MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 8 & 9, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 12)
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY

Esa-Pekka Salonen / New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan

$34-$99
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/salonen-bach-hindemith?clicklocation=hp_ue_1

It's always great when Esa-Pekka Salonen, a composer/conductor par excellence, deigns to visit the Philharmonic. This time, he brings a new piece of his own, which will no doubt display his usual imaginative surprises in orchestral color and texture. But I'm excited about the Hindemith on this program. To be sure, you don't usually see "excited" and "Hindemith" in the same sentence. But for all his repute as a composer of dry ugly music, there's a whole lot to like in his output. (Now Reger, OTOH . . . .) Early on in his career, he was even something of an enfant terrible, injecting "hot jazz" elements into his Germanic music like Kurt Weill. We'll hear the first New York performances of one of those pieces, mashing up Bach and ragtime — and some roughly contemporary arrangements of Bach organ preludes by Schoenberg. And then we'll hear Hindemith's mature 'Mathis der Maler' Symphony, which (I'm sorry) I just find hugely appealing (although not as appealing as the later Symphonia Serena: somebody program that PLEASE) — and which incorporates at least the feel of the Lutheran chorales at the root of the Bach pieces arranged by Schoenberg. Great music, great programming.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I know several people who like the Lincoln Center fishhouse Atlantic Grill. I don't see it myself.