Now, the opera world has Teatro Nuovo. Founded last year by Will Crutchfield, formerly Director of Opera for the Caramoor International Music Festival, is a breath of fresh air. True to its name (Italian for “new theater”), Teatro Nuovo promises to revive neglected Bel Canto works with a rigorous, historically informed performance practice.

New York City Opera’s annual LGBTQ Pride series triumphs with the moving and invigorating world premiere production of Stonewall. Brilliant young British composer Iain Bell and prolific opera librettist and advocate for contemporary opera Mark Campbell have penned a riveting work of musical theatre depicting the historic Stonewall uprising that brought visibility to the LGBTQ rights movement 50 years ago.

Mitsuko Uchida is a pianist celebrated for ultra-refined Mozart and peerless in music of more complicated harmony and texture like Schumann and Schoenberg. She’s naturally made a career of meticulous readings of Schubert, a composer who falls somewhere in the middle. Schubert was a pupil of Salieri and at first glance, his piano sonatas appear to be made of Classical-era stuff. Uchida has arrived at what feels like a different take on Schubert’s most personal creations.

NYC Summer 2019 Classical Music, Arts, Culture, Live Events

Classical Music Events to celebrate NYC Pride 2019, WorldPride NYC, Stonewall50

Mahan Esfahani is a harpsichordist on a mission. He is rescuing the antique keyboard from the doldrums of Baroque music and the shackles of the period instrument movement. Esfahani’s harpsichord is as vital and viable as it ever was, and he commissions new work for the instrument, in addition to reviving a body of literature written for it over the past century. The award-winning musician, born in Iran, raised in the US, and currently based in Prague, made his New York concerto debut with the illustrious Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the 92nd St. Y on Wednesday evening.

The New York Philharmonic performed Max Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos only once in 1917, but the composer might not have recognized it, had he been in attendance. The late-Romantic German composer, whose limited fame rests largely on his more widely performed Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, had entrusted the work to the Sutro sisters, Rose and Ottilie. But they edited it heavily for their two performances of the piece (the other with Stokowski in Philadelphia), even jettisoning a movement, and copyrighted it for themselves. Apparently they went on to scam Bruch out of the profits of that Violin Concerto, too. 

It’s a cliché to describe George Crumb, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer turning 90 this year, as a maverick. But, the word perfectly describes this composer who forged his own path, bucking established pretenses and becoming an original, vital voice in American music. Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center celebrated Crumb’s career in two rewarding concerts amounting to one of this year’s most significant artistic events. Two expansive evenings, exceptionally produced and performed, exhibited the humanity, and curiosity about the universe, in Crumb’s musical output.

Simone Young knows every note of Mahler's gargantuan score, and thanks to her complete mastery of the conductor's tools, she commanded the Philharmonic like a virtuoso. As soon as she appeared on the podium, her focused, clearheaded energy galvanized the orchestra. The "Tragic" calls for impressive forces, all hands on deck, and New York's musicians filled the stage at David Geffen Hall, and under the vibrant leadership of Ms. Young, they played as brilliantly as ever.