 |
| Owls quartet -- any group that takes headshots with a teddy bear is one I want to see! |
In between sleepless nights and due dates, here's where you'll find me:
thru Oct 21 | Metropolitan Opera House | $32.50+
see last month
Oct 1, 6pm | Anthology Film Archives | $25
Experiments in Opera's absurdist Chunky in Heat was an early review of my 50-concert summer of 2019, and I remember loving it. (You can go look for that article if you want, I'm sure as hell not leading you to it.) Plus, I'm tracing the anthropological progression of opera-TV after reviewing Boston Lyric and Long Beach Opera's desert in last year -- so I guess I'll go walk the red carpet for science!
Oct 2, 4pm | Corpus Christi Church | $10+
The Boston Camerata medieval and renaissance Christmas albums are a holiday staple in my (Jewish) household. Their director, Anne Azéma, has been top-of-mind lately, with honors from Early Music America and the French government -- I can't wait to see her take on 19th-century American spirituals.
Oct 6, 7:30pm | St. Ignatius Antioch | $25+
Most famous for their fabulous, 16-million-view Pachelbel Canon YouTube video (among many others), Voices of Music plays NYC for the first time this month. Countertenor Christopher Lowrey (who made a hilarious MET debut as Guildenstern in last season's Hamlet) features in arias of Handel and Vivaldi. Plus, Juilliard415 grad violinists Augusta McKay Lodge and Shelby Yamin alternate concertos with their one-time teacher, Elizabeth Blumenstock, including one by Italian Mozart contemporary Maddalena Laura Sirmen.
Oct 14, 6:30 & 8pm | Church of the Intercession | $85
I'm writing about this at length for another publication, so I'll keep it brief, but this piece -- Nico Muhly's first for solo harp, with interpolations by legendary librettist-poet Alice Goodman -- is insanely cool.
Oct 15, 2 & 7:30pm | Carnegie Hall (Weill) | pretty close to sold out
I must be the one person on earth to have been a fan of Francesco Turrisi before I discovered Rhiannon Giddens. Turrisi is a keyboardist for L'Arpeggiata, the early music ensemble that ostensibly turned me on to music written before 1750. He and Rhiannon Giddens -- partners both onstage and off -- make a mighty pair for thoughtful music that treads lines between old-time, classical, and folk.
Oct 15, 8pm | Town Hall | $57+
I've had Meredith Monk's Memory Game stuck in my head since the album dropped in late March of 2020. This cast is studded with stars -- not an unexpected confluence of industry dynamos, but a hard-hitting one nonetheless.
Oct 16-Nov 12 | Metropolitan Opera House | $32.50+
Allan Clayton got a lot of great press for his Grimes in London earlier this year, including this poignant profile from The Times. He made his MET debut in Brett Dean's Hamlet last season; now I'm excited to hear him in something meatier (and better).
Oct 17 & 18, 7:30pm | Baryshnikov Arts Center | $20
The single best way to get me to a concert is to program Couperin's tender rondeau Les Barricades Mysterieuses (The Mysterious Barricades -- no one quite knows where Couperin sourced his titles). Owls is a recent project of new music's burgeoning young names: Avery Fisher Career Grantee violinist Alexi Kenney, Aizuri Quartet violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist and new music chameleon Gabriel Cabezas, and acclaimed cellist-composer Paul Wiancko. Together, the four play arrangements and commissions for the rare configuration of double-cello string quartet -- Arensky would be proud!
Oct 18, 8pm | Carnegie Hall (Stern) | $20+
On his recent recording, Igor Levit worked magic with Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, a two-and-a-half-hour behemoth modeled after the Well-Tempered Clavier. I missed Levit's recital last year -- appealing as the program was, I didn't want to take the risk during the height of Omicron. This year, I'll make no such mistake.
Oct 22, 8pm | Church of Saint Mary the Virgin | $30+
Oct 23, 4pm | Corpus Christi Church | $10+
When Vox Luminis comes to town, I clear my schedule. It's as simple as that. Saturday night is sacred Monteverdi; Sunday is all Bach family. I urge you to pick at least one. Trust me.
Oct 25, 8pm | Carnegie Hall (Stern) | $31.50+
I'm an East Coast bunny now, but I miss my hometown orchestra something awful, especially after working closely with them for a year. Part of that homesickness is for Disney Hall specifically, but I'll take them in Carnegie -- especially to hear María Dueñas play Gabriela Ortiz's new violin concerto.
Oct 27, 7:30pm | Carnegie Hall (Stern) | pretty close to sold out
Jean Rondeau is the ittest of it-boy harpsichordists, famous for his fanciful, almost metal takes on Baroque's finest. His recent recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations got lots of fabulous press, and as part of the belated U.S. release tour, he stops in Carnegie's small recital hall. This is another of those dying-with-anticipation concerts -- I've been looking forward to seeing Rondeau live since I first heard his recordings in....2016?