Critic’s Choice for the 2017-18 season

Thu Aug 24, 2017 at 11:23 am
Daniil Trifonov will partner with Matthias Goerne in Schubert lieder xx adn at xx adn performa a soo rectal May 8 at Carnegie Hall.

Daniil Trifonov will partner with baritone Matthias Goerne February 6 and perform a solo recital May 4 at Carnegie Hall.

Time’s Arrow festival. September 12-14 at Trinity Wall Street.

Trinity Wall Street’s music director Julian Wachner has a notably ambitious season planned, and it begins with this three-day, six-concert exploration of Anton Webern, his music and its antecedents and descendants. This year (nine concerts will follow in 2018) presents much of Webern’s vocal music, and instrumental works that include the Five Pieces for Orchestra Op. 10, and the Op. 30 Variations. Intriguing context will come via Ockeghem, Tallis, Stockhausen, Sebastian Currier, Kati Agócs, and others old and new. trinitywallstreet.org (GG)

Pierre Boulez’ Répons. October 6-7 at the Park Avenue Armory.

One of Boulez’ most creatively adventurous compositions, Répons can be heard on recordings, and occasionally in halls, but only rarely as it was designed and created–in a multi-dimensional aural space. The Park Avenue Armory is the ideal venue for spatial music, and these performances will realize the composer’s vision, with the audience surrounding Ensemble Intercontemporain and conductor Matthias Pintscher. armoryonpark.org (GG)

“Monteverdi: The Birth of Opera.” October 18-21 at Lincoln Center.

For all practical purposes, Claudio Monteverdi is the first opera composer and among the greatest, though productions of his works are frustratingly infrequent. Into that gap comes John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Monteverdi Choir, who will deliver semi-staged performances of Orfeo, The Return of Ulysses, and The Coronation of Poppea. This is to celebrate the composer’s 450th anniversary, and appears to be the first such event in New York since BAM’s “Full Monte” in 2002—a true must-see series. lincolncenter.org (GG)

JACK Quartet: Soundscape America. October 19 & 21 at Miller Theatre.

A great American string quartet playing great American String Quartets. Across these two nights JACK has curated a program of classic old and new pieces, many difficult to hear in concert or even find on recordings. There will be John Zorn’s thrilling Necronomicon and music from the last few years by Cenk Ergün, Natacha Diels, and others. There will also be Carter’s String Quartet No. 2, Feldman’s Structures, and (if one can pick only one of the concerts) String Quartet No. 8 from the important Gloria Coates and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s extraordinary String Quartet, both on the 21st. millertheatre.com (GG)

Klaus Florian Vogt performs the title role in Wagner;'s "Parsifal" at the Metropolitan Opera February 6-xxxx.

Klaus Florian Vogt performs the title role in Wagner’s “Parsifal” at the Metropolitan Opera February 5-27.

Wagner’s Parsifal. February 5-27, 2018 at the Metropolitan Opera.

Parsifal as an opera needs little introduction: Wagner’s last opera is arguably the greatest example of his ideal of Gestamtkunstwerk, the complete work of art; through its combination of text, theater, and sublime music it keeps audiences in its spell for six timeless hours.

The Metropolitan Opera in February will revive the acclaimed François Girard production that premiered in 2013, with a strong cast that features Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role, Peter Mattei as Amfortas, Evelyn Herlitzius as Kundry, Evgeny Nikitin as Klingsor, and René Pape as Gurnemanz. The company’s music director elect, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will lead the epic work, following up on his well-received Wagnerian debut in Der Fliegende Holländer last season. metopera.org (ES)

Matthias Goerne and Daniil Trifonov. February 6 at Carnegie Hall.

A recital with either Matthias Goerne or Daniil Trifonov would be a major event: to get the two together is an embarrassment of riches. The pair will perform Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Brahms’s Four Serious Songs, plus songs by Berg, Wolf, and Shostakovich. carnegiehall.org (ES)

“Schubert: Epic and Intimate.” February 16-June 8 at the 92nd Street Y.

Neither 220 years since his birth nor 190 years since his death seems like platinum anniversary, yet Schubert cycles and mini-festivals are popping up everywhere this season. That’s not a complaint: drink in as much of the master as you can. The 92nd Street Y gets in on the act this spring with a 5-concert series, “Schubert: Epic and Intimate,” featuring a Winterreise with Christoph Prégardien and Julius Drake, three recitals of the late piano sonatas with Shai Wosner, and a program of part songs with New York Polyphony. 92y.org (ES)

Brahms trios with Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma. February 22 at Carnegie Hall. 

Brahms’s three piano trios are among the most treasured items in the chamber music repertoire, and they offer a sort-of snapshot of the composer’s career, written in 1854, 1880, and 1883, respectively (the wise master returned to the first in 1889 to for revisions). We hear in these three the ardor of young Brahms and the brilliant technique of the elder statesman. Presenting all three in concert this February will be three of today’s leading instrumentalists: Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma. carnegiehall.org (ES)

Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier performed by the Bayerische Staatsoper. March 29 at Carnegie Hall.

New York just had a new Rosenkavalier last year, in a stunning set of performances at the Met, and we’re about to get another. This spring, the Bavarian State Opera comes to Carnegie Hall for a concert performance of Strauss’s romantic masterpiece. Adrianne Pieczonka leads the cast as the Marschallin, with Angela Brower as Octavian, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Sophie, and Peter Rose as Baron Ochs. Kirill Petrenko conducts. carnegiehall.org (ES)

Daniil Trifonov. May 4 at Carnegie Hall.

Daniil Trifonov’s performing career already hints that he will take his place among the all-time great pianists. The main thing missing has been time in which to hear his thinking and playing across the large-scale repertoire. His Perspectives Series at Carnegie Hall will have him exploring new territory, most acutely in this concert where he will survey the 20th century with music from each decade, from Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata, Op. 1, to Traces Overhead by Thomas Adès, with intriguing visits with Copland, Ligeti, Stockhausen, John Adams, and more. carnegiehall.org (GG)

JACK Quartet performed John Luther Adams' "Everything That Rises" Thursday night at the DiMenna Center. Photo: Shervin Lainez

JACK Quartet will perform two programs of American music October 19 and 21 at the Miller Theatre. Photo: Shervin Lainez


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