Two prizewinners joined forces Thursday night as guest artists with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor José Luis Gomez won the Georg Solti competition in 2010; pianist Vadym Kholodenko won the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2013. They made an impressive team in a front-loaded program that put the heaviest, or […]
David Raymond
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CLASSICAL | Rochester Early Music Festival
Musica Spei’s annual Early Music Festival is always a copious sampler of the many treats on the “Bach and before” musical menu, from the intricate to the affecting and the exhilarating. This weekend’s festival, the 14th, is no exception: you’ll hear vocal ensemble music by Musica Spei itself; the Genesee Valley Children’s Chorus led by Amy Cochrane; a new group, Bedlam, performing 16th-century […]
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Concert Review: “Pepys’ Pajamas” by Pegasus Early Music
Literature and music commingled pleasingly in the most recent Pegasus Early Music concert, given last Sunday afternoon at Downtown United Presbyterian Church. The program, “Pepys’ Pajamas,” was inspired by the Restoration-era diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703). An ambitious politician and general man-about-London, Pepys kept a diary for less than a decade (1660 to 1669). But it […]
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CLASSICAL | Rochester Flute Fair
The Rochester Flute Association’s annual Flute Fair always features a famous guest artist, and the 2014 edition’s is Robert Langevin, the principal flute of the New York Philharmonic. Langevin will perform in recital with pianist Irina Lupines on Friday, November 7, in Hochstein Performance Hall. The program includes music by Schumann, Debussy, Strauss, and Jacques […]
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THEATER | “King Lear”
There are plays, and there are tragic plays, and then there’s “King Lear.” Bernard Shaw considered Shakespeare’s play the greatest tragedy ever written, and most scholars, audiences, actors, and directors would agree. Its bitter, pessimistic view of kingship, family relations, and life in general casts a long shadow; it is also one of the most […]
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THEATER | “The Sorcerer”
Writer W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan were still a new team when they produced “The Sorcerer” in 1877; they went on to worldwide hits like “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “The Mikado,” but this early work retains its charm. The story is thoroughly Gilbertian: a young man enlists the help of a sorcerer to give a […]
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Theater Review: “I’m Not Rappaport” at Blackfriars Theatre
I can appreciate a playwright who describes his line of work as “the Las Vegas of art forms, and the odds are terrible.” Herb Gardner wrote few plays, but he did hit the jackpot at least twice: once with “A Thousand Clowns” in the 1960’s, and again with “I’m Not Rappaport” in the 1980’s. Blackfriars […]
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THEATER | Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man”
When “The Best Man” premiered on Broadway in 1960, Kennedy and Nixon were the presidential candidates. Two recent all-star Broadway revivals of Gore Vidal’s caustic comedy have proved that its behind-the-scenes look at the machinations behind a presidential nominating convention is still pretty timely after a half-century. Vidal pits William Russell, a liberal, intellectual former […]
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Rainbow Theater Festival presents
When he graduated from Nazareth College in 2000, J.R. Teeter had already started a theater company, at least in name. For his senior thesis, he directed a play and gave the performers a name: Bread & Water Theater. Almost a decade and a half later, Bread & Water is still trying to give Rochester basic […]
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OPERA | National Opera Week 2014
It’s National Opera Week, so take a singer to lunch! Or better yet, take yourself to the events that Rochester Lyric Opera is offering this Saturday, November 1, to celebrate the vocal arts in Rochester and in upstate New York. Events on November 1 include: 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: “The State of the Vocal […]
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CLASSICAL | “Haunted House Music”
The musical shivers will keep coming a few days after Halloween, courtesy of the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester’s concert of “Haunted House Music” on Sunday, November 2, at Hochstein Performance Hall. The program includes two of the best-known scary pieces in classical music: Tartini’s “The Devil’s Trill” Sonata for violin, played by Juliana […]
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Best of Rochester 2014: Critic Picks
City’s critics weigh in with some of their favorites from around town
