MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 & 13, 2018
11:00 AM FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY

New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan

$31-$139
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1819/rachmaninoff-rhapsody-on-a-theme-of-paganini

The draw here is a major piece -- well, really the middle part of a big major piece -- by madcap Dutch Postmodernist Louis Andriessen:  TAO, which involves a vocal quartet, a singing piano/koto player, and God knows what else.  But let's make like the Phil and focus on the largely irrelevant rest of the program.  There's the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, for my money the absolute best of the turgid overwrought sentimental slagheap that is Rachmaninoff's body of work.  The music can almost be called tart at times -- and when it opens up into beeyootiful Romanticism, for once it feels earned rather than assumed.  The piano soloist is Garrick Ohlsson, who will master the piece's many technical challenges but might not give it much sheen.  Then there's Sibelius's Second Symphony, from that rather sorry early period when Sibelius still thought that what he really wanted was to be Tchaikovsky.  Conducting is the excellent David Robertson.  Go for the Andriessen.  (Note that after the Saturday concert, there's a separately ticketed after-concert in the Kaplan Penthouse curated by Andriessen.  That combo is definitely the way to go.)

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  Lunch after that 11:00 AM show on Friday (who'd goto that?):  Épicerie Boulud.  Dinner before or after the Wednesday night show (or before the Saturday night):  Boulud Sud.  After the Saturday night double-header:  P.J. Clarke's or Bar Boulud.