NY Phil performs Adams's Hamonielehre at Carnegie Hall ... Laurie Anderson does Delusion in Florence ... The Black Keys play Germany's Rolling Stone fest ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play Benelux ... Shawn Colvin has two shows in NYC ... Ben Folds hits Buffalo and Philadelphia ... Emmylou Harris, The Low Anthem play Montclair and Albany ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica close US tour in Boston ... Kronos Quartet performs in Poland and Germany ... Jessica Lea Mayfield joins Jay Farrar in Kentucky and Ohio ... Brad Mehldau premieres Highway Rider in London ... Punch Brothers, Stephen Sondheim visit Strathmore ... Allen Toussaint takes New Orleans Nights to New England ... Caetano Veloso joins Beck at MOCA benefit ... Sara Watkins tours UK ... and more ...
John Adams's Hamonielehre (1984-85) will be performed by the New York Philharmonic, led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, at Carnegie Hall tonight. Opening the concert is Beethoven's Violin Concerto, featuring Midori.
In the latest post to his blog, Hell Mouth, the composer discusses previous pairings of his work with Beethoven and other similarly "Large Guys." You can read it at earbox.com.
---
Laurie Anderson performs her latest theater work, Delusion, at the EX3 Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy, on Saturday.
---
Timothy Andres's Some Connecticut Gospel will be performed by the Princeton University Chamber Ensemble in Princeton's Madison Hall Sunday afternoon. The composer has just redesigned and relaunched his website, andres.com.
---
The Black Keys continue their European tour with a set at the Rolling Stone Weekender festival at Ferienpark in Weissenhäuser Strand, Germany, on Saturday, followed by a sold-out show at den Atelier in Luxembourg City on Sunday. The tour comes to a close with a sold-out show at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on Monday.
The Keys continued to rack up the rave reviews on this tour. The Independent gave their show at O2 Brixton a five star review (out of six), explaining that "expressions like 'raise the roof' were made for the audience reaction to this Ohio two-piece, who left their fans screaming with adoration."
---
Carolina Chocolate Drops continue their tour of Europe today with a show at De Zwerver in Leffige, Belgium, followed by two shows in the Netherlands: at Melkweg in Amsterdam on Saturday and Merleyn in Nijmegen on Sunday.
Reviewing the band's sold-out show at London's Union Chapel earlier this week, the Evening Standard writes that "it doesn't take long to understand the appeal—fiddle and banjo music presented with a collective passion and musical skill." The Independent gives the show five stars (out of six), noting that "the band were dragged back by a stomping audience for two encores."
---
Shawn Colvin performs at the City Winery in New York City tonight and Saturday night, with Lauren Shera opening.
---
Ben Folds continues his tour in support of Lonely Avenue, his collaboration with Nick Hornby, at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York, tonight and the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia on Saturday. Previewing tonight's show, Buffalo's Artvoice says the unexpected collaboration behind Lonely Avenue is a success: "Folds flourishes on this album, and his curious choice to collaborate with an author, when Folds himself is recognized by fans for his words, is a trick that pays off." Folds and Hornby both appear on NPR's World Cafe today; tune in on npr.org.
---
Emmylou Harris and The Low Anthem, who began touring together this week, perform at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey, on Saturday, and at The Egg in Albany, New York, on Sunday.
"Few performers in any genre have the grace of Emmylou Harris," writes the Hartford Courant's Eric R. Danton in his reviewing of last night's show in Northampton, Massachusetts. "It was an elegant show with a set drawn from some of the most gripping, if often unheralded, songs in American roots music over the past half century. Or maybe it was just how she sang them." Danton goes on to describe The Low Anthem's music as "folk- and country-inflected songs showcasing dazzling vocal harmonies."
The Buffalo News, reviewing Wednesday's show at the University of Buffalo, says "Harris led a packed house through the profound, twangy tapestry that is her 40-plus year career." Reviewer Joe Sweeney says "the delivery was honest, the instruments layered to perfection, and the vocals sweet and entrancing." He notes as well that "The Low Anthem hushed the chattering crowd from note one of its set of stunningly imaginative roots music."
---
Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra close out their North American tour at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston tonight, following last night's performance at Lincoln Center in New York. The tour program features work from the group's latest Nonesuch release, De Profundis.
---
Kronos Quartet continue their tour of Europe today at Hala Stulecia in Wroclaw, Poland. The group then performs at Kulturhalle Remchingen in Remchingen, Germany, on Sunday.
---
Jessica Lea Mayfield plays two shows with Jay Farrar, at the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky, tonight, and the Clazel Theater in Bowling Green, in her home state of Ohio Saturday night. Mayfield's debut Nonesuch album, Tell Me, is due out February 8 and is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store together with the vinyl 7" single "Our Hearts Are Wrong."
---
Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider recieves it's European premiere on Saturday at Barbican Hall in London. For this London Jazz Festival performance, Mehldau is joined by the Britten Sinfonia, led by conductor Scott Yoo, along with the musicians featured on the Nonesuch recording of the piece, Joshua Redman, Matt Chamberlain, Larry Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard.
Reviewing this week's New York premiere of Highway Rider in Carengie Hall's Zankel Hall, New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn calls the piece Mehldau's "grandest effort yet" joining classical traditions and jazz. Of the performance, Kozinn writes: "Mr. Mehldau’s rhapsodic piano solos, Joshua Redman’s magnificently supple virtuosic saxophone playing, Larry Grenadier’s shapely bass lines and Jeff Ballard’s and Matt Chamberlain’s inventive, richly detailed drumming."
---
Punch Brothers continue their US tour at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, DC, tonight and at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, West Virginia, for a live performance event of Mountain Stage on Saturday.
---
Stephen Sondheim follows Punch Brothers at Strathmore in North Bethesda by one day when he discusses his career and new book of collected lyrics, Finishing the Hat, with Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks there on Sunday.
---
Allen Toussaint's tour of New Orleans Nights with Nicholas Payton and the Joe Krown Trio, featuring Walter "Wolfman" Washington and Russell Batiste, continues today at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts' Kelly Theatre in Fairfield, Connecticut. The group will then perform at the Garde Theatre in New London, Connecticut, on Saturday, and at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx on Sunday.
In anticipation of tonight's show at the Kelly Theatre, the Daily Fairfield writes that Toussaint will bring "his high-powered musical skills to an evening of hot New Orleans music." Previewing last night's show in Morristown, New Jersey, the Star-Ledger says: "Some artists get standing ovations at the end of concerts. But there are just a precious few whose appearance onstage at the beginning of the show inspires such a reaction. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Allen Toussaint is one such individual."
---
Caetano Veloso performs at The Artist's Museum Gala, an annual benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles Saturday night. Also performing at the benefit are Beck and Devendra Banhart.
---
Sara Watkins' UK tour with her brother Sean brings the pair to NCEM in York, England, tonight. They perform at CAA in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday, and at Sage Gateshead in Gateshead on Sunday.
- Log in to post comments
