The opus ultimum of Berlin in Lights—Carnegie Hall’s genre-spanning 17-day festival of contemporary Berlin culture—took place in two performances on Nov. 17 and 18 at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights, a lovably gaudy, gold-painted 1930 movie house in Moorish Revival style. New Yorkers watched nearly 200 of their well-rehearsed children, siblings and friends, Read More
The Guardians of the Correct Way to Play Schubert were out in force the other night at Lang Lang’s recital in Carnegie Hall. Sitting in their midst, halfway back on the auditorium’s main floor, I could almost hear their inward grumblings of disapproval as the extravagantly hyped, 21-year-old Chinese Wunderkind hurtled through the Wanderer Fantasy Read More
Why have I-and so many of my musical friends-stopped going regularly to symphony concerts, preferring opera, chamber music, or recitals to what used to be the most commanding of classical attractions? One explanation was offered a number of years ago by Leonard Bernstein, who remarked that the symphony had ceased to dominate orchestral writing because Read More
