AUTO Visits NEWS » Items by By STEVE SMITH

Music Review | 'The Magic Flute': Enlightened Versus Evil, in a Hurry, All in English

Posted: December 24th, 2008, 5:34am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

The Metropolitan Opera’s family-friendly adaptation of “The Magic Flute,” a shortened version of Julie Taymor’s flamboyant 2004 staging, was revived on Monday afternoon.

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/12/19/Music_Review___New_York_Philharmonic__A_%e2%80%98Messiah%e2%80%99_as_Handel_Might_Have_Heard_It'

Music Review | New York Philharmonic: A ‘Messiah’ as Handel Might Have Heard It

Posted: December 19th, 2008, 5:13am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

With each presentation of Handel’s “Messiah” since the New York Philharmonic began to perform the work a few years ago has come a greater ease and authority.

Music Review | 'Peter and the Wolf': Warning: A Certain Wolf Continues to Be in Danger

Posted: December 17th, 2008, 4:30am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

For this year’s Works & Process production of “Peter and the Wolf,” the Brazilian artists and brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana stacked wooden slats into models representing Prokofiev’s characters.

Music Review: A Lifetime of Music, a Weekend With Old Friends

Posted: December 16th, 2008, 5:12am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Among the challenges that Elliott Carter has faced during a long, distinguished career as a composer, popular approval might be the one he least expected to grapple with.

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/12/15/Music_Review___Peter_Serkin_and_the_Brentano_String_Quartet__Some_Rigor__Some_Sensuousness_and_a_Blend_of_Old_and_New'

Music Review | Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet: Some Rigor, Some Sensuousness and a Blend of Old and New

Posted: December 15th, 2008, 5:37am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Mixing old and new works in the same recital has long been a fruitful strategy for the pianist Peter Serkin.

Music Review | 'Against the Avant-Garde: Romanticisms of the 1920s': Romantics Who Said No to Revolution

Posted: December 9th, 2008, 4:57am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra presented the American premiere of works by Walter Braunfels, Hermann Suter and Joseph Marx on Sunday at Avery Fisher Hall.

Music Review | Kronos Quartet: Modern Works Tell of Timeless Emotions

Posted: December 8th, 2008, 7:58am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

An air of ritualistic drama was made explicit in a new staging of George Crumb’s “Black Angels.”

Music Review | Warsaw Philharmonic: Among the Familiar, Hidden Treasure From Poland

Posted: November 19th, 2008, 5:32am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

The latest orchestra to have its mettle tried by the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Music Review | Bargemusic: Dueling Maestros, One Wielding a Wii

Posted: November 4th, 2008, 5:48am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

On Sunday, the Fauxharmonic Orchestra, a computer program developed in 2003 by Paul Henry Smith, shared a concert with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra at Bargemusic.

Music Review | American Symphony Orchestra: Mais Oui, Mostly French, Despite Wagnerian Touches

Posted: October 7th, 2008, 6:14am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

On Friday night at Avery Fisher Hall, American Symphony Orchestra offered a concert performance of Édouard Lalo’s “Roi d’Ys.”

Music Review | Soheil Nasseri: No Record Deal, No Problem: A Pianist Plays, Regardless

Posted: September 11th, 2008, 4:03am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Soheil Nasseri, an Iranian-American pianist, has presented 18 recital programs at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall since 2001, all under his own steam.

Music Review: A Sense of Loss Pervades the Mostly Mozart Finale

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 4:19am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Loss and transformation were the themes of this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, and the final program offered some of both.

Music: Prokofiev, a Russian in Exile Who Became a Soviet at Home

Posted: August 19th, 2008, 5:30am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Most of the concerts at the Bard Music Festival on Saturday and Sunday centered on a single issue: What effect did returning to Russia have on the composer’s music and career?

Music Review: Early Wagner: Splendor Soon to Come

Posted: August 12th, 2008, 1:29am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

“Das Liebesverbot” (“The Ban on Love”), Wagner’s second opera, is being performed at Glimmerglass Opera in what is billed as its North American fully staged premiere.

Music Review: Quote Him, Promote Him, Start Singing Him Now

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 3:59am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Everyone knows that all the world’s a stage, but the current season at Glimmerglass Opera suggests a variant: All the stage’s a Globe.

Permalink for 'NYT___Arts/2008/08/09/Music__Intimidated_by_Mozart%e2%80%99s_Ghost__Not_Anymore'

Music: Intimidated by Mozart’s Ghost? Not Anymore

Posted: August 9th, 2008, 4:45am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

At 11, Kaija Saariaho thought she was finished; now she is one of the world’s leading composers.

Music Review: Floating, Personalizing and Performing

Posted: August 4th, 2008, 5:40am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Everyone knows about the three B’s of classical music: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. The pianist David Holzman introduced a new wrinkle with three A’s: austere, abstract and academic.

Music: Minimalist Man Tries Organizing a Concert Series

Posted: July 25th, 2008, 4:25pm GMT by By STEVE SMITH

New territory is old hat for the founder of New Albion Records, so why not SummerScape?

Music Review: String Quartet That Also Whistles, Whispers and Wails

Posted: July 8th, 2008, 5:13am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

The opening night of Summergarden at the Museum of Modern Art featured the Attacca Quartet, whose members earned their master’s degrees at Juilliard in May.

Music Review | NeoLit Ensemble: Celebrating Female Composers (Without Polemics)

Posted: June 29th, 2008, 9:23pm GMT by By STEVE SMITH

It was refreshing to encounter a slate of works by seven female composers, presented without any hint of corrective polemic. (Web exclusive)

Seeking Profits Beyond CD Sales

Posted: May 29th, 2008, 3:52am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Universal Classics and Jazz, the worldwide market leader in classical CD sales, announced on Wednesday the formation of Universal Music Classical Artists Management and Productions.

Music Review: Less Famous Now, a Pianist Returns

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 5:06am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

Despite little fanfare, a boisterous audience filled the Blue Note to capacity when the Australian pianist David Helfgott, who was depicted in the movie "Shine," returned to New York on Monday.

Music Review: Comfortable Together, but Still Negotiating the Details

Posted: March 20th, 2008, 3:17am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

On Tuesday the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio performed with Leila Josefowicz, a prominent solo violinist, and Michael Tree, the violist of the Guarneri String Quartet.

Music Review: Perspectives on Nature, After a Storm

Posted: March 11th, 2008, 4:31am GMT by By STEVE SMITH

This adventurous amateur chorus, founded by the conductor Clara Longstreth in 1968, celebrated its 40th anniversary with the New York premiere of Ronald Perera’s “Why I Wake Early.”