Czech orchestra plays unreported in Carnegie Hall
OrchestrasThe Czech National Symphony Orchestra played Thursday night at Carnegie Hall.
The New York Times, in accordance with its new classical-lite policy, has not published a review.
The only review has appeared in the independent New York Classical Review. The intensity of the first movement (of the Brahms violin concerto) was through the roof; not only did the audience spontaneously applaud after it, so did some of the musicians in the orchestra.
The signal going out to the global classical music industry is that if you want attention, avoid New York.
Photo: NYCR/Fadi Kheir
Is there a city in which every concert at a major venue gets a review?
I can only speak for Vienna, where that definitely isn’t the case.
the nyt gang never reviewed the Israel Phil conducted by Lahav Shani
No surprises, as the NYT is an organ to push an agenda, no longer a reputable source of straightforward news. Showing the accomplishments of anything Israel runs counter to the agenda they promote. I was a subscriber for decade, but a slew of things made me stop by subscription over a decade ago (such as open support for George Pataki because he gave the NYT tax credits to build their Renzo Piano tower, an arts section that covered classical music insufficiently (The NY Sun was far and away more comprehensive in its music journalism), the disappearance of a wonderful section on technology, clear biases against Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, etc. all disguised as “news” and not properly placed as opinion.
All the « news » that fits their us (propaganda) views
When Gunter Wand passed away, it was virtually a week before the NYT ran an obituary, while the great publications of the world had it a day or two later after the news became public.
The ‘Old York Times ‘ perhaps!!
Gunter Wand had virtually no profile in the United States, and fine a conductor as he was, was not exactly a headline-grabber in Europe, either. He conducted the CSO once or twice because Henry Fogel was a great admirer. I’m kind of surprised they ran one at all.
The program was a movement from Dvorak’s Czech Suite, the Brahms violin concerto, and Beethoven Symphony #3.
As with your mention of the same situation with Lahav Shani and the IPO, there was no new piece on the program.
It’s not the type of program that the NY Times critics are interested in.
If anything is killing classical music, it’s this constant media push for new music and fawning coverage of anything involving new music.
It is true that the Times is reviewing fewer classical events, and fawns over new music. But what is the status of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra back home in Prague? It is not the Czech Philharmonic or Prague Symphony. Was this a group organized for a below the radar tour? The New York event was not sponsored by Carnegie Hall, but was basically a rental. The annual appearance of the Israel Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall is a fund-raiser for the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic and has never been reviewed by the Times.
The IPO conductor Lahav Shani deserved a review…and the bottom line is the IPO is against the agenda of the nyt guys.
Thank you for a clear headed assessment.
The NYT is not a trade rag, if an organization wants publicity in the NYT it should pay for advertisement space, and buy as many column inches as its vanity requires. The Wall Street Journal sells such space for vanity reviews.
really?
I agree. We saw them at NJPAC on Sunday and were very disappointed. We had tickets for the Munich Symphony Orchestra and this is what we got instead. A mediocre substitute, with a show-off conductor. It’s hard to believe we saw the same group on Sunday that was reviewed in Carnegie Hall of Thursday.
Yup…Def not a NYT review kind of concert.
Amen to that!
America is over for classical music outreach. Unfertile (torched?) soil for the aspiring musician musically. Yet… they still pay the highest fees!
My sense is that every new/returning production at the Met opera gets a review in the NYT, so do many NY Phil concerts and a range of those of other organizations or at other venues. Visiting orchestras are pretty low on the list, though there was a substantial review of the Cleveland Orchestra’s recent visit, and other big orchestras visiting Carnegie Hall get the occasional shout-out. Israel used to visit very regularly (every year?) prior to the pandemic, so did Vienna, Berlin etc. And yes, it is probably true to say that renditions of standard repertoire don’t get readers and therefore critics all that excited – but then the success of these performances probably shouldn’t be judged by whether their get a review in the NYT or not…
Most of us would probably feel that classical music needs all the help it can get in this day and age. Not that long ago, the NYT reviewed cast changes at the MET, not just openings. Now, they don’t bother. Apparently some people think that’s ok, most of us don’t. At least the Times should retire their slogan.
No only that orchestra but the Toronto and the other orchestra premiering Glass’ 12 th symphony. Zachie Woolfie is too busy writing an article on the word fuhrer to care about other matters– let’s face it Times critics are redundant anyway.
NYT didn’t review the Met Opera Orchestra performance a week ago: Bartok, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky with the marvelous Ryan Speedo Greene. Was it because Yannick wasn’t conducting? It was brilliant music making.
The NYT didn’t cover the Brno Symphony 2 weeks before, nor Toronto last week (both rentals). What’s your point? There are a lot of orchestral concerts in NYC.
Philadelphia isn’t reviewing most concerts, either. As news outlets shrink here, reviews seem to be disappearing everywhere.
Very few classical concerts reviews in Wash Post now also.
Must be an east coast thing. I was unable to find a single word about Tugan Sokhiev’s guest appearance in Philadelphia a few months ago.
If attention is no longer available in New York, I can hardly believe that Dudamel missed the memo.
And who were the protagonists : solo violin and conductor ?
Steven Mercurio, conductor; annoying. Robert McDuffie, soloist; quirky, but entertaining.
Hello from Washington, which has a healthy music scene but the Washington Post has published exactly THREE concert reviews this entire year. The Post has however found the space for about a dozen articles about the irrelevant travails of His Royal Uselessness, Prince Harry. The Super Bowl commercials got a nice spread also.
A lot of orchestras play Carnegie, and as others noted: 1) It’s not the Czech Philharmonic or even the Prague Symphony; having lived a few years in Prague, I can tell you they don’t even have much of a profile there; 2) Steven Mercurio may be a fine conductor but not much of a profile; 3) the program was nothing to write home about; and 4) they rented Carnegie, weren’t presented by them.
It’s true that the Times covers fewer concerts than it used to, but this program didn’t have much to make the cut. The Washington Post didn’t cover them at George Mason University, either.
Spot on.
I think the Czech National Symphony Orchestra is the number 3 or 4 orchestra in Prague.
If that:
– Czech Philharmonic
– Prague Symphony
– Prague Radio Orchestra
– Prague Philharmonic (PKF, founded by Jiri Belohlavek after he left the Czech Philharmonic in the early 1990s).
– Czech NSO
One could argue about the pecking order of the last three.
Years ago New Yorkers depended on the NY Times daily listing of “Today’s Concerts”. When they stopped publishing it, concert attendance here noticeably dropped, as without that handy tool people either forgot or didn’t know about a concert. But of course the Times would list concerts that THEY thought important – mainly contemporary music events.
Well,it´s not the Czech Phil….It´s one of those eastern european telephone bands playing bland, uninteresting programs in minor cities…The mystery is how they got the gig in one of the greatest halls of the world….
Minor cities? When I wo’re a lad even the Bradford Telegraph and Argus had an award-winning specialist music critic (not just a journalist interested in music) who wrote serious and informative articles. Looking at past issues of the Yorkshire Post from the pre-WW2 era they had people like the great Herbert Thompson on the staff. Now both papers have abandoned ‘classical’ music altogether and the Bradford paper has become a local rag
.
A sign of the times I am afraid.
To sum up some posters here:
“I hate the NYT, but I want to appear in the NYT.”
Off-topic. Has attendance been robust this season at the newly-renovated David Geffen Hall?
Same in Boston, hardly any Classical event gets a newspaper review any more.
In Carnegie Hall, Boston Philharmonic is doing B9 on Feb 26 with Benjamin Zander conducting, Alfred Walker the baritone soloist. It’s almost sold out. Will be curious whether it gets a review!
What a silly take (and many of the comments are worse). There is no agenda here. Why in the world would — should — the NYTimes review such a concert?
On Thursday evening at Carnegie Hall, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra was OK, nothing more. And, yes, the conductor was somewhat ridiculous. It was wonderful to hear the Brahms concerto live, but the violinist was a little over the top for my taste. Vigorous, indeed. Still, that’s what’s so great about hearing live music: hearing new interpretations of the warhorses we all love, new audiences, new sounds. Remember that the Brahms was that dreaded thing — new music — once upon a time, yes?