Sometimes in New York there are suddenly many days in a row with "must hear" concerts, and then I begin to fall behind in writing about what I have heard. November has been that kind of month; and I can't seem to find the time to adequately write about what I have heard and do all the other things that I want to do.
For example, here is a recent sequence of concerts we went to (Vera skipped the last one).
Tuesday: The Emerson String Quartet playing late Beethoven
Wednesday: A Cabaret performance by Sanda Wiegl and Doug Fitch
Thursday: No concert
Friday: A concert of 1960's and 1970's modernist music by Luciano Berio
Saturday: A jazz performance by the Scott Robinson Quartet
Sunday: Schoenberg's expressionist monodrama "Erwartung"
Monday: Debussy's "La Mer" and Ravel's opera "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges"
I would happily write a few paragraphs or more about each of these events! All had memorable moments.
And, in the preceding weeks, there was Varese's "Ameriques", the Tetzlaff Quartet performing Schubert's late G Major String Quartet, and William Kentridge doing Schwitter's "Ursonate". And there were others we might have gone to if there were not conflicts with other concerts or activities. So people ask, "So you are in New York, do you go to the theater a lot?" Well, no, because we go to too many concerts.
As should be obvious from what I have just written, I really enjoy hearing live music, despite my aging and less than perfect hearing. I rarely listen to recordings these days, because the sound of a live performance (in a proper venue!) is so much more engaging. A live performance makes a lasting impression in my memory; recordings don't do that for me these days. And in an age where a recording of everything that ever existed seems to be available instantly in the internet, there is something refreshing about having to make the effort to go to a particular place at a particular time to hear what you want to hear. That said, you are at the same time at the mercy of whoever is making the programming decisions for any particular venue or group. I recently realized that I have been to five orchestral concerts this fall, and that all of them have been by student orchestras. The New York Philharmonic and many of the visiting orchestras have been in their very traditional ruts these days; the lack of imagination and fear of economic calamities have made the orchestras exceptionally timid in their programming; they would never dare to put on a program of unfamiliar work, because they assume no one will come. Which is indeed the case, for the most part. But organizations, if they put their mind to it, can make it work. The Met Opera's last performance of "The Exterminating Angel" was sold out. The Met, with the help of the NY Times, put a great deal of effort into promoting the work, and the effort clearly paid off.
But this is turning into a rant, so I will stop. And in a subsequent post I will try to comment on some of the concerts I have heard, before I forget!
