The Washington Post: Classical music festivals feature Mother Nature as accompaniment
For nearly 40 years, this admission-free festival has been attracting persnickety listeners and unpicky picnickers to Sun Valley, Idaho. Music Director Alasdair Neale has lined up strong guest artists, including pianist Orli Shaham (July 30 and Aug. 3); mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Aug. 9 and 10); Stéphane Denève, the new director of the New World Symphony, conducting a concert of John Williams’s music (Aug. 12); pianist Yefim Bronfman (Aug. 14); and violinist Augustin Hadelich (Aug. 20 and 21).
The Washington Post: NSO’s ‘Wind & Wave’ celebrates the sea, but ignores the tide
This guy right here loves a theme. When orchestras build a night of music around a central idea — be it a topic, a color, an era, a season — it offers listeners a comfy couch of context that allows us to settle in and feel situated. Having a theme also allows us to hear pieces of music in fresh dialogue with one another.
More to the point of this review, sometimes a theme just provides a good enough excuse to invite old friends over for a party, as was the case with the National Symphony Orchestra’s “Wind & Wave” concert on Thursday (repeating Friday and Saturday nights). This sea-and-sky-inspired selection brought together works from Richard Wagner (the overture to “Der fliegende Holländer”), Samuel Barber (“Night Flight”) and Claude Debussy (“La Mer”).
Washington Post: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Debuts at Wolf Trap
With new sounds in the beginning of the concert to the tried and true of the Western canon, the Shanghai Symphony’s debut at Wolf Trap was a wonderful snapshot of its musical history and tradition.
Washington Post: Juilliard Quartet shows new faces, same strong voice
Decisive and uncompromising...Juilliard’s confidently thoughtful approach, rhythmic acuity and ensemble precision were on full display.
Washington Post: Serenade! Choral Festival on the Hotlist for June
Serenade! Choral Festival named one of Washington Post's 13 things to see, eat, drink, and do in June.
Washington Post: Anne Akiko Meyers: Violinist breaks a leg — or rather, a foot.
“Break a leg” and “the show must go on” are among the most overused injunctions in the performing arts. On Friday, Anne Akiko Meyers joined the lists of performers who have obeyed both.
Washington Post: Julian Rachlin in Washington with Orchestre National de France
"And when Rachlin got going into the final cadenza, he became a wild thing, a kind of inspired mad scientist in a monologue both profound and terrifying..."
Washington Post: China Philharmonic’s Silk Road tour wends to Iran
"On Friday night, the music of Dvorak’s “New World” symphony was heard in Tehran, performed from the original music the New York Philharmonic has guarded since the work’s 1893 premiere. This orchestra, though, wasn’t American. It was the China Philharmonic."
Washington Post: Pianist Lara Downes gives insightful performance of Czech composers
"Downes — who admitted that Korngold was “the new love of my life” — gave the thing an impassioned performance, but it was her insights into the more complex, understated and subtle works on the program that more deeply impressed."