Our guide to the city’s best classical music and opera happening this weekend and in the week ahead.
JAY CAMPBELL AND CONOR HANICK at the 92nd Street Y (Feb. 14, 9 p.m.). Two of the most interesting young artists around play in a concert of three premieres: “Kern,” a piece for cello and prepared piano by Marcos Balter; John Zorn’s “The Rule of Three,” for which they are joined by the flutist Tara Helen O’Connor and the vibraphonist Sae Hashimoto; and Natacha Diels’s “Flight Patterns.” Also at the Y, Amanda Majeski and Philippe Sly join the pianist Julius Drake for Wolf’s “Italienisches Liederbuch” (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.).
212-415-5500, 92y.org
‘COSÌ FAN TUTTE’ at the Metropolitan Opera (Feb. 15, 12:30 p.m.; Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m.; through March 14). Phelim McDermott’s Coney Island fairground production, cast with a retinue of sideshow performers, returns with Ben Bliss as Ferrando, Luca Pisaroni as Guglielmo, Gerald Finley as Don Alfonso, Nicole Car as Fiordiligi, Serena Malfi as Dorabella and Heidi Stober as Despina. Harry Bicket is on the podium, making him a rather busy man at the moment, given that he is also conducting the Met’s “Agrippina.” Speaking of Handel operas, devotees will note that Juilliard is putting on “Rinaldo” this Monday at Alice Tully Hall, with Nicholas McGegan leading a concert performance.
212-362-6000, metopera.org
DANISH STRING QUARTET at Alice Tully Hall (Feb. 14 and 18, 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 16, 5 p.m.). These three young Danes and their Norwegian friend conclude their survey of the Beethoven string quartets with some of the works that have drawn them such widespread acclaim. On Friday, they perform pieces such as the Op. 127; on Sunday, they do an immense program of the Op. 132 and the Op. 130, with the “Grosse Fuge” as its finale; and on Tuesday, they follow Op. 131 with Op. 135. Tickets are limited, so act now.
212-875-5788, chambermusicsociety.org
[Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead.]
KIRILL GERSTEIN at Zankel Hall (Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.). Gerstein has emerged in recent years as one of our most thoughtful pianists, beyond his immense technical ability, and this recital is a perfect example of his gift for programming. Much of it is rooted in folk music, particularly pieces by Haydn, Brahms and Liszt; some is contemporary, including a handful from Gyorgy Kurtag’s “Jatekok” and an arrangement drawn from Thomas Adès’s “The Exterminating Angel”; and the whole lot is balanced by works demanding the utmost virtuosity, above all Liszt’s Sonata.
212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC at David Geffen Hall (Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 21-22, 8 p.m.). Jaap van Zweden conducts Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in these subscription concerts, but the real action comes before that. As if Renée Fleming singing Björk were not enough, there are also two songs by Anders Hillborg and the premiere of “When the World as You’ve Known It Doesn’t Exist” by Ellen Reid, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music last year.
212-875-5656, nyphil.org
ORCHESTRE RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE ET ROMANTIQUE at Carnegie Hall (Feb. 19-20, 8 p.m.; through Feb. 24). John Eliot Gardiner and this ensemble released one of the more consequential recordings of the Beethoven symphonies ever made back in 1994, one that remains notable for its sleek, fast period-instrument approach. They reprise that effort over five concerts here, in the first — and likely the more interesting — of two Beethoven cycles at Carnegie this season. Wednesday’s performance puts the Symphony No. 1 in the context of works like “The Creatures of Prometheus” and excerpts from the opera “Leonore”; the other four concerts pair the remaining eight symphonies in numerical order.
212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org
Source: Music - nytimes.com
