United States Carnegie Hall Opening Night 130th Anniversary Season – A Virtual Gala Celebration: Carnegie Hall, NY. Live stream viewed on 7.10.2020. (RP)
Carnegie Hall at 130 – a digital celebration of the past, present and future
New York
‘Musical Passports’ – a streamed concert with Tessa Lark and Andrew Armstrong from Cal Performances
United States Bartók, Ysaÿe, Schubert, Grieg, Ravel, Tessa Lark (violin) and Andrew Armstrong (piano): Recorded at New York’s Merkin Hall for Cal Performances, 1.10.2020. (HS)
Composer Alexey Shor in conversation with Colin Clarke
It is an exciting time for composer Alexey Shor. I personally first came across his music on a Delos release entitled Classical Music Stars in Malta in which four of his chamber pieces (Farewell Nocturne; Addio; King Matt the First; Coming of Age) shared disc space with music by Ilya Dimov, Khachaturian, Joseph Vella, and the fabulous Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia. Then, the superstar violinist Maxim Vengerov, no less, performed Shor’s St. Elmo Barcarolle at the Barbican in January this year under the baton of a conductor who is a tireless champion of Shor’s music, Sergey Smbatyan (review); and Vengerov’s encore, after Bruch’s First Violin Concerto and Ravel’s Tzigane, was another work by Shor: his Elegy for violin and orchestra.
United and unconquered! The brass of Lincoln Center premiere Anthony Barfield’s Invictus
United States Barfield, Invictus: Various musicians / Anthony Barfield (conductor), Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, 7.8.2020. Streamed through Lincoln Center at Home on 1 September 2020. (RP)
Kathleen Battle sparkles in a 1988 Il barbiere di Siviglia from the Met
United States Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of The Metropolitan Opera / Ralf Weikert (conductor). Performance of 3.12.1988 reviewed as a Nightly Met Opera Stream on 22.8.2020. (RP)
© Metropolitan Opera
A vintage Un ballo in maschera from the Met offers thrilling voices and lavish sets
United States Verdi, Un ballo in maschera: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of The Metropolitan Opera, New York / James Levine (conductor). Performance of 26.1.1991, reviewed as a Nightly Met Opera Stream on 20.8.2020. (RP)
Aspen Music Festival: Jackiw and Denk find beauty in Ives sonatas
United States Aspen Music Festival – Ives: Stefan Jackiw (violin), Jeremy Denk (piano), presented virtually by Aspen Music Festival, streaming from Steinway Hall, New York, 9.8.2020. (HS)
Schenk and Schneider-Siemssen’s Met Parsifal allowed a timeless tale to wend in its way towards redemptive transcendence
United States Wagner, Parsifal: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of The Metropolitan Opera, New York / James Levine (conductor). Performance of 28.3.1992 reviewed as a Nightly Met Opera Stream in 8.8.2020. (JPr)
