featuring Arabella Steinbacher, violin Well, it’s certainly been quite some time since we did this, hasn’t it? The last one was a couple of months ago, but before that… was another couple of months of not much concertgoing. It seemed … Continue reading NSO’s 2018 Season Opener
featuring Akiko Suwanai, violin, and Dorian Wilson, conductor It’s been a while since I’ve been in our local concert hall, I feel, and others told me so this evening as I found my seat (and three others a few rows back … Continue reading Akiko & NSO
featuring 黃心芸 (Hsin-Yun Huang), viola The dilemma! There were two concerts this evening, and I really wanted to go to both of them. If you’ve read any of my other concert reviews, you’ll be aware that we have two major … Continue reading NSO: Osmo Vänskä & Sibelius
with the NSO under Kahchun Wong It’s all Mahler tonight. Another performance of Mahler’s first. But that wasn’t the only first on the program. The terribly charming, famous, and very talented Thomas Hampson made his very first visit to our … Continue reading Thomas Hampson in Taiwan
Featuring: Taiwan’s 國家交響樂團 (NSO) Wotan- Jukka Rasilainen Fricka- Jamie Barton Hunding- Andrea Silvestrelli Sieglinde- Anja Kampe Siegmund- Simon O’Neill Brünnhilde- Jennifer Wilson (and more) Carlus Padrissa, Esteban Muñoz, Roland Olbeter, Chu Uroz, and the crew of La Fura dels Baus … Continue reading NSO’s Die Walküre
featuring Jan Vogler Programming is so important. And our NSO is sounding incredible this season. Some of you likely enjoyed, depending on your generation, making mixtapes, burning mixes on CD, or creating playlists to distribute or enjoy via various media … Continue reading NSO’s Poem of Ecstasy
What is Mozart’s music if not naked, pure, exposed, unadulterated, magnificent beauty? A few weeks ago, we had the TSO’s season opener with accomplished pianist Kirill Gerstein making his first appearance in Taiwan, and it was a fine one. The NSO’s … Continue reading NSO’s 2017 Season Opener
performed by Taiwan’s 國家交響樂團 a.k.a. National Symphony Orchestra a.k.a. Taiwan Philharmonic, or below in a trailer for the work from The Royal Opera This is a concert (opera) review, and less so a discussion of the opera itself, but I’m … Continue reading NSO’s Il Trittico
Is there any other? with Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra (國家交響樂團) under Maestro Shao-Chia Lü (呂紹嘉), stage director Carlus Padrissa, a co-production of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with full credits shown below This performance on … Continue reading Wagner’s Das Rheingold
The salon concert is here! I had the privilege of attending last year, and as usual, it was a highly-anticipated event. It’s the NSO’s 30th anniversary this coming season, and we had the privilege of enjoying comments and thoughts from … Continue reading NSO’s 2016/17 Salon Concert
Schoenberg’s piece terrified me. And every Mahler symphony ever written is one of the greatest symphonies ever written. I died a little bit last night, in the most moving, inspiring way. This is a concert I’d been waiting to attend … Continue reading Concert Review: NSO’s Mahler 6
No, that’s not a fraction. Well, it is. And so is 12/24, all halves. Intentional? Maybe! The program for the evening, poorly lit. Gunther Herbig was a student of the undeniably great Herbert von Karajan. German conductors. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms. … Continue reading Concert Review: NSO’s Two Fourths
Just a week after having finally heard Mahler 2 in concert, we pack into the same hall for a different ensemble and conductor but the same incredible chorus and an equally packed audience. This piece was also part of my season … Continue reading Concert Review: NSO’s Elias
This season with the NSO is one of big-name guests. Actually, the Taipei Symphony has invited some pretty great soloists to play, a recent visitor being Sabine Meyer. I didn’t actually know a whole lot about Neville Marriner until right up … Continue reading Concert Review: NSO and Neville Marriner
This is apparently an NSO tradition: the salon concert to kick off the season and/or celebrate the release of the program for the upcoming year, and I was thrilled to have been included. The program is below, followed by some thoughts I had during the program, followed by a recap. click here for a readable version I didn’t know much about it before it was mentioned to me, and to be perfectly honest, it seemed like something I wouldn’t be too interested in. I’m not a fan of medleys or performances of excerpts and all that, and this ‘salon concert’ … Continue reading 2015/16 Concert Season: Salon Concert
It’s a lot of music. This concert marks the end. It was the last completed symphony that Bruckner wrote, and it is the last concert of both the NSO’s season and the last concert of the month, thus beginning a long four-month stretch of no concerts at our National Concert Hall while it gets some renovations or something. I’ll be eager to see it in the fall. I can’t imagine it’s getting a huge makeover or anything, but who knows? It was a large crowd last night. Even from the downstairs entrance I went in to have dinner downstairs beforehand, … Continue reading Concert Review: NSO- Symphonic Milestone: Bruckner’s Magnum Opus
or 斯拉夫系列：東歐瑰寶 I have pretty much fallen in love with our biggest symphony orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra (translated from the Chinese: 國家交響樂團, but more often referred to in English as the Taiwan Philharmonic). I’d heard them in the past, but the real moment was hearing them perform Mahler’s ninth back in September. It was… almost spiritual. Just wonderful, and so I’ve been eager to attend as many of their performances as possible. This performance was the orchestra I’d come to love with a special guest conductor. Just as 呂紹嘉 seemed perfectly at home conducting Mahler and Schoenberg after … Continue reading Concert Review: Treasures from Eastern Europe
I just got home. And I’m exhausted. So I probably won’t finish this tonight. Gurre-Lieder Gotta give credit where credit is due This was the first time I’ve heard a piece anything like this performed live, and while some little … Continue reading Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder (part 2 of 2)
performed live by the National Symphony Orchestra (aka Taiwan Philharmonic, aka 國家交響樂團) on 12.31.14 and 1.1.15 in Taiwan’s National Concert Hall in the Taiwanese premiere, or as below by lots of people (details in the YouTube page for the video) … Continue reading Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder (one of two)
National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan A while back on this post, I discussed somewhat of an issue with being so excited to hear Mahler’s ninth live. I’ve mentioned it in way too many places to link to the posts, but I’ve become rather enamored with Mahler’s music in the past year or so, and it is now bordering on an obsession. It started with the fifth, the first of his works to appear here, and then the second, then the first, then the sixth. And I am realizing either because of context (understanding of a greater portion of the man’s … Continue reading Concert Review: A Ninth to Remember
Fugue for Thought 