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      The Harp Needs More Modern Music. That’s Easier Said Than Done.

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      Expanding my instrument’s repertoire takes months of practicing, experimentation and personal sacrifices. But it has made me believe in possibility.I once asked a colleague who runs a concert series what came to mind when he thought of harp music. “A nothingburger,” he replied. I laughed, not because I was shocked but because I agreed.Sure, I’m a professional harpist. So is my mother. Some of my earliest exposure to music was through classics of our repertoire, and while learning the instrument, I had my steady diet of Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Fauré and Ravel. Frankly, though, all those composers wrote more interesting works for the piano, which is better suited to quick modulations and coloristic variety.The harp has its hindrances, and a lot of composers are terrified of writing solo music for it. This instrument has 47 strings, each tuned like the white notes of a piano, with the player’s feet delegated the task of engaging flats and sharps using seven pedals. It’s an ingenious design, but only up to a point. Tuning is relatively unstable. The sound is boomy, with metal bass strings that are woofy and indistinct, like organ pedals.Why bother? Well, I can’t imagine playing the harp without interrogating its potential. If there’s anything I want for my instrument, it’s for there to be a new repertoire worthy of presenting to audiences like that of the piano or the violin. I want the harp to be a site of ingenuity. I don’t want Debussy or Ravel to be the latest composers to have written canonical works for it. Composers and harpists keep trying, but more work still has to be done for the story has to continue.The harpists who have inspired me traversed new paths. Andrew Lawrence King’s freakishly colorful and delicate recordings on period harps was a game changer in understanding the boundaries of expression in early repertoire. We owe a huge amount to Ursula Holliger, who was responsible for incredible commissions from the likes of Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle. Take some time and listen to Zeena Parkins’s “Three Harps, Tuning Forks and Electronics,” in which a panoply of extended techniques (a flurry of scratches, fluxes and beatings on the soundboard) are organized into a beautiful and cohesive essay on form.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      Natalie Dessay Stars With Her Daughter in a French ‘Gypsy’

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      The soprano Natalie Dessay and her daughter, Neïma Naouri, team up to explore one of theater’s most toxic mother-daughter relationships.That “Gypsy” is finally making its debut in France would be noteworthy enough: It took 66 years for one of the most acclaimed works in the musical-theater canon to get there.But there is an extra twist.The production running Thursday through Saturday at the Philharmonie de Paris stars the soprano Natalie Dessay and her daughter, Neïma Naouri, as Rose, the stage mother to end all stage mothers, and Louise, Rose’s long-suffering older child.“Well, that’s acting,” Dessay, 59, said when asked if there was baggage involved with bringing the show’s psychodrama to life with her daughter. “I can play the evil witch and she can play Snow White — it’s theater.”“Yes,” Naouri, 26, interjected, “but sometimes you lose yourself in the character, and I can’t tell the difference between reality and fiction.”They laughed before Dessay jumped back in. “It’s not any more complicated than anything else,” she said. “But above all it’s more pleasant since we know each other very well and we already have this mother-daughter relationship, so we don’t have to create it. We actually have fun with it.”Their bond was clear in a joint video conversation from France as the pair huddled over a phone — Naouri had helped her mother turn on the camera — keeping an animated banter going the entire time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      More European Opera Houses Welcome Back Anna Netrebko

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      The star soprano, who lost work after Russia invaded Ukraine because of her past support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, will return to the stage in Zurich and London.Anna Netrebko, the renowned Russian soprano, was shunned by many of the world’s leading opera companies after Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago because of her past support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Since then, though, a number of Europe’s most prestigious companies have welcomed her back. And next season she will return to two more major opera houses there for the first time since the war began: Zurich Opera and the Royal Opera in London.With those engagements, Ms. Netrebko will have returned to many of the world’s leading stages, with one notable exception: the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she reigned as a prima donna for two decades.Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, severed the company’s ties with Ms. Netrebko three years ago, citing her “close association with Putin.” He has said that he believes Ms. Netrebko, a citizen of Russia and Austria who lives in Vienna, has made a “disingenuous effort to distance herself from the Russian war effort.”Ms. Netrebko sued the Met, accusing the company of discrimination, defamation and breach of contract. A federal judge narrowed the suit last year to gender discrimination claims; her case is still pending.Ms. Netrebko has returned to Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Berlin State Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Paris Opera, among others. And in recent days London and Zurich both announced that they, too, would welcome her back.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dismissed Players Take Aim at New York Philharmonic Misconduct Inquiry

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      Matthew Muckey and Liang Wang, who were fired by the orchestra last fall, filed amended complaints saying an investigation by the Philharmonic was biased against them.Two musicians who were fired by the New York Philharmonic filed amended complaints against the orchestra on Thursday that assert they were wrongfully dismissed and that an inquiry by the ensemble had been biased against them.The players — the associate principal trumpet, Matthew Muckey, and the principal oboist, Liang Wang — were fired in October, after the Philharmonic said an investigation had uncovered what it described as credible claims against them of sexual assault and harassment.It was not the first time the orchestra had tried to dismiss them.The orchestra initially tried to fire them for misconduct in 2018, but their union challenged their dismissals and an arbitrator ordered the orchestra to reinstate them. But last year, after New York magazine reported new details of the accusations against them, the Philharmonic conducted a new investigation, suspended them and then moved to fire them. This time their union is not challenging their dismissals.The two musicians had originally filed suit against the Philharmonic and the players’ union, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, last spring when the orchestra suspended them. They were later fired, and the amended complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan are responses to those dismissals, which Mr. Muckey and Mr. Wang contend were based on an arbitrary and opaque inquiry designed to find fault against them.Mr. Muckey’s complaint said the Philharmonic and the union had engaged in a “sham process calculated to achieve a predetermined finding of wrongdoing.” Mr. Wang’s lawsuit said the inquiry was “neither impartial nor open-ended.”The Philharmonic declined to comment. (The orchestra has previously said that its inquiry uncovered “patterns of sexual misconduct and abuse of power” by the two men.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Alisa Weilerstein Make Sparks Fly at N.Y. Phil

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      Guest conductors and the firebrand soloists Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Alisa Weilerstein brought welcome energy to David Geffen Hall.To judge by its marketing materials, the New York Philharmonic is uncomfortable with its leaderless state, created by the gap between the departure last summer of the music director Jaap van Zweden and the arrival of Gustavo Dudamel, who takes over in 2026. Dudamel’s likeness is already splashed all over Lincoln Center, as if the mere promise of him were the orchestra’s best hope for selling tickets. But the parade of visiting conductors passing through Geffen Hall has had its own rewards, shaking the ensemble from its routine and injecting a vital note of unpredictability. Week by week, the orchestra sounds different. The energy in the hall fluctuates. And when a firebrand soloist joins a smoldering conductor, sparks fly.This was the case on Wednesday in an electrifying concert that drew tumultuous ovations. The Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa teamed up with the flamboyant violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who shredded the Stravinsky Violin Concerto — and more than a few bow hairs — on a program that opened with the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s sumptuous “Chemiluminescence” and ended with a glowing reading of the Symphony No. 1 by Brahms.The previous week had featured another ferociously expressive soloist in another world premiere when the cellist Alisa Weilerstein performed a Thomas Larcher concerto, “Returning Into Darkness,” on a program bookended by Mendelssohn and Schumann. There, it was Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider who conducted, drawing chiseled playing from the orchestra that brought out the wit in selections from Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the intricate flow of Schumann’s Second Symphony. Under Hrusa, the collective sound seethed and simmered.Larcher’s one-movement concerto grows out of a single gesture, a swooping glissando across multiple octaves on the solo cello. On a string instrument, glissando results from the player’s finger sliding up or down the fingerboard, drawing an elastic line through all available pitches. Because it blurs the distinction between individual notes, it evokes extra-musical sounds: sirens, moans, the lowing of a wounded animal.Alisa Weilerstein performed the premiere of Thomas Larcher’s “Returning Into Darkness” last week.Chris LeeIn “Returning Into Darkness,” the swooping lines that recur in the solo cello part, interspersed with bouts of frenetic activity, convey a state of emotional emergency and a certain neurotic rootlessness, unmoored but also unwilling to commit. A similar fluidity governs the ensemble sound, which swells and tapers like a swarm of insects that can build to menacing proportions. Moment by moment, Larcher’s command of color and Weilerstein’s forceful performance were compelling, though over the course of 25 minutes, the constant slaloms induced little more than emotional whiplash.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hania Rani’s Music Is Tranquil. Please Don’t Call It ‘Soothing.’

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      The Polish musician is a mainstay of streaming playlists with names like “Calm Vibes.” But she bristles at the notion that her music is therapeutic.When the Polish musician Hania Rani released her first solo album, “Esja,” in 2019, she knew it was a modest debut. Its subtle piano compositions were moody but pared down, and she worried that its serene atmosphere might limit its mainstream appeal.One year later, the album’s placid vibe turned out to be a blessing. As the world locked down against the Covid pandemic, distressed people were turning to streaming playlists with names like “Calm Vibes” and “Peaceful Rhythms” that featured Rani’s music. It became a breakthrough moment. As one critic told BBC radio during lockdown, Rani’s music “makes your problems and woes all sort of vanish.”But now, Rani, 34, has become a shooting star in a genre of pop-inflected minimalist music often referred to as neoclassical, or alt-classical — though she bristles at the notion that her music is meant to offer therapy. “It’s not being composed to help people relax,” she said in a recent interview. “The music might be slow — not so loud, not upbeat — but it’s actually intense.”Her critically lauded follow-up solo albums — “Home” (2020) and “Ghosts” (2023) — have made her one of the biggest names in neoclassical music. Rani has won seven Fryderyk Awards, Poland’s equivalent to the Grammys, and prompted comparisons to other big-name contemporary composers, such as Nils Frahm and Max Richter.Her live shows have also drawn online attention, including a 2022 performance in Paris that has garnered nine million views on YouTube. In recent months, she has embarked on a largely sold-out tour through some of the world’s best-known concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House and the Berlin Philharmonie.Rani has won four Fryderyk Awards, Poland’s equivalent to the Grammys.Anna Liminowicz for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Singer Sues Met Opera Over Firing for Post-Pregnancy Vocal Problems

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      The mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, who suffered vocal problems during and after pregnancy, is suing the opera company — and the union that represented her — after she lost work.The Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili was once one of opera’s most sought-after stars, renowned for stirring, powerful performances in works like Bizet’s “Carmen” and Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.”But after she began experiencing vocal problems during pregnancy in 2021, her career suffered. When she returned to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, company officials later said, she did not sing up to her standard. The Met canceled her upcoming engagements, and she lost work at other opera companies.Now Rachvelishvili, 40, is suing both the Met and the union representing her, seeking more than $400,000 in compensation for lost work. In a complaint filed in late March, she accused the Met of breaching its contracts with her, and she said that her union, the American Guild of Musical Artists, had failed to properly represent her.Rachvelishvili’s lawsuit claimed that the Met had been aware that she had “suffered complications from her pregnancy and birth affecting her voice and vocal range.” The suit described her as being “disabled due to her pregnancy” and accused the opera company of discriminating against her.“I was shocked that I was not given a chance to recover and all of my contracts for the next two years were immediately canceled without pay,” she said in a statement.The Met said it could not comment on pending litigation.Her complaint argues that the Met should compensate her because of a contractual agreement known as “pay or play,” which requires institutions to pay contracted performers even if they later decide not to engage them.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Conductor John Nelson Dead at 83

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      He revived interest in a “problem child” in the pantheon of high romantic composers, bringing Berlioz overdue recognition as one of France’s greatest composers.John Nelson, a genial American conductor who made France love one of its own underappreciated musical sons, Hector Berlioz, died on March 31 at his home in Chicago. He was 83.His death was confirmed by his daughter, Kari Magdalena Chronopoulos, who did not specify the cause.Mr. Nelson made Berlioz (1803-1869), the wild man of 19th-century French music, his passion, performing and promoting his work ceaselessly during a career that stretched over 50 years on both sides of the Atlantic.As a young conductor, he introduced Berlioz’s epic five-act opera “Les Troyens” (“The Trojans”) to New York in a 1972 Carnegie Hall performance deemed “highly successful” at the time by Raymond Ericson of The New York Times.By the end of his career, Mr. Nelson was so closely identified with Berlioz, one of France’s most extravagant musicians, that the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph wrote, “John Nelson was clearly born with Berlioz in his genes.”That remark came in a 2017 review of Mr. Nelson’s much-praised recording of “Les Troyens” with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and a cast that included the American soprano Joyce DiDonato.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More