PREVIEW: March in NYC
Bargemusic
Brooklyn’s unique musical venue, the floating Bargemusic resumes following a winter break. They have a lineup of strong talent and interesting programming.
Most intriguing to me is the Alaria Trio’s program on March 24 at 4pm, featuring a work by Arvo Pärt, and Shostakovich’s compelling Trio No 2 in E Minor.
92Y
Saturday, Mar 2, 2019, 8 pm, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, an acclaimed young pianist, plays a wonderful program comprised of Scriabin’s fascinating Sonata No. 10, assorted Scarlatti Sonatas, Debussy’s Images Book II, and Mozart’s Sonata in F Major, K. 533/494.
What promises to be a highlight of the year’s musical events, on Sunday, March 17 at 3 pm, baritone Matthias Goerne, floating around this year as New York Philharmonic’s Artist-in-Residence, will be joined by the inimitable Daniil Trifonov at the piano and musicians from the New York Philharmonic, including concertmaster Frank Huang, for an afternoon of Lieder, capped off with Brahms’s beautiful Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8.
The Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists should pack the place with Sondheim: Wordplay. How will they cull into one evening Sondheim’s ample supply of word trickery? Director Christopher Gattelli and writer Jack Feldman, who collaborated on Disney’s Newsies helm this program featuring Melissa Errico, Telly Leung, Lesli Margherita, Ruthie Ann Miles, Lauren Worsham. Saturday, March 30 through Monday, April 1.
New York Philharmonic
Yo-Yo Ma and pipa virtuoso Wu Man (who knew there were pipa soloists on the concert circuit?) join the Philharmonic for Zhao Lin’s concerto, A Happy Excursion, along with Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony. Long Yu conducts. March 6 - 9.
March 13-19 it's an All-Mozart evening. Richard Goode, Joélle Harvey, the Westminster Symphonic Choir perform the Requiem, Piano Concerto No. 27, the revered Ave Verum Corpus. Maestro Manfred Honeck of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra leads a luxury cast in a concert that would torture Salieri.
March 21-26 Jaap van Zweden leads Brahms’s First Symphony, one of his more triumphant, rousing works. Artist-in-Residence Matthias Goerne sings John Adams’s "setting of Whitman’s poignant verses that recall his comforting the sick and dying in America’s Civil War" called The Would-Dresser. Charles Ives, the most acerbic of American composers, will provide a contrasting American voice to Whitman's via Central Park in the Dark.
March 27 One night only with Maurizio Pollini and the New York Philharmonic, Schumann's Piano Concerto, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and J. Wagenaar's Cyrano de Bergerac Overture. Jaap van Zweden conducts.
Met Opera
Robert Carson's acclaimed production of Falstaff continues March 2, 5, 8, 12, 16. Verdi's last opera, a rare comedy, is the perfect opera. The sizable titular role is played here by baritone Ambrogio Maestri. The New York Times says he "owns the role." Rising mezzo-soprano star Jennifer Johnson Cano sings the role of Meg Page.
The MET's Ring Cycle, in the controversial Robert Lepage production, of "The Machine" fame, begins with Das Reinhold on Saturday March 9 at 1PM.
Jennifer Rowley is Tosca on March 18, 23, 26, and 29. Her “Vissi d’arte” is sublime.
Also, the celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings the demanding role of Sesta in Mozart's rare serious opera La Clemenza di Tito.
Carnegie Hall
A chock-full month on 57th Street. There's a citywide festival celebrating the "making of America" called Migrations. Early music aficionados will want to hear the Chiaroscuro Quartet with Kristian Bezuidenhout on the fortepiano, Monday March 4.
The excitement in the large hall begins with a generous visit from the Vienna Philharmonic, under a couple different conductors. I'm especially looking forward to Michael TilsonThomas conducting Mahler's Ninth on Wednesday, March 6.
Thursday, March 7, keyboard lovers are torn between the venerated Sir András Schiff in the Stern Auditorium, at 8PM, and young sensation of the harpsichord world Jean Rondeau in Weill Recital Hall at 7:30PM.
The Philadelphia Orchestra returns. The Boston Symphony returns.
Anne Sophie-Mutter returns Tuesday, March 12 at 8PM with pianist Lambert Orkis for a spectacular evening of violin music, Mozart, Debussy, and Poulenc, and also the world premiere of Ghost Trio by Sebastian Currier with cellist Daniel Müller-Schott.
Wednesday March 13 has a lot going on, my favorite of which is composer Thomas Adès playing two-piano music with Kirill Gerstein. Most curious is Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms as arranged for two pianos by Shostakovich!
Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra can always be counted on for rarities, this time Martinů’s operatic masterpiece Julietta, based on the French play Juliette, or the Key of Dreams. With the Bard Festival Chorale. In Czech. Friday, March 22 at 8PM.
Emanuel Ax plays a fine program Wednesday March 27 8PM in the Stern Auditorium. Brahms, Schumann Chopin, and Ravel. Most interestingly, George Benjamin's Piano Figures.
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
CMS is beginning the month with Hungarian Fire, a program focusing on Hungarian music, and the flavorful roots of Hungarian folk music of many beloved composers, like Brahms, Kodály, and Bartók. That's Sunday, March 3 at 5PM in Alice Tully Hall.
Then, they delve further East for their WINTER FESTIVAL: RUSSIAN PANORAMA. Four concerts devoted to music of Russia. March 12, 15, 19, and 24. Glinka, Glazunov, Balakirev, Schnittke, Rachmaninov,Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Taneyev, Rubinstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Myaskovsky, Borodin....
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts London’s Philharmonia Orchestra in Bruckner’s Seventh. Sunday, March 10, at 3PM in David Geffen hall.
Rose Theater
Respected Italian conductor Fabio Luisi leads The Orchestra Now in Brahms's joyous Second Symphony, and Grieg's beloved Piano Concerto with Alessandro Taverna at the keyboard. The Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30.
Bach in the Subways
March 21-24, Bach’s birthday is celebrated in a worldwide series of events called Bach in the Subways! Here are the scheduled NYC performances. We all need some Bach in our lives, particularly on the subway.
***
