw form: with just an orchestra, a ch...

BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS ROSENHAUS, WEBER AND DVORAK
by Peter Danish - November 14, 2018

BWW Review: THE PARK AVENUE CHAMBER SYMPHONY PERFORMS ROSENHAUS, WEBER AND DVORAK...

BWW Review: AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MASTERS OF CLASSICISM at Opera Garnier Monte-Carlo
by Marieke van den Wall Bake - November 08, 2018

On the 4th of November, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo (OPMC) invited the audience on a beautiful tour of 'Les Maitres du Classicisme' with not just one performance on the program, but two. With guest conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy at the helm and guest soloists Pablo Ferrandez (violoncello)...

BWW Review: A MORNING WITH THE MASTERS OF CLASSICISM at Opera Garnier Monte-Carlo
by Marieke van den Wall Bake - November 08, 2018

On the 4th of November, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo (OPMC) invited the audience on a beautiful tour of 'Les Maitres du Classicisme' with not just one performance on the program, but two. With guest conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy at the helm and guest soloists Pablo Ferrandez (violoncello)...

BWW Review: SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY CONCERT at Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - November 08, 2018

Guest Ccnductor David Danzmayr led the San Diego Symphony with unusual intensity in a program of one new work and two familiar favorites. Forceful skyward thrusts demanded full power when needed, and an active left hand called for expressive playing. The orchestra responded with performances that br...

BWW Review: Mendelssohn's ITALIAN SYMPHONY Upstaged by Epic Paganini Concerto
by Perry Tannenbaum - November 06, 2018

Charlotte Symphony's celebration of Italy with music by Berio, Berlioz, Paganini, and Mendelssohn's ITALIAN SYMPHONY actually peaked with Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1, thanks to the spectacular virtuosity of Sergej Krylov....

BWW Review: MARIINSKY AND SAN DIEGO ORCHESTRAS TOGETHER at The Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - October 30, 2018

It was a rare event, two symphony orchestras on stage at the same time, and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was spectacular. He first set a carefree festive mood with the drinking song from Puccini's La Traviata, performed with Viennese flair by the Mariinsky Orchestra and six singers from the Mari...

BWW Review: NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC PLAYS RUSSIAN CLASSICS at David Geffen Hall At Lincoln Center
by Joanna Barouch - October 30, 2018

On Friday October 26, 2018 the mostly sold-out crowd of avid listeners heard the music of a slate of 19th and early 20th century Russian composers, conducted by the Russian-born conductor Tugan Sokhiev in his New York Philharmonic debut series....

BWW Review: Don't Cry for MARIA, Argentina... She's Here in the Big Apple Now!
by Richard Sasanow - October 24, 2018

Site-specific performances are the latest thing for opera companies wanting to venture into works that wouldn't comfortably fit in a 500-, 1000- (or more) seat theatre. New York City Opera has tried this in the past, but never in a venue quite as intimate or louche as Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker St...

BWW Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at The Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - October 21, 2018

The first program in the San Diego Symphony's 2018-19 Jacobs Masterworks series featured conductor Edo de Waart and pianist Joyce Yang. So did the second, and that's far from a complaint. Three or four more from them this season would be fine with me. The concert format was also unchanged from we...

BWW Review: THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OPENS THE 2018-19 SEASON at the Jacobs Music Center
by Ron Bierman - October 07, 2018

Pianist Lang Lang all but disappeared from the concert stage late last year while recovering from an arm injury caused by intensely rushed practice of Ravel's concerto for left hand only. Now back touring, he was the main draw for the opening of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra's 2018-19 season. His...

BWW Review: BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH Recaptures Its Elemental Fire
by Perry Tannenbaum - October 07, 2018

Charlotte Symphony has kicked off its 2018-19 season with an all-Beethoven program highlighted by the FIFTH SYMPHONY and a guest turn by pianist Garrick Ohlsson, adding an extra performance to meet anticipated. They're also meeting great expectations...

BWW Review: ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA WITH NOBU TSUJII at Carnegie Hall
by Joanna Barouch - September 24, 2018

Anyone who has ever taken piano lessons, whether as a child or as an adult, will vouch for the fact that it is not an easy instrument to learn. Reading music simultaneously on two separate lines, instantly coordinating what the eye sees with what the hands play can take years to perfect. Now, imagin...

BWW Review: 1812 TCHAIKOVSKY SPECTACULAR WITH THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at At The Bayside Amphitheater
by Ron Bierman - September 04, 2018

The cannons boomed, bells rang, and spectacular multicolored fireworks exploded overhead as the SDSU Aztec marching band, including eight tubas, joined the San Diego Symphony to celebrate Russia's victory over Napoleon! Tchaikovsky would have been delighted, though probably secretly so since he said...

BWW Review: I Like MOZART. Does That Make Me a Bad Person?
by Richard Sasanow - August 16, 2018

Lincoln Center's MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL is over for the season and finished up with a program that was an oddity because it wasn't mostly Mozart (or no Mozart) but all Mozart. Well, hooray for the 18th century. I was happy to be back in the bosom of the festival's namesake. Does that make me a bad p...

BWW Review: WEST SIDE STORY WITH THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY at Bayside Amphitheater
by Ron Bierman - August 13, 2018

In 1962 West Side Story won 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Musical. Is it still worth seeing more than half a century later? Sure is! Jerome Robbins' energetic choreography remains riveting, and Leonard Bernstein's marvelous score is a perfect frame for Sondheim's affecting lyrics...

BWW Review: ADELAIDE INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL 2018: BEIJING GUITAR DUO & MARKO TOPCHII at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
by Barry Lenny - August 10, 2018

It was with great anticipation that I attended this concert....

BWW Review: Forget Mozart. It is THE FORCE OF THINGS that Begs Our Attention
by Richard Sasanow - August 09, 2018

Ashley Fure's and Adam Fure's THE FORCE OF THINGS: AN OPERA FOR OBJECTS--one of this week's unusual attractions at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival--took place at Brooklyn's Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. As far as I could tell, that first sentence was filled with misnomers: no ...

BWW Review: LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY SUMMERFEST CARNIVAL! at the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall
by Ron Bierman - August 07, 2018

'Carnival,' the opening concert in Cho-Liang Lin's last season as music director of the La Jolla Music Society's Summerfest, was an unusual jumble of works. Bartok's Contrasts for clarinet, piano and violin was written for jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. It is based on Hungarian and Romanian folk da...

BWW Review: THE EMERSON QUARTET BECOMES A QUINTET FOR A NIGHT at Alice Tully Hall At Lincoln Center
by Joanna Barouch - August 03, 2018

As has become the norm with the Mostly Mozart Festival in recent years, the Monday, July 30th Emerson String Quartet concert at Alice Tully Hall included some unusual programming choices. Aided and abetted by guest violist Ms. Nokuthula Ngwenyama, the quartet became a quintet and presented a fascina...

Bww Review: BERNSTEIN AT 100: Symphonic And Choreographic Lushness By The Sea At Burton Chase Park
by Valerie-Jean Miller - August 03, 2018

With Frank Fetta conducting the Marina del Rey Symphony and Nancy Dobbs Owen's Portrayal thru Dance of Leonard Bernstein's and Jerome Robbins' famed works, in celebration of his 100th Birthday, this marvelous concert took place at Marina del Rey's Burton Chase Park, where the ocean meets the land. T...

BWW Review: GODFATHERS OF LATIN JAZZ at San Diego Symphony Bayside Amphitheater
by Ron Bierman - July 31, 2018

The San Diego Symphony's 2018 Bayside Jazz Series continued with 'Godfathers of Latin Jazz,' a concert inspired by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's merger of bebop and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Dizzy had wanted something new for a 1947 Carnegie Hall concert, 'One of those tom toms' he said, thinking of the dif...