Peter Danish - Page 10

Petrouchka is an often performed piece that can sometimes feel tired and perfunctory. Along with The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky's other two big ballets from the same period (all of which remarkably flowed from the composer's pen within five years), Petrouchka requires a deft hand at the helm to feel fresh. Luckily, in the hands of Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony, a fine fresh take was on the menu. The New Jersey players did a fine job, and even if this music was not their typical fare, Maestro Lecombe managed to bring excitement and subtle inner colors to the surface throughout.

If Gioacchino Rossini had written no music in his career other than his overtures, he would still hold a great place in the pantheon of music history. Despite the fact that they tend to follow a formulaic pattern - invariably beginning slowly, frequently just a solo cello, then slowly adding instruments, leading to a great crescendo. The primary motif generally gets repeated numerous times, each time further developed, adding more and more instruments. In spite of all this, they are mini masterpieces. The 'Guillaume Tell' is possibly his greatest and certainly his most famous overture, and with its four clearly defined and brilliantly contrasting parts it is practically a full symphony in microcosm.

Opera and Classical music fans in Toronto have a lot to sing about! Legendary soprano Aprile Millo will be returning to Toronto for in November for a very special weekend of performances. The New York Post's James Jorden said of Millo: 'The soprano, considered the foremost stylist of Italian romantic vocal music, always draws an audience of hard core cognoscenti, who are practically an opera in themselves'.

As birthday celebrations go, Saturday night's concert at the Madison Theater of Molloy College has to be close to the top of the list. Rock Music legend Keith Emerson celebrated his 70th birthday with pianist extraordinaire Jeffrey Biegel and the South Shore Symphony in an eclectic program entitled: The Classical Legacy of a Rock Star. It was very clear from the get go that the crowd was composed largely of ELP fans looking for a trip down memory lane, but that was not at all what they got. Rather, Maestros Emerson, Biegel and Wiley (conductor of the South Shore Symphony) challenged the audience right from the beginning with several unfamiliar selections including the world premiere of three string quartets by Emerson and a new orchestral tone poem entitled 'Glorietta Pass,' which the composer conducted himself. It was a bold and daring decision to play lesser-known works rather than more obvious crowd-pleasers such as 'The Nutrocker' (based on the Nutcracker) or 'Hoedown' (from Copland's Rodeo). Nonetheless, the works were engagingly performed and warmly received.

On July 7th 1977, Emerson, Lake and Palmer performed the opening concert of a three-night stand at Madison Square Garden. The tour, in support of their new album 'Works Volume One' was famous and infamous for the massive 76-piece symphony orchestra and choir that it featured. It was also the first concert of any kind that this writer attended. No concert in nearly forty years of concert-going has left the same kind of impression.

NY PHILHARMONIC PREMIERS SPECTACULAR NEW CONCERTO

THE CLASSICAL LEGACY OF A ROCK STAR: ROCK LEGEND KEITH EMERSON TO PERFORM WITH SOUTH SHORE SYMPHONY

THE WHITE PLAINS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER FALL SEASON

This Sunday, September 14th, the Performers of Westchester kicked off its 23rd season with a performance by the renown Brentano String Quarter in a program of Mozart, Bartok and Schubert. The Performers of Westchester was established in 1982 by pianist Joel Rosen with the purpose of arranging performances of chamber music in private homes rather than in concert halls. The concept was designed to allow audiences to listen and experience chamber music in the ambience originally intended by the composer. This season features an eclectic array of poplular chamber music repertoire as well as modern, rarely presented, and unusual pieces.

3rd Annual Nyack Film Festival huge success!

Since she burst onto the scene while still a student a Juilliard, pianist and composer, Lera Auerbach, has always been a bit of a trend setter and rule breaker and her exciting and audacious new project appears to be no exception. It is a global collaborative commissioning project for her new 'Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.' The global aspect of the project will kick off with the composer herself performing the World Premiere, with the Stuttgart Philharmoniker under the baton of Maestro Dan Ettinger on November 24th, of next year.

The Carnegie Room Concert Series presents pianist Christopher Oldfather & Frederica Wyman is two very rare performances of Beethoven's Symphonies arranged for two pianos.

Since its founding in 1999, the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony has built a loyal following, both in New York City and worldwide through its extensive catalog of recordings on iTunes, Naxos/ClassicsOnline, Amazon and Spotify. Its founder, conductor and musical director David Bernard recently sat down with BWW Classical to tell us what he's been listening to lately. The results were wonderfully eclectic!

Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir perform music of Arvo Part at Carnegie Hall to enthusiastic crowd.

WHAT'S ON YOUR iPOD?

Bernard Haitink conducts the NY Philharmonic in Mahler's 3rd Symphony

Kaki King will be appearing on June 24th at the New York "River to River Festival" at the Winter Garden downtown.

Pianist Tanya Bannister has managed to do something very rare with her new CD. She has taken the standard recital disc and remade it into something fresh and different. 'The Intimate Concertos' is a collection of three lesser known works (but certainly not lesser works) by Mozart, Chopin and Shubert, and the arrangements and the recording of the works certainly live up to the title of the disc.

With a dozen gold and platinum releases under his belt, two hit PBS Specials and a decade of sold-out concerts world-wide, international superstar Mario Frangoulis returns to New York for two shows this weekend at Lincoln Center.

What's on your iPod tenor Stephen Costello?