Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in George Perle's Bassoon Music for Bassoon Solo and Lyric Piece, Thomas Ades's Arcadiana, and Jennifer Higdon's Dark Wood. Rose Studio, New York, NY.
November 2John Cage: 18 Microtonal Ragas. St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, CA.
Ravi and Anoushka Shankar. Masonic Center, San Francisco, CA.
Gamelan Cudamani. Lang Concert Hall, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA.
Gerald Barry's Los Angeles, Piano Quartet No. 1 and No. 2, Bob, Au Millieu, "___", and Octet. Miller Theatre, Columbia University, New York, NY.
November 3
Mendelssohn Club in John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, Karol Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, and James Primosch's Fire-Memory / River-Memory. Girard College Chapel, Philadelphia, PA.
Cantori in The Judith Project. Judiths Bingham (The Secret Garden), Shatin (Songs of War and Peace), Weir (Ascending Into Heaven), and Lang Zaimont (Sunny Airs and Sober). Church of the Holy Trinity, New York, NY.
November 4
Imani Winds and Orchestra 2001 in Valerie Coleman's Afro-Cuban Concerto and Darius Milhaud's La Creation du Monde. Lang Concert Hall, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA.
Samuel Barber's Vanessa. New York City Opera, New York, NY. "Vanessa emerges as an authentic American masterpiece" [Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 11/6/07].
Leonard Bernstein's "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide. Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY.
November 6
Duran Duran. Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York, NY.
Bergen Symphony in Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.
November 7
American premiere of Alfred Schnittke's Symphony No. 9 given by the Juilliard Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies. Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY. "Notes are only approximately positioned on the staffs, and their stems are shaky squiggles. Bar lines veer off at a slant. The handwriting, at times nearly illegible, is clearly pained. 'It's a testament by someone who knows he's dying,' . . . Davies said" [The New York Times, 11/7/07].
November 8
Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein. Hilton Theater, New York, NY.
November 9
Okkyung Lee. The Kitchen, New York, NY.
Composers Concordance presents Darby John Mizelle's Through a Glass, Ed Rosenberg's Wizard, Otto Luening's 3 Duets for 2 Flutes, Ron Mazurek's Shadows, Joseph Pehrson's Windjammer, Joelle Wallach's Five Songs, and Frederic Rzewski's To the Earth. Greenwich House Music School, New York, NY.
November 10
Damien Hirst's art installation School: The Archaeology of Lost Desires, Comprehending Infinity, and the Search for Knowledge. Lever House Art Collection, New York, NY.
November 15
Korean Classical Music Institute of America. Bing Theater, Los Angeles, CA.
Philippe Hurel. Miller Theatre, Columbia University, New York, NY.
November 17
Aida Ruilova's The Silver Globe. The Kitchen, New York, NY.
November 18
Musicas Latinas: Music of Latin-American Women Composers, performed by CUBE. Gottlieb Hall, Merit School of Music, Chicago, IL.
November 19
Yan Maresz's Entrelacs, Henrik Strindberg's Cheap Thrills, Anders Hillborg's Tryffelhymn, Jesper Nordin's Calm like a bomb, Tommy Zwedberg's Enso, and Liza Lim's Shimmer Songs. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, San Francisco, CA.
November 23
San Francisco Opera presents Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA.
November 28
Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony in Dmitri Shostakovich's From Jewish Folk Poetry, Symphony No. 5, and three excerpts from The Age of Gold. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA. Through December 1, without The Age of Gold.
Paramore. Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY. "Paramore is a fizzy emo band led by a tireless, clean-scrubbed singer named Hayley Williams, who is still a few weeks away from her 19th birthday. . . . The band, from Franklin, TN, was nurtured by the record label Fueled by Ramen (which also nurtured Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco), and the members customarily spend their summers on the Warped Tour. But Ms. Williams knows that the least essential thing about emo is its emoness, so she plays down the emotional turmoil to focus on energy and kicks instead. Misery Business, the band's breakthrough single, must be one of the peppiest revenge songs ever written . . . [S]he is, among other things, a Christian rock star. . . . And while Ms. Williams avoids overtly evangelical lyrics, many of the band's love songs . . . also sound like conversion narratives" [Kelefa Sanneh, The New York Times, 11/30/97].
November 29
New York Philharmonic in Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 and Carlos Chavez's Sinfonia India. Avery Fisher Hall, New York, NY. "[Prokofiev's] startling shifts between Neo-Classical formalism, ironic humor and barbaric power. . . . Chavez [was] a Mexican Copland" [Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 12/1/07].
Terry Riley's In C in the Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant-Garde's third annual reading. Galapagos, New York, NY. "[The series] redefined the work as a cross between a late-1960's psychedelic freakout and a more up-to-date extended dance track, complete with an insistently pounding beat. It was the most vital, audacious and energizing performance of the score I've ever heard. . . . The Darmstadt ensemble, heavily amplified, brought together traditional instruments (two cellos, trombone, saxophone, clarinet, toy piano, and xylophone) with rock band's backbone (electric guitar, bass, and drum kit). Also included were the oldest instrument, the voice, and the newest, the laptop computer. The group's four laptops were set up so their keyboards' letters were assigned notes and MIDI timbres, allowing the players -- laptopists? -- to work through Mr. Riley's set of figures like everyone else. Usually the pulse is established by a piano, which holds down the beat with a bell- like tone. Here it was the province of an electronic harpsichord-like timbre (presumably from a laptop) and an electric bass, played assertively by Zach Layton and supported by the drummer, David Justh. Mr. Justh added considerable filigree in the course of the 66-minute performance, none sanctioned by the score, but captivating enough to justify its berth. . . . Supporting the performance, Joshua Goldberg projected computer graphics, based on Mr. Riley's 53figures (and others) on a screen behind the ensemble" [Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, 12/1/07].
