As the United States celebrates Thanksgiving over the coming days, several Nonesuch artists—Sam Amidon, Fleet Foxes, Rhiannon Giddens, and Robert Plant—will spend the long holiday weekend touring the UK, Brad Mehldau is in France, and John Adams's new opera gets its premiere in San Francisco.
As the United States celebrates Thanksgiving over the coming days, several Nonesuch artists—Sam Amidon, Fleet Foxes, Rhiannon Giddens, and Robert Plant—will spend the long holiday weekend touring the UK; Brad Mehldau is in France; and John Adams's new opera gets its premiere in San Francisco.
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Sam Amidon performs at Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, United Kingdom, on Sunday, as part of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The London Evening Standard gives his new album, The Following Mountain, four stars, praising its “captivating arrangements and elegiac charm.”
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Fleet Foxes have brought their tour to the UK, playing at O2 Apollo Manchester tomorrow and Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Friday, and giving a sold-out show at O2 Academy Brixton in London on Sunday. The Times of London says their new album, Crack-Up, is “likely to be the most remarkable album you will hear this year … the return of one of the most original bands of this century." Uncut calls the album “astonishing … a recipe for total entertainment forever.”
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Rhiannon Giddens continues an autumn tour of the UK and Ireland, featuring music from her new album, Freedom Highway, with a sold-out show at Arts Centre in Pocklington tonight, followed by concerts at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Thursday, Vicar Street in Dublin on Saturday, and Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on Sunday. The Guardian gives five stars to Giddens’ performance in London last weekend, calling it a concert of “contagious delight.”
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Robert Plant and his band the Sensational Space Shifters continue their month-long, sold-out tour of the United Kingdom, with music from his new album, Carry Fire, at Venue Cymru in Llandudno tonight, City Hall in Newcastle on Friday, and Olympia in Liverpool on Saturday. The Evening Standard exclaims in a four-star review: "Inventive and exotic, Carry Fire proves Plant’s creative spark is still burning bright."
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Across the English Channel, Brad Mehldau, who recently completed a European duo tour with Chris Thile, gives a solo recital at Espace Saint-Exupery in Franconville, outside Paris, on Thursday. He has "emerged as a player with a stunning virtuosity and daring ability to mine far reaches of improvisation," raves All About Jazz. The Chicago Tribune writes: "Few contemporary jazz pianists command as devoted a following as Mehldau, whose incantatory solo performances vary freely among classical, jazz and pop influences."
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Back in the United States, performances of composer John Adams and director/librettist Peter Sellars’ new opera, Girls of the Golden West, continue with the San Francisco Opera, conducted by Grant Gershon, at War Memorial Opera House Friday and Sunday, following last night’s world premiere.
The New York Times calls Girls of the Golden West, set during the 1850s California Gold Rush, “the most eagerly anticipated new opera of the season.” Adams spoke with the Times about the new opera for an interview you can read here, and with PBS NewsHour for a piece you can watch here.
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