MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 5
8:00 PM

MET Orchestra feat. Pretty Yende:  Ruggles/Mozart/Mahler
Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan

$28-$185
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2018/06/05/THE-MET-ORCHESTRA-0800PM

This is, in its way, an exemplary mainstream orchestral concert.  True, there's nothing new or contemporary on the bill.  There is, however, a masterpiece by the rarely played American Modern Maverick Carl Ruggles, Evocations -- conducted, moreover, by Michael Tilson Thomas, who can safely be said to play this music better than anyone else in the world.  The standard rep, meanwhile, is represented by the teenaged Mozart's gorgeous (and exultant) soprano showcase Exsultate, Jubilate (the title is no accident) and Mahler's delightful Fourth Symphony, which, as I said last week, is all the more delightful for having its whimsy etched in acid.  Now one reason to go to MET Orchestra concerts is that the orchestra is fabulously, world-beatingly good.  But the other reason is that they poach the Met's roster for great guest vocalists.  Here, the Mozart and the boy's vision of heaven that ends the Mahler will be sung by new star soprano Pretty Yende.  Truth to tell, her voice may be a little voluptuous for this material (I don't hear her sounding boyish).  But when faced with a voice of such sheer gobsmacking beauty, you just stop niggling and listen with overwhelming pleasure.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  Chef Hemant Mathur's new Theater District restaurant, Saar Indian Bistro, stays open till 11 -- and they mean it!  This place is probably not quite as fine as his previous Devi and Tulsi were -- but the menu is inventive and wide-ranging, and if you have any liking at all for Indian food, you're going to find it a neighborhood lifesaver.