A fine Monteverdi Vespers from the Tenet Ensemble

By Robert Levine, 23 June 2014

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Reviewed at St Jean Baptiste Church, New York City on 18 June 2014

Monteverdi, Vespro della Beata Vergine "Vespers of the Blessed Virgin" (1610)

Tenet Ensemble

Tuvan throat singing and holy minimalism at collected stories: “spirit”

Rebecca Lentjes, 23rd April

Employing khoomei, a style of singing that remains “a mystery to Western science”, each of the four performers was capable of producing up to four notes at once.

****1

TENET: Portraits in Song, Renaissance Italy from Ciconia to Petrucci

Amanda Keil, 3rd February

To accompany the exhibition “The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini,” the early music ensemble TENET held court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a lovely concert of musical portraits from the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

***11

LA Phil celebrates the California spirit with Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Cameron Kelsall, 3rd May

The program features Maria Dueñas in Korngold's Violin Concerto and a moving tribute to LA native Michael Tilson Thomas

****1

Denis Kozhukhin: captivating storytelling with the London Symphony

Clare Varney, 1st May

At the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Sir Antonio Pappano and the LSO are joined by Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin to plunge into the depths of despair in Bernstein’s melancholic The Age of Anxiety.

***11

Eric Lu brings scintillating Chopin to Singapore

Chang Tou Liang, 1st May

A world premiere by Wang Chenwei, familiar Chopin and a rare outing for Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta make for satisfying fare in Jahcun Wong’s Singapore Symphony programme.

****1

Yuja Wang with the Mahler CO: between lyricism and volatility

Edward Sava-Segal, 1st May

Yuja Wang and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra frame Chopin’s E minor concerto with two Prokofiev works, the First Symphony and Second Piano Concerto.

****1

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Robert Levine

Robert T. Levine is a New York born-and-bred music writer with a particular interest in music for the voice. His work has appeared in many periodicals and newspapers. He is the author of many books, including The Story of the Orchestra, four volumes in the Black Dog & Leventhal Opera Library, and, most recently, Maria Callas: A Musical Biography.