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 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 the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, Creation Opera Institute, and more I have opined before that opera is a rarity here, so I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see one of the more famous pieces in the repertoire being … Continue reading Ningbo Symphony’s Carmen
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: Annapaola Leso Samuel Déniz Falcón David Pallant Director/Choreographer: 孫尚綺 (Sun Shang-chi) Music Director and Conductor: Manuel Nawri Ensemble KNM Berlin (Violin soloist: Theodor Flindell) Taipei Chamber Singers …and more. I’ve been mesmerized by Glass’s Einstein on the Beach now for some … Continue reading Glass’s The Photographer
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 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
featuring cellist Pablo Ferrández and conductor Robert Trevino It’s been quite some time since I’ve paid the Taipei Symphony a visit, in fact more than four months. They spent a little time traveling down south for some concerts, and had one or two … Continue reading TSO’s Don Quixote
featuring Kolja Blacher (subtitled ‘The Arts of Play & Lead’) Beethoven, Brahms, Britten and Blacher. But not in that order. That ‘Play and Lead’ title refers exactly to what made this concert so special, the almost unbelievable feat that Blacher … Continue reading Blacher & NSO
featuring Ray Chen More Russian music. Another violin concerto. But this time, it’s goodbye to the NSO, temporarily anyway. They’re off to Europe this weekend, and before they go jet-setting, they gave us a preview of some of the pieces … Continue reading NSO’s Pre-tour Concert
Welcome back, everyone, to another round of concert reviews, with stuff I always forget to mention, people who don’t know how to behave themselves in public, stunning, stellar music, a later bedtime than I usually have, and the overwhelming feeling … Continue reading NSO: Blazing Masterpieces
We’re quite spoilt here in Taipei. I won’t go on again about having seen the world-famous ensembles from Berlin, Vienna, Chicago, and Munich come visit, along with the likes of the Concertgebouw and Philharmonia, and on and on, but we … Continue reading Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Taipei
Beethoven’s ninth. Everyone knows it. Or they think they do. ‘Ode to Joy’ has been used and reused in everything from church hymns to TV commercials, but do you know the whole thing, its ins and outs, and what it … Continue reading NSO: The Immortal 9th
featuring tenor Stephen Gould and mezzo soprano Dana Beth Miller under Okko Kamu The list of Mahler symphonies left to see live is narrowing, and tonight’s program showcased the two (one and a half? quarter?) pieces of Mahler’s that I’m … Continue reading NTSO: Kamu’s Mahler
30th Anniversary Season Opener, featuring Leonidas Kavakos Well, I’m a bit late in coming with this. The concert was almost a week ago, and came at the end of an extremely long day (and weekend, involving a national holiday, two typhoons, a … Continue reading NSO’s A Hero’s Life
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
as below: The end. Opera is one of the best things ever. And it’s something we don’t get nearly enough of here in Taipei. Unfortunately, we’ll likely be getting even less of it now that the opera house, built in … Continue reading Opera: Verdi’s Otello
Could it, should it, be the job of every conductor and every orchestra with every concert to convince their audience that the piece being performed is the greatest symphony or concerto or whatever ever written? I’d say perhaps so. And … Continue reading NSO’s Two Great Seconds
April has been and will continue to be a busy month for concerts, as will May. It is due in part to last-minute concerts I heard about and didn’t want to miss. Last weekend’s chamber concert of Spohr and Brahms was … Continue reading Concert Review: 張昊晨 Piano Recital
Fugue for Thought 