Alex Ross
Alex Ross has been the music critic at The New Yorker since 1996. He writes about classical music, covering the field from the Metropolitan Opera to the contemporary avant-garde, and has also contributed essays on literature, history, the visual arts, film, and ecology. His first book, “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century,” a cultural history of music since 1900, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Guardian First Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His second book, the essay collection “Listen to This,” won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. His latest book is “Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music,” an account of Wagner’s vast cultural impact. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Sonic Signatures of Salvatore Sciarrino and Kaija Saariaho
The music of these painterly modern composers is as distinct as Schubert’s or Debussy’s.
Gustavo Dudamel’s Mahler Misfire
At the New York Philharmonic, the celebrity conductor gave a curiously inert reading of the Ninth Symphony.
Yo-Yo Ma Goes Underground with the Louisville Orchestra
Teddy Abrams, the ensemble’s music director, has created a work about Mammoth Cave—and staged the piece inside its reverberating walls.
The Doleful Minimalism of Max Richter
The composer is everywhere on film and television soundtracks, promising that we will dissolve in mist before the apocalypse arrives.
Requiem for a Great Cat
The beloved mountain lion P-22 connected humans to feline mysteries.
Medieval Romances by Kate Soper and Richard Wagner
“The Romance of the Rose,” at Long Beach Opera, and Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” at the Met, both dwell on ancient mysteries of love.
The Gustavo Dudamel Show Goes East
The conductor’s move to the New York Philharmonic may be less of a loss for L.A. than it appears.
Loud Noises on the Western Front
A new adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” dilutes the power of Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar novel.
Hildegard of Bingen Composes the Cosmos
How a visionary medieval nun became a towering figure in early musical history.
The Ageless Exuberance of Michael Tilson Thomas
In the face of serious illness, the conductor led two memorable programs at the L.A. Phil.
Looking Past the Celebrity Conductor
Hype is buoying the young phenomenon Klaus Mäkelä, but Xian Zhang, at the New Jersey Symphony, shows a better way forward for the art.
Notable Performances and Recordings of 2022
The daring South Dakota Symphony, Germany’s excellent small opera houses, Davóne Tines’s soaring performance in “X,” and other highlights of the year in music.
Counting Down “The Hours” at the Met
Kevin Puts’s new opera, inspired by Michael Cunningham’s novel, is finely crafted but lacks an original voice.
The Symphonic Testament of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
How the master of Hollywood film music molded fragments of his movie scores into a towering memorial.
Kristian Bezuidenhout Unleashes the Subtle Power of the Fortepiano
On a modern piano, performers have to play Mozart with restraint, but on an earlier instrument they can push to extremes.
A History of the Modernist Villain’s Lair
“Don’t Worry Darling” is the latest in a long line of films that use modern architecture as a backdrop for evil.
Is the New York Philharmonic’s Swanky New Space Falling Short?
The renovated David Geffen Hall looks better, but the acoustics leave a mixed impression.
The Bel-Canto Brilliance of Lawrence Brownlee
The singer’s performance in Rossini’s “Otello,” at Opera Philadelphia, was a tour de force of tenor genius.
The Ghostly Songs of Othmar Schoeck
Revisiting the chaotic Swiss composer who impressed James Joyce and caused Penn to meet Teller.
John Adams Captures the Music of Shakespeare
The composer’s new opera, “Antony and Cleopatra,” displays his mastery at setting the complex rhythms of the English language.
The Sonic Signatures of Salvatore Sciarrino and Kaija Saariaho
The music of these painterly modern composers is as distinct as Schubert’s or Debussy’s.
Gustavo Dudamel’s Mahler Misfire
At the New York Philharmonic, the celebrity conductor gave a curiously inert reading of the Ninth Symphony.
Yo-Yo Ma Goes Underground with the Louisville Orchestra
Teddy Abrams, the ensemble’s music director, has created a work about Mammoth Cave—and staged the piece inside its reverberating walls.
The Doleful Minimalism of Max Richter
The composer is everywhere on film and television soundtracks, promising that we will dissolve in mist before the apocalypse arrives.
Requiem for a Great Cat
The beloved mountain lion P-22 connected humans to feline mysteries.
Medieval Romances by Kate Soper and Richard Wagner
“The Romance of the Rose,” at Long Beach Opera, and Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” at the Met, both dwell on ancient mysteries of love.
The Gustavo Dudamel Show Goes East
The conductor’s move to the New York Philharmonic may be less of a loss for L.A. than it appears.
Loud Noises on the Western Front
A new adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” dilutes the power of Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar novel.
Hildegard of Bingen Composes the Cosmos
How a visionary medieval nun became a towering figure in early musical history.
The Ageless Exuberance of Michael Tilson Thomas
In the face of serious illness, the conductor led two memorable programs at the L.A. Phil.
Looking Past the Celebrity Conductor
Hype is buoying the young phenomenon Klaus Mäkelä, but Xian Zhang, at the New Jersey Symphony, shows a better way forward for the art.
Notable Performances and Recordings of 2022
The daring South Dakota Symphony, Germany’s excellent small opera houses, Davóne Tines’s soaring performance in “X,” and other highlights of the year in music.
Counting Down “The Hours” at the Met
Kevin Puts’s new opera, inspired by Michael Cunningham’s novel, is finely crafted but lacks an original voice.
The Symphonic Testament of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
How the master of Hollywood film music molded fragments of his movie scores into a towering memorial.
Kristian Bezuidenhout Unleashes the Subtle Power of the Fortepiano
On a modern piano, performers have to play Mozart with restraint, but on an earlier instrument they can push to extremes.
A History of the Modernist Villain’s Lair
“Don’t Worry Darling” is the latest in a long line of films that use modern architecture as a backdrop for evil.
Is the New York Philharmonic’s Swanky New Space Falling Short?
The renovated David Geffen Hall looks better, but the acoustics leave a mixed impression.
The Bel-Canto Brilliance of Lawrence Brownlee
The singer’s performance in Rossini’s “Otello,” at Opera Philadelphia, was a tour de force of tenor genius.
The Ghostly Songs of Othmar Schoeck
Revisiting the chaotic Swiss composer who impressed James Joyce and caused Penn to meet Teller.
John Adams Captures the Music of Shakespeare
The composer’s new opera, “Antony and Cleopatra,” displays his mastery at setting the complex rhythms of the English language.