Music

The New York Philharmonic’s current program is a tale of two women: a violinist and a composer.On the first half of the concert Thursday evening at David Geffen Hall, Janine Jansen was a radiant soloist in Brahms’s Violin Concerto, renewing that war horse with subtly ardent playing. After intermission, Tania León, 76, presented her first-ever piece for the full Philharmonic, and rose to her belated debut with music of unsettled understatement and quietly ominous power.By now it is no surprise when Ms. Jansen provides a performance of sensitivity and elegance. But it nevertheless feels like a gift each time, especially coming from an artist who has lately struggled with — and canceled because of — a left arm injury. She has only appeared with the Philharmonic twice before, and not since 2011, so it is a joy to have her back.Ms. Jansen doesn’t overplay or press after effect. Her intensity accrues almost imperceptibly over the course of this 40-minute concerto; she builds urgency slowly, by sustaining her silvery tone — even at a whisper — and by pulling back to let voices from the orchestra, conducted by Jaap van Zweden, amplify her line. (Among the world’s star soloists, she’s as keen a listener, as adept and intimate a chamber partner, as it gets.)This was supremely restrained playing, though not without meaty muscle in double stops. Her first-movement cadenza was a dance that had one foot in an aristocratic court and the other in the country. Her trills alone — varied in speed and color, from fluttery delicacy to slightly heavier, more sensuous — were a master class. The overall effect was of a coiled energy that kept expanding because it was kept so controlled. Surely this was one of the most memorable star turns of the Philharmonic’s season so far.Ms. León was a new-music adviser to the Philharmonic in the 1990s, but it didn’t end up playing her work then. The orchestra is making up for lost time as part of Project 19, a multiyear initiative to commission 19 female composers to honor the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which extended the vote to women.“Stride,” Ms. León’s 15-minute submission, was, she said in a recent interview, inspired by the courage of Susan B. Anthony and Ms. León’s progressive grandmother. A soft whisper of violins yields to sighing, drooping sounds throughout the strings, then forthright brass fanfares begin; they recur throughout the piece, a kind of periodic annunciation.A jauntier section, with some wildly squiggling, jazzy wind solos, is eventually weighed down by a trudging undercurrent, a sense of funeral beneath the party. The pace quickens, then slumps back into a seething quivering. Bells sound at the end, with a West African beat shuffling alongside — a reminder, Ms. León said from the stage before the performance, that black women were excluded from the right that was granted by the 19th Amendment.“Stride” — which Ms. León described as being about bounding forward — seems an odd title for a piece that is, beautifully, without much sense of forward motion. And it was even odder to follow this ultimately muted, hauntingly inconclusive work with Hurricane “Rosenkavalier”: the popular suite drawn from that Strauss opera, given an all too forceful performance here that swept “Stride” off the stage.What could have made a better pairing than loud Viennese waltzes? If Mr. van Zweden wanted razzle-dazzle, perhaps something by Gershwin or Bernstein — the kind of bumptious American music to which Ms. León looks back, with loving yet wary eyes. Or Ellington. Or Ives, a precursor to her complex layerings. Or Janacek, who deployed similar brass fanfares for his own explorations of nationhood.The Philharmonic finally programmed Ms. León. But it could have served her better.New York PhilharmonicThis program continues through Tuesday at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; 212-875-5656, nyphil.org. More

Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Billie Eilish, ‘No Time to Die’[embedded content]Billie Eilish and her collaborator and brother, Finneas, figured out exactly what goes into a James Bond movie theme, then made the assignment their own. “No Time to Die” has gusts of orchestral melodrama, hints of John Barry’s original soundtracks and a looming sense of fatalism. But it also applies Eilish’s breathy tone — melodic yet lingering just above a whisper — and her adolescent bluntness, as she wonders, “Was I stupid to love you? Was I reckless to help? Was it obvious to everybody else?” JON PARELESMarian Hill, ‘Was It Not’You know how when the fog hangs low over the city, the air can feel suffocating and exhilarating all at once? So moist it’s almost cruel? This is that. JON CARAMANICACam, ‘Till There’s Nothing Left’The song is an arena-country promise of uninhibited back-seat passion: a march with a spacious, booming beat, echoing guitars and a growing chorus of Cam’s voice, offering all she’s got. The video turns it into something much more ominous: one last fling during the apocalypse. PARELESMigos featuring Young Thug and Travis Scott, ‘Give No Fxk’On the one hand, this is predictable bloat — the dominant hip-hop stars of the last few years all phoning in second-tier verses. On the other hand, how striking it is that the bloat of the day can sound this strange, this melodically unhinged, this rhythmically unlikely. Plus, in the video, Young Thug is wearing a bondage harness and getting a manicure from a robot nail technician. One thing is clear: Automation will come for us all. CARAMANICAMoses Boyd featuring Joe Armon-Jones, ‘2 Far Gone’As a drummer, the young British phenom Moses Boyd plays in cross-stitched, Tony Allen-influenced patterns, as open and rolling as they are forceful. As a bandleader and producer, he piles together deep synths, bass-rattling drum machines and ear-seizing samples; drawing on a vast range of influences from England, Africa and the Caribbean, he compiles a rich pastiche of electroacoustic textures, with a special composite power. “2 Far Gone,” a foray into future house featuring a cameo from the keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, is one of many highlights — each one different from the next — on Boyd’s first official album, the remarkable “Dark Matter.” GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOFlo Milli, ‘My Attitude’Few rappers sound like they’re having as much fun, lyric to lyric, as Flo Milli. A clever, cheerful lyricist with a voice that recalls “Clueless,” she was sharp last year on her breakthrough single, “Beef FloMix.” But “My Attitude” might be her best to date, a persistently tough blend of aw-shucks sexual candor and eye-rolling dismissals. All her raps are taunts. All her raps are teases. CARAMANICANiia, ‘If You Won’t Marry Me Right Now’Anger, frustration, detachment, desperation, regret, bitterness, self-preservation and cold insight course through “If You Won’t Marry Me Right Now” from Niia’s new album, “La Bella Vita.” The tempo is unbudging; every slow chord change seems to struggle against gravity. She anatomizes a six-year relationship that has just “wasted so much time,” and with production by Niia and Robin Hannibal (of Rhye), each line moves through its own drama: a somber jazz-piano trio, floor-warping synthesizers, swarms of fiercely insistent voices and moments when Niia sounds painfully alone, still a long way from catharsis. PARELESCarla Bley, ‘Beautiful Telephones (Pt. 2)’Each instrument in Carla Bley’s longstanding trio — her piano, Steve Swallow’s electric bass and Andy Sheppard’s whispery tenor saxophone — is both spare and versatile. Every player puts a premium on plain-stated melody, and gently evocative touch. As they entwine, the component pieces never feel amplified or redoubled by each other; there’s a quietness, a loneliness together, that gives this group (which began in the 1990s) its special intimacy. One of the great composers in jazz, Bley wrote three new suites for “Life Goes On,” the group’s latest offering, including “Beautiful Telephones,” with a stalking and circling melody that sounds at once wary and serene. RUSSONELLOWu Fei and Abigail Washburn, ‘Water Is Wide/Wusuli Boat Song’The banjo virtuoso Abigail Washburn studied Chinese language and culture before she took up the banjo, and amid many musical travels, including extended trips to China, she has collaborated since the early 2000s with Wu Fei, who plays the guzheng, a Chinese zither with a throaty tone. They have finally made an album together, due April 3. “Water Is Wide/Wusuli Boat Song,” a Scottish song intertwined with a traditional song from China’s Hezhe people, has their two voices and instruments calling and blending across cultural distances that sound much closer on purely musical terms. PARELESJason Moran, ‘For Love’[embedded content]While living in Rome in 2017, the pianist Jason Moran set about writing a piece a day, mostly short and simple things well-suited for solo piano. He came to record some of them on the Steinway grand at Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, a deconsecrated chapel from the eighth century that has become an art gallery, though it retains its old high-flown ceilings and moldered, exposed-brick walls. The brief and enchanting “For Love” is built on a lapping, ebb-and-flow melody, with a cascading feel that calls to mind his “Gangsterism” series. RUSSONELLO More

Our readers (and listeners) always have questions for The New York Times pop music team. In our second of two Popcasts devoted to answering them, we covered the quickly spreading influence of Billie Eilish, the pervasiveness of My Chemical Romance and 2000s pop-emo, the fervency of the rock-critic fan base of the indie rock band Big Thief, the popularity of the Grammy stalwart Gary Clark Jr., Britney Spears’s conservatorship, why Aaliyah’s music is still largely not on streaming services, reviewing music recorded in languages other than English and more.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, pop music reporterCaryn Ganz, pop music editorJon Pareles, chief pop music critic More