Night After Night

Steven Isserlis and Kirill Gerstein at the 92nd Street Y, January 27, 2013

Kirill Gerstein and Steven Isserlis, by Ian Douglas/The New York Times

Steven Isserlis and Kirill Gerstein at the 92nd Street Y, January 27, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 29, 2013

That the brilliant cellist Steven Isserlis performs regularly at the 92nd Street Y is one of the venue's crowning glories, no matter what repertoire he chooses to play or which outstanding pianist he chooses to partner with. Last time I saw Isserlis, he played old and new music with Jeremy Denk. Not long after that occasion, I spoke with him by telephone for a feature story about the Y and its director, Hanna Arie-Gaifman.

A noted author of children's books about Beethoven and Handel, Isserlis also presents programs geared to young audiences at the Y. Coming up this Sunday, February 3, at 3pm, he and Denk will investigate the world of Saint-Saëns in the company of oboist James Austin Smith.

I wonder if Isserlis was responsible for the copy posted on the 92nd Street Y's website about that concert?

Saint-Saëns was a phenomenon. As a child, he could play Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas from memory. As an adult, he could compose symphonies, play the organ, even design his own telescope. He just couldn’t get along with anybody, except his best friend, the composer Fauré.

Playlist.

Satanic Abandoned Rock & Roll Society - Bloody Imagination (Mikroton)

throuRoof - Emerald Tablet of Hermes (Housecraft)

Scott Cloud - Absolute Down (Cloud Valley)

Cyquoia - Within Colored Reach (Cloud Valley)

Perspectives / Josh Mason - split CS (Permanent Nostalgia)

Andrew Chadwick - Kerning, Vol. 2 (Permanent Nostalgia)

Cool Person - Cool Person (Permanent Nostalgia)

Sovetskaya Gone - Kimberley Al Butnan (Digitalis)

Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) (Kscope)

A Thousand Other Names - A Thousand Other Names (Birdcage)

Mountains - Centralia (Thrill Jockey)

Golden Retriever - Occupied with the Unspoken (Thrill Jockey)

Gay Shapes - MOSS 006 (Moss Archive)

HMS - Cascades (Avant Archive > Bandcamp)

Pink Buffalo - Belvedere (Rotifer)

The North Sea - Royal Arsenal (Black Horizons)

Quartz Safari - Pineal Origins (Rotifer)

Xiphiidae - Unreleased #2 (self-released)

Grant Evans - Dragging Alabaster (House of Sun)

Hunting Rituals - Tree Route (Housecraft)

Black Eagle Child - Black Eagle Child (Housecraft)

Tricorn & Queue - Straits of Maize (Object Tapes)

Pan to Scratch - What Is Kept and What Is Thrown Away (Housecraft)

Josh Burke - Imagination (Housecraft)

Zebulon - The Spirit of Spatterdock and Muminchogs (Housecraft)

The Second Family Band - Our Way Is the Right Way (Housecraft)

Fossils - Empty + Marvelous (Housecraft)

Jason Nicolaus - Song of Hope for the Bluebird (Housecraft)

Xiphiidae - Unreleased #3 (self-released)

King Crimson - Elzer Hof, Mainz, Germany, March 30, 1974 (DGM)

Zony Mash + Horns - Live at the Royal Room (self-released)

Stephan Mathieu and David Sylvian - Wandermüde (Samadhi Sounds)

Roberto Gerhard - Complete String Quartets; Chaconne for Solo Violin - Arditti Quartet (Aeon)

Witold Lutoslawski - Vocal Works - Lucy Crowe, Toby Spence, Christopher Purves, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos)

Antonio Vivaldi - Bassoon Concertos, Vol. 3 - Sergio Azzolini, L'Aura Soave (Naïve)

Hevreh Ensemble - Between Worlds (self-released)

Lake Mary - Lake Mary (Planted Tapes)

Laura Kaminsky - Vukovar Trio; Duo for Cello and Piano; Wave Hill - Ensemble Pi; Cadmium Yellow - Cassatt String Quartet; Music for Artur; Triftmusik - Idith Meshulam; Transformations - Colorado String Quartet (Albany)

Sarah Kirkland Snider - Penelope - Shara Worden, Signal/Brad Lubman (New Amsterdam > MOG)

Chrome Canyon - Elemental Themes (Stones Throw > MOG)

DJ Dopeshoes - Darkshoes mix (Soundcloud)

Glass House / Even the Dew Is Porous - split CS (Tranquility Tapes)

Emuul / Hemosis - split CS (Tranquility Tapes)

Millions / Dads Against Vietnam - split CS (Tranquility Tapes)

Kyle Landstra / Subtle Body - split CS (Tranquility Tapes)

Motion Sickness of Time Travel / Imperial Topaz - split CS (Tranquility Tapes)

Pete Swanson - Punk Authority (Mexican Summer)

Stephen Falken - The Curious Case of Wiedenfalsen (VCO Recordings)

Chris Potter - The Sirens (ECM)

Hong Chulki and Choi Joonyong - Hum and Rattle (Balloon & Needle)

Choi Joonyong, Hong Chulki, Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide - Sweet Cuts, Distant Curves (Balloon & Needle)

Ryu Hankil, Hong Chulki and Choi Joonyong - Inferior Sounds (Balloon & Needle)

Derek Rogers - Requiem for Mark Linkous (Anathema Sound)

Various artists - Inscriptions, Vol. 1 (Sacred Phrases)

Hong Chulki - Amplified WC (Ghost & Son)

Choi Joonyong - Burn Yoido Burn (Ghost & Son)

Michael Pisaro, Oswald Egger and Julia Holter - The Middle of Life (Die Ganze Zeit) (Gravity Wave)

Michael Pisaro - The Punishment of the Tribe by Its Elders (Gravity Wave)

Dorothea Röschmann and Malcolm Martineau at Zankel Hall, January 23, 2013

Dorothea Röschmann, by Hiroyuki Ito/The New York Times

Dorothea Röschmann and Malcolm Martineau at Zankel Hall, January 23, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 25, 2013

As I confessed among social-media circles already, of all the things I'm called upon to cover, lieder recitals are probably what I feel least comfortable writing about. Not that there was anything even slightly uncomfortable about listening to Dorothea Röschmann and Malcolm Martineau – indeed, I'd been waiting to hear Röschmann in recital for several years, since the previous time I'd planned to hear her, she cancelled. But as I explained to a fellow music journalist who cited organ recitals at a particular fear, there's something about the confluence of the vocal apparatus, technique, style and literature that gets me a little uptight as regards my ability to represent it all meaningfully. In my experience, few strike this balance as seemingly effortlessly as my friend and colleague Anne Midgette.

The Yeomen of the Guard at City Center, January 18, 2013

Laurelyn Watson Chase, Stephen Quint and the NYGASP chorus, by Richard Termine/The New York Times

The Yeomen of the Guard at City Center, January 18, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 22, 2013

I've written several times before about my abiding love for the Gilbert & Sullivan canon, and for the work done on its behalf by the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, most recently when I covered their production of The Sorcerer at John Jay College in December. But of The Yeomen of the Guard, a show I didn't know well and hadn't seen staged previous, the following lines came to mind unbidden when I circulated my tiny review on social media:

Of "Yeomen," a rarity,
Observed with all due charity,
The music's bliss,
The tale, amiss –
Unfortunate disparity!

Musica Nuova at Le Poisson Rouge, January 14, 2013

Amanda Keil, by Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Musica Nuova at Le Poisson Rouge, January 14, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 18, 2013

Congratulations to Amanda Keil and her early-music ensemble, Musica Nuova, and to director Beth Greenberg for demonstrating in "The Arianna Project" that a mix of Ariadne-inspired monodramas by Monteverdi, Haydn and Alessandro Scarlatti can make for a compelling night of cabaret. And a special tip of the cap to fortepianist Sylvia Berry, whose opening account of Mozart's Fantasia in D minor (K. 397) was the perfect overture, evoking (for me, at least) waves lapping the shore of Naxos, stormy emotional currents and a bright finale to remind everybody that it's all show business.

Soldier Songs at Pace University, January 11, 2013

Zac Ballard and Christopher Burchett in Soldier Songs, by Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Soldier Songs at Pace University, January 11, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2013

So glad to have seen David T. Little's first musical-theater piece, especially having been so deeply impressed and moved by his subsequent opera, Dog Days (reviewed here and mulled further here). The presentation was jointly produced by Pace Presents, which is doing some mighty fine work these past few years, and Prototype: Opera/Theater/Now, a hugely ambitious and very successful new festival concocted by Beth Morrison Projects and the performing-arts center HERE.

Soldier Songs wasn't the only Prototype presentation reviewed in the Times: you can read Tony Tommasini's appreciation of Sumeida's Song here, and Zack Woolfe's review of Bluebeard here. And you'll also want to check out Heidi Waleson's overview of the entire festival for the Wall Street Journal, here.

Momenta Quartet at the Stone, January 8, 2013

Momenta Quartet, by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Momenta Quartet at the Stone, January 8, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 10, 2013

Another review from the series curated by David Fulmer at the Stone in January, now concluded. As it happens, Fulmer's stint was among the last of the two-week curatorial runs that have been Stone policy since the space opened in 2005, at which time a single artist booked each entire month. In April, the Stone will switch to weeklong artist residencies, in which a given performer might choose to be the sole or primary performer.

Before then, however, there's plenty to be savored in the remaining nights of a current run programmed by jazz guitarist and bassist Joe Morris. The first two-week series in February is one I'm especially looking forward to: Franklin Teagle, a synthesizer player and the head of two cassette labels, Tranquility Tapes and Anathema Sound, is bringing to New York a wide range of artists within his sphere, including the local debut of two artists I'm extremely keen to see: Grant Evans, whose double-cassette release Winds Over Silmäterä was on my top 10 list for 2011, and Rachel Evans, Grant's wife, whose self-titled double-LP release as Motion Sickness of Time Travel hit my top 10 in 2012. Both perform on Friday, February 1…and it should be good and crowded.

Guitar hero Vernon Reid is overseeing the last two weeks of February. Guitarist David Scanlon, from the trio Pet Bottle Ningen, has booked the first two weeks of March. And the final two-week curatorial run at the Stone, running March 17–31, is programmed by Alex Lipowski, percussionist and driving force of the Talea Ensemble, whose series includes a healthy number of the city's most gifted and curious contemporary-classical players. Take a look.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at Prudential Hall, January 4, 2013

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, by Richard Termine/The New York Times

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at Prudential Hall, January 4, 2013
The New York Times, Jan. 7, 2013

What I posted on Twitter immediately after this concert still captures my mood succinctly:

Played well, too, and a better match for Holst's The Planets than I'd anticipated, too. Well done, Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, well done.

Conor Hanick and String Noise at the Stone, January 2, 2012

Conor Hanick, by Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Conor Hanick and String Noise at the Stone, January 2, 2012
The New York Times, Jan. 4, 2013

What an unexpected treat to discover a gifted pianist previously unknown to me…and how vaguely humiliating to discover that not only is pretty much everyone I know already aware of Conor Hanick, but he's also the host of the piano-oriented new-music show Hammered! on Q2 web radio.

Sheesh.

The violin duo String Noise is something to watch out for, by the way—but you probably knew that already, too. And remember, David Fulmer's very impressive series at the Stone runs through January 15.

Artek at Immanuel Lutheran Church, December 29, 2012

Sarah Chalfy, Dongsok Shin and Artek, by Hiroyuki Ito/The New York Times

Artek at Immanuel Lutheran Church, December 29, 2012
The New York Times, Jan. 2, 2012