Deception. Rebellion. Jealousy. Betrayal. Lust. Torture. Murder. Suicide. Catholicism. It’s all here. I finally saw Tosca! It was an opera concert, but honestly was as fully staged as you could expect it to be and still be in a concert hall … Continue reading NSO’s Tosca
featuring Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra under Shao-Chia Lü; Carlus Padrissa, stage director, La Fura dels Baus, a co-production of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and many many more people, some listed below. I got too … Continue reading NSO’s Siegfried
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 lots of people; more details below Wagner’s music is great. Like, great in the same way that saying Mt. Everest is large. I don’t know how the man could stand himself, though, really, or how anyone else could even … Continue reading NSO’s Parsifal
featuring Michael Roll, piano Dare I say this is one of the finest performances I’ve heard from the NSO out of all their concerts I’ve ever attended. I brought along another first-timer this evening, who was able to sit in … Continue reading NSO’s 1905
featuring Günther Herbig, conductor; 陳美玲, soprano; 石易巧, mezzo-soprano Mahler’s second, for me, is just one of those pieces. It was the first piece of Mahler’s that really, I don’t know, ‘spoke to me,‘ at the risk of sounding cliché. It’s a … Continue reading NSO’s Mahler 2
featuring Günther Herbig and pianist Louis Lortie It will be some time yet before we discuss Bruckner’s final symphonic masterpiece here on the blog, even though we’re not actually that terribly far away, but I’ve mentioned somewhere before this odd … Continue reading NSO’s Bruckner 9
featuring Stefan Dohr, horn; Jun Märkl, guest conductor I must have forgotten how much I don’t like change. I didn’t sit in my normal seat today at the concert hall. Due to some unfortunately obnoxious and inconsiderate patrons, I’d been trying … Continue reading NSO’s Fragrance of France
featuring guest conductor Michiyoshi Inoue and harpist Xavier de Maistre This is a first for me, and for a few others in my (very small) entourage this evening. For me, it’s a first to hear Shostakovich’s first in person, and for them, … Continue reading NSO’s Shostakovich 1
Songs of Destiny and the Night In contrast with last week’s meagre turnout, depending on who you ask, due to Bartók and/or Sibelius, we had a packed concert hall tonight for Mahler’s seventh symphony, preceded by Brahms’ Schicksalslied. Nearly as fascinating … Continue reading NSO’s Mahler 7
featuring Piotr Anderszewski Something Old, Something New A world premiere, an old favorite, and a tough sell on Sibelius It’s not every concert you go to that you need to hear a work you haven’t heard live before. I’m working on … Continue reading NSO’s Lemminkäinen
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 Jo-Pei Weng (翁若珮) and the Taipei Philharmonic Chorus When you think of famous movie scores, what do you think of? Most likely John Williams. Maybe Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, or Danny Elfman, James Horner, Philip Glass. Well, The Last Jedi came … Continue reading NSO’s At the Movies 2: Star Wars
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
featuring Wen-Sinn Yang (楊文信 ), cello; May-Lin Ju (朱玫玲), clarinet; Chaio-Han Liao (廖皎含), piano Oh, how rarely we have local, affordable chamber music. The vast majority of the string quartet concerts we see are all from foreign ensembles, some … Continue reading NSO’s Trio Cantabile
featuring Wen-Sinn Yang, cello The NSO finished their concert season two years ago, in the spring of 2015, with Bruckner’s eighth symphony, a monumental work with which I was unfortunately not familiar enough to appreciate in full at the time. … Continue reading NSO’s Bruckner 7
Fugue for Thought 