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    75 Pop and Jazz Albums, Shows and Festivals Coming This Fall

    Major live events (Adele, Rosalía), buzzy debuts (Muni Long, Skullcrusher), energized returns (the Comet Is Coming, Kid Cudi) and a Taylor Swift LP are on the way.Live music made a roaring return this year, as artists who paused touring plans for the pandemic flooded back to the road. Arenas, jazz clubs, rock spots, cozy cabaret rooms: they’re booked solid this fall, giving musicians and fans a chance to reconnect. The release calendar is jam-packed, too, though many of pop’s biggest names haven’t announced autumn albums — yet. (One big exception? Taylor Swift.) But the schedule is stocked with LPs from emerging artists, established acts and a few pioneers who still have plenty to say. Dates are subject to change; check vaccine and mask requirements for individual performers and venues.ROSALÍA A few months ago, Lorde slipped a cover of Rosalía’s saucy “Hentai” into her set at Radio City Music Hall; this month, New Yorkers have a chance to hear it straight from the source, on the same stage. Currently on the road supporting her genre-busting album “Motomami,” the Spanish superstar hits Boston on Sept. 15, then cities including New York, Toronto and Chicago before heading to California. From a doggedly inventive artist who’s as meticulous about her visuals as her music, this stage show features sharp choreography, a seamless backdrop and even the singer giving herself an onstage haircut. (In North America through Oct. 22) — Olivia HornROXANA AMED For this Argentine-born, Miami-based vocalist, jazz is a loose and syncretic system, suitable for mingling traditions from across the Americas. The luxurious darkness of her alto might recall contemporaries like Cassandra Wilson or Claudia Acuña, but Amed is distinguished by her scholarly tack. “Unánime” (the title translates to “Anonymous”) is both a response and a kind of resistance to one question she’s often asked, about her relationship to the so-called Latin jazz tradition. The album includes covers of artists as varied as Egberto Gismonti and Miles Davis, as well as new originals, anchored by the piano playing of a now-80-year-old Chucho Valdés. (Sept. 16; Sony Latin) — Giovanni RussonelloBLACKPINK Perhaps the biggest girl group in K-pop, Blackpink is also the genre’s most playfully eclectic. “Pink Venom,” the first single from its second album, “Born Pink,” has traditional Korean instruments, old-school rap, boomy EDM beats and boasts about their stuff going “straight to your dome like whoa, whoa, whoa.” A world tour this fall includes a handful of American dates. (Sept. 16; YG Entertainment/Interscope) — Ben SisarioMICHELLE BRANCH With Y2K nostalgia thriving, Michelle Branch — whose pop-rock anthems “Everywhere” and “All You Wanted” made her a teen star in 2001 — released an updated version of her debut, “The Spirit Room,” last year. But, hardly content to be a throwback act, Branch has new music in the pipeline, too. Written and recorded with the Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, “The Trouble With Fever” balances alt-rock edge with decadent orchestral pop flourishes. (Sept. 16; Audio Eagle/Nonesuch/Warner Records) — HornNOAH CYRUS When she began her music career at age 16, Noah Cyrus — already caught in spillover from her sister Miley’s spotlight — hunted for her sound in full public view. Her early efforts, aligned with hip-hop and R&B, didn’t stick, and she has since retreated to her Nashville roots. On “The Hardest Part,” her debut album, she draws pedal steel, banjo, fiddle and harmonica from a robust country tool kit on songs that foreground her struggles with addiction and noxious romance. (Sept. 16; Records/Columbia) — HornDEATH CAB FOR CUTIE Twenty-five years into its career, the band brings its incisive, anguished writing to a particularly 2022 brand of existential angst on its 10th album, “Asphalt Meadows.” The songs spool and spiral, commenting on the slow-motion dread of a warming planet, the ache and anger of pandemic politics and the desperation of lockdown. “These nights, I don’t know how I survive,” Ben Gibbard repeats on the first track, howling over a distorted gnarl of guitar. It’s a tidy thesis statement for an expansive album: He doesn’t know how he makes it through, but he’s delighted that he does. (Sept. 16; Atlantic) — Dani BlumSKYLER GENTRY The performer and writer Ben Zook, host of the cheeky web series “Where the Bears Are,” brings “The Dirty Show With Skyler Gentry” to the West Bank Cafe’s Laurie Beechman Theater on Sept. 22-23. Expect an evening of raunch and revelations from “America’s favorite actor-singer-dancer-psychic,” as Zook is billing his alter ego. The venue’s lineup also features the drag darling and television personality Tammie Brown (Sept. 16-17), the elegant soprano stylings of Shana Farr (Oct. 7, 12 and 20, Nov. 12), the queenly revisionism of Distorted Diznee (Sept. 23, Oct. 21, Nov. 18, Dec. 9), the supple harmonies of Those Girls (Oct. 2, 15 and 29, Nov. 3), the caressing interpretations of Linda Viggiano (Oct. 13, Nov. 11) and the diva impressionist nonpareil Christine Pedi (Dec. 16-17). — Elysa GardnerLITTLE BIG TOWN The country group Little Big Town recruited over 30 songwriters for its latest album, “Mr. Sun,” a sweeping record that oscillates between whistling, warbling songs and despondent breakup anthems. These are glossy, pop-inspired tracks — “Why are songs never long enough to hold you?” the band coos over disco beats on “Heaven Had a Dance Floor” — but they also confront the turmoil brewing beneath the burbling bass lines. “I go to bed to sleep you off, and I wake up feeling better/Ain’t too proud to push it down, but I’m a terrible forgetter,” they howl on “Three Whiskeys and the Truth.” (Sept. 16; Capitol Records Nashville) — BlumMARCUS MUMFORD The Mumford & Sons frontman trades his galloping guitar and ragged harmonies for introspective anthems on his debut solo album, “(Self-Titled).” Childhood trauma, prolonged breakups, losing faith — Mumford doesn’t shy away from the heaviest topics here. (“Each word is a cut that I see coming/I clench my fists as I’m inflicting them,” he murmurs on “Prior Warning.”) He recruits Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo and Brandi Carlile to help bring some air into his intense self-examination, but even on these duets, Mumford and his gravelly voice remain the focus. (Sept. 16; Capitol) — BlumMarcus Mumford’s debut solo album doesn’t shy away from painful topics.Emma Mcintyre/Getty Images For KroqMURA MASA The English producer Mura Masa can contort any sound into a rave-ready thumper. On “Demon Time,” his pandemic dread-inspired album, he cobbles club hits out of dial-up tones, revving engines, screeching cars and sludgy synths. A cadre of hyper-online collaborators sing and rap over his bleeping, blurry beats, including Lil Uzi Vert, Shygirl and PinkPantheress. “Life in a box, start watching TV/Brain like mush always staring at screens,” the British rapper Slowthai snarls on “Up All Week,” over frenetic flashes of fizz. (Sept. 16; Anchor Point Records/Interscope) — BlumLeANN RIMES Twenty-five years after LeAnn Rimes released her first song — the yearning ’90s country classic “Blue,” which she delivered as a 13-year-old with the ache of someone three times her age — the singer-songwriter is ready to take some risks. On “God’s Work,” a nod to the Christian music she’s put out in the past and the album’s devotional undercurrent, she slides through swelling piano ballads and guitar-heavy reggae, crescendoing choruses and gentle, lilting hums. “If we ain’t seeing God in everyone,” she muses on the title track, “then we ain’t seeing God at all.” (Sept. 16; EverLe Records via Thirty Tigers/ The Orchard) — BlumREMEMBERING TOMASZ STANKO Until his death four years ago, the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko was among the most respected improvisers and bandleaders in Europe, unmistakable for his terse economy and saturnine tone. He grew up in Soviet-era Rzeszów, where he first heard jazz via Voice of America broadcasts in the postwar years. In his mid-60s he realized a lifelong dream and moved to New York. Now, in what would have been his 80th year, Stanko will be celebrated in a special tribute concert in Brooklyn, featuring admirers and collaborators from Europe and the United States: the trumpeters Ambrose Akinmusire and Wadada Leo Smith; the guitarist Jakob Bro; the saxophonists Ravi Coltrane, Joe Lovano and Chris Potter; and others. (Sept. 18; Roulette) — RussonelloCÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT Since winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, Cécile McLorin Salvant has earned consistent praise (and three Grammys) for her witty, rangy singing, as well suited to Rodgers and Hart and Kurt Weill as to blues classics and Kate Bush. Her song cycle “Ogresse” blends folk, jazz, country and baroque influences, and she’ll appear Sept. 20-25 at the Blue Note, where other artists this season include the silky-voiced rising jazz star Samara Joy (Sept. 12, Sept. 26), the Harlem Gospel Choir (Sept. 18, Oct. 16, Nov. 13), the prolific trumpeter and vocalist Keyon Harrold (Oct. 16-19) and the soulful, genre-blending group Tank and the Bangas + Friends (Nov. 11-13). — GardnerCécile McLorin Salvant will bring the full range of her vocal talents to the Blue Note this month.Pawel Supernak/EPA, via ShutterstockALEX G For more than a decade, this unlikely star of Philadelphia’s D.I.Y. scene has been cranking out defiantly odd homespun recordings, keeping his head down and choosing close friends and family as collaborators even after accruing mainstream clout (see: his contributions to Frank Ocean’s “Blonde”). “God Save the Animals,” his ninth album, smashes together elements of folk, rock and noise music and subjects them to funhouse-mirror distortion, with results that are alternately eerie and endearing, and, as usual, resistant to interpretation. (Sept. 23; Domino) — HornCHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS PRESENTS REDCAR Since assuming the Christine and the Queens moniker in 2010, this French singer has become known for body-friendly funk-pop with nuanced ideas about gender norms and performance. With a new alias, Redcar, reflecting an evolving identity (“My journey with gender has always been tumultuous,” the artist told The New York Times earlier this year), he is back with his first album in four years, “Redcar les Adorables Étoiles (Prologue).” Sung almost entirely in French, the album feels beamed from the ’80s, with chunky, ultra-synthetic arrangements counterbalancing the singer’s lithe, expressive voice. (Sept. 23; Because Music) — HornKELSEA BALLERINI On “Subject to Change,” Kelsea Ballerini animates her perky country-pop with succinct, specific details — the partner who leaves a light on for her when she comes home after a night drinking with friends, the blasé thrill of a hand on the small of her back. Her new album is filled with strum-along tracks about growing up (her verdict: “It kinda hurts like hell/it’s chaotic, ironic”) and delving deeper into new relationships and long-term friendships (“I’ve known you since Brad and Angelina”). Even while extolling how hard it is to leave adolescence behind, she makes maturity sound easy. (Sept. 23; Black River Entertainment) — BlumKelsea Ballerini’s new album, “Subject to Change,” revels in the details.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressTHE COMET IS COMING Of the saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings’s many projects, the Comet Is Coming is the most closely linked to London’s electronic music mainstream. Mixing jazz methodology with loops, spiraling effects and Hutchings’s retrofits of Caribbean rhythm, this trio seems intent on humanizing the EDM beat while actually upping its power, not diluting it. Hutchings, the keyboardist Dan Leavers and the drummer Max Hallett (in the band they go by King Shabaka, Danalogue and Betamax) recorded their fourth album, “Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam,” in a series of jam sessions. The LP finds each player showing newfound restraint, leaving more room for the listener than on any of the trio’s earlier releases. (Sept. 23; Impulse!) — RussonelloDR. JOHN The New Orleans piano man who embodied the musical mélange of his hometown had the kind of drawly, lived-in voice that only improved with age. So “Things Happen That Way” — Dr. John’s final album, recorded the year he died, 2019 — captures him in peak form. The album honors the singer’s country influences via covers of classics by Hank Williams (a swaggering “Ramblin’ Man”) and Willie Nelson (a wry “Funny How Time Slips Away”), who also duets with the good doctor on a funky “Gimme That Old Time Religion.” A few originals — a reprise of “I Walk on Guilded Splinters,” from Dr. John’s voodoo-inspired 1968 debut, and new tracks including “Holy Water,” inspired by his early ’60s drug arrest — frame him as a key link in the American lineage he so revered. (Sept. 23; Rounder) — Hank ShteamerMUNI LONG “Public Displays of Affection: The Album,” a new collection from the R&B singer-songwriter Muni Long, isn’t exactly a debut. But it might register as one, since the artist’s prior two full-lengths came out under the name Priscilla Renea, before she assumed her current alias (a playful rendering of “money long”) and scored a Top 20 hit with the sultry “Hrs and Hrs.” Joining material from two earlier EPs are new tracks that betray her years of experience in the pop songwriting trenches. “Butterfly Effect” unleashes her formidable vocal range on a fantasy of undoing a painful romance; “Conversation” returns to the luxurious feel of “Hrs and Hrs,” paying tribute to the simple joys of talking it out. (Sept. 23; Supergiant/Def Jam) — ShteamerMAKAYA McCRAVEN The drummer Makaya McCraven has been blurring the line between bandleader and beatsmith for the better part of a decade now. And over time, his blend of live performance and hip-hop production technique has become both more organic and more grandiose: The making of his newest album, “In These Times,” was shaped by a string of shows he played with large ensembles, transposing his production approach to a live band that featured harp, vibraphone and a frontline of horns. Though the arrangements skew polyrhythmic and layered, and McCraven did his fair share of cutting and editing, the communal flow of the full group reigns. (Sept. 23; International Anthem/Nonesuch/XL) — RussonelloFor Makaya McCraven’s “In These Times,” he adapted his cut-and-edit approach to a large live band.Marcin Obara/EPA, via ShutterstockANGELICA SÁNCHEZ This pianist and composer has yet to receive her full due, but at 50 she continues to churn out fabulous acoustic free jazz recordings at an unfettered clip. On her latest acoustic-trio album, “Sparkle Beings,” recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s former studios in New Jersey, she partners with an expert rhythm section: the bassist Michael Formanek and the immortal drummer Billy Hart, a longtime inspiration and new collaborator for Sánchez. The trio lays into some ear-grabbing originals, plus works by Cecil Taylor, Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington (the album closes with a somersaulting take on “The Sleeping Lady and the Giant That Watches Over Her,” from his “Latin American Suite”) and the Mexican composer Mario Ruíz Armengol. (Sept. 23; Sunnyside) — RussonelloVIEUX FARKA TOURÉ and KHRUANGBIN The whole world now celebrates desert blues — the hypnotic Saharan style currently performed by Tinariwen and Mdou Moctar — thanks largely to one musician: the Malian guitarist-singer Ali Farka Touré. His son and musical successor honors him on “Ali,” an inspired team-up with Khruangbin, a Houston trio that has garnered its own passionate following thanks to its exquisitely chill, globally seasoned grooves. On “Diarabi,” from Ali’s 1994 album with Ry Cooder, Vieux’s plaintive vocals and guitar hover over the band’s plush yet unshakable pulse. On “Mahine Me,” played acoustically on Ali’s 1992 LP “The Source,” the zydeco accordionist Ruben Moreno sits in for a buoyant interpretation of a Songhai proverb. These covers point back to their source while casting their own spell. (Sept. 23; Dead Oceans) — ShteamerGLOBAL CITIZEN FESTIVAL During the past decade, Global Citizen has raised more than $40 billion to combat extreme poverty, with an annual all-star event on Central Park’s Great Lawn as its flagship event. Fans can enter a ticket drawing by signing petitions, calling leaders or sharing informational videos, and this year, their incentives include a 10th-anniversary lineup featuring the pop empress Mariah Carey, the thrash titans Metallica, the Spanish pop revolutionary Rosalía, the country trailblazer Mickey Guyton, the glammed-up Italian rockers Maneskin and the resurgent hitmakers the Jonas Brothers. A companion fest, held simultaneously in Accra, Ghana, plays up the event’s international reach, pairing American stars like SZA, Usher and H.E.R. with Afrobeats luminaries including Tems and Sarkodie. (Sept. 24; Central Park) — ShteamerTAYLOR HAWKINS TRIBUTE CONCERT Taylor Hawkins wasn’t just the Foo Fighters’ drummer; he was also a full-time poster boy for the band’s arena-conquering rock ’n’ roll quest. So it’s fitting that the Foos will give Hawkins — who died in March at age 50 — a hero’s send-off at this Los Angeles blowout, which follows a similar event in London. The guest list traces the full arc of his career, touching on his early idols (Queen’s Roger Taylor, the Police’s Stewart Copeland), his first high-profile boss (Alanis Morissette), his drummer peers (Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk) and various pop-star pals (Pink, Miley Cyrus). Expect a heartfelt memorial that doubles as a loud, sweaty scream-along. (Sept. 27; Kia Forum) — ShteamerZACHARY CLAUSE For those not ready to leave summer behind, the cunning charmer Zachary Clause returns to Pangea on Sept. 29-30 with “On a Beach,” drawing inspiration from Hollywood and Fire Island, Rodgers and Hart and post-punk pop. The East Village nightspot will also offer new shows by the seasoned provocateur Penny Arcade and her longtime creative partner Steve Zehentner (Sept. 17) and house favorite Tammy Faye Starlite (Nov. 3 and 10), who’ll apply her beneficent irreverence to the Rolling Stones catalog. The coolly eclectic vocalist Zora Rasmussen is in residency the third Thursday of each month through December, and the long-treasured actor, director and theater guru Austin Pendleton will continue his collaboration with the singer, actor and musician Barbara Bleier in a tribute to Richard Rodgers, set for Oct. 4, 11 and 25. — GardnerTITUS ANDRONICUS “The Will to Live,” the seventh LP by the classicist New Jersey punk act Titus Andronicus, doesn’t aim quite as high as its Civil War-inspired “The Monitor” or its rock opera “The Most Lamentable Tragedy.” But it still finds the bandleader Patrick Stickles howling out big questions following the 2021 death of Matt (Money) Miller, his cousin and the band’s founding keyboardist. On “I Can Not Be Satisfied,” he belts that he isn’t afraid to die, “I’m much more frightened to survive,” on a chorus that sounds like the E Street Band tearing through a dive-bar encore. Fittingly, the actual Springsteen sideman Jake Clemons adds ambling piano to the down-and-out closer “69 Stones.” (Sept. 30; Merge) — ShteamerBJÖRK “Fossora,” the Icelandic musician’s first album in five years, is a pandemic-era project as only Björk could conceive it: a paean to the Earth and her late mother, filled with fantastical imagery of fungi and what she described as lots of “heavy bottom-end.” (Sept. 30; One Little Independent) — SisarioKID CUDI The man who famously branded himself “the lonely stoner” released a third installment of his “Man on the Moon” series in 2020, in which he continued to interrogate his angst and trace the sources of his trauma. Cudi returns for a new project in September, “Entergalactic” (arriving with an animated Netflix show that expands on its themes), which explores another very personal topic: love. (Sept 30; Republic) — BlumASHLEY McBRYDE This country singer-songwriter wields her intricate, intimate storytelling like a conductor on “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville,” offering a guided tour of a fictional town where the strip club hosts a gospel night and even the funeral home comes with a catchy jingle. She passes the mic to country contemporaries like Aaron Raitiere, Pillbox Patti and the Brothers Osborne for songs that sketch out the landscape of Lindeville and its many characters — the woman in a turtleneck racing around in a red Corvette, the widow chalking the local ball field. It’s a fluorescent carnival of pedal steel and thumping guitar that proves McBryde can be a skilled curator, as well as a performer. (Sept. 30; Warner Music Nashville) — BlumAshley McBryde’s new album explores a fictional town in all of its hyperlocal glory.Katie Kauss/Getty ImagesWILCO In honor of the 20th anniversary of the lush, sprawling album often considered the best in Wilco’s catalog, the band is releasing seven new editions of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” with a remastered version included in each set. The Super Deluxe iteration includes live concert recordings, radio performances, drafts and demos that trace the band tinkering with shards of the tracks, and 82 previously unreleased songs. The set also includes parts of a 2001 full-band interview with the Chicago radio station WXRT, one week after Sept. 11. (Sept. 30; Nonesuch) — BlumALYSHA UMPHRESS The powerhouse whose bluesy but ebullient belting was showcased in the 2015 Broadway revival of “On the Town” will present her first solo show in New York City since 2008 — titled “Alysha Umphress and Things … Like This” — at Joe’s Pub on Oct. 1-3. The Joe’s Pub Vanguard Residency will feature artists who studied with or were influenced by the beloved voice teacher Barbara Maier Gustern, who died in March, among them the downtown luminaries Penny Arcade (Nov. 29-Dec. 1) and Murray Hill (Dec. 13-17). Earlier, Machine Dazzle will celebrate the album release of “Treasure,” a “future psyche-sex-adelic synth rock experience” inspired by Dazzle’s mother and their relationship, on Oct. 21. — GardnerALVVAYS After a half-decade and a lineup shuffle, the dream-pop band fronted by Molly Rankin is back with “Blue Rev,” its third album. Across 14 songs, Rankin’s sharp character sketches are set against colorful scribbles of guitar and synths, padded with layers of fuzz. Working with Shawn Everett, an engineer and producer known for unorthodox techniques, Alvvays recorded much of the album in one sprint, managing to preserve the zingy immediacy of a live performance. (Oct. 7; Polyvinyl) — HornBROKEN BELLS Brian Burton, the A-list producer known as Danger Mouse, and the Shins leader James Mercer are a well-matched pair: pop auteurs who have carved out space in the mainstream while keeping their eccentricities intact. Their 2010 self-titled debut bathed Mercer’s trademark twisty hooks in Burton’s stylish psych-pop textures; “After the Disco” from 2014 added a dose of playful retro funk. “Into the Blue” is their moodiest trip yet, with the duo sending classic soul balladry (“Love on the Run”) and sumptuously spooky art pop (“We’re Not in Orbit Yet”) through a surreal prism. The album has its kitschier moments (the glam-rock-tinged “Saturdays”) but the overall mood suggests an alternate-dimension “AM Gold” compilation: soothing and unsettling by turns. (Oct. 7; AWAL) — ShteamerCHLOE MORIONDO Paramore, All Time Low and Girlpool were among the acts that Chloe Moriondo name-checked on “Favorite Band,” a 2021 song situating her own punkish brand of indie-pop within a broader lineage. “Suckerpunch,” her new album, smacks away indie signifiers: Out with the guitars and the earnestness, in with bravado, beat drops and Auto-Tune. The opener, “Popstar,” an apparent sequel to “Favorite Band,” outlines her ambitions, citing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera as inspiration. Kesha in her dollar-sign era is another evident touchstone. (Oct. 7; Public Consumption/Fueled by Ramen) — HornCHARLIE PUTH What if … Charlie Puth finally finished the album? Over the past year, the pop star has been relentlessly teasing new music on TikTok, taking viewers through his song-making process from conception — like when he captured Foley-style audio of a studio light switch in the video that soft-launched the single “Light Switch” — to completion. On “Charlie,” Puth’s third album, a year’s worth of dribbles are assembled into a coherent whole: a tangy, lightly gimmicky record that sees Puth through the many phases of heartbreak. (Oct. 7; Atlantic) — HornWILL SHEFF The longtime leader of the elegant indie-folk band Okkervil River has described his solo debut as a clean break with the past. Inspired in part by the 2020 death of the band’s former drummer, Travis Nelsen, “Nothing Special” finds Will Sheff letting go of previously held ideas of romanticized self-destruction. The results reveal a new serenity but don’t fall back on easy truths. “Holy Man” plays like soft-rock Leonard Cohen, weighing temptation and redemption with equal skepticism, and “Estrangement Zone” finds a narrator “ready to withdraw” but worried about slipping into oblivion. The context may be new, but Sheff still showcases his gift for writing songs that harness both the glow of poetry and the gravity of hymns. (Oct. 7; ATO) — ShteamerSUN RA ARKESTRA The world is just beginning to catch up with Sun Ra, whose radical practice as a composer, pianist, bandleader, poet and philosopher presaged much of the work being done by artists and humanities scholars today, particularly (but not only) in the realm of Afrofuturism. Ra’s band, the Arkestra, remains active and thriving almost 30 years after his death, converting this renewed attention into fresh sound. “Living Sky” is an all-instrumental album recorded during the pandemic, featuring takes on a few classic Ra compositions as well as three originals by Marshall Allen, the 98-year-old alto saxophone iconoclast who now leads the band. (Oct. 7; Omni Sound) — RussonelloMarshall Allen leads the Sun Ra Arkestra through a new instrumental album recorded during the pandemic.Nate Palmer for The New York TimesMICHAEL FEINSTEIN Following a seven-year association with 54 Below, the singer, pianist, historian and American songbook advocate is attaching his brand to the Uptown institution where Bobby Short once held court. Feinstein’s first-ever engagement at Café Carlyle, set for Oct. 11-22, will include songs from “Gershwin Country,” his album featuring duets with Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and Liza Minnelli. Others due at the Carlyle include the Broadway and “Madam Secretary” alum Erich Bergen (Sept. 13-17), the actress and singer Betty Buckley (Sept. 27-Oct. 1), the pianist and vocalist Peter Cincotti (Sept. 20-24), the singer and actress Rita Wilson (Oct. 25-Nov. 5) and the beloved cabaret couple John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey (Nov. 8-19). — GardnerHABIBI FESTIVAL Organized by the music arm of the Public Theater, this five-day event highlights performers who preserve and reinterpret the regional musical traditions of Southwest Asia and North Africa. In its second year, Habibi Festival’s lineup includes Bnat El Houariyat, an all-female percussion and dance group from Morocco; Bedouin Burger, a Syrian and Lebanese duo who explore Arabic melodic modes in their electronic compositions; and Hat, a Moroccan D.J. who travels the world to capture recordings of folk musicians, then remixes them live. The French-Tunisian composer Yacine Boulares, one of the festival’s curators, will also present the U.S. debut of his take on “Night in Tunisia,” imbuing the jazz standard with North African rhythms. (Oct. 11-15; Joe’s Pub) — HornBACKSTREET BOYS It’s a bridge every by-the-book pop act must cross eventually: the Christmas album. And the Backstreet Boys sound like they’re all in on their first holiday-themed effort, “A Very Backstreet Christmas,” whether they’re embracing vintage doo-wop on “White Christmas” and “Winter Wonderland” or going full carol on “Silent Night.” The standout numbers skew more modern: “Together,” one of three originals, a lite-R&B promise of holiday-season romance, and, best of all, a tastefully tempo-boosted reading of the gold standard of all boy-band Christmas efforts, Wham!’s “Last Christmas.” (Oct. 14; BMG) — ShteamerBILL CALLAHAN It’s tempting to view Bill Callahan’s three-decade evolution — from the lo-fi outsider art of his early ’90s recordings as Smog to his current mature-troubadour mode — as a gradual mellowing. But his songs’ ability to stop you in your tracks has only grown. “We warmed our hands in the corpse of a wild horse,” he sings over rolling fingerpicked guitar on “Everyway,” from “YTI⅃AƎЯ,” his upcoming eighth album under his own name. Then he works his way to a classic Callahan punchline: “At least we’re all in this horse together.” Elsewhere, he muses on childhood innocence while name-checking the Harlem Globetrotters great Meadowlark Lemon on the loose roots-rocker “Natural Information” and processes death with disarming tenderness on the ghostly folk song “Lily.” (Oct. 14; Drag City) — ShteamerBRIAN ENO There’s a new Brian Eno album on the way, but which Eno will show up? The master soundscapist who arguably invented ambient music, or the skewed pop auteur the world met on ’70s cult classics like “Here Come the Warm Jets”? On the upcoming “Foreverandevernomore,” it’s a little of both. The album is Eno’s first vocal-centric LP since 2005, but the tracks themselves — like “Garden of Stars,” where he chants about the mysteries of the cosmos against a backdrop of distorted synth buzz, or “We Let It In,” where he and his daughter Darla croon serenely from within a womblike tone bath — are as unapologetically abstract as anything in his catalog. (Oct. 14; Verve/UMC) — ShteamerMIKO MARKS This singer-songwriter’s “Feel Like Going Home” — her second album in two years, following a lengthy recording hiatus — arrives at a time when she and fellow artists of color are forcefully pushing back against racism in Nashville, past and present. The album finds Miko Marks broadening her sound to make room for her full range of influences, from Muscle Shoals-style Southern soul (“One More Night”) to sizzling blues (“River”) and soothing gospel (“Lay Your Burdens Down”). (Oct. 14; Redtone) — ShteamerSUE MATSUKI An author and a performers’ advice columnist as well as a long-admired entertainer, Matsuki was the first winner of the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Julie Wilson Award in 2004. Now she’ll present “But Beautiful … a Tribute to Julie Wilson” in two parts during separate shows on Oct. 14 at the Green Room 42. Homages are also planned for Barbra Streisand (Jenna Pastuszek’s “Me, Myself & Barbra,” returning Dec. 17) and Britney Spears (Sean Stephens’s “One More Time,” Oct. 12), as the revue “At This Performance …” continues to showcase Broadway and Off Broadway understudies, standbys and alternates (Sept. 12, Nov. 21 and Dec. 12). “5 Questions With James and JAM” will deliver James Jackson Jr. and John-Andrew Morrison from the cast of the Tony-winning musical “A Strange Loop” on Sept. 19; “Leola’s Lady Land Lounge” will team Will Nolan’s Kelly Clarkson-loving drag persona with special guests on Oct. 6 and Dec. 5; and the new musicals “Fountain of You” and “Atlantis” will be performed in concert Sept. 26 and Oct. 2. — GardnerMIGHTMARE The new solo project from Sarah Shook, who fronts the country-punk outfit Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, was an insular-by-necessity product of the pandemic, written, recorded and produced by Shook during its first year. On “Cruel Liars,” Shook dials back the twang and down-home shuffle of Disarmers records while retaining their rough hew and stark, straightforward lyricism. Compact and nervy, the album centers the fallout of a bad breakup, but creeps toward optimism: “Ain’t gonna be no memory gonna haunt me down tonight,” Shook sings on its unexpectedly sweet final track. (Oct. 14; Kill Rock Stars) — HornRED HOT CHILI PEPPERS The return of one member to a legacy rock act shouldn’t mean that much these days. But the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2019 reinstatement of John Frusciante — the soulful and prodigiously skilled guitarist who had done two prior stints in the band since joining in 1988 — has been received like the righting of a cosmic imbalance. “Return of the Dream Canteen,” the band’s second new double LP of the year, helps explain why, distilling the quartet’s signature sound down to its essence: “Tippa My Tongue” checks every Chili Peppers box (Flea’s serpentine slap bass, Frusciante’s jewel-like chords, Anthony Kiedis’s audaciously corny rap couplets) without sounding tired, and tracks from the Eddie Van Halen-inspired “Eddie” to the glimmering, reggae-esque “Handful” summon that sun-baked pathos that’s always elevated the band’s Frusciante-era material. (Oct. 14; Warner Records) — ShteamerAnthony Kiedis, Flea and the rest of Red Hot Chili Peppers are releasing their second double album of 2022 in October.Rob Grabowski/Invision, via Associated PressSKULLCRUSHER The musician Helen Ballentine drummed up some early pandemic buzz with her debut EP, a set of folksy, confessional tunes that suited the hushed interiority of the moment. (Tellingly, she named a song after Nick Drake on a subsequent release.) With her first album, “Quiet the Room,” Ballentine, who performs as Skullcrusher, has grown more adventurous: Her delicate melodies bloom into dense sound collages, built up with layers of drones, field recordings and echoes that smudge out her vocals. The songs are spooky and stirring, like old photos whose context is long forgotten. (Oct. 14; Secretly Canadian) — HornTOVE LO “Dirt Femme,” Tove Lo’s fifth album, and the first for her own label, hones in on the twin forces that have animated her music since her breakout hit “Habits (Stay High)”: her deconstruction of femininity, especially as a queer woman, and her fascination with her own death drive. She rejects constraints of traditional gender roles (“Suburbia”), prods at the limits of body positivity (“Grapefruit”) and laments her draw to a conventional romance narrative. She finds clarity in club music, joining with the dance producers SG Lewis and Channel Tres to craft sticky, coruscating tracks. “It’s tough out in the real world,” she wails on “True Romance”; this LP offers a welcome distraction. (Oct. 14; Pretty Swede Records/Mtheory) — BlumWILD PINK “A Billion Little Lights,” Wild Pink’s acclaimed album from last year, wasn’t the frontier myth-themed double LP that the group’s frontman, John Ross, once planned — but its soft-edged rock did conjure a sense of road-meets-horizon vastness. The New York band’s follow-up, “ILYSM,” builds on that instinct with long songs full of unexpected detours. Though partly inspired by Ross’s battle with cancer while writing it, the record is more imagistic than diaristic, and more contemplative than despairing. Its most prominent theme is companionship, with the tenderness of the title track (shorthand for “I love you so much”) matched only by closer “ICLYM” (“I couldn’t love you more”). (Oct. 14; Royal Mountain) — HornIHEARTRADIO FIESTA LATINA The annual festival returns to Miami’s FTX Arena in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. The one-night event brings established Latin rap and pop stars like Enrique Iglesias, Farruko and Nicky Jam alongside rising hitmakers like the glossy pop singer Becky G and the rapper Myke Towers. Iglesias will also receive this year’s iHeartRadio Corazón Latino Award, for his charitable endeavors as well as his musical legacy. (Oct. 15) — BlumBRIC JAZZFEST A multiday festival that gets more adventurous each year, BRIC JazzFest gives some of New York’s brightest rising talent the rare chance to perform on a major festival stage without leaving home. This year’s three-day marathon, held as usual at BRIC’s Downtown Brooklyn headquarters, will include sets from the vibraphonist Joel Ross and his nine-piece band, Parables; the vocalist Lizz Wright; the pianist Julius Rodriguez; and the trombonist Kalia Vandever, among dozens more. (Oct. 20-22; BRIC House) — RussonelloARCHERS OF LOAF Archers of Loaf perfected a certain strain of roaring, smartass indie rock on their 1993 debut, “Icky Mettle.” They broke up before the decade was done but, like so many of their peers, revved back up in the 2010s. On “Reason in Decline,” their first album in 24 years, the singer-guitarist Eric Bachmann reclaims the band’s lovably ornery spirit, working in the hard truths of middle age. “Tangled in the wasted time,” he sings on “Saturation and Light.” “Every little minute you stay in it/You blame yourself and it cuts you like a knife.” Whether he’s taking aim at the “masters of distraction” dominating the discourse on “Misinformation Age” or a troubled old friend on “Human,” his band provides a reliably stubborn kick. (Oct. 21; Merge) — ShteamerARCTIC MONKEYS This beloved British rock band has shape-shifted over its nearly two-decade career, pivoting from raucous anthems about caroming drunk through city streets to steamier, sleeker songs about anxious desire. For its seventh album, “The Car,” the band zags once more, teaming up again with its long-term producer James Ford for 10 mostly ballad-tempo songs, all written by the band’s lead singer, Alex Turner, that include classic-rock nods like string sections, carefully crooned vocals, funky guitars and plenty of dark observations. (Oct. 21; Domino) — BlumBABYFACE Kenneth (Babyface) Edmonds knows a thing or two about the female voice, having written songs for standouts including Aretha Franklin and Ariana Grande. His new album, “Girls Night Out,” harks back to the “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack from 1995, where he assembled an all-star cast that featured the Queen of Soul alongside Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, TLC and more. This time around, he shows how sharp he still is as a producer, talent spotter and sometime vocalist, teaming up with an impressive selection of R&B up-and-comers, including the “Boo’d Up” singer Ella Mai on “Keeps on Falling,” a dance-floor-ready ode to enduring love; and Ari Lennox on “Liquor,” which equates romantic intoxication with the other kind. (Oct. 21; Capitol) — ShteamerBabyface’s “Girls Night Out” features collaborations with up-and-coming women artists.Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesCARLY RAE JEPSEN A dependable source of heart-eyed synth-pop, this Canadian singer rode the wave of poptimism all the way from her “Call Me Maybe” breakout to her current status as cult hero. The breezy first single from her new album, “The Loneliest Time,” showed her mellower side, but effervescence is still Jepsen’s default mode: Look out for the stratospheric chorus of “Surrender My Heart” and the escapist disco fantasia of “Shooting Star.” (Oct. 21; 604/Schoolboy/Interscope) — HornDRY CLEANING “My shoe organizing thing arrived/Thank God,” Florence Shaw deadpans over a swirling art-pop vamp on “Anna Calls From the Arctic,” the opening track of “Stumpwork,” the second LP from the young London quartet Dry Cleaning. The moment sums up the odd sense of composure that’s helped make Shaw one of the most compelling presences in the current British post-punk revival. But the band is a true collective: On the title track, Shaw’s bandmates wrap her words in gauzy textures that betray a hint of menace, heightening the weirdness of lines like, “I thought I saw a young couple clinging to a round baby/But it was a bundle of trash and food.” (Oct. 21; 4AD) — ShteamerTAYLOR SWIFT The pop superstar’s fifth album in just over two years will arrive this fall: “Midnights,” which she described on social media as “the story of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.” She added: “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face.” “Midnights” will come too late to qualify for the next Grammys, but the album has a strong possibility of becoming one of the year’s biggest commercial successes, rivaling LPs like Harry Styles’s “Harry’s House.” (Oct. 21; Republic) — SisarioAngela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTEGAN AND SARA The Canadian twins have turned their open-book ethos into a robust brand, unpacking their origins as songwriters and queer women in a 2019 memoir, soon to become a TV series starring the TikTok creators Railey and Seazynn Gilliland. But as heard on the upcoming “Crybaby,” Tegan and Sara’s most revealing platform remains their songs. Twenty-plus years and 10 albums into their career, the sisters are experts at polishing their tracks to a sheen without sanding down the sharp emotional edges. Songs like “I Can’t Grow Up” and “____ Up What Matters” explore toxic relationship dynamics to the tune of peppy, hook-heavy pop. (Oct. 21; Mom + Pop) — ShteamerTHE MABEL MERCER FOUNDATION’S NEW YORK CABARET CONVENTION The organization’s 33rd fête rolls into Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall on Oct. 26 with “Look to the Rainbow: The Songs of Yip Harburg,” hosted by Andrea Marcovicci and Jeff Harnar and featuring cabaret and theater fixtures such as Karen Akers, Christine Andreas, Tovah Feldshuh, Maude Maggart and Those Girls. On Oct. 27, Natalie Douglas hosts Darius de Haas, Eric Yves Garcia, Marilyn Maye, Gabrielle Stravelli, Billy Stritch and others in “Unforgettable: A Tribute to Nat King Cole,” and KT Sullivan wraps things up Oct. 28 with “Through the Years: Celebrating Timeless American Standards,” set to include performances by Celia Berk, Klea Blackhurst, Shana Farr, David LaMarr, Karen Mason, Sidney Myer and Mark Nadler. — GardnerOUMOU SANGARÉ Now that Tuareg desert blues is known around the world, Wassoulou — a style that favors female bandleaders and rides an equally infectious current of rhythm — is due for its own moment in the global sun. Oumou Sangaré, a Grammy-winning vocalist, songwriter and activist, is a household name in Mali and one of Wassoulou’s greatest ambassadors abroad. Singing in Bambara, she renders social critiques and affirmations of women’s power in a gravelly alto; on her latest release, “Timbuktu,” she shows off a wide range — singing over driving, front-loaded rhythms on some tracks, and offering wistful Malian ballads (think Toumani Diabaté and Ali Farka Touré) on others. She will make her Apollo debut at this concert, presented as part of the World Music Institute’s Women’s Voices series. (Oct. 29; Apollo Theater) — RussonelloTRIPPIE REDD This 23-year-old descended from the SoundCloud school of hip-hop: brash beats, soupy melodies, sludgy emo-rap. His new release, “A Love Letter to You 5,” continues a series — his last installment topped the charts when it came out in 2019 — and taps current heavyweights like Offset and Moneybagg Yo. The new album finds Trippie Redd crooning about being in love over twinkling guitars and skittering drums, swooping his vowels as he sings to a nameless “youuuu.” (October; 1400 Entertainment/10K Projects) — BlumTrippie Redd’s October release, “A Love Letter to You 5,” features Offset and Moneybagg Yo.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressBOB DYLAN “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” Bob Dylan’s first book of new writing since “Chronicles: Volume One” (2004), promises lessons on the craft of songwriting — pro tips on “the trap of easy rhymes” and “how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song,” according to his publisher — through 66 essays on a tantalizing track list including Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up,” the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’,” Hank Williams’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and three songs associated with Elvis Presley (“Blue Moon,” “Viva Las Vegas” and “Money Honey”). (Nov. 1; Simon & Schuster) — SisarioDANIEL AVERY The British dance music producer Daniel Avery opts for a darker, denser sound on “Ultra Truth,” distorting swaths of static and tinny, tingling beats into neatly packaged tracks. A song with fellow techno producers Kelly Lee Owens and Haai (Teneil Throssell) is titled “Chaos Energy,” but “Ultra Truth” is all about pristine precision, slick cuts and jittery percussion. The album unveils like an elegy to the internal monologue, the constant noise building inside your brain. (Nov. 4; Mute/Phantasy) — BlumCAVETOWN The bedroom pop singer-songwriter Robin Skinner has gained a fervent online following with delicate tracks about teen life featuring titles like “I Miss My Mum” and “I’ll Make Cereal.” On his new release, “Worm Food,” he blends the curdled angst and peppy hooks of ’90s pop-punk (one track longs for 1994, a year Skinner was not yet alive) with subdued synth pop. He writes about the specific aches of a new relationship: “Laundry day, going to shrink your shirt/makes a perfect fit for me,” he coos over lilting strings on “Laundry Day.” On another, he compares himself to a “ball of wasabi” — “there to keep things interesting, but nobody wants me.” It’s a charming portrait of anxious love. (Nov. 4; Cave Music Limited) — BlumBILLY JOEL Before Billy Joel conquered Madison Square Garden with an ongoing monthly residency and played the last-ever concerts at Shea Stadium, he headlined another of New York’s secular temples, the original Yankee Stadium, for two nights in June 1990. A remixed, re-edited and newly expanded version of “Live at Yankee Stadium,” the concert film documenting those mega-gigs, will soon see release on Blu-ray, with the audio version coming out digitally, and on CD and LP sets. The hit-parade set list (including “My Life,” “Uptown Girl,” “New York State of Mind,” “Piano Man” and the then-recent No. 1 “We Didn’t Start the Fire”) doesn’t differ much from the one you’ll hear Joel play at the Garden today, more than 30 years later — the mark of a true pop institution. (Nov. 4; Columbia/Legacy) — ShteamerPHOENIX The French band whose bubbly 2009 indie-pop crossover hit “Lisztomania” got even a collegiate A.O.C. dancing with abandon is back with “Alpha Zulu,” its first LP in five years. In part a meditation on loss — including that of its producer Philippe Zdar, who died in an accident in 2019 at age 52 — the album, marking Phoenix’s 25th anniversary as a group, includes an appearance by Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. (Nov. 4; Glassnote/Loyaute Music) — SisarioJULIE BENKO & JASON YEAGER If you followed the backstage drama at Broadway’s “Funny Girl,” you know that Julie Benko is the bright-eyed, dulcet-voiced soprano who went from standby to star after Beanie Feldstein’s departure. On Nov. 7, Benko and her husband, the jazz pianist Jason Yeager, will perform selections from their new album, “Hand in Hand,” which mixes show tunes and standards with Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” and Yeager originals at 54 Below. Other artists slated to visit “Broadway’s living room” include the unsinkable nonagenarian Marilyn Maye (Oct. 12-15, Oct. 18-22), the stage and screen veteran Leslie Uggams (Nov. 10-12) and the latest jewel in the club’s “Diamond Series,” Vanessa Williams (Dec. 13-18), followed by the enduring gem Patti LuPone (Dec. 20-30). Fans of a certain Sara Bareilles musical can look forward to “Sugar, Butter, Reunion: Celebrating the Jennas of ‘Waitress’” on Oct. 9, and the new musical “Sean’s Story,” an Ars Nova commission by Khiyon Hursey, will be showcased in concert Oct. 11. — GardnerPATRICIA BRENNAN The jazz world can get stuck in a battle between the head and the heart, but rarely do you find an improviser like Patricia Brennan, the Veracruz, Mexico-born vibraphonist, marimba player and effects maven, who skirts that dichotomy almost completely. Her music seems to exist in a realm outside the body, but stays loaded with feeling. “More Touch” is the follow-up to Brennan’s spellbinding debut, the solo LP “Maquishti,” and it introduces a new quartet of advanced rhythmic thinkers: the drummer Marcus Gilmore, the percussionist Mauricio Herrera and the bassist Kim Cass. They venture between dreamy swing, bobbing bolero, the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of Brennan’s hometown, and free time. (Nov. 11; Pyroclastic) — RussonelloADELE Apart from a few TV tapings and private events, Adele hasn’t appeared on a U.S. stage since 2016. And the postponement of her Las Vegas residency the day before its original January kickoff date raises the stakes even more for this rescheduled “Weekends With Adele” run at Caesars Palace’s 4,100-seat Colosseum. Expect megawatt tear-jerkers like “Hello” and “Someone Like You” to share set-list space with new fan favorites from her 2021 chart-topper “30,” including “Easy on Me,” a tender post-mortem of her former marriage; “Oh My God,” where she confronts the vertigo of new love; and the real-talk anthem “I Drink Wine.” (Nov. 18 through March 23; Caesars Palace; Las Vegas) — ShteamerMICHAEL JACKSON In an era when Beatles recording sessions yield a seven-hour documentary and a Bob Dylan boxed set might contain an entire album’s worth of “Like a Rolling Stone” outtakes, a two-disc reissue commemorating the 40th anniversary of “Thriller” — the best-selling album of all time, by a significant margin — seems almost stingy. But the idea that there might still be more to learn about this Quincy Jones-helmed triumph is still an enticing prospect. The Jackson estate is keeping a tight lid on the contents of the “Thriller 40” bonus material, but previously unreleased demos are promised. Given that only a handful of demos and outtakes surfaced on a 2001 “Thriller” reissue, a major excavation could be in store. (Nov. 18; Sony) — ShteamerCHARLES LLOYD The guitar has been an essential foil for Charles Lloyd since his upbringing in the blues and soul hotbed of Memphis. Moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, a big early break came as musical director for Chico Hamilton’s band, where he forged a close bond with the Hungarian guitar virtuoso Gabor Szabo. In recent years, Lloyd, an 84-year-old tenor saxophonist, flutist and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, has been leading the Marvels, a country-jazz quintet featuring Bill Frisell’s guitar and Greg Leisz’s pedal steel. And by autumn’s end, he will have released three new albums this year, each with a different guitar trio and each casting its own light on his Lester Young-goes-to-Joshua Tree saxophone sound. Of the three, the last one, “Sacred Thread,” featuring the guitarist Julian Lage and the tabla icon Zakir Hussain, packs the wiliest punch. (Nov. 18; Blue Note) — RussonelloWENDY MOTEN The 21st-century virus of celebrity-judged TV talent contests has produced heartening stories, few more so than Wendy Moten’s; the 50-something Memphis native sang backup for Julio Iglesias and assorted country stars before “The Voice” brought her supple, limpid voice to wider attention. In a show returning to the Birdland Theater on Nov. 18-20, Moten highlights the pre-World War II classics of Richard Whiting (“He’s Funny That Way,” “Too Marvelous for Words”), mixing in a little Paul Simon and Janis Ian. Upstairs at Birdland Jazz Club, scheduled acts include the Broadway star-turned-cabaret stalwart Karen Akers (Sept. 12), the piquant stage and screen mainstay Julie Halston (Oct. 17) and the upscale nightlife fixtures Steve Ross (Oct. 24) and Jeff Harnar (Nov. 7), with the variety shows “Jim Caruso’s Cast Party” and “The Lineup With Susie Mosher” continuing at the jazz club on Mondays and the theater on Tuesdays. — GardnerThe singer Wendy Moten returns to Birdland Theater with a show that crosses genres and eras.Terry Wyatt/Getty ImagesWEYES BLOOD The singer-songwriter Natalie Mering, who performs as Weyes Blood, braids together emotional and existential upheaval, capturing the weightiness of contemporary life in sweeping, baroque-pop poetry. The crisis-rich three years since her last release have offered Mering plenty to write about; her upcoming fifth album, “And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow,” layers references to climate change, pandemic and impending civilizational collapse into songs about estrangement and longing. “Living in the wake of overwhelming changes/We’ve all become strangers, even to ourselves,” she sings on the opening track, looking around and within. (November; Sub Pop) — HornJINKX MONSOON & BENDELACREME In 2018, these popular “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alumni joined forces to ring in the most wonderful time of the year. “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show” now marks the duo’s fourth seasonal tour, for which variety-show maestro BenDeLaCreme and the cabaret and theater veteran Monsoon — the “sugary” queen and the “spicy” one, according to their official site — have co-written a new assortment of music, comedy and spectacle. The party arrives at Town Hall on Dec. 2-3. — GardnerA JOHN WATERS CHRISTMAS It’s been 18 years since the filmmaker, performer, author, fine artist and pope of trash (as he was christened by William S. Burroughs) curated a holiday album including cult classics such as “Fat Daddy” and “Santa Claus Is a Black Man,” but the spirit hasn’t left John Waters, who returns to City Winery on Dec. 18 with his latest irreverent Yuletide offering. Other seasonal celebrations scheduled at the Winery include Betty’s “December Delight” (Dec. 11) with special guests including Gloria Steinem, and “Suzanne Vega: Home for the Holidays” (Dec. 22-23, Dec. 26-27). — Gardner More

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    Classical Music and Opera This Fall: 59 Programs, Premieres and More

    Among the highlights: the reopening of David Geffen Hall, the premiere of ‘The Hours’ at the Met and visits from the Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonics.The pandemic hasn’t been the only obstacle keeping the New York Philharmonic from its home at David Geffen Hall; the building has undergone a thorough renovation that is set to conclude this fall. When it reopens, it will be to weeks of new works in new formats, like Etienne Charles’s parade-like “San Juan Hill: A New York Story.” The coming months will also bring a return to form for Carnegie Hall, which is slowly beginning to bring in not just the world’s top soloists, but leading ensembles as well, like the Berlin Philharmonic. Still, live performance remains precarious, and subject to change; check websites for the latest information and Covid-19 regulations.WET INK ENSEMBLE This eclectic collective of performers and composers opens its season with the premiere of Kate Soper’s “HEX” — billed as a dramatic satire about the gates of hell — featuring Soper and Rick Burkhardt (an ensemble artist in residence) on voice and piano alongside the unconventional septet Orlando Furioso (a project of the composer and drummer Vicente Hansen Atria, also in residence). (Sept. 14; Roulette, Brooklyn)‘MASS’ Leonard Bernstein’s maximalist, multigenre Mass was one of the works to inaugurate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971. Now it is back to conclude the center’s 50th anniversary celebrations, with James Gaffigan leading the National Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Will Liverman in the role of the Celebrant. (Sept. 15-18; Kennedy Center, Washington)Leonard Bernstein with the cast of “Mass” at the inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971.Ron Galella/Getty ImagesNASHVILLE SYMPHONY Giancarlo Guerrero conducts the world premiere of Julia Wolfe’s “Her Story” on a program that includes Joan Tower’s recent “1920/2019,” written for the New York Philharmonic’s Project 19, and Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, with Karen Walwyn as soloist. Like “1920/2019,” Wolfe’s piece, which features the Lorelei Ensemble as vocalists, celebrates the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment. (Sept. 15-17; Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville)THE CROSSING This essential choral ensemble has a major season ahead, performing in partnership with the likes of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra next spring, most notably in the premiere of John Luther Adams’s “Vespers of the Blessed Earth.” But first up is “Walking the Farm: A Progressive Concert,” an ambulatory program in which new music by George Lewis is offered alongside works by Kirsten Broberg, David Shapiro and Peteris Vasks. (Sept. 17 and 18; Kings Oaks Farm, Newtown, Penn.)SEATTLE SYMPHONY This orchestra has been without a music director since Thomas Dausgaard abruptly resigned last season. So its season will begin with Dausgaard’s predecessor, Ludovic Morlot, at the podium, leading a world premiere by the artist in residence, Angelique Poteat, as well as a sampling of Chopin with the pianist Jan Lisiecki. (Sept. 17; Benaroya Hall, Seattle)ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Stéphane Denève leads his ensemble in a season-opening program billed as “postcards from faraway places”: music by Ibert and Dvorak, as well as by Nathalie Joachim, who will be making her debut with the orchestra performing vocals in her work “Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti).” (Sept. 17 and 18; Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis)‘ÑOMONGETÁ’ Most operas still emerge from a tiny handful of language traditions, but this new work by Diego Sánchez Haase is in Guaraní, an Indigenous language widely spoken in Paraguay. Written for a tenor (here José Mongelós) who accompanies himself on Indigenous instruments, the piece imagines a dialogue about colonization with Christopher Columbus. Music of the Americas and Opera Hispánica present the U.S. premiere at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York (and another performance at that museum’s Washington location on Sept. 24). (Sept. 18)José Mongelós in “Ñomongeta,” an opera coming to the National Museum of the American Indian in New York.Giacomo LazzeriTORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Celebrating its centennial, this ensemble, led by Gustavo Gimeno, begins its season with a festive prelude: the world premiere of Kevin Lau’s “The Story of the Dragon Gate.” The program continues with Lera Auerbach’s “Icarus,” along with Bruce Liu as the soloist in Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s crowd-pleasing “Scheherazade.” (Sept. 21-24; Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto)CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Riccardo Muti’s final season with this orchestra begins with the U.S. premiere of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 19th-century “Solemn Prelude,” as well as Brahms’s First Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony (Sept. 22-27). Yefim Bronfman, the soloist for the Brahms, will be making the rounds elsewhere: joining Xian Zhang to start the New Jersey Symphony’s season with Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto (Oct. 7-9); and inaugurating the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s new Steinway with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat (Oct. 28-30). That same month, back in Chicago, the German conductor Christian Thielemann makes an appearance in the repertoire he does best, Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. (Oct. 20-25)‘MEDEA’ Opening the Metropolitan Opera’s season for the first time since “Norma,” in 2017, the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky gets another work that was famous as a vehicle for Maria Callas: this Cherubini classic about a woman driven to extremis by anger at her wandering husband. In its Met premiere, Carlo Rizzi conducts the Italian version, rather than the French original; David McVicar, omnipresent at the Met these days, directs; Matthew Polenzani, Janai Brugger, Michele Pertusi and Ekaterina Gubanova round out the cast. (Sept. 27-Oct. 28; Metropolitan Opera)‘MONOCHROMATIC LIGHT (AFTERLIFE)’ Tyshawn Sorey’s evening-length work, originally written for the monumental serenity of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, scales up — in more ways than one — to the cavernous drill hall of the Park Avenue Armory, with visual art contributions by Julie Mehretu, a staging by Peter Sellars and choreography by Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray. (Sept. 27-Oct. 8; Park Avenue Armory)‘IDOMENEO’ Given its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 1982 and long championed by James Levine, this opera — perhaps the first of Mozart’s maturity — returns to the post-Levine Met led by the profound Manfred Honeck, in his company debut, with a promising cast that includes Michael Spyres, Kate Lindsey, Ying Fang and Federica Lombardi. (Sept. 28-Oct. 20, Metropolitan Opera)‘LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK’ Graham Vick’s savagely cartoonish production of Shostakovich’s opera is one of the Met’s most dramatically potent shows, returns with one of leads from the last revival, in 2014: Brandon Jovanovich, now joined by Katerina Ismailova. The conductor is Keri-Lynn Wilson, who is making her debut with the company led by her husband, Peter Gelb. (Sept. 29-Oct. 21; Metropolitan Opera)Brandon Jovanovich, left, and Eva-Maria Westbroek were the leads of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” in 2014.Hiroyuki Ito for The New York TimesPHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA Another season, another de facto residency at Carnegie Hall for the this ensemble and its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. A day after their season opener at home, with Lang Lang and BalletX performing choreography by Tiler Peck of New York City Ballet, the Philadelphians headline Carnegie’s gala on Sept. 29, with Nézet-Séguin leading works by Ravel, Gabriela Lena Frank and Dvorak, as well as Liszt, with a hand from the pianist Daniil Trifonov. More Carnegie appearances follow in the fall: a concert with Beatrice Rana (Oct. 28); and a starry Mahler Fourth, with Pretty Yende, following a new work by Xi Wang (Dec. 13) that premieres a few nights earlier in Philadelphia (Dec. 8-10). That’s not the only premiere in store: The violinist Jennifer Koh plays a new concerto by Nina Young in a Philadelphia concert conducted by Marin Alsop (Nov. 17-19). (Kimmel Center, Philadelphia)ATTACCA QUARTET This group’s 2021 album “Of All Joys” was an expansive and emotional exploration of what it means to make music collaboratively at the tail end of one of classical music’s most difficult, isolating periods. They bring a live version to Brooklyn as part of the impresario Andrew Ousley’s series the Angel’s Share. (Oct. 4-6; Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn)SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY Esa-Pekka Salonen was in the pit for one of the bleakest and most overwhelming classical music events of the summer: Romeo Castellucci’s staging of Mahler’s Second Symphony at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Now, Salonen brings his take on the work to San Francisco to open its season (Sept. 29-Oct. 2). The Mahler seems to be a popular choice: You can find also find it under the baton of Louis Langrée at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Sept. 24-25), as well as under Franz Welser-Möst with the Cleveland Orchestra (Sept. 29-30). Only in San Francisco, though, will it be paired with a premiere by Trevor Weston; it’s followed by another first, the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Third Piano Concerto, featuring Yuja Wang, which travels to the New York Philharmonic under Santtu-Matias Rouvali early next year (Oct. 13-15). (Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco)ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Nathalie Stutzmann, the lone woman among music directors of the 25 largest orchestras in the United States, officially takes the podium this fall, and does so in grand fashion: with Beethoven’s Ninth, paired with Hilary Purrington’s recent choral work “Words for Departure.” (Oct. 6-9; Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta)Natalie Stutzmann, shown here in Vail, Colo., officially takes the podium in Atlanta this fall.Andrew Miller for The New York TimesBOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA In the second week of its Symphony Hall season, this storied ensemble presents the premiere of Elizabeth Ogonek’s “Starling Variations,” conducted by Andris Nelsons on a program that also includes Shostakovich’s Third Symphony and a Bernstein twofer: “Chichester Psalms” and the concerto-like “Serenade (After Plato’s Symposium),” with the elegant violinist Janine Jansen (Oct. 6-8). Nelsons returns the next month to lead the premiere of Caroline Shaw’s orchestrated version of “Punctum” (Nov. 3). (Symphony Hall, Boston)LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC The finest orchestra on the West Coast — and one of the best in the country — begins its Pan-American Music Initiative near the start of its season, with the premiere of a new violin concerto by Gabriela Ortiz (Oct. 6-9), before heading to Carnegie Hall for two nights. Ortiz’s concerto is on the bill, along with Mahler (Oct. 25), followed by a program featuring the New York premieres of Ortiz’s “Kauyumari” and Arturo Márquez’s “Fandango” (Oct. 26). All of these concerts will be led by Gustavo Dudamel, who in December, back in Los Angeles, leads a three-night account of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” (Dec. 9-17) ahead of conducting it at his other home, the Paris Opera, early next year. (Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles)‘SAN JUAN HILL’ The original sin of Lincoln Center was the destruction of San Juan Hill, a largely Black and Latino neighborhood, to create a gleaming temple to the arts — a fact that has been only haltingly acknowledged over the decades. But at a time of widespread racial reckoning, the organization is coming cleaner, commissioning Etienne Charles’s “San Juan Hill: A New York Story” as part of the reopening of the renovated Geffen Hall. Charles’s Creole Soul ensemble will join the New York Philharmonic in what is planned as a cleansing parade and performance. (Oct. 8; David Geffen Hall)‘EVERYTHING RISES’ The violinist Jennifer Koh and the bass-baritone Davóne Tines — two artists with an eye on classical music’s fraught relationship with race — bring their staged exploration of personal history and the possibility of a new, more honest space in the industry for themselves to the Brooklyn Academy of Music after its premiere in California earlier this year. (Oct. 12-15; BAM Fisher, Brooklyn)N.Y. PHIL RETURNS HOME As it inaugurates its renovated hall, the Philharmonic goes for the spectacular, with an emphasis on the contemporary, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. It unveils Marcos Balter’s “Oyá,” which complements the orchestra with lighting and electronic design, and revives Tania León’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Stride,” from 2020. Anchoring the program are two colorful showcases: John Adams’s “My Father Knew Charles Ives” (2003) and Respighi’s evergreen “Pines of Rome.” (Oct. 12-18; David Geffen Hall)SPHINX VIRTUOSI The house band of the Sphinx Organization, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this season, stops by Carnegie Hall for an evening of characteristically varied programming, including the New York premieres of works by Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery, as well as the world premiere of the rising composer Xavier Foley’s “An Ode to Our Times.” (Oct. 13; Carnegie Hall)PEYVAND A collaboration between the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Iranian Female Composers Association takes as its theme “peyvand,” the Persian word for connectivity, and features a premiere by Niloufar Nourbakhsh. (Oct. 15; Skirball Center)RHIANNON GIDDENS This busy musician begins her Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall with the program “When I Am Laid in Earth” with her partner, Francesco Turrisi, in the intimate Weill Recital Hall (2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 15). Next up is an evening on Carnegie’s main stage, where she will be joined by fellow banjo players for “Songs of Our Native Daughters,” a program with the stories and struggles of Black women in mind (Nov. 4). (Carnegie Hall)Rhiannon Giddens, whose Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, begins with the program “When I Am Laid in Earth.”Elizabeth Bick for The New York Times‘PETER GRIMES’ Not seen at the Met since 2008, this Britten tragedy about a troubled fisherman and the town that shuns him returns with the tenor Allan Clayton — bedraggled and magnetic as Hamlet last season — in the title role. Nicole Car and Adam Plachetka join him; Nicholas Carter, who was also superb in “Hamlet,” conducts. (Oct. 16-Nov. 12; Metropolitan Opera)PIANISTS AT CARNEGIE HALL Two eminences of their generations grace the Carnegie stage: the octogenarian Maurizio Pollini, in a genial program of works by Robert Schumann and Chopin (Oct. 16); and the 35-year-old Igor Levit, offering a long but surely rewarding evening of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues (Oct. 18).The great pianist Maurizio Pollini is coming to Carnegie Hall in October.Hiroyuki Ito for The New York TimesOWLS This string quartet — a dream group made up of the violinist Alexi Kenney, the violist Ayane Kozasa, the cellist Gabriel Cabezas and the cellist-composer Paul Wiancko — brings a time-spanning program of works and arrangements as early as Couperin’s 18th-century “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” and as recent as Wiancko’s “When the Night” and “Vox Petra,” both from 2018, with music by artists like Chick Corea, Terry Riley and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh in between. (Oct. 17 -18; Baryshnikov Arts Center)AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA The state of the environment is the theme of “The Natural Order,” a program led by Mei-Ann Chen and featuring works by Mark Adamo, Viet Cuong, Inti Figgis-Vizueta and Yvette Janine Jackson. (Oct. 20; Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall)MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA Following the transformative tenure of Osmo Vänskä, Thomas Sondergard, who was named the orchestra’s new music director over the summer, comes to Minnesota to lead a program of Lili Boulanger’s “Of a Spring Morning” and two ballet scores: Ravel’s “Mother Goose” and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” Sondergard officially takes the podium next season. (Oct. 20-22; Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis)THE SOUND OF HOME The vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth is the guest on this New York Philharmonic program, the group soloist in the American premiere of “Microfictions,” Vol. 3, by Caroline Shaw, the composer and Teeth member. (The concert also includes Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Florence Price’s Fourth Symphony.) A Nightcap concert on Oct. 20 is led by Roomful of Teeth and features a new work by Angélica Negrón. (Oct. 20-23; David Geffen Hall)CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, a conductor currently uninterested in taking up the podium of any major orchestra, returns to her most recent ensemble for a tour stop featuring the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the New York premiere of a symphony by Thomas Adès, based on his harrowing operatic masterpiece “The Exterminating Angel.” (Oct. 22; Carnegie Hall)Sheku Kanneh-Mason will be a soloist when the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra comes to Carnegie Hall.Greg Kahn for The New York TimesEARLY MUSIC AT THE MILLER THEATER The Miller’s enviable set of early music concerts begins on Oct. 22 with a Monteverdi program from the Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis, and continues with the Orlando Consort (Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries, Nov. 19) and the Tallis Scholars (sacred music past and present, Dec. 10). (Miller Theater, Columbia University)PEOPLES’ SYMPHONY CONCERTS World-class music for bargain-basement prices has long been the irresistible premise of this series, which opens its season with the cellist Steven Isserlis and the pianist Connie Shih. (Oct. 22, Washington Irving High School)ARTIST SPOTLIGHT A new Philharmonic series places artists — some established, some rising — in Geffen Hall’s Sidewalk Studio. The first program features the cellist Sterling Elliott and the pianist Wynona Wang in works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Suk, Janacek and Shostakovich. (The eminent bass-baritone Eric Owens sings Bach on Nov. 14.) (Oct. 24; David Geffen Hall)‘AUTOMATIC WRITING’ The group Object Collection has created an enigmatic staged version of this Robert Ashley experiment from the 1970s, in which the pioneering composer played with the possibilities of involuntary speech. (Oct. 26-30; the Brick, Brooklyn)GEFFEN HALL OPENING GALA Capping weeks of festivities by the New York Philharmonic, this is a gala in two parts: “The Journey” on Wednesday and “The Joy” (featuring Angélica Negrón’s “You Are the Prelude” and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) two nights later. (Oct. 26 and 28; David Geffen Hall)JEAN RONDEAU Few concerts on the fall calendar promise to be as quietly awe-inspiring as this harpsichordist’s take on Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, which he recorded to patient, endlessly thoughtful effect earlier this year. (Oct. 27; Carnegie Hall)‘THE WRECKERS’ A period of rediscovery of female composers has arrived at Ethel Smyth, whose intense 1906 opera about an impoverished seaside community opened the Glyndebourne Festival this summer and now crosses the Atlantic for what Houston Grand Opera says is the first full-scale production by a major American company. Sasha Cooke stars; Patrick Summers conducts; Louisa Muller directs. (Oct. 28-Nov. 11; Wortham Theater Center, Houston)The set design for “The Wreckers,” Ethel Smyth’s 1906 opera, coming to Houston.Christopher Oram/Houston Grand OperaCHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER Among the highlights of this institution’s fall are a return engagement by the always-enlightening Danish String Quartet in a program of Britten, Mozart and Robert Schumann (Oct. 30); juxtapositions of music by Handel and Vivaldi with the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (Dec. 6); and the annual presentation of Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos (Dec. 16-20). (Alice Tully Hall)A STEVE REICH CELEBRATION The pioneering, and still going strong, composer Steve Reich will be 85 by the time this concert honors him with performances from the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals. On the program are two well-known masterpieces, “Tellehim” and “Music for 18 Musicians,” sandwiching the American premiere of Reich’s latest, “Traveler’s Prayer.” (Nov. 1; Carnegie Hall)PIANISTS WITH THE PHILHARMONIC As November arrives and the Philharmonic settles into subscription-season routine in its renovated hall, normalcy arrives in the form of an enviable array of piano soloists. There’s Yefim Bronfman in Mozart, Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan in Bartok, Víkingur Ólafsson in Ravel, and Emanuel Ax in Beethoven. (Nov. 2-Dec. 3; David Geffen Hall)DAVÓNE TINES This brilliant bass-baritone, joined by the pianist Adam Nielsen, brings his program “Recital No. 1: MASS” to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, which should make an already urgent and deeply considered selection of works — by the varied likes of Bach, Tyshawn Sorey and Caroline Shaw — all the more immediate. (Nov. 3; Weill Recital Hall)Davóne Tines is bringing his “Recital No. 1: MASS” to Carnegie Hall.Vincent Tullo for The New York Times‘DON CARLO’ After a landmark Met premiere of the original five-act French version of Verdi’s grand opera last season, the company reverts to its long tradition of performing it truncated and in Italian. Anna Netrebko was to star before having her contracts canceled because of her equivocal statements about President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia; Eleonora Buratto and Angela Meade will replace her, in a fine cast that also includes Russell Thomas, Anita Rachvelishvili, Peter Mattei and Günther Groissböck, with Carlo Rizzi as an experienced hand on the podium. (On Nov. 9 Lyric Opera of Chicago opens a run of the opera in French.) (Nov. 3-Dec. 3, Metropolitan Opera)BARGEMUSIC There’s no performance venue quite like this tiny floating concert hall, moored in Dumbo in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. The programming is eclectic, the mood welcoming and intimate. Among the many shows this fall is one by the pianist and composer Jed Distler, who will play his own work alongside pieces by Frederic Rzewski and David Maslanka. (Nov. 4)‘FIRE AND WATER’ A potent group — the guitarist Mary Halvorson, the saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, the cellist Tomeka Reid and the drummer Susie Ibarra — joins the pianist Myra Melford in this quintet project, based loosely on the work of Cy Twombly. (Nov. 7; Roulette, Brooklyn)BERLIN PHILHARMONIC After a pandemic-thwarted tour to Carnegie Hall planned for the 2020-21 season, one of the world’s top ensembles returns with its exhilarating chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko, for three evenings including Mahler’s Seventh (Nov. 10); works by Andrew Norman, Mozart and Korngold (Nov. 11); and, for another go, the Mahler all over again (Nov. 12). (Carnegie Hall)‘RIGOLETTO’ Benjamin Bernheim, one of Europe’s most acclaimed young tenors, makes his Met debut as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s classic, alongside Quinn Kelsey and Rosa Feola, the stars when this production was new last season. Later performances feature Luca Salsi, Michael Chioldi, Lisette Oropesa and Stephen Costello; in her company debut, Speranza Scappucci leads the whole run. (Nov. 10-Dec. 29; Metropolitan Opera)A scene from the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Rigoletto.”Richard Termine for The New York TimesORATORIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK This group, conducted by Kent Tritle, begins its season at Carnegie Hall with the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s immigration-minded oratorio “A Nation of Others,” as well as Robert Paterson’s setting of six Whitman poems. (Nov. 15; Carnegie Hall)ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S Bernard Labadie and his ensemble start their season at Carnegie Hall with an all-Mendelssohn program of the First Piano Concerto, with Benjamin Grosvenor, and the complete incidental music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with narration by David Hyde Pierce. (Nov. 17; Carnegie Hall)‘DIFFICULT GRACE’ The cellist Seth Parker Woods takes on extra roles as a narrator and a movement artist in this multimedia exploration of the Great Migration made with the choreographer Roderick George and featuring an array of contemporary music by composers including, new for this iteration, Ted Hearne and Devonté Hynes. (Nov. 19; 92nd Street Y)‘THE HOURS’ An enviable trio of stars — Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara — star in Kevin Puts’s lushly lyrical new adaptation of this novel about the impact of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” on different generations of women; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s music director, conducts, making his first appearance on the company’s podium nearly two months into its season. (Nov. 22-Dec. 15; Metropolitan Opera)Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted a concert version of “The Hours” in Philadelphia with, from left, Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara and Jennifer Johnson Cano. It will be staged at the Met Opera in November.Jessica GriffinBOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL This eminent institution continues its longstanding series at the Morgan Library and Museum with a double bill of late 17th-century pieces, one by Lully, the other by Charpentier. Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs are the veteran music directors; Robert Mealy plays concertmaster. (Dec. 3; Morgan Library)KLAUS MAKELA The conductors Hannu Lintu, Stéphane Denève and Rafael Payare follow Jaap van Zweden on the New York Philharmonic’s podium as the season begins. But it’s safe to say that none of those guest appearances will be watched as closely as that of Klaus Makela, the 26-year-old wunderkind who was recently named the next chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. For his Philharmonic debut, he leads a program of Jimmy López, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. (Dec. 8-10, David Geffen Hall)The 26-year-old wunderkind Klaus Makela will make his New York Philharmonic conducting debut in December.Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesISABEL LEONARD AND PABLO SÁINZ-VILLEGAS Presented in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera, this concert of Baroque music for voice (Leonard, an elegant mezzo) and guitar (Sáinz-Villegas) is one of Lincoln Center’s only classical offerings as a presenter this fall, as it gives the spotlight to the New York Philharmonic and the reopening of the renovated David Geffen Hall. (Dec. 9; Alice Tully Hall)‘MESSIAH’ For its annual run of Handel’s holiday oratorio, the New York Philharmonic turns to an eminent specialist in early music, the conductor Masaaki Suzuki, who is joined by the superb Handel and Haydn Society Chorus and the soloists Sherezade Panthaki, Reginald Mobley, Leif Aruhn-Solén and Jonathon Adams. (Dec. 13-17, David Geffen Hall)ITZHAK PERLMAN AND FRIENDS An evening led by one of our most famous violinists features as its guests the pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, as well as the Juilliard String Quartet, joined by its new violist, Molly Carr, who was brought on earlier this year after the death of Roger Tapping. (Dec. 14; Carnegie Hall)Itzhak Perlman will be joined by guests including Emanuel Ax and the Juilliard Quartet at Carnegie Hall.Yael Malka for The New York Times‘BASSLINE FABULOUS’ The Catalyst Quartet’s thoughtful arrangement of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations is the spur for a live response from the performer and costume designer Machine Dazzle (best known for Taylor Mac’s outrageous outfits) in this presentation from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLiveArts series. The site at the museum is distinctive, and serene: John Vanderlyn’s immersive early 19th-century panorama painting of the palace and gardens of Versailles. (Earlier, on Dec. 1, the quartet joins the mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges at the 92nd Street Y.) (Dec. 16-17, Metropolitan Museum of Art)‘FEDORA’ “Medea” isn’t the only diva vehicle being uncorked at the Met. New Year’s Eve brings to the stage Giordano’s verismo melodrama, a barnburner tale of love, politics and a poison-filled necklace set in late-19th-century Russia. The company hasn’t done it in 25 years, when it was the occasion for Mirella Freni’s final full-opera Met performances. Now Sonya Yoncheva gets the princess crown, opposite Piotr Beczala’s Loris. The director is (again) David McVicar. Marco Armiliato conducts. (Opens Dec. 31, Metropolitan Opera) More

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    The 1975’s Matty Healy Is Still Trying to Be Funny, Sincerely

    The last time the British pop-rock band the 1975 put out an album, it was 2020 and things were messy. Already known for its genre-melting sprawl and the unrestrained chatter of its charismatic frontman Matty Healy, the band released its fourth album — an 80-minute, 22-track saga called “Notes on a Conditional Form” — into a roiling global pandemic, attempting to land all of its tricks at once.Amid the anxiety of Covid and various other apocalypses, the album set its grand tone with an opening song based around a monologue by the teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg. But soon after its release, Healy was “soft-canceled” — his term — after linking the murder of George Floyd to one of the 1975’s topical songs in a tossed-off Twitter post. As the band and the world were teetering on the edge, Healy was also busy falling in love.Most of that is now behind them. The new 1975 album, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language,” out on Oct. 14, is the group’s most focused to date at just 11 tracks, with most of them sticking to timeless themes and a live-band sound that gestures back to the shimmering 1980s. Pop music’s reigning artisanal super-producer Jack Antonoff joined Healy and his bandmate and songwriting partner George Daniel to produce the album. (The 1975 also includes the guitarist Adam Hann and the bassist Ross MacDonald.)Yet even as Healy, now 33, has tried to rein in his most chaotic impulses, he is still the guy writing lines like: “Am I ironically woke?/The butt of my joke?/Or am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke/calling his ego imagination?” Then he dares his audience to flinch by making that song, “Part of the Band,” the album’s opening single.“I empathize with people that are living now,” Healy said.Charlotte Hadden for The New York TimesIn a recent video interview, between the ritual relighting of a sturdy joint, Healy discussed paring back, not selling out and the advantages that come with being in a band with your childhood friends for the past 20 years. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Did you set out to write your most cohesive album after “Notes,” which was maybe your most unwieldy?The one thing we knew we didn’t want to do was a continuation of whatever we’d just done. But there were so many ideas in that record, what are you going to do? It became about rules, and it took about a year to figure out what the rules were. It went through one period of only using one drum machine — a very minimal, kind of electronic but tiny thing. And then we started hanging out with Jack Antonoff because of conversations with beabadoobee [who is signed to the 1975’s label, Dirty Hit].What ended up being the main rule?It was “Play it and record it.” Real instruments. You can always find something in a computer that can do the job. Let’s just not do that. Everyone can do all of that and no one cares anymore. Fifteen years ago when you heard XXYYXX, you thought, “What are these sounds? He made them on a computer?” Now you know that any kid can make a bedroom thing that sounds crazy. What you can’t do is have been in a band for 20 years and be great players and go into a room and have that freedom.Why was Jack right for this project?He didn’t get paid [laughs]. Well, he did but not like, paid. To be honest with you, dude, when I’m making a record, it’s very personal. I don’t give a [expletive] about what people on Twitter have to say about Jack Antonoff. Because go and have a half-hour conversation about music with that person, then go have a half-hour conversation about music with Jack Antonoff and see which one leaves you feeling more inspired.“We have the cringe rule in the band,” Healy said. “Like, if anything makes any of us cringe, we don’t have to explain why, we just call ‘cringe.’” Charlotte Hadden for The New York TimesI’ve never done anything for clout in my life. It costs a lot of money to be the 1975 and not take all of the offers that we’ve had. We’re not interested in that, we’re just interested in doing what’s best for us. Jack, at that time, was the best thing for the 1975. He gets a reputation for being busy, but what he actually is, is just good. If you met the guy and worked with him, you’d realize why people want to work with him.Since you and Jack both trade in references, what were the touchstones for “Being Funny”?Retrospectively, we’ll tend to go, “Oh, you know what we’re doing there? We’re doing ‘Dream, Baby, Dream,’” or whatever we were going for. When I was trying to perform “Part of the Band” and we had this stabbing string thing, it was quite angular. I couldn’t figure out how to sit on top of it. And then we were like, “‘Street Hassle’ — that’s what it is! Got it.” And I went for that. You know how like “Graceland” is really loose, but really tight? I think those parts of “Still Crazy,” “Graceland” and the Paul Simon influence always comes out in my stuff.And you have to acknowledge my obsession with “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem as a song throughout my whole career. The reference is the first thing you hear on the album. Of all the solidarities, generational is probably the weakest, but there’s something about men my age and that song — I think it’s the most requested funeral song. It’s a set of rules and a genre in itself.You’ve written a lot of lyrics over the years with proper nouns, current references and pop-culture allusions. Do you think about how those will age?I really, really do. What you’re talking about is like when Katy Perry says “epic fail” on “Friday Night.” It hits you and takes you out of the world. Sometimes I am scared of doing that. Funny is what I care about. I’m at my best when I’m at my funniest and most observational comedy is topical. But anything forced, it stings or reads as insincere.We have the cringe rule in the band. Like, if anything makes any of us cringe, we don’t have to explain why, we just call “cringe.” And then we can call a debate on that if we want to.You must have a high bar, as a band, for cringe.It’s true. We’re not embarrassed about much. One could criticize me for loads of things, but you can’t criticize me for being insincere. Annoying, whatever. But I’m not insincere. The cringe means insincere. Their attitude is, if you’re going to go there, go there. The only time you’re going to slip up is if you pull the punch a little bit.Other than “I” and “you,” the most common word on this album might be “love.” Did you make an album about falling in love?I think I’ve realized what I do: I write about how we communicate interpersonally in the modern age — mediated by the internet. Love, loss, addiction. That’s what I always do. Every other record has been a bit like, “Love! And me! And this! And that!” I think “Being Funny” is the first time where I’m a bit like, “OK, right, love. Let’s do love.”Healy, now 33, has tried to rein in his most chaotic impulses — to a point.Charlotte Hadden for The New York TimesThe hangover that I have from all of the postmodernism of my previous work and the past 50 years of culture is the irony as a shield. I can’t be bothered doing that right now and I can’t be bothered listening to people do it. I’m just looking for the truth. All those tropes of being nihilistic and sexy and drug-addled and all those kinds of things, that’s very cool and maybe appropriate in your 20s, but it’s going to make way for a more personally and socially forgiving set of values.You’re one of the best contemporary writers — especially outside of rap — on the process of consumption, whether it’s drugs or culture or goods. Where are you with your sobriety journey as a lyrical subject?I find sobriety, like drugs — if it’s your personality, it’s very boring. I’ve struggled with sobriety as a persona. They call this “California sober,” right? I smoke weed and I don’t do anything else. I’ve managed to get to a place where I know nobody around me is particularly worried about me running off and scoring. So I think it’s becoming a smaller part of my writing as it becomes a smaller part of my life.Are you ever consciously trying to write like a rapper?I’m like Mr. Cultural Reference, but I’ve got so many that it’s very difficult to see what my actual DNA is. I’m not very inspired by writers. I never really think about that. I think about comedy a lot — jokes, how they work, how much fat they have on them. But when I first heard the Streets I was like, OK. He kind of said, if you are searching for an identity that is kind of an identity in itself. The way that I rhyme — the Streets is the biggest influence and then maybe Paul Simon.So still rhythmic and wordy.“Sincerity Is Scary,” “So Far (It’s Alright),” “The Birthday Party” — I always call them long-form songs. Long-form songs to me means where I’ve got a long rhythmical phrase where I can get a lot out. I find these songs, the ones that actually seem cleverer, a lot easier to write. People have spoken about me rapping and I’ve never really thought about it as rap. But I think it’s because the Streets gave me license to think about rhyming rhythmically with an English accent as being quite an English thing.What are your commercial ambitions these days? Do you think it would be fun for the 1975 to have a No. 1 hit or a TikTok moment?It’s difficult to be big and say — genuinely — that I have zero commercial ambition. There’s definitely a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of thing, which is where, listen, we’ve never known what to do and we’ve never tried to do anything. So the second we stop doing that, we’ll probably [expletive] up. I tend to say no to stuff for money.I don’t know how you can write this up without it being rude or inappropriate, but I just got offered a four-month tour next year of stadiums with the biggest singer-songwriter in the world that would’ve made me money that I’ve never even seen or heard of in my life.“I think I’ve realized what I do: I write about how we communicate interpersonally in the modern age — mediated by the internet. Love, loss, addiction. That’s what I always do.”Charlotte Hadden for The New York TimesEd Sheeran?Yeah. And I got offered to be main support and do whatever I want. Think about the money you think I’m getting offered — it’s not just offered, it’s what he can afford because of what he makes for shows — and then just triple it. It’s insane. The thing that’s stopped me just doing that is because — I don’t care. It’s not worth it. Not because I don’t like Ed Sheeran. I think he’s, in a lot of ways, a genius. And he does what he does better than anybody else. But opening up for somebody and not just being real, that’s the kind of stuff I think about.The album is also sprinkled with lyrics about your so-called cancellations. How do you look back on that part of 2020, both for yourself and in general?To be honest, the one thing that annoyed me a little bit when I finished the record, after I’d done the last song, “When We Are Together,” that had this “canceled” line in it, I realized, “There’s too many ‘canceled’ lines. That’s going to be a thing that people think I’m really bothered about.”I was soft-canceled, you know? Also canceling isn’t a thing. If you do something criminal and loads of people find out about it, that’s not being canceled. That’s just what happens now if you’re a criminal. Saying something and people trying to censor you, whatever.The deletion of my Twitter was not because I was scared. I was mainly like, I’m just about to start writing about this culture war, and I feel like I’m being made a pawn in it. All it’s going to do is debase my ability to make points with context. And the context that I have and that I own is my music.The refrain of the first song on the album is, “I’m sorry if you’re living and you’re 17.” What are you sorry for?I mean, you know what I mean. I empathize with people that are living now. I used to make the joke that on the first two records the 1975 was like the apocalyptic sense of being a teenager in a major key. I was talking about, like John Hughes’s apocalyptic sense of being a teenager where the future seemed so enormous that you couldn’t deal with it. And then we just essentially took away the future of the 17-year-old brain.I just feel sorry for kids that are drowning in whatever: self-hatred, the burdens of social media, even wokeness. All of these things that are just vessels for people to feel better about how [expletive] their life is. I am genuinely sorry if you are having to think about this [expletive] that I’m thinking about at 17 years old. That’s not cool. More

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    When Weird Al Yankovic Met Daniel Radcliffe, Things Got … Well, You Know

    For their decidedly nonfactual rock biopic, the pop-music parodist and the “Harry Potter” star found themselves on the same wavelength.The real Weird Al Yankovic, left, and his movie double, Daniel Radcliffe. “I hope this confuses a lot of people,” the musician said of their biopic.Sinna Nasseri for The New York TimesListen to This ArticleTo hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.Generally speaking, Weird Al Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe are never going to be mistaken for each other. Yankovic is the lanky, longhaired Southern California dude who became an accordion whiz and a master parodist of pop music. Radcliffe is the more compact, London-born wunderkind of the “Harry Potter” movies who has since graduated into an eclectic acting career.Still, this past winter, during the making of the new movie “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” their mutual presence on the set occasionally led to confusion. When crew members called for “Weird Al,” they wanted the actor playing him, which meant Radcliffe. Eventually, for maximum clarity, they began referring to the authentic Yankovic as “Real Al,” though some further disorientation was inevitable.As Yankovic explained in a recent conversation with Radcliffe, “Every time I would walk by the ‘Weird Al’ sign on your trailer, I’d be like” — he paused and acted out an exaggerated double take — “Oh, no, that’s not me.”This is the effect that the makers of “Weird” are hoping it will have on audiences when Roku releases the biopic on Nov. 4. It is a wildly satirical, highly nonfactual telling of Yankovic’s ascent from a geeky young accordionist to the beloved performer of hit songs like “My Bologna,” “Another One Rides the Bus” and “Eat It,” embellished with stories of sex, drugs and jungle combat that never really happened to him.“I hope this confuses a lot of people,” Yankovic said of “Weird,” which he wrote with the film’s director, Eric Appel. “We want to lead them down a path and think, Is this a real biopic? Is this the real story? The movie starts out pretty normal. Then it progressively goes way off the rails.”Central to fulfilling that premise is the casting of Radcliffe, an enthusiastic Yankovic fan who looks little like the musician and had no desire to impersonate him.Radcliffe was a longtime fan of comedy musicians like Tom Lehrer and Weird Al. In his first meeting with Yankovic, he remembers thinking, “If this happens, my girlfriend is going to be so thrilled.”Sinna Nasseri for The New York TimesFor all the attention he brings to it, Radcliffe said, he appreciated “Weird” precisely because it allowed him to follow his post-“Potter” path into more unexpected roles. Playing Yankovic, at least as he’s depicted in the movie, was the exact assignment Radcliffe was looking for — even if the title put some constraints on how he could describe the film.Radcliffe started to say, “There was nothing weird — see, it makes the word ‘weird’ hard to use in other contexts — there was nothing unusual about it.” He added that even before he had read the script, and was simply asked about playing Yankovic, “I was very, very into the idea.”Over a breakfast interview last month at a downtown Manhattan restaurant, Yankovic, 62, and Radcliffe, 33, exhibited an adorkable affection for each other. There were a lot of “you go ahead,” “no, you continue” exchanges. It was as if neither man knew who was the celebrity and who was the admirer.They said there was a similar energy in their first video chat in the winter of 2020, when Yankovic was pitching Radcliffe on the idea of starring in the movie. “I have a real problem in meetings sometimes when I like something and I want to do it,” Radcliffe said. “I just gush in various ways. I get very, very repetitive.”“Weird” was very much a passion project for Yankovic, who has released 14 studio albums since 1983 but starred in just one movie, the 1989 cult comedy “UHF.”In 2010, Appel wrote and directed a tongue-in-cheek trailer for a nonexistent movie, also called “Weird.” Starring Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”) as a hard-partying version of Yankovic, the video was released on Funny or Die and became a viral success.Over the years, Yankovic showed the fake trailer at his concerts, where some fans believed it was advertising a real film.“People would be like, ‘You should make a whole movie,’” Yankovic said. “I was like, ‘Nah, it’s a trailer. It’s what it’s supposed to be — it’s a gag.’”But more recently, following the success of other rock biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman,” Yankovic began to take seriously the idea of a feature-length version of “Weird.”The real Weird Al in concert in Chicago in 1985, above, and Radcliffe as the accordion slinger in the movie, right. The musician taught the actor enough of the instrument to fake it onscreen.Paul Natkin/Getty ImagesAaron Epstein/RokuHe was also annoyed at what he felt were unnecessary changes to the factual stories of the rock stars depicted in these other movies. He pointed to a scene in “Rocketman” when Elton John impulsively chooses his new surname after he spots a portrait of the Beatles and zeros in on John Lennon.“Everybody who’s an Elton John fan knows it was inspired by Long John Baldry,” Yankovic said, raising his voice just slightly. “I guess they thought nobody knows who Long John Baldry is.”An initial effort to pitch “Weird” around Hollywood was unsuccessful, and studios seemed to expect a movie that more directly lampooned existing biopics, in the same way Yankovic’s songs parodied other hit singles. “People thought it was going to be more spoofier — more ‘Naked Gun,’ more ‘Scary Movie’ — than it is,” Appel said.So he and Yankovic sat together in a coffee shop, watching the trailers for other biopics and looking for common storytelling tropes. Together they wrote a script in which, Yankovic said, “facts are changed arbitrarily, just to change them.”No matter what “Weird” may depict, Yankovic did not compose his song “My Bologna” in a spontaneous moment of out-of-body inspiration. Also, he said, “I did record it in a bathroom but not in a bus station. Why did we change it? Just ’cause that’s what biopics do.”Their movie still needed a leading man, and they thought of Radcliffe, who they knew appreciated comedy musicians like Tom Lehrer.Radcliffe, it turned out, liked Yankovic’s music also — and so, too, did his longtime girlfriend, the actress Erin Darke, who had been a fan for years and often played Yankovic’s albums on road trips.(Throughout their first video call about “Weird,” Radcliffe said in an excited whisper, “I was going, If this happens, my girlfriend is going to be so thrilled.”)More crucially, Radcliffe said he felt “Weird” offered the artistic liberty he has sought on films like the biographical drama “Kill Your Darlings,” which cast him as the poet Allen Ginsberg, or “Swiss Army Man,” a dark comedy in which he played a highly versatile corpse.“Whenever I get a chance to throw myself into something, I will,” Radcliffe said.Even before Radcliffe had seen a script, “I was very, very into the idea” of playing Yankovic, he said.Sinna Nasseri for The New York TimesCompared to a scene in “Weird” when the fictionalized Yankovic is on a psychedelic drug trip and hatches from a giant egg, Radcliffe said, “maybe only Paul Dano riding me like a Jet Ski in ‘Swiss Army Man’ comes close to the weirdest thing I’ve ever done.”He added, “There was definitely a freedom in the version of Al that is in the script. And it is so insane.” Turning to Yankovic, he said, “You didn’t murder many, many people.”“Not a lot,” Yankovic replied. “Very few.”With Radcliffe on board, Roku picked up the movie. But the company agreed to only 18 days of filming, which made for an incredibly tight schedule on a project in which he had to perform several musical numbers (lip-syncing Yankovic’s original vocals), as well as execute a couple of action sequences.“On ‘Potter,’ one of those scenes could take 16 days,” Radcliffe said.So he used his preproduction time to learn his lines and choreography and get into top physical shape. (“I did end up realizing I am shirtless in the Weird Al movie more than anything else I have done,” he said. “Most of it was scripted, but I hadn’t really taken it in.”)And once cameras started rolling, everyone held on tight. “The Covid of it all was terrifying, especially for me and Eric,” Radcliffe said. “There is no Plan B. We just have to not get sick.”Even before filming started, the comedian Patton Oswalt, who had been cast in a key role as Dr. Demento, the radio host who gave Yankovic some of his earliest airtime, broke his foot. Though there was some talk of whether Oswalt could play the part on crutches, Rainn Wilson (“The Office”) took over on short notice.The production was also buoyed by a committed performance from Evan Rachel Wood (“Westworld”), who plays Madonna — though in this story, the Material Girl is a sly, selfish seductress who is clearly only using Yankovic in hopes that he will parody one of her songs.“I’m amazed the lawyers let us get away with this movie, frankly,” Yankovic said. “But they’re like, Oh, yeah, all public figures — go for it.” (A representative for Madonna did not respond to a request for comment.)As in other rock biopics, Yankovic said, “facts are changed arbitrarily, just to change them” in “Weird.”Sinna Nasseri for The New York TimesAppel said Yankovic and Radcliffe were especially important for setting a professional tone while everyone worked at breakneck speed. And during postproduction, Appel continued to communicate closely with Yankovic while the musician has been on a North American concert tour.“When we were mixing the movie, he was on Zoom with us, all day long, from a different city every day,” Appel said. “He’d text me between songs: ‘I think the backing vocals on this song need to get bumped up a tiny bit.’ Then I’d start to respond and he’d say, ‘Oop, gotta go onstage.’”“Weird” is arriving at an awkward moment for the streaming industry, which is in a period of reassessment and retrenchment after years of expansion, and for Roku, whose stock took a beating after the company missed earnings goals this summer.While this might seem to put increased pressure on the movie to deliver an audience, the filmmakers could only shrug their shoulders and say they were just grateful to have made it at all.“This is a new thing for them,” Yankovic said of Roku. “Hopefully this will do well for them.” Radcliffe said he had encountered more curiosity about “Weird” than he did for the Harry Potter reunion special he appeared in for HBO Max this past January. “I still can’t believe people weren’t jumping at the chance to make your movie,” Radcliffe said to Yankovic. “They’ll regret it now.”The Weird Al of “Weird” and Real Al would now go their separate ways: Radcliffe was preparing for a revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” at New York Theater Workshop, and Yankovic was due in Toronto that evening to continue his concert tour. (“We’re in the homestretch now — just three more months,” he said wryly.)But they would always be united by their time together on “Weird” and the unique opportunity that Radcliffe had to learn the accordion from Yankovic — at least enough to make him look like a competent musician in a movie.“When you’re playing Al, to not give it a good, honest attempt seems a wasted opportunity,” Radcliffe said.Yankovic replied, “Every time I see somebody play the accordion on TV or film, it’s always a disappointment.” (As an exception, he singled out Mary Steenburgen, who he said “can actually play.”) “Dan put in the effort,” he said. “I don’t know if he could do a solo performance.”Radcliffe quickly responded, “No way, I could not. But I can do the left hand on ‘My Bologna’ pretty effectively. I learned the bits I needed for the songs, on one hand or the other.” He laughed and added, “Doing them both at the same time is a nonstarter.”Audio produced by More

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    Raises and Safety Protections in City Ballet Dancers’ New Contract

    The dancers will receive a wage increase of 6.7 percent this season. The company also agreed to hire an intimacy director and to work to eliminate stereotypes in ballet.When the pandemic hit in 2020, battering cultural institutions and forcing New York City Ballet to cancel performances for 18 months, the company reduced the salaries of dancers and other artists by 4 percent as it worked to weather the crisis.The dancers have in recent months sought to offset those losses, pushing for raises as they negotiated a new labor contract. This week, they won a victory: City Ballet said that as a part of a three-year labor agreement, it would raise salaries for dancers and restore some benefits that were halted during the pandemic, including vacation pay and contributions to retirement accounts.Sam Wheeler, the national executive director of American Guild of Musical Artists, the union representing dancers, stage managers and other workers at City Ballet, said in a statement that the contract was “a great example of what can be achieved when management and unions work together.”Like many cultural groups, City Ballet is working to restore cuts made during the pandemic with the hope that the worst of the crisis is over. In recent months, as the financial outlook for arts institutions has grown somewhat brighter, some groups, including the New York Philharmonic, have reversed pandemic-era pay cuts. But arts leaders acknowledge that many uncertainties remain, including whether audiences will return to concert halls as frequently as they did before the pandemic.Under the agreement, which was ratified by the union on Tuesday, the dancers will receive a wage increase of 6.7 percent this season, tied to the rate of inflation in New York City. In 2023 and 2024, they will receive additional increases.City Ballet, in a statement, said the contract “both provides economic benefits, and continues our important work on creating a respectful and safe workplace for all employees.”The contract includes several measures aimed at building a safer and more inclusive culture at City Ballet, especially for women and dancers of color.The company will hire an intimacy director on a pilot basis to care for the physical and emotional well-being of performers, and to help ensure that consent is given when dancers are called upon to touch each other in intimate ways.Under the agreement, City Ballet will formally adopt a policy allowing dancers to use tights and shoes that better match each dancer’s skin tone, rather than standard pink attire, a practice that the company has been experimenting with since last year. The company also pledged to work to eliminate racial and ethnic stereotypes in ballet.The pandemic shutdown disrupted the careers of many of City Ballet’s rising stars and resulted in the loss of $55 million in anticipated ticket sales. Just as live performance was getting off the ground last year, the Omicron variant emerged, forcing the company to cancel 26 shows in December and January, including performances of “The Nutcracker,” typically its most lucrative show of the year.Attendance last season was still below prepandemic levels, hovering around 80 percent. But the company hopes that its new season will bring audiences back in force. The company’s first performance will take place on Sept. 20 with a program of dances by George Balanchine. More

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    Hobart Earle Leads the Odesa Philharmonic to Berlin

    “I certainly never planned on being a music director in a time of war,” says Hobart Earle, who has conducted this Ukrainian orchestra for 30 years.BERLIN — There was a warm ovation as the musicians of the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra came onstage here on Tuesday evening, and cheers when the ensemble played the Ukrainian anthem. Applause greeted the conductor Hobart Earle’s spoken introduction in German.But none of that was as loud as the roar from the crowd at the Philharmonie when Earle switched to Ukrainian. To hear that language spoken in front of dozens of Ukrainian musicians in a Western European capital was a stirring sign of the defiant survival of Ukraine — and its culture — in the face of Russia’s war of aggression. (The concert can be viewed at mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de through Sept. 17.)That defiance was particularly powerful coming from an orchestra from Odesa, whose port holds the key to the Black Sea and the global grain trade. The city may be the most strategically and symbolically crucial prize of the war as it drags on.The Philharmonic, which dates its modern history to the 1930s, was performing in Berlin for the first time, but it was led by an old friend: Earle, born in Venezuela to American parents, has been the orchestra’s conductor for 30 years, an unusually long tenure these days.“I never imagined that I would be a long-term music director,” Earle said in an interview the day before the concert. “And I certainly never planned on being a music director in a time of war.”The program of works by Myroslav Skoryk, Mykola Lysenko, Alemdar Karamanov and Sibelius came together rapidly after Winrich Hopp, the artistic director of Musikfest Berlin (part of the Berliner Festspiele), contacted the orchestra in early July. Earle, who had left Ukraine in February, flew back to Odesa to rehearse an ensemble that had been largely silenced for six months by the war.“How could I not go back to try and put this orchestra together again?” he said.With the Ukrainian government granting permission for male players to travel, even though men of military age are now barred from leaving the country, the performance could go forward. Even a double bass broken in transit could not dim the high spirits of the occasion, and what Earle called “the indomitable Odesa humor.”“Any orchestra is a mirror of its city,” he said. “Odesa is very well known in the former Soviet Union as a capital of humor. It’s a city where it’s so important during hard times, this ability to be flexible in the face of problems and to live life with a smile.”Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.Earle conducting the Odesa ensemble in Berlin in a program of works by Myroslav Skoryk, Mykola Lysenko, Alemdar Karamanov and Sibelius.Fabian SchellhornWhat has happened to the orchestra and the players during the past six months?My last concert was on Feb. 12, and the mood was going downhill really fast: “Maybe the American intelligence has something here; why are they sounding such an alarm; maybe this is really going to happen.” And we played — unplanned — the overture to Lysenko’s great Ukrainian opera “Taras Bulba,” one of our old war horses.After the war broke out, we didn’t know what was going to happen next. After the invasion of Crimea, in 2014, we had done a flash mob playing “Ode to Joy” in the fish market, and we tried to get permission to do that again, at sites around Odesa. But we couldn’t get permission. So we decided [to release online] the audio of the last movement of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s 21st Symphony, the last big piece we played before the pandemic. It’s a kaddish he dedicated to the victims of the Warsaw ghetto. We took the music and added images from the concert hall and the war, but also images of Ukrainian life — to try and make it not terribly bleak, like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and we released that at the end of March.Had everyone stayed in Odesa?Some people had gone abroad, and some went to villages in western Ukraine. We have a lot of split families now — that’s very common, with wives and children abroad. But as people came back, the orchestra started playing weekly chamber concerts in May.Several of the players were in civilian defense units. One of our stagehands was actually in the army — he would be here except he had concussions and high blood pressure and got some time off, but he was on the front. Our principal clarinet is also in the armed forces, but his function right now is not fighting; he’s helping the wounded and driving ambulances. But they let him have time off to come with us.What was it like for you to return to Ukraine?It was rather sad, because the city is historically one of the great cosmopolitan cities of Europe. During the summer it’s usually bursting, and it’s empty now. But you can feel some life coming back on the streets, and in the restaurants and cafes.How did you initially connect with this orchestra?I came to the Soviet Union with a chamber orchestra from Vienna in 1990. With this orchestra, we had been doing rarely performed American music in Austria, and rarely performed Austrian music in America. And someone said we should take our American program to the Soviet Union. Almost none of us had ever been there before.One of the cities was Odesa, and I was then invited to come guest-conduct the Philharmonic. I came in April 1991, not speaking a word of Russian. I speak some Western European languages and English, but there wasn’t any ability to communicate. This was terra incognita, the Iron Curtain. And through an amazing turn of fate, there was one viola player from Cuba, and I could speak Spanish with him, and he was my translator. And it all grew out of that. If not for that, I wouldn’t have had any real chance of continuing. “Any orchestra is a mirror of its city,” Earle said. “Odesa is very well known in the former Soviet Union as a capital of humor.”Fabian SchellhornCan you tell me about program you’ve brought to Berlin?The basic idea was to focus on three composers. We start with Skoryk — part of his 1965 score for a classic of Soviet film called “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.” This piece is called “Childhood”; it’s happy children’s music, very folkloric, and there’s so much folklore in Ukrainian culture and history. The idea was to go directly from this children’s music into an elegy by Lysenko — a piano piece, in a new orchestral version. And we’re dedicating this pairing to the children who are suffering so badly in this war.And Karamonov’s Third Piano Concerto?Nobody wrote music like this in 1968, not in the Soviet Union, not in Western Europe. He was a Crimean Tatar Muslim, and his father was exiled to Siberia, so in 1944 Karamanov wasn’t in Crimea but in Moscow with his mother, or else he would have been sent there as well.He went away from avant-garde music and came back to Crimea and this is one of the first pieces he wrote there. It’s a very religious piece: He was Muslim, but he had an experience that turned him totally toward Christianity, which was remarkable in the Soviet Union. He was very interested in jazz and all these forbidden things. It’s very reflective music; you can feel in some places the influence of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, but that’s just fleeting moments. Other times you can feel these blues harmonies — with a deep religious underpinning. And a fascinating ending, totally unexpected: His words were that this is a rain, a spiritual rain.And the Sibelius?Winrich Hopp said we should play something in which the orchestra can really shine. And I came to Sibelius’s Second Symphony, which has the whole underpinning of patriotism. And we wanted to end with something upbeat. This music, the sort of narrative of this symphony, is something which now, during this war, we feel differently. This piece has a lot of dark moments, but that last movement …Has the issue of playing Russian music with the orchestra come up?I did a Shostakovich Five in Poland at the beginning of February, and that music fit the atmosphere so precisely. I’ve been asked a lot about Russian music. But Ukrainians just do not want to hear it now, and I think we need to respect that.Have you been able to explore Berlin during your stay?I realized that I haven’t been here since the fall of the Wall! So I’m exploring it. I found the site of the old Philharmonie, where the Berlin Philharmonic played. But there’s a sadness to being in Berlin now. It’s still a construction site. And it makes you wonder how many years it is going to take to rebuild Ukraine. More

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    5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Alice Coltrane

    We asked writers, critics and musicians including Meshell Ndegeocello and Angel Bat Dawid to tell us what moves them in Coltrane’s spiritual jazz.For the past several years, New York Times music editors have been asking: What five minutes would you play for a friend to make them love classical music? Last month, shifting the series’ focus to jazz, we asked musicians, writers and critics to share their passion for Duke Ellington.Now we want those music-loving friends to be moved by Alice Coltrane, the keyboardist and harpist who explored the universal and spiritual in jazz before her death in 2007 at age 69. Her husband John Coltrane had died in 1967.Before his passing, the couple explored the depths of spirituality together, traveling the world to take in new cultures, and letting those influences come through in the music. And where John used screeching saxophone wails to summon higher powers, Alice took the opposite approach, channeling serenity through the chords of her piano and the strum of her harp. In what would have been her 85th year of life, she’s still celebrated with tribute concerts and like-minded music from today’s purveyors of spiritual jazz.Enjoy listening to these Alice Coltrane songs, including a playlist at the bottom of the article, and be sure to leave your own favorites in the comments.◆ ◆ ◆Morgan Parker, writer and poetThe bluesy 1970 treasure “Ptah, the El Daoud” is a journey through the rituals of mourning. Of course it raps with a universal cosmos — but with one foot on Earth, where there’s no transcending grief. Composed in the years after her husband John’s death, and recorded in their family home, it features Alice Coltrane on piano with Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson on tenor saxophones. Except on “Blue Nile.” Here, they play alto flutes; Alice graces her harp. Following the aching prayers of the album’s “Turiya and Ramakrishna,” the opening strings of “Blue Nile” herald respite and repass, a moment to settle and reset. The musicians are downright grooving on this warm, imaginative track, both exhaling and exalting in every note.“Blue Nile”Alice Coltrane (Impulse!)◆ ◆ ◆Taja Cheek, musicianI know there was a time when I didn’t know who Alice Coltrane was, but I just can’t remember that time. I do remember taking a last-minute flight to California to visit the Sai Anantam Ashram that she founded in 1983. I remember crying with gratitude and anticipation on the plane there. I remember my phone dying, and worrying that I would be stranded in a place I didn’t know; but I remember the Indian food the ashram prepared more than I remember the worry. I remember the joy of meeting members of the ashram, of learning from them, of hearing them sing, of hearing them talk about their love for her. There are many Alices, depending on who you ask, where and when. There are many sounds, too: devotional chanting, spiritual singing, strings, jazz piano, harp, nasal organ. She was an innovator that studied tradition. A keeper of multitudes. But the music weaves through it all. I think of all of this when I listen to “Spiritual Eternal”: the way the sound dips slightly right before the strings come in. An organ stretched to its limits, cracked open as if by a hacker. Transporting listeners to outer space and inner space. There’s nothing like it.“Spiritual Eternal”Alice Coltrane (Rhino/Warner Records)◆ ◆ ◆John Morrison, writerI love the fact that in recent years, more people have come to the understanding that Alice Coltrane was a multi-hyphenate genius. Pianist, composer, harpist, spiritual teacher, Coltrane possessed a creative range that few have rivaled. Of all the stylistic twists and turns present in her catalog, songs like “Pranadhana” best illustrate the brilliance of Alice Coltrane for me. Singing in Sanskrit while accompanying herself on organ, Coltrane beautifully combines two great sacred music traditions: Hindu devotional songs and Black American gospel. Rich, meditative and overflowing with spiritual power, this song evokes both Coltrane’s childhood playing organ at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Detroit and her adulthood using music to build her spiritual community at her ashram.“Pranadhana”Alice Coltrane (Alice Coltrane)◆ ◆ ◆Lakecia Benjamin, musicianTo me Alice Coltrane exemplifies the meaning of transcendence: She and her music exist beyond the normal or spiritual level. Her musical artistry and spiritual awareness open the floodgates to empathy. One of the first things that made me love her work is the freedom in it. The genre and expression cannot be defined. And the music hits the soul of the listener, almost causing you to immediately be changed in some way. All of this is summed up for me on “Prema,” and particularly this version. It takes the listener down a path of subconscious reflection. And once that happens, you are forced to deal with the you that you tuck away and try to hide from the public view. I’m grateful Ms. Coltrane was born and walked on this Earth, and left behind the writings and music she did.“Prema”Alice Coltrane (Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz/NPR)◆ ◆ ◆Angel Bat Dawid, musicianThis version of “A Love Supreme” slaps so hard! From Alice Coltrane’s wonderful album “World Galaxy,” emphasizing once again the collective genius and message of her music: that Black music is always spiritual music. Her deep love of spirituality and interest in Eastern religion show how Black music never separates those things into categories, and proves that Alice will never leave the roots that are the spirituals or “spirchiills” as the ancestors pronounced it. No matter how big and famous and genre-crossing and avant-garde she became, Alice was from Detroit, and you can hear the blues, funk, gospel and all those silly labels that are put on Black musicians as a way to categorize something that is felt but not entirely understood by those who are non-Black. Her rendition is an endearing and beautiful tribute to the shared message of her late husband. The “love supreme” is really the music, and it prevails no matter what.“A Love Supreme”Alice Coltrane (Impulse!)◆ ◆ ◆Tammy Kernodle, scholarThe manner in which Alice Coltrane’s music and artistry intersected strongly with her spiritual identity has always resonated deeply with me. While many might equate this with conventions that emerged out of jazz during the 1960s and 1970s, it was much more. The intersection of Coltrane’s music and spirituality reflected her personal journey to a life driven by divine purpose and her role in birthing an idiom of liturgical jazz. “This Hymn” is a reminder of how Coltrane’s music and theology of transformation and liberation were rooted in the emotive, ecstatic and contemplative sounds of Black Baptist and Pentecostal churches.“The Hymn”Alice Coltrane (Impulse!)◆ ◆ ◆Courtney Bryan, composerThe music of Alice Coltrane (also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda) is profoundly healing, like a spiritual deep-tissue massage. It leads me to a peaceful place within and to an awareness of connection with the universe. Particularly, her recordings “Turiya Sings” (1982), “Divine Songs” (1987), “Infinite Chants” (1990) and “Glorious Chants” (1995) resonate with me. These recordings led me to visit her Sai Anantam Ashram to better understand her music and teachings and to sing her music in the mandir. Listening to “Keshava Murahara” from “Divine Songs,” I treasure her compositional genius — the grounding presence and modal harmonies of the organ, the evocative chanting of the bhajans, the soaring strings, and the otherworldly synthesizer that in the final minute illustrates what it may feel like to transcend this material existence to higher realms of spiritual consciousness.“Keshava Murahara”Alice Coltrane (Luaka Bop)◆ ◆ ◆Meshell Ndegeocello, musicianAt around age 14 or 15, I would walk down to Kemp Mill Records to browse as often as I could. Eventually I even got a part-time job there, only to be fired on Day 4 for playing the music too loud in the store. Kemp Mill had a jazz bin mostly filled with straight-ahead, smooth, and vocal jazz artists, and I regularly flipped through it. I browsed the used records bin often as well. That is where I found this Alice Coltrane album, “Ptah, the El Daoud.” If my memory serves me correctly, it was the cover art that first sparked my interest. The next were the titles. The iconography and track names were maps to other ideas, cultural truths, an affirmation of my burgeoning suspicions. I was beginning to question my conservative Christian upbringing after learning a different version of Egyptian mythology from my Iraqi friend Mahmoud. I had only known of the biblical references to Egypt before then.The reason I loved this album, and its title track, is that it begins with this walking bass line; then come the piano sounds, and it moves with a sway and groove that feels so good, uplifting you, you can’t help but nod with joy and power. The music, stoking my curiosity and psychic independence, was also calming to me, a young person living in chaos. I revisit Alice’s music when I am in need of healing: She is a guide, a symbol of hope, that music is more than entertainment or livelihood or, worst, for profit. Music changed my life’s circumstances, but it is how I connect with my creator. Alice Coltrane changed my heart and consciousness. Her music is for the inner world and it is from there she seeds transformation.“Ptah, the El Daoud”Alice Coltrane (Impulse!)◆ ◆ ◆Marcus J. Moore, jazz writerAlice Coltrane’s fourth studio album, “Journey in Satchidananda,” begins with a title cut so strong that it’s often tough for me to move past it. A soothing mix of harp, hypnotic bass and melodic saxophone, it was meant to honor the spiritual guru Swami Satchidananda, who helped Coltrane see the light following her husband John’s death in 1967. The swami was “the first example I have seen in recent years of Universal Love … in action,” Alice Coltrane wrote in the album’s liner notes. Not only is the track a rightful tribute to Satchidananda, it sets a proper tone for one of the greatest albums ever — a meditative masterpiece centered on Coltrane’s ascendance from despair.“Journey in Satchidananda”Alice Coltrane, featuring Pharoah Sanders (GRP)◆ ◆ ◆Surya Botofasina, musicianDivinity. Grace. Devotion.In this chanting, I hear passionate calls for internal, soul-reaching connection. This song epitomizes what Swamini is for us: The ultimate instrument and example of devotion. Hear how every note of her organ and synthesizer harmonically supports every person’s earnest plea for a personal bond with the divine? “Hari Narayan” — spirit of the Lord Vishnu, the Preserver. The voice of my mother, Radha Botofasina, is the one you can hear the most in this recording. This song is my ashram childhood. Swamini blessed us with music which is beyond meditative; she provided the one thing a spiritual heart can hope for: inner peace.“Hari Narayan”Alice Coltrane (Luaka Bop)◆ ◆ ◆Brandee Younger, harpistI’m at the edge of my seat trying to hold on. She’s bringing us along with her on this exciting ride, plowing through everything in her path and absolutely taking no prisoners. The energy between the organ and the drums is just infectious. I don’t want it to end … and I didn’t realize that an organ could make me feel such a full range of emotions. As it closes with the theme one last time, it’s clear that she has made it to her destination while bringing us on the ride of our lives. It ends and I feel somewhat out of breath and spiritually fulfilled.“Affinity (Live)”Alice Coltrane (Rhino/Warner Records)◆ ◆ ◆Giovanni Russonello, Times jazz criticFrom the 1980s, when she founded the Sai Anantam Ashram in Southern California, to 2004, three years before her death, Alice Coltrane released nothing but religious and devotional music. It was heavy on synths and voices, and vested with an extra dose of magnetism by the fact that, if you heard it, you were listening on cassette. (In those years, you’d likely have to travel to the ashram to get hold of a tape.) Finally, after much urging by her son Ravi Coltrane, she put out one last studio album, “Translinear Light,” in 2004, which served as a reminder of her musicianship’s breadth. She reaches to Black spirituals, original compositions, John Coltrane classics and Vedic devotional music. On a slowly flourishing version of “Jagadishwar,” an original that she first recorded for the 1982 cassette “Turiya Sings,” Ravi joins her and an all-star rhythm section: Jeff (Tain) Watts on drums and James Genus on bass. But it’s Alice Coltrane’s synthesizer, diaphanous though it is, that fills most of the space. There’s hardly a contradiction between her sense of spiritual purity and her use of advanced tech: The synth is beams of sunlight, it’s baths of seawater, it’s a passageway beyond all matter.“Jagadishwar”Alice Coltrane (Impulse!)◆ ◆ ◆Georgia Anne Muldrow, musicianIt’s true, Turiyasangitananda is that lady. She’s that woman, that vessel. She’s that miracle, that supermodel. She’s that gorgeous, that genius, that she can soar up through the most butterfly-wing-finest of holographic harmonic places. Never have two chords orbited in my heart the way they did on “Oh Allah.” I heard and saw everything — the planets, cosmos and harmony of life — in this song. The doo-wop of angels in the meter of The Lawd, armed with the organ of Justice. She demonstrates the usage of worship and praise in the Black experience in spaces that predate our painful places, ripping the keys to exalt that which sustains life. I played this song two days straight on repeat in my little Discman, nursing my newborn little man. He loved the song, just cooing in key. This song has an axis of electrum, chile. Oh Allah. A song of mercy, of praise. Hallelujah, Alice Coltrane. Hallelujah, Ornette Coleman, for transcribing the strings in a meeting of minds that would forever be imprinted in the primal places of my life.“Oh Allah”Alice Coltrane (Verve)◆ ◆ ◆ More

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    After New York, Jaap van Zweden Will Lead Seoul Philharmonic

    He will begin a five-year contract as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024, after stepping down from the New York Philharmonic.Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonic’s music director, surprised cultural leaders and audiences last year when he announced he would leave his post in 2024, saying the pandemic had made him rethink his priorities.Now he has started outlining his post-New York plans: He will begin a five-year contract as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in January 2024, the ensemble announced on Sunday.Sohn Eun-kyung, the Seoul Philharmonic’s chief executive, said in a statement that van Zweden would help “upgrade” the quality of the ensemble and turn it into a “world-class orchestra,” according to South Korean news media reports.Van Zweden, who was in Hong Kong where he serves as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, could not be immediately reached for comment.His publicist, Mary Lou Falcone, said: “This is about building something — the building of an orchestra, as he did in Hong Kong. That’s what he does.”The move is another unconventional choice by van Zweden, 61, an intense and meticulous maestro from the Netherlands who came to New York in 2018, only to have his tenure interrupted by the pandemic, which forced the Philharmonic to cancel more than 100 concerts and impose painful budget cuts.While the Seoul Philharmonic is among Asia’s most prominent ensembles, it has struggled in recent years with financial problems and management woes. The current music director, the Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, recently announced he would not renew his three-year contract when it expires later this year.Van Zweden, who served as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra before coming to New York, was at one point, while leading the Dallas ensemble, America’s best-paid conductor, earning more than $5 million in a single season.Van Zweden agreed to step down from his post in New York after the 2023-24 season, a year later than he had initially planned, to give the orchestra time to settle into David Geffen Hall, scheduled to open in October after a $550 million renovation, and to search for a successor. His six-year tenure will be the shortest of any Philharmonic music director since Pierre Boulez, the French composer and conductor who led the orchestra for six seasons in the 1970s.He will leave his post in Hong Kong in the spring of 2024, after 12 years, and assume the title of conductor laureate.In an interview last year, van Zweden said the pandemic had prompted him to reconsider his relationship with the New York Philharmonic, as well as with his family, which he rarely got to see during his time on the road. He said he felt it would be the right moment to move on, with the orchestra set to move into its new home.“It is not out of frustration, it’s not out of anger, it’s not out of a difficult situation,” he said at the time. “It’s just out of freedom.” More