NYC's Time Spans festival closes with rhythms from the north

By Kurt Gottschalk, 26 August 2019

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Reviewed at DiMenna Center for Classical Music: Mary Flagler Cary Hall, New York City on 21 August 2019

Vivier, Pulau Dewata

Bouliane, Rythmes et échos des rivages anticostiens (US premiere)

Oesterle, Carrousel

Smith, Knotted Silk (US premiere)

Korndorf, Music for Owen Underhill and his Magnificent Eight (US premiere)

Yarn/Wire

Talea Ensemble

Lorraine Vaillancourt, Conductor

Talea Ensemble casts Berio’s Sequenze against recent works

Kurt Gottschalk, 9th December

The second of Talea’s belated Berio birthday concerts includes strong performances of the Sequenze for flute and viola in the wake of a last-minute shuffle.

****1

Savall conducts Beethoven and Haydn at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 3rd April

Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge is paired with Haydn's Die sieben letzten Worte, a journey from agony to transcendence in which the agony proves the more honest companion.

***11

Portraits and pictures from Ibragimova, Gardner and the LPO

Roy Westbrook, 1st April

From Three Screaming Popes to Pictures at an Exhibition, a pair of works inspired by paintings frame a violin concerto by Béla Bartók at London's Southbank Centre.

****1

Energy, precision and drama from the Philadelphia Orchestra

Susan Stempleski, 31st March

Marin Alsop is joined by pianist Hayato Sumino as she conducts the Philadelphians in an exhilarating program of works by John Adams, Gershwin and Prokofiev.

****1

Evgeny Kissin leaves a trail of happy hearts at the Barbican

Christopher Woodley, 31st March

With a spring in his step, Evgeny Kissin returns to Barbican Hall and gives well-wrought accounts of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann.

****1

Johnston’s Tavener the highlight for the Brighton Philharmonic

Nick Boston, 29th March

Warm Vaughan Williams and energetic Richter and Vivaldi from MacGregor and the BPO strings, with an astonishing performance of Tavener’s The Protecting Veil from Guy Johnston the highlight.

****1

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Kurt Gottschalk

Kurt Gottschalk is a journalist and author based in New York City. His writings on contemporary and classical music, jazz and improvisation have been published in outlets throughout Europe and America and he has two volumes of short fiction to his name. He produced and hosted the Miniature Minotaurs radio programme on WFMU and currently hosts Afternoon New Music on WKCR.