Category Archives: The Lesser Blog

Moon

Last night I finally got a chance to see Mark Morris’s newest piece, Moon, which premiered at the Kennedy Center last spring and has just now reached Berkeley under the auspices of Cal Performances. The last time I watched a … Continue reading

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Violinists

In the course of this November and December, here in New York City, I’ve been able to hear some of the most noteworthy violinists in the world, playing wondrous pieces of music that I have either loved forever or else … Continue reading

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David Cromer’s Gift

In a long life of choosing what to see in the world of the arts, I have learned that it is important to follow people. If Vladimir Jurowski or Simon Rattle is conducting a concert, I try to be there. … Continue reading

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One Last Concert

My four weeks in Berlin are coming to a close, and I had no more concerts on the agenda. But I hate to let a night go by in this wonderful music-loving and music-producing city without taking advantage of its … Continue reading

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Chamber Music Spaces in Berlin

During the past week, I’ve attended concerts in three of Berlin’s terrific spaces for chamber music — and I would have had a fourth, except that this week’s afternoon Espresso Concert at the Konzerthaus, normally held in one of the … Continue reading

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Kosky’s K.

I didn’t know what to expect. The Barrie Kosky production playing at the Berliner Ensemble was billed as “a Talmudic tingeltangel around Kafka’s Trial, after Kafka, with music from Bach to Schumann to Yiddish vaudeville.” (The untranslatable tingeltangel is an … Continue reading

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Berlin with a Bang

I am always happy to return to the concert scene in Berlin (not to mention the rest of this wonderful city), but this time the results exceeded even my high expectations. In the past few days, I’ve been to three … Continue reading

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Back with Esa-Pekka!

No sooner had I bid a regretful adieu to Esa-Pekka Salonen, as he departed the Bay Area last June, than he reappeared in my life by way of the New York Philharmonic. And New Yorkers are not the only ones … Continue reading

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Dudamel in New York

Now that Esa-Pekka Salonen has left the San Francisco Symphony, I find that my orchestral allegiances have shifted from the West Coast to the East. There is no surer sign of this than the fact that this fall I have … Continue reading

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Mark Morris at the Joyce

I tend to avoid the hot, muggy months in New York, so I have missed most of the Mark Morris company’s recent summer performances at the Joyce Theater. But this year I had to be in New York anyway in … Continue reading

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