Spring Concert. Students of William Hobbs. May 15, 2026.

Barsky Art Gallery, Hoboken.  General Seating.

What could they possibly be doing?

Our three grandchildren all take piano lessons from the same teacher.  Their mother (Ellie) and another mother encouraged their teacher to have a recital for his students.  Tonight was the first ever recital; there may be more to come.

The students range in age from 5 (Everly) to Grade 12 (17 or 18?).  One is going on to be a music major in college, while others may just be beginners.

All three seemed to enjoy the chance to play in front of others.  Indeed Everly raised her hand when the teacher asked who wanted to go again.  She didn't get picked, but did it again during refreshment time.

New Jersey Symphony. Joshua Bell, violinist and conductor. May 14, 2026.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  First Tier (Seat F01, $62).

Bell performed Saint-Saens' Third Violin Concerto.

Program

Egmont Overture, Op. 84 by Beethoven.

Violin Concerto No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 61 by Camille Saint-Saens.

Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, "Italian" by Mendelssohn.

This is a concert of pieces that please the listener.  It showcases the ability of the orchestra, of the soloist, and of the conductor.  In this case the latter two are one Joshua Bell.

Joshua Bell became the principal guest conductor of NJ Symphony this season (25/26), and, as far as I can tell, does one program with the orchestra every season.  To put that in context, the NJ Symphony runs through about 12 programs (not counting special events and movie soundtracks).

For the Egmont Overture, Bell played a concertmaster who also led the performance.  As such he replaced the regular concertmaster, and sat on a piano bench rather than a typical orchestra chair.  For the Saint-Saens concerto, he was the soloist and the conductor (when he was not player), typical of what folks leading as soloists do.  We heard the Italian symphony about two weeks ago at Carnegie Hall, so it was still somewhat fresh in my mind.

The Egmont overture was part of a suite of incidental music composed for Goethe's play portraying the life of Lamoral, Count of Egmont.  One might say it's very Beethovenian, what with the many contrasting passages.

The Egmont Overture kicked off the enjoyable concert.

The most famous violin pieces written by Saint-Saens are Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and the third violin concerto.  Both contain beautiful and somewhat singable melodies, and are technically difficult but not out of reach for the serious student.  Of course, playing them well is quite another matter altogether.  It was another day in the office for Bell.  For some reason this violin concerto has somewhat fallen out of favor, the last two times I heard it was in 2017 and 2007, per this blog's entries.  I couldn't remember the tunes before the performance, but they came back once the concerto started.

Eric Wyrick sat in the concertmaster's chair for the rest of the concert.  Here shaking hands with Bell after the Saint-Saens violin concerto.

It pleases me to say that today's Italian symphony was better than what I heard two weeks ago.  And I enjoyed that performance.  (Of course my recollection of the OSL performance is hazy by now.)

Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony brought the concert to a conclusion.

Today's concert was designated as "relaxed performances," thus accommodating those who may find some noises unpleasant or rigid concert etiquette challenging.  The general audience knows this going in, and is asked to be understanding.  Someone did make considerable noise during the concert, and the orchestra simply played on.  That doesn't mean the performance isn't affected by the noises, or the enjoyment somewhat diminished.

I was half expecting Bell to do an encore piece, but appreciate that he worked hard enough.

Stevens Cooperative School Middle School Instrumental Concert. May 12, 2026.

Stevens Campus in Hoboken, NJ.

The end of a school year is marked by various musical events.  For today it was the Middle School (Grades 5-8) Instrumental Concert.  Last year was a combined concert of both instrument and voice ensembles, for this year they decided to split into instrumental and vocal sessions.  The vocal session will be in early June.

Our grandson Reid plays the violin, and our granddaughter Maisie plays the clarinet.

The entire concert lasted a bit over an hour.

Anne with the musicians.

Maisie announcing the piece the 5th grade clarinet ensemble will be playing (Yellow Submarine).

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6th Grade Strings

Close up of Reid.

NEC Preparatory School String Training Orchestras and Preparatory String Orchestra 8:30. May 9, 2026.

Jordan Hall at NEC, Boston.  Orchestra (free).

The PSO 8:30 Ensemble.

Program for PSO 8:30.

Cello Ole by Richard Meyer (1952-2012).

Solace by Scott Joplin, arr. R. Longfield (1868-1917).

Bartok Miniatures by Bartok, arr. H. Alshin (1881-1945).

The pieces performed by the PSO 8:30.

Conductor for STO: Peter Jarvis

Conductor for PSO 8:30: Marta Zurad.

Our granddaughter plays the cello with this ensemble.  We enjoy coming up to Boston to hear her perform.

For this concert the three orchestras took turns to perform.

The Bartok Miniatures consists of (1) Hungarian Wedding Dance; (2) Evening in the Village; and (3) Sword Dance.

STO 9.

STO 8.

Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Yuja Wang, piano and director. May 1, 2026.

Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall.  Dress Circle (Seat BB30, $121).

Yuja Wang after performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Program

Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 "Classical" (1916-1917) by Prokofiev (1897-1953).

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11 (1830) by Chopin (1810-1849).

Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 (1912-1913; reconstructed 1923) by Prokofiev.

The "original" program.

About a year ago, Yuja Wang was named an artistic partner of the MCO.  It turns out she had been collaborating with the ensemble for many years (probably as a soloist with them).  Tonight we got to see what such a collaboration would be like.

The concert started with an announcement.  First was a change in the order of pieces on the program (see screenshot), second was that Wang's arm or hand was injured (apologies, etc), and third was this concert was dedicated to the memory of Michael Tilson Thomas, who passed away the week before.  A similar tribute was made at last week's NY Philharmonic concert.

With the performance of OSL from yesterday still fresh in my mind, it didn't take too long for me to decide the MCO sounded a lot better.  While Prokofiev's first symphony may not be the most challenging of his, it was still a fast-paced 18-minute piece that called for great precision and a wide range of dynamics.  The ensemble met it head on.  And the "chamber" in MCO was highlighted in this piece: there was no conductor (which was slightly surprising), and only those instrumentalists that had to play sitting down (cellists, for example) sat down (a particular episode of Seinfeld came to mind).

In our Subaru (which we replaced about 8 years ago) we had only a couple of CDs.  One of them had the Prokofiev symphony on it, so we have listened to it multiple times, especially on longer trips.  That usually means I have in my mind how the piece should be performed.  It was done differently tonight, and I enjoyed it.

We had encountered the MCO before as part of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, performing Benjamin's Written on Skin.  I characterized the orchestra as large.  Interestingly, we saw a singer (Barbara Hannigan) a few days ago at David Geffen Hall.

The string section of orchestra has 10 first violins, 8 second violins, 6 violas, 5 cellos, and 2 basses.

As to the two piano concertos, Wang was just her usual self, putting out an impeccable performance while enjoying herself.  In the past I often noticed that she would move her mouth (singing along) while playing; tonight we were too far away to make that observation.  With both concertos she directed the orchestra during her "spare time."  Given how well the ensemble did for the Symphony, I am not sure that was at all necessary.  I guess the title "director" needs to be earned in some way.

Conclusion of Prokofiev's Piano Concert No. 2.  Only one costume change for this concert.

A few tidbits from the Playbill.  Chopin wrote his first two concertos when he was 19, and tonight's concerto was the second one, but got its moniker because it was published first.  Chopin is the one credited with revolutionizing piano playing, and this work was original, and aggressively difficult but yet delicate.  Instead of a dialogue between the soloist and orchestra, Chopin's concertos are opera singers performing arias while accompanied by an orchestra in the pit.  Indeed, Chopin wrote only these two concertos, since he apparently decided the piano would do nicely just by itself.

The technical challenges of Prokofiev's second concerto, considered the most difficult of his five, are such that Prokofiev was apprehensive about playing it.  Indeed he thought he played badly at the beginning of the third movement at a Paris concert.  The concerto also has long cadenzas in both the first and third movements; the one in the first movement probably took up half the movement.  The Intermezzo movement in this four-movement concerto doesn't sound like any intermezzos of Brahms's.  Most intermezzos are contemplative, not this one.

The original score composed in 1912-13 was lost in a fire not long after its completion, so what is in the repertoire today is the version Prokofiev reconstructed in 1923.  Since Prokofiev thought it was fine, there is no debate.  (Prokofiev considered the revisions to be substantial.)

No one would begrudge Wang if she chose not to do any encores.  After all, she had an injury, and just performed two difficult concertos.  But then we are talking about someone who did a Rachmaninoff marathon, "a 2 1/2-hour performance spanning 97,000 notes and featuring multiple costume changes." So we got to hear two encores.  No additional costume changes, though.

The first encore was quite interesting.  The soloist was accompanied by a few musicians in the orchestra, including one clapping his hands.

The concert started late, and the soloist always took her time coming on to the stage.  That meant we caught the 11:23 pm train back to New Jersey.  But it was a great concert.

Orchestra of St. Luke's. Masaaki Suzuki, conductor; Midori, violin. April 30, 2026.

Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall.  Balcony (Seat B56, $27).

Suzuki and Midori at the conclusion of Beethoven's Violin Concerto.

Program

Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527 (1787) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (1806) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, "Italian" (1833, rev. 1834) by Mendelssohn.

Although Orchestra of St. Luke's calls Carnegie Hall it's home, tonight was my second ever encounter with the ensemble.  It's director Bernard Labadie retired a couple of years ago, today's concert was led by Masaaki Suzuki, a Bach and early music specialist per the Playbill.  While there was no Bach for this evening, the three pieces on the program should make for an enjoyable evening.

A few notes into the Don Giovanni overture I was already wondering about the quality of the orchestra.  Instead of light and crisp, what I heard was muddled, bothering on confusion.  Not Mozart at all.  I have remarked many times before it's difficult to tell a "great" Mozart performance from a "good" one, there definitely was no need to fret if tonight's belongs in either category.

At the end of the Don Giovanni Overture.

Things did get better, but not as much as I expected.

When she first came onto the music scene as a teenager (or even younger), Midori was one of these once-in-a-generation phenomena.  I remember seeing her perform before my blogging days, and always came away thinking how that's possible.  Other than an online performance during COVID times, I had seen Midori only once, about 20 years ago.  I enjoyed the Prokofiev, but described a certain "dreamlike" effect in her style.

Beethoven works because of his genius in telling a coherent story with passages that require great, fundamental technique.  (The one I heard performed by James Ehnes is a prime example.)  I am sure Midori is fully capable of that, but she has chosen to infuse some ephemeral quality to the music, resulting in many passages being delivered differently than what I expected.  So, subtly perhaps, some passages sounded different, bothering on "wrong."  The cadenza was still superb.

She played an encore which I couldn't identify, and indeed don't remember much of two days later.

Mendelssohn's Italian symphony saved the day.  I have heard it only a couple of times in the last twenty or so years, but somehow the piece sounded very familiar.  Some tunes are catchy that way.  To the orchestra's credit, the piece indeed sounded Italian, perhaps the Program Notes helped.

The concert ended with a lively rendition of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony.

A credit card I have provides a $150 credit on StubHub every six months.  I used up all $150 to buy these partial view tickets in the balcony.  I could see Midori's violin if I leaned forward, so it was not a good seat.  Indeed they cost the original buyer $27 each.  He didn't make all the difference, Ticketmaster and StubHub probably got the lion's share of the proceeds.

We managed to catch the 10:23 pm train back to NJ.  That the concert started reasonably on time helped.  (At about 8:06 pm, if I work backwards from the photo time stamps.)