I first met the composer Wang Lu on a warm weekend in south Brooklyn in the spring of 2008. The International Contemporary Ensemble, where I’m a pianist and original member, was about to premiere her “Siren Song.” It was by far the craziest-sounding piece on the program. “This one is beyond the beyond,” I said […]
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Posted inEssay
My Affair with Robert Wilson
Performance Art Valhalla The first opera I ever saw was the entire “Ring,” which lasts some 15 hours over four days. This was the 1980 Centennial Ring, or Jahrhundertring, marking 100 years since the world premiere of the cycle, which opened the newly built Festspielhaus in 1876. I was fresh out of grad school, living […]
Posted inBreaking
Exclusive: Study Estimates Cost of Berlin Philharmonie Closure: €1.15 Billion
In 2032, the Philharmonie, the home of the Berlin Philharmonic, will close for major renovations—the year of the orchestra’s 150th anniversary. The project raises thorny questions: Where will the Berlin Philharmonic play in the interim? Given broad cuts to the city’s culture budget, how much will the renovations cost? How long will they take? A […]
Posted inInterview
Savor the Calm
We all have the pieces we listen to less than we sit through. Where we think, “Wake me up when it’s over.” Every so often, though, a performer will play those works in a way that makes us bolt upright. Few violinists do this to me as regularly as Augustin Hadelich. He lavishes such attention […]
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Edvard Grieg, Aura Farmer
On the approach to Troldhaugen, a straight, wide avenue splits into spaghetti paths: down to the shoreside grave, up to the villa, left to the glass-fronted concert hall, and further left to the composing hut. Tracing each route is like walking through a video game landscape. This is World of Grieg, a place where footsteps […]
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On the Bridge to Forever
You may find yourself at Lincoln Center. You may find yourself sitting in the Wu Tsai Theater inside David Geffen Hall, where the New York Philharmonic plays. You may find yourself seeing 100 musicians, each with an electric guitar in hand, coming on stage, then playing together to produce massive, rolling waves of sound. And […]
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New Masters
On Monday, Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas.” It sets out his vision for how we can best harness artificial intelligence without stripping away human dignity. Warning against “the construction of yet another Tower of Babel” and the dangers of standardization and the concentration of power, he insists technology cannot be human. […]
Posted inEssay
Perceptual Astronomy
Fifty years ago, the American composer Maryanne Amacher set about the creation of a major new work: not a symphony or a string quartet, but a TV series. Originally titled “Sound Saga,” the piece, even at this early stage, was already remarkably—perhaps unprecedentedly—elaborate. The plot was based on Arthur C. Clarke’s baroque far-future space opera […]
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Turned-On Bach
Bach’s music has been recorded on synthesizer, launched into outer space, and inspired 300 years of Western classical music. Now, it’s on OnlyFans. On May 13, the Berlin-based violist, composer, and arranger Shasta Ellenbogen premiered the first of a new series of solo viola performances on OnlyFans. Performing naked in her living room, Ellenbogen filmed one-shot […]
Posted inReview
The Impossible Task
This year’s Venice Biennale of Art is titled “In Minor Keys,” a curatorial vision proposed by the late Koyo Kouoh, who died a year before the Biennale opened last week. The theme asks us to take a deep breath, close our eyes, and listen for the music that continues in the face of repression, tragedy, […]