Music Sacra Classics for Christmas: Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra Kent Tritle, conductor Simone Dinnerstein, piano Susanna Phillips, soprano Carnegie Hall December 18, 2024 NEW YORK – Musica Sacra, directed by Kent Tritle, gave a concert of Christmas music on Thursday, but you didn’t hear caroling. The group presented choral pieces with Christmas texts, and topped things off with the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, a piece premiered in December 1822 but having little to do with the holiday. Still, the work, which is part piano concerto and part choral cantata, is festive and was jubilantly performed.
Read moreCrimson Roses: Contemporary American Choral Music Naxos Music CD Musica Viva Choir and Orchestra, Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, conductor Erin Sensenig, soprano Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano After a lengthy and illustrious career, the mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade says farewell on Crimson Roses, an album recorded by Musica Viva that includes three contemporary choral pieces. The title work, And Crimson Roses Once Again Be Fair, composed by Joseph Turrin, features both von Stade and soprano Erin Sensenig. It is a forty-five minute long cantata that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the First World War. Turrin set three poets who were part of the
Read more92nd Street Y Thursday, December 2024 Photos courtesy of Joseph Sinnott NEW YORK – When devising a recital program, pianist Jeremy Denk always provides thematic interest to abet the musical diversions. The centerpiece and entire second half of his performance at the 92nd Street Y was the Concord Sonata by Charles Ives, a totemic work in the repertoire of twentieth century piano music. Denk is an Ives specialist, having recorded both the piano and violin sonatas for Nonesuch (more on that later). The first half of the recital complemented Ives with a composer he revered (and quoted
Read moreKenneth Hesketh Hände – Music for Piano Clare Hammond, Paladino Music Composer Kenneth Hesketh has written several works for piano, and Clare Hammond has for years been their most dedicated advocate. Hände is a collection of her detailed performances of seven pieces, ranging from miniatures to two substantial works. The first of the latter is Poetic Conceits (2006), a six movement suite of character pieces. “Epigram,” “Epigraph,” “Epitaph,” and “Mad Pursuits” demonstrate colorful post-tonal harmony and angular gestures, while “Of Silence and Slow Time” and “Cold Pastoral” proceed gradually with aching lyricism. Pour Henri (2013) is dedicated to
Read moreTwo Early Music Ensembles Visit New York Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Fretwork, viols, and Silas Wollston, organ and virginal, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, December 3rd, 2024 The Tallis Scholars, presented by Miller Theatre’s Early Music Series at Church of St. Mary the Virgin, December 5th, 2024 NEW YORK – This past week’s concert schedule featured two early music ensembles, one specializing in early baroque music, and the other known for renaissance repertoire but presenting a more wide-ranging program. The countertenor Iestyn Davies is a highly regarded interpreter of Handel’s operas. He also appeared in Claire van Kempen’s play Farinelli and the
Read moreJason Anick and Jason Yeager – Sanctuary (Sunnyside) Violinist Jason Anick and pianist Jason Yeager last recorded together in 2017, and their album Unite revealed a simpatico pairing. Just as it was thematically constructed around its title, Sanctuary, their 2024 Sunnyside release, seeks to emphasize the need for recovery and renewal in these challenging times. They are joined by estimable collaborators, who are ceded space for their own contributions; this never feels like the Jasons dominate the proceedings. Trumpeters Jason Palmer and Billy Buss, tenor saxophonist Edmar Colón, cellist Naseem Alatrash, bassist Greg Loughman, and drummer Mike Connors
Read moreFor more than 25 years, WPRB’s Marvin Rosen has been one of radio’s greatest champions of living composers, playing works by many, many hundreds of composers both greater and lesser known, with an especially strong emphasis on gender and racial equity. Marvin’s curiosity and openness towards the music of our time is just about unparalleled, and there are composers all over the USA and world who thank him for bringing their music to the airwaves. Every December, Marvin offers up a particularly epic show to benefit the station, the Viva 21st Century marathon. For 24 straight hours Marvin will stay
Read moreEthan Iverson – Technically Acceptable (Blue Note CD, 2024) Ethan Iverson – Playfair Sonatas (Urlicht Audiovisual 2xCD, 2024) Ethan Iverson is one of the foremost jazz pianists of his generation. An alumnus of the Bad Plus, he has since appeared with a number of artists, both live and on record. He currently teaches at New England Conservatory of Music. Iverson revels in researching all the eras of jazz, from its inception to the most recent innovations, and is also an advocate for American concert music composers of the twentieth century. His Substack, offers a bevy of information about
Read moreBach: The 6 Partitas Francesco Tristano, piano Naïve 2XCD In his 2024 recording for Naïve, pianist Francesco Tristano interprets some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most challenging pieces, the six Partitas for clavier. Tristano’s 2022 On Early Music was an admirable outing, with pieces by Giralomo Frescobaldi, Peter Philips, John Bull, and Orlando Gibbons, serving as a taster course for Italian and English approaches to harpsichord playing in the early seventeenth century. Tristano’s keyboard isn’t the harpsichord, but a beautiful sounding grand piano in a recording studio in Kakegawa, Japan. Abetted by sound engineer Christoph Frommen, Tristano reveled in
Read moreJames Romig The Fragility of Time A Wave Press Matt Sargent, Guitar Composer James Romig’s previous piece for electric guitar, The Complexity of Distance, written for Mike Scheidt, was an overwhelming paean to distorted revelry. It was a swerve from Romig’s previous compositions, which were primarily for acoustic instruments, such as the Pulitzer-nominated piano work still and a number of pieces for percussion. His latest composition for electric guitar, The Fragility of Time, is played clean, sans distortion, and serves as a sort of companion to The Complexity of Distance. The hour-long work returns to the gradual unfolding
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