Find articles | Kurt Gottschalk

Prerecorded acoustic guitar, soft beats and more piano accompany video of jittery yellow circles and masses of illegible text in a concert that feels both meditative and too much to take in

The spirit of the St Luke's Chamber Ensemble makes for a successful performance of Julius Eastman's 1974 composition Femenine.

Levit introduced the theme at such a clip that one couldn't help but worry about the marathon of musculature he had in front of him, but he persevered, playing with a precision that was almost alarming.

Sixtrum’s program – framed by two very different composers but just as much by the big wooden instruments that filled the staging ground – is pristine both In sight and sound.

Aucoin, librettist Jorie Graham and director Peter Sellars make New Bodies more a haunting mood piece than a cautionary tale for the American Modern Opera Company.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with Stewart as soloist, is transformed into a call for climate action at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, the strongest moments coming in the musical quotations. 

Some 350 years after their composition, Heinrich Biber’s Rosary Sonatas might not retain their all of their mysteries, but their beauty is eternal. 

Conrad Tao bookends his Zankel Hall recital, performed on a concert grand and a large electronic keyboard, with Debussy’s 12 Études. 

At the center of this production is the centuries-old verse of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the wondrous voice of Magos Herrera and a richly realized telling of the quest for knowledge. 

Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony is a massive and aptly complicated work to which William Kentridge’s film adds contextual layers of stop-motion animation and vintage footage in a surreal nightmare of tyranny.

The name given to TAK's program was “Holding”. Were we being cared for or were we simply stuck waiting? Was this a respite or a reserve? 

Deborah Colker directs an ambitious show, which works incredibly well with storytelling as emotive as it is narrative, confronting death and loss in sharp, weary pains. 

The North American premiere of Indra's Net finds Meredith Monk back in her familiar, inexplicable realm. 

Inside Light, which takes music from Karlheinz Stockhausen's massive, 29-hour opera cycle Licht, adds to the enigma while creating its own spectacle. 

Weilerstein’s playing is animated and on point, joyous and precise in an engaging solo recital. 

From the simple observations of Jessie Montgomery’s duets to the slow beauty of Kaija Saariaho’s Light and Matter, the program holds out promise that, whatever else happens, the sun will still rise tomorrow. 

The show benefits from a strong cast and Mary Kouyoumdjian’s score worked wonderfully well, but it remains a weird story, unbalanced and ultimately unsatisfying. 

Anthony Davis’ groundbreaking opera, with a jazz band in the middle of the orchestra and a book that focuses more on crises than victories, proves hard to see as an heroic tale.