MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019
7:30 PM

Thomas Adès/Kirill Gerstein
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 7th Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan

$54-$65
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/03/13/Thomas-Ades-Piano-Kirill-Gerstein-Piano-0730PM

Thomas Adès is certainly one of the best composers now before the public.  But also, he's a really really good pianist.  He doesn't just play "composer's piano"; he could have a career as a concert pianist if he weren't so busy composing.  Kirill Gerstein, OTOH, is a front-rank concert pianist, combining immense intellectual acuity with some of that Russian brawn (he actually gets jazz, too).  In the run-up to the upcoming premiere of the concerto Adès has written for Gerstein, the two play a duo piano recital.  Along with various usual two-piano suspects (all very welcome) is a new concert paraphrase by Adès of his glittering opera Powder Her Face (I can't wait to hear that).  Also, did you know that Shostakovich made a two-piano transcription of what is probably my personal favorite Stravinsky piece, the Symphony of Psalms?  Me neither.  Can't wait to hear that, either.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  There's really no reason to anywhere other than Molyvos.  The food is still excellent -- and they're really riding the current upswing in Greek wine.