New Jersey Symphony and Susanna Mälkki in Strauss, Debussy and Messiaen

By Alan Yu, 08 April 2013

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Reviewed at Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown on 7 April 2013

Strauss R., Don Juan, Op.20

Debussy, Fantaisie, for piano and orchestra

Messiaen, Les Offrandes oubliées

Strauss R., Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op.24

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

Susanna Mälkki, Conductor

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Piano

Opera New Jersey’s Tosca

Alan Yu, 12th February

For more than half a century since the 1960s, several productions featuring some of the best-known celebrities in the opera world have set high standards for Puccini’s Tosca, that “shabby little shocker,” as a musicologist once called it.

***11

Innocence: Saariaho’s final opera receives New York premiere

Kurt Gottschalk, 6th April

At the Metropolitan Opera, Innocence proves a gripping and perhaps divisive piece which feels real because it is a reflection of our reality, with no realistic hope of finding peace.

*****

The starry trio of Davidsen-Hilley-Mälkki saves Tristan und Isolde

Maria Sánchez, 12th January

A highly unbalanced premiere, its opportunity to become one of the Liceu's historic productions prevented by the contrast between dramaturgy and music.

****1

Musical tributes to Festival d’Aix as it wins Birgit Nilsson Prize

Peter Quantrill, 21st October

Pierre Audi is remembered in words and music as the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence receives $1m – the richest prize in classical music – at Stockholm’s Konserthuset.

Made in America: Mälkki, Josefowicz and the LSO in a fine showcase

Roy Westbrook, 18th May

Julia Perry and two Europeans exiled to America feature in Susanna Mälkki's London Symphony Orchestra programme, featuring Leila Josefowicz as soloist in Stravinsky's Violin Concerto.

****1

Lise Davidsen thrills in Metropolitan Opera’s Fidelio revival

Robert Levine, 7th March

Exceptional singing enlivens a flawed production, which takes liberties with the tone and tenor of Beethoven's sole opera.

****1

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Alan Yu

The first concert Alan attended was Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. For 7 years he presented classical music programmes for Radio Television Hong Kong, partly to pay his way through university. He attends concerts whenever he can and believes there is no substitute for the thrill of live performances. He writes here.