Now that the holidays are past I'm looking forward to the second half of New York City's classical music season. There are some great recitals, concerts and operas coming up.
January will be noteworthy for the number of chamber music recitals I'll be attending. I had thought the first would be given last week by the Ensemble Connect at Paul Hall. This is an extremely talented group of musicians, and their performance would have been the perfect introduction to Juilliard's annual Chamberfest scheduled for this coming week. Unfortunately, the Ensemble Connect's recital was postponed due to the snowstorm that hit the city on Thursday. But no matter. I'll be going to hear many more Juilliard chamber music recitals in the next few months, including two given at Holy Trinity Church by the Juilliard415, the school's Baroque ensemble, on period instruments.
As for orchestral music, I'll be hearing two performances of Mahler's symphonies this month at Carnegie Hall. On the 18th the Royal Concertgebouw will perform the First Symphony, and on the 23rd the Cleveland Orchestra will give their interpretation of the No. 9. Also at Carnegie Hall in coming months I'll hear the Chicago Symphony with Muti conducting Stravinsky; the Vienna Philharmonic performing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique; the Bayerisches Staatorchester with Kirill Petrenko, who next season will become chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, leading the ensemble in Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony; the Boston Symphony with Andriss Nelson conducting Act II of Wanger's Tristan; the Kamerata Baltica performing Chopin's Concerto No. 1 with Daniil Trifonov as soloist; and at the very end of the season three performances by the Met Orchestra. And it's not only orchestral works I'll be hearing at Carnegie Hall. I also have tickets to two virtuoso piano recitals by Mitsuko Uchida and András Schiff at that same venue.
Meanwhile, at Lincoln Center, the Great Performers series will live up to its name with concerts given by the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer conducting Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony; the L.A. Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel conducting Beethoven's No. 9; and - in what should be the highlights of the entire season - the London Symphony with its new music director Simon Rattle conducting performances of Mahler No. 9 and Das Lied von der Erde.
As far as opera is concerned I'll be seeing at the Met performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Rossini's Semiramide, Strauss's Elektra, Verdi's Luisa Miller, and Massenet's Cendrillon.
Obviously, the next several months will be exciting ones for those with a love of classical music. I'll be blogging here about all the performances I've been fortunate enough to have attended.
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