PREVIEW: January's Classical Music in NYC
January is a month for new music in New York City. The Prototype Festival is now in its tenth year, and contemporary composers are heard this month on stages across the city—
92NY
Thu Jan 25. Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and countertenor Reginald Mobley present Garden of Good & Evil, juxtaposing music by Handel with modern works written for Baroque forces.
Wed Jan 31. Sandbox Percussion with pianist Conor Hanick perform new music by Tyshawn Sorey, Christopher Cerrone, and others.
American Symphony Orchestra
Jan 25 @ 7pm. Bard Festival Chorale. Dvořák’s rarely performed Requiem at Carnegie Hall.
Brooklyn Art Song Society
Fri Jan 5. Circles IV: Les Six. Songs by each of the infamous sextet of French composers, at First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn.
Carnegie Hall
Thu Jan 18. Kirill Gerstein, Piano. Chopin, Fauré, Poulenc, Liszt, Schumann, Godowsky/Strauss.
Fri Jan 19. Julia Bullock, Soprano and Bretton Brown, Piano. Barber, Converse, Poulenc, Weill, Strauss, Berg, and assorted American music.
Jan 20 - 21. The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst. Two varied programs: Bartók, Mahler, and Krenek on Saturday, and Webern and Prokofiev on Sunday.
Mon Jan 22. The Met Chamber Ensemble: The Golden Twenties. Weill Recital Hall. Hindemith, Weill, Johann Strauss, Jr.
Fri Jan 26. Behzod Abduraimov, Piano. Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, etc.
Sat Jan 27 @ 7pm. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, and a new work by Natalie Joachim in celebration of Haitian culture.
Mon Jan 29. Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Nelsons. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand (Seong-Jin Cho plays the solo part), and Tania León’s Stride.
Tues Jan 30 @ 7pm. Nelsons leads the BSO in Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in concert.
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Thu Jan 18. Sonic Spectrum II. Contemporary chamber music by Lera Auerbach, Jessie Montgomery, Chris Rogerson, and Kaija Saariaho.
Thu Jan 25 @ 6:30 & 9pm. An hour program, repeated, of Elgar and Vaughn Williams.
Sun Jan 28 @ 5pm. “An Evening with David Finckel and Wu Han.” CMS’s Artisic Directors are featured in a program that includes cello sonatas of Debussy and Shostakovich, and Dvořák’s Quartet in E-flat.
GatherNYC
Sun Jan 21 @ 11am. Grammy-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George and harpist Parker Ramsay in duo recital.
Harlem Chamber Players
Sun Jan 21 @ 4pm. United Palace in Washington Heights — a global touring production commissioned by Tanglewood Music Center —“The Chevalier,” a play with music (featuring Harlem Chamber Players) about Joseph Bologne.
Merkin Concert Hall
Sun Jan 14 @ 3pm. New York Phil Ensembles play Lucas Foss’s Time Cycle, and works by E. Goosens and Schubert.
Tue Jan 16 @ 2pm. Elia Cecino in a massive program including Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata and a work by contemporary composer Orazio Sciortino.
Thu Jan 18. “Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist” Angélica Negrón with “visual and botanical artist” Sophie Parker present music for “playable sculptures.”
Metropolitan Opera
Dec 31 - May 25. A new production of Bizet’s Carmen, set in the modern day, directed by Carrie Cracknell in her Met debut.
National Sawdust
Jan 31. Composers Now Festival Opening Night. Hosted by Tania León.
New York Festival of Song
Thu Jan 18. NYFOS @ Juilliard: NED at 100. Steven Blier serves as pianist and host for a tribute to the late Ned Rorem.
New York Philharmonic
Jan 4 - 7. Jaap van Zweden conducts Wagner and Brahms, and Buchbinder plays Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.
Jan 11 - 13. Hilary Hahn plays Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Also, Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade for Orchestra and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.
Jan 23 - 26. Hitchcock’s Vertigo in Concert, featuring Bernard Hermann’s film score.
Jan 28. Part of The Art of the Score, The Movie Music of Terence Blanchard, featuring the E-Collective.
People’s Symphony Concerts
Sat Jan 6. Pianist Jeremy Denk and violinist Maria Wloszczowska play Bach’s 6 violin sonatas.
Perelman Performing Arts Center
Jan 4 - 27. Lobby Stage — FREE entertainment and family programming in the PAC NYC lobby.
Prototype Festival
Jan 12 - 20. World premiere of chamber opera Adoration, an adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s film, by composer Mary Kouyoumdjian and librettist Royce Vavrek.
Jan 10 - 19. NYC Premiere of contemporary opera composed and conducted by Huang Ruo, Angel Island, “a poignant multimedia experience.”
Jan 10 - 21. Swann. Digital streaming aria with music by Tamar-Kali, libretto by Carl Hancock Rux, based on the legacy of William Dorsey Swann, a drag queen born into slavery.
Roulette
Wed Jan 17. Celebrating Ryuichi Sakamoto, with the Sakamoto Tribute Ensemble, a fund-raiser and tribute to the beloved late Japanese composer on his 72nd birthday.
Sat Jan 20. Eclipse Quartet at 20. 21st century works and recent gems.
