Tag Archives: Lincoln Center

The Juilliard String Quartet captured Beethoven at his brightest and darkest, with string quartets early and late.

Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony was a jubilant finish to the American Classical Orchestra's season under Thomas Crawford, showing their mastery of, and ardent feeling for, the classical repertoire.

Seeing Stoppard's play about scientific arguments over the brain and consciousness, we marvel at how he threads scenes and characterizations into a lovely fabric of hope.

The Juilliard String Quartet presented music by Beethoven and Dvořák and the NYC premiere of a new work by Lembit Beecher.

The venerable original-instruments orchestra presented familiar and seldom-heard works, including Brahms's 'Alto Rhapsody' and music by Schubert and Ferdinand Ries.

Jordan Bak, a marvelous young violist, helped remind us that 20th-century American composers kept audiences in mind even as they created original, boundary-breaking concert music.

There has been such enthusiasm for the production since Yale (2015) that the ensemble, the musicians, the stage manager, and the assistants have remained together. As Vogel says, “We’ve all moved together as one.”

Over its 50 years, the Mostly Mozart Festival has built a large following, enjoyed an international reputation and presented A-list performers, all while tending to the shifting expectations of trendy New Yorkers. Under festival director Jane Moss and music director Louis Langrée, it genially circumvents the self-imposed restriction of its catchy name.

With rich harmonics, thrilling tension, and remarkable spatial awareness, the ACO made a thoroughly convincing case for how worthwhile it is to make the effort to present works like Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 with original instruments.

I've heard it said many times and I agree that the period-instrument movement was one of the two or three most refreshing and lifeblood-giving events in a century to keep classical music alive.