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.
June 12, 2023
Gustavo Dudamel’s Mahler Misfire
At the New York Philharmonic, the celebrity conductor gave a curiously inert reading of the Ninth Symphony.
May 29, 2023
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.
May 8, 2023
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.
April 10, 2023
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.
March 6, 2023
The Ageless Exuberance of Michael Tilson Thomas
In the face of serious illness, the conductor led two memorable programs at the L.A. Phil.
January 30, 2023
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.
December 19, 2022
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.
December 5, 2022
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.
November 14, 2022
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.
October 24, 2022