December in NYC: Holiday Music (and more) at Carnegie, Guggenheim, Met Museum

Orpheus

December 1, 2012

Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

orpheusnyc.com

New York Philharmonic

December 21 & 22, 2012

Metropolitan Museum of Art & Symphony Space, New York, NY

nyphil.org

Met Museum Holiday Concerts

Performances through December 23, 2012

Met Museum, New York, NY

metmuseum.org

Works and Process: Peter and the Wolf

Performances through December 16, 2012

Rotunda Holiday Concert

December 16 & 17, 2012

Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

guggenheim.org

December on New York City stages means much—but not exclusively—holiday music. And the month began with an Orpheus concert at Carnegie Hall (December 1) in which the conductor- less chamber ensemble played joyful but decidedly secular works.

The concert opened with a snazzy version of Prokofiev’s skillful Haydn pastiche, the Classical Symphony (his first) and closed with Mozart’s monumental Jupiter Symphony (his last). In between was the main reason I was there: hearing the amazing Anne Akiko Meyers as soloist in Samuel Barber’s masterly Violin Concerto. The concerto, a treacherous piece to navigate, packs a lot into the space of a mere 20 minutes, but Meyers hit everything thrown at her, brilliantly building to the crescendo Barber wanted. Orpheus’ next Carnegie concert features the Wayne Shorter Quartet playing several of the jazz saxophone master’s works—including the world premiere of Lotus—on February 1.

Jack Quartet at Met Museum

Although annual New York Philharmonic seasonal concerts are on tap at Avery Fisher Hall—Holiday Brass (December 16) and Handel’s Messiah (December 18-22)—new music is on the docket December 21 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the next night at Symphony Space. With compositions that would never find be heard on a subscription Philharmonic program, the concert—conducted by Jayce Ogren—comprises world premieres by Jude Vaclavik and Andy Ahiko, a New York premiere by Andrew Norman, and the ensemble version of 1994’s Counterpoise, the last major work by Jacob Druckman, who died in 1999. Counterpoise will be sung by the exquisite soprano Elizabeth Futral, an artist who moves easily from baroque to modern music with a bit of Broadway thrown in, as witness her luminous Marian the Librarian in The Music Man at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown last summer.

Peter drawing (Will Cotton)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the midst of its holiday concerts in the Medieval Sculpture Hall in front of its annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche, winds up its series with performances by the Jack Quartet, whose Modern Medieval is a selection of holiday music ranging from the Middle Ages to today (December 16); The Vienna Boys Choir, always a popular treat, singing Christmas in Vienna (December 18); and the choir ensemble The Crossing, doing David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion and other contemporary works (December 23).

Finally, there’s the Guggenheim Museum, which hosts as part of its ongoing Works & Process series Sergei Prokofiev’s delightful Peter and the Wolf, staged by Will Cotton in a gingerbread chalet that houses the characters of this beguiling fairy tale, narrated by Isaac Mizrahi. Conductor George Manahan leads the Juilliard Ensemble. After the performances (which continue through December 16), audience members are invited to view the onstage sets up close.

Holiday concert in Guggenheim Museum Rotunda

On the evenings of December 16 and 17, the Guggenheim’s famed Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda is the scene for concerts of holiday music by the VOX Vocal Ensemble, conducted by George Steel. This is one performance, in a singular setting, that is fast becoming another New York holiday perennial.

Orpheus

December 1, 2012

Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

http://orpheusnyc.com

New York Philharmonic

December 21 & 22, 2012

Metropolitan Museum of Art & Symphony Space, New York, NY

http://nyphil.org

Met Museum Holiday Concerts

Performances through December 23, 2012

Met Museum, New York, NY

http://metmuseum.org

Works and Process: Peter and the Wolf

Performances through December 16, 2012

Rotunda Holiday Concert

December 16 & 17, 2012

Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

http://guggenheim.org