Category Archives: The Lesser Blog

Ballet in New York

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Wendy Lesser

In a kind of battle of the bands spanning Lincoln Center Plaza, the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre both had their spring seasons running at nearly the same time during the past few weeks. I attended four of these performances—two … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged alexei ratmansky, american ballet theatre, balanchine, bartok, baryshnikov, glazunov, jerome robbins, john adams, justin peck, new york city ballet, on the dnieper, pam tanowitz, shostakovich, the seasons | 4 Comments

Two in a Row

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Wendy Lesser

This past weekend was rather incredible. On Friday night I attended a chamber music concert at Carnegie Hall‘s Zankel auditorium that featured my favorite violinist in the world, Christian Tetzlaff. And on Saturday night—again at Carnegie, but this time in … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged carnegie, christian tetzlaff, dvorak, lars vogt, mitsuko uchida, schubert, schumann, tanya tetzlaff, tetzlaff trio, zankel | Leave a comment

A Surprise at the Komische

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Wendy Lesser

The Komische Oper is the liveliest and least formal of Berlin’s three opera companies, and I have seen many great productions there over the years—most recently, in December, Andreas Homoki’s brilliantly directed Love of Three Oranges. So when I saw … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged andreas homoki, barrie kosky, jerome robbins, komische oper, my fair lady, otto pichler, west side story | Leave a comment

Another Mahler’s First

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Wendy Lesser

Well, that’s Berlin for you. No sooner have I pronounced a favorite performance than another leaps in to take its place. I am now in a divided state, and wouldn’t know how to choose between listening forever to Daniel Harding’s terrific version … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged brahms, konzerthaus berlin, mahler, rundfunk-sinfonieorchester berlin, vladimir jurowski | Leave a comment

Discovering a New Conductor

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Wendy Lesser

Of course, I am very late to the show on this one, since Daniel Harding is already a known quantity in the classical music world. But I had never before heard him conduct live (never, to my knowledge, even heard a … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged alban berg, berlin philharmonic, charles ives, daniel harding, dorothea röschmann, gustav mahler, wozzeck | 2 Comments

Rattle’s Berlin Philharmonic

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Wendy Lesser

A great deal of what I know about music, it turns out, has accrued to me over the years through my attendance at Simon Rattle’s performances with the Berlin Philharmonic. When I first arrived in Berlin in 2003, Rattle had only recently taken … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged andrew staples, bach, berlin philharmonic, camilla tilling, georg nigl, jorg widmann, junge deutsche philharmonie, magdalena kocena, mark padmore, peter sellars, roderick williams, rundfunkchor berlin, schumann, simon rattle, st john passion, st matthew passion | Leave a comment

Five Nights in Berlin

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

For various reasons, Berlin is my favorite city in the world, and one of the reasons is certainly the quality and variety of music it always makes available to me. I spotted a window of opportunity to get there for a week … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged beethoven, berlin philharmonic, christian gerhaher, gerold huber, hippolyte et aricie, jan lisiecki, komische oper, konzerthaus berlin, love of three oranges, olafur eliasson, prokofiev, rameau, staatsoper-berlin, valery gergiev | Leave a comment

A Month of Great Piano

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

The piano is not my instrument, normally. I don’t just mean I never learned to play it (though that too is true: my childhood music lessons were on the violin). What I really mean is that I don’t seek out piano concerts … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged anne-marie mcdermott, baryshnikov arts center, beethoven, brahms, busoni, carnegie hall, fred sherry, fredric rzewski, haydn, igor levit, inon barnatan, jeremy denk, liszt, mariinsky orchestra, morton feldman, nelson freire, paul lewis, pedja muzijevic, people's symphony concerts, peter serkin, pierre-laurent aimard, schumann, st. lawrence string quartet, tamara stefanovich, ursula oppens, valery gergiev, white light festival, zankel hall | 2 Comments

Fall for Dance

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

Every fall, over the course of two or three weeks, New Yorkers get treated to a generous helping of dance at the hallowed City Center. This Moorish extravaganza on West 55th Street was the original home of the New York City … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged brooklyn mack, city center, fall for dance, herman cornejo, jennifer weber, justin peck, lil buck, pam tanowitz, patricia delgado, paul taylor, simone dinnerstein, tiler peck | Leave a comment

The Good Teslas

Posted on September 20, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

Forget Elon Musk and his super-fancy cars. He may be making an embarrassing hash of his company at the moment, but he is not the only claimant to the name. There is quite a wonderful group of string players operating … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged alexandra smither, bac salon, baryshnikov arts center, berio, debussy, edwin kaplan, michelle lie, pedja muzijevic, ross snyder, serafim smigelskiy, szymanowski, tesla quartet | Leave a comment